“You were alive before,” Shelly says. “You’re not even that old. You have a tape player.”

“This is all I remember,” Joseph says. “This place, which is mine, and watching over the graves for Old Lady and now you. Did you bring me any more tapes?”

Shelly’s hands curl into fists at her sides. “Why would I bring you a tape when you’re no good to me?”

Joseph tilts his head. “Je me souviens,” he says. “I thought we were friends now. Why do I have to be useful?”

“If we’re friends, you shouldn’t need a bribe to answer my questions.” Shelly’s voice is shaking. Her whole body is shaking. Everything is coming apart around her, and all she wants is her mom. “If we’re really friends, tell me what I need to do to find my mom. Tell me what you did that she didn’t do! Tell me why she didn’t want to stay for me! Tell me why some people become ghosts and some people leave. Tell me why you’re still here, Joseph!”

“J’ai peur!” The sound from Joseph’s headphones changes abruptly to music that sounds rough, angry, jagged, and frightened. Shelly steps back, unsteady on her feet. “I’m scared, Little Shell. That’s why I’m here. I don’t know what’s out there. I don’t know what’s on the other side. I’ve been here forever and nobody can tell me what’s there for sure. I told Old Lady, I told her I was working my way up to it. That I’d leave when I’m ready, but right now I’m not.

“I don’t know why some people stay and some people go. I don’t know why I stayed, except I was less scared of being a ghost forever and being stuck here, alone, than of whatever comes next.” Joseph’s music isn’t even music now—it’s just harsh, clashing noise. Shelly didn’t mean to upset him this much, but she doesn’t feel bad about it either. She wants answers.

“Maybe your mom figured it all out. Maybe she wasn’t scared of death and she decided she’d had enough. Maybe she didn’t want to be a ghost—or she didn’t get a choice. Maybe you should spend less time worrying about ghosts!”

This isn’t what Shelly came to hear. Joseph was supposed to have answers. Joseph sits in a graveyard all day, watching people come and go. He’s been around for years. If there’s anyone who should know all the things Grandma doesn’t, it’s him.

Instead, Joseph is just a scared, uncertain ghost like all the other scared, uncertain ghosts she’s met. He feels as stuck and invisible as she does and it’s not fair.