This is Our Get-Along Spiritual Tether of Mysterious Origin

Getting full-body clothes-lined onto the pavement out of nowhere is no way to start the day. Just my humble opinion.

“Clark!” Sophie’s leaning out over the railing outside my door, her hair sticking up at odd angles like she’s recently taken a walk through a hurricane. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” I say, my tailbone still smarting as I scoop my textbooks and notes back into my bag. One of these days I’ll remember to zip it shut.

Sophie doesn’t have to bother with the stairs in her own body, instead gliding straight down off the walkway and across the sad patch of gravel and shrubbery that passes for the apartment building’s front yard. “Sorry about that. You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?”

“What’s one more bruise, at this point?” I’m not looking forward to sitting at my desk all day after landing straight on my butt on the cement, but there’s no use complaining about it. “And why are you apologizing? You were in the apartment, you couldn’t have done anything.”

“I’m thinking that my being in the apartment is what did it.” Frowning, Sophie rakes her fingers through her curls to smooth them back down into some semblance of neatness.

At this rate, I’m going to be late to my second day of school. And I’d really like to see Sabrina again. We didn’t get to hang out much at all yesterday afternoon before Blaine showed up and everything got ridiculous. “Look, we can figure it out when I get home. Until then, don’t worry about it.”

Sophie nods. It takes a few steps for me to realize she’s floating along behind me instead of going back inside.

“Hey!” I turn to find her giving me an innocent look. “What do you think you’re doing? We already decided you can’t tag along.”

Hands on hips, Sophie tilts her head to one side. “Weren’t you listening to me just now? I’m fairly certain I can’t stay at home.”

When I don’t immediately cave, she huffs. “Fine, I’ll try to go inside!”

I watch her float sullenly back across the yard and up to the second-floor walkway. The farther off she gets, the more I feel a subtle tug in that direction, only noticeable now that I’m not moving myself. Sophie is slowing down, too, like she’s wading through mud. As she gets near the door, I can just make out the same faint shimmer I saw last night at the edge of the Kensington.

A suspicion forms in my mind. Maybe Sophie’s right.

As a test, I take a few steps down the sidewalk. Sure enough, with an indignant squawk Sophie floats out over the yard, in the same direction I’m walking.

“Hey, I didn’t fall that time.”

“Because I didn’t grab hold of the railing!” Smoothing her hair down for the second time, Sophie drifts down to float next to me again. “But do you get it now? I think I’m stuck to you.”

Great.

I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose between my fingers. “And you didn’t know this before now?”

“The hotel never tried to get up and walk away!”

Well. That’s a fair point. “Okay, okay! Just...this is a problem. If I can see you, can other people see you, too?” Should I call out sick? But it’s only my second day, and what about tomorrow? On the other hand, Sophie could cause a mass panic at the school.

Sophie isn’t taking this as seriously as I would like. She shrugs. “Then I’ll just ride along in your body like I did yesterday! Easy-peasey.”

“No, not ‘easy-peasey.’” The thought of spending the entire day with Sophie possessing me turns my stomach. The very last thing I need is for her to accidentally do something that makes all my new classmates, Sabrina included, decide I’m some kind of freak.

“Clark,” Sophie says, pouting, “you’re a real grouch in the morning, do you know that?”

I hear a door close and look up to see Mr. Ramirez watching me from the walkway. “Everything alright, son? You’ve been pacing and talking to yourself for a few minutes.”

I really need to sign that guy up for some activities at the senior center, or a volunteer group, or something. Anything to get him to stop minding my business instead of his. “Fine, Mr. Ramirez! Just...uh...thought I forgot my homework!”

He doesn’t look convinced, but I take the opportunity to walk away before he can come downstairs and trap me in another conversation.

“I guess there’s nothing to worry about as far as anyone seeing me,” Sophie chirps, floating along beside me and looking way too pleased with herself. “So you can turn that frown upside down now.”

My frown is staying right side up, thanks. It’s good that she’s invisible, I guess, but her being stuck to me with some kind of ghost bungee cord is a real problem. “Let me guess, you didn’t know people can’t see you, either?”

