It’s a gift that runs in the family, like their dark hair and long noses and big brown eyes—women can see ghosts. Grandma’s mother could see ghosts, and her mother’s mother could, too. Grandma tells stories sometimes about when she lived up north, before she got married and moved down to the city with her white husband, who became her ex-husband. People would knock on her mother’s door and ask for help making sure their loved ones had moved on. Everyone knew she had a knack for speaking with the dead, even if they didn’t know exactly how she did it. Shelly wants that, too. Growing up in the city instead of up north, Shelly feels like she only gets bits and pieces of what it means to be Cree. Her mom talks politics, but that’s only one part of it, and other than her family the only Indigenous people Shelly knows are their neighbors. Ghost hunting is a way to connect with the people who came before her. It’s got history, the same way ghosts do.

Grandma’s mother never charged anything for her services, but times have changed and Grandma and Mom need to pay rent.

“I wasn’t saying anything scary.” Shelly does her best not to frown at Mrs. Hogan. “I was just talking about ghosts. Isabel’s dad is a professor so she’s writing about being a professor. My grandma hunts ghosts, so I’m going to write about being a ghost hunter.”

Mrs. Hogan doesn’t look like she believes Shelly, but she doesn’t say no to her idea either. “We have a few books on parapsychology,” she says. “And some on spiritualism and debunking urban legends. They might be a good place for you to start your research. Do you want me to help you find them in the catalog?”

Shelly lets Mrs. Hogan show her where to find the books. It’s easier than arguing. People at school are weird about ghosts. They don’t take her seriously. It’s obvious that Mrs. Hogan thinks ghost hunting is like one of the TV shows Grandma scoffs at, where a bunch of people run around old hospitals with infrared cameras in the dark and scare themselves. That’s not how Grandma works. She finds ghosts that need help and she helps them. No special equipment required.

Shelly sits down at her assigned table at the end of the library while they wait for Ms. Flores to come walk them back down the hall, and Lucas gives her books a judgmental look. “That’s all made up,” he says.

“The library doesn’t have any books on real ghosts,” Shelly says. “It’s passed down in my family.”

“So it’s made up.” Lucas is smug. “I knew it.”