Sophie scoffs. “Well, I don’t get out much! Is that my fault? I must have forgotten.”

“So, why can I see you?”

“Because I wanted you to, maybe?” Sophie turns a slow circle as she floats, gawking at the storefronts, cafes, and bus stops we pass by. This is a convenient neighborhood to live in when you can’t drive, and the school is walking distance. My folks were nervous about letting me live downtown, but it’s not as rough as it looks. Sophie lingers over watching a line of ants march to and from a trash can until I get far enough away to drag her along. “Or maybe you’re pure of heart, Clark! So you can see ghosts and fairies and things.”

“Ha, sure.” Fairies? I’m about to comment on that, and then remember I’m talking to a literal ghost. What do I know, anyway?

We get to the intersection where I met Blain and Sabrina yesterday, but since I’m running late, there’s no other students on this part of the walk. Just as well.

While we wait at the light, Sophie watches the cars and buses go by. “Automobiles are dull these days, aren’t they?”

I give her a questioning look. “You can’t stop staring at everything else.”

“Well, these I could see from the hotel windows,” Sophie says, shaking her head judgmentally at a passing minivan. “Why’d they stop putting those big fins on the back fender? I liked those.”

I must not be running as late as I think, because I catch up to Sabrina at the bus stop. Walking the last mile to school normally isn’t an issue, but given I’m running late, it might be a good day to take advantage of this town letting students ride the city bus for free. Sabrina must have the same idea, since she’s sitting on the bench inside the bus stop shelter, looking over some notes while she waits. Even if it’s only a few minutes, it seems she’d rather do something productive than simply sit still. Her head is haloed by some graffiti on the plexiglass that reads “B-LEEV.” It makes a striking contrast with her prim appearance.

“Hey,” I say, feeling suddenly anxious when I remember how I left her to do all the cleaning by herself. “Sorry about yesterday.”

“Oh, when you ditched out? It’s fine,” she says, not looking up from her English notes. “Most people do that.”

Yeah, I’d expected her to be a little mad. I would be, too. She’d seemed grateful to have help, and then I’d turned around and left her to do everything on her own without a word. “It wasn’t intentional. Not making excuses, just, uh…” I weigh in my head how helpful to my case it would be to tell her what happened versus how embarrassing it is. I’d rather be embarrassed than have Sabrina angry with me. “Okay, to tell the truth, Blaine jumped me by the dumpsters, so I had to bolt.” And then I had to help a ghost escape the abandoned hotel she was haunting, so really, my evening was out of my control. Not that Sabrina needed to know that part.

At this, she lifts her head and gives me an appraising look. “Okay. It’s not a big deal,” she says, and goes back to studying. I can just hear her mutter “Sure, as if Blaine ever stays even a second after the bell rings...” Then, she takes a breath and I can almost see her shift into her normal, proper demeanor like she’s putting on a work uniform.

She looks up at me again, setting down her pencil. “That must have been stressful, Clark. I’m glad you’re okay.” She sounds glad, but I can’t un-see her earlier irritation.

“I can definitely help you out today, though!” I’m probably fawning a little bit, but I don’t care. I don’t want her to think I’m a flake or a selfish jerk.

Sabrina takes a moment to put her notes into her English folder (labeled neatly in purple marker) and put everything away in her bag. As if on cue, the bus pulls up to the stop. “We’ll see,” she says. Casually, she boards the bus.

I have a feeling that since I said I would, I’d better stay and help the whole time today, or else it’ll be a lot harder to convince her I’m not the kind of unreliable person she thinks I am.

“Well, she’s awfully rude,” Sophie grouses next to me. For a second, I forgot she was there.

“No, she’s not,” I say, waving at the bus driver to let him know I’m not getting on. Between that chilly interaction with Sabrina, and Sophie’s… Sophie, I’m having second thoughts about riding the bus today. Besides, it’s not that far. If I walk fast, I should still arrive just barely on time. “If anything, I was rude to her by not keeping my promise to help her when I said I would. She’s only-”

“New guy! You’re still alive!”

I turn around slightly too late to avoid one of Blaine’s two buddies boxing me into the corner of the bus stop shelter. I didn’t even notice them approaching, too focused on Sabrina to be aware of anything else going on around me.

“Or are you? Foley, it could be the thing in the hotel wearing the new guy as a skin suit.” Of course the other guy is here, too. Maybe these two geniuses are tethered together the same way Sophie and I are.

Foley (weird name, but okay) has the front of my shirt clenched in his fist. Now it’s gonna be wrinkled the rest of the day. I should buy some fabric softener, or something.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not thrilled about the prospect of getting wailed on, but compared to the possibility of Sabrina not liking me anymore, it’s not weighing as heavily on my mind right now.

Foley looks grossed out. “Henderson, that’s nasty!”

“It’s stupid, is what it is,” I mutter.

Henderson is undeterred. “If you’re not a monster in a skin suit, explain that freaky crater outside the Kensington this morning!”

That question doesn’t make one bit of sense, but as I open my mouth to say so, I feel the cold, eating-in-reverse sensation of Sophie possessing my body.

“Are you okay,” she says in my head. “Want me to get rid of these goons? They don’t seem very nice.”

“It’s fine,” I silently assure her. “These two meatheads think I’m some kind of grudge monster, for some reason.”

Foley’s voice soars higher with anxiety. “See? He can’t answer! I don’t know what he did in there yesterday, but he definitely made the thing in the hotel mad enough to break that wall! We should throw him back in there before school, so it’ll leave the rest of us alone!”

Blaine pokes his head around the edge of the shelter. “Can you two idiots make this quick? I don’t wanna get hassled for being late again.”

I kinda hate that he’s saying what I’m thinking. I don’t want to have anything in common with that guy.

“The quick thing to do would be to leave me alone,” I say. The most annoying thing about this predicament is that they were a couple minutes too late to help me prove to Sabrina that I was telling the truth about cutting out early from the chores. And now they’re going to make me late to class for sure, on top of everything else.

And my shirt’s all wrinkled up!

Blaine shakes his head. “Sorry, new guy. I’d love to help you out, but Foley and Henderson don’t listen when they’re all wound up like this. Of course,” he goes on, “if you wanted to spot me for lunch...”

“Oh, for real? Still?” I have to laugh. “Don’t tell me your mommy and daddy don’t give you a big enough allowance.”

Whatever happens next, at least Blaine doesn’t look so smug anymore.

Running from these three yesterday just means catching their bullcrap today. If I’d known this was how my morning would go, I would have stayed at the school yesterday afternoon and gotten it over with. My older brother showed me how to get out of stuff like this. I’ve never tried it, but he said the trick is to cheap-shot as many guys as you can, and then fight the last guy one on one until you can get away. Maybe if I poked them in the eye? Or go for the nose?

Then again, I’m here on a scholarship. It’s not worth risking it by getting into a fight. That was true yesterday, and it’s true today. Besides, they can’t do that much right here in broad daylight, right? I can handle a black eye or a split lip. What’s one more bruise? “Just punch me or whatever, and let’s get it done.”

“Clark!” Sophie shouts in my head “Don’t let them hit you! Here, I have an idea that won’t get you into trouble...”

Oh, no. I can feel how upset she is. She’s going to do something out of pocket. “Sophie,” I scold her in my head. “Don’t make it worse...!”

It’s too late. She’s so bent out of shape about me potentially being beat up she takes control of my body, using my hand to pry my shirt out of Foley’s grip. She pivots on my heels, putting all my weight behind a punch to one of the metal poles supporting the bus shelter. The clang and squeal of metal rings out. In the faint reflection of the plexiglass walls, I can see my eyes glow a dull red.

Foley, Henderson, and Blaine all jump back a step.

“What the...” Blaine starts.

“That’s right,” Sophie says with my voice. “The thing in the hotel is angry, and you better stay away if you know what’s good for you.” She points to the big scrunched bend in the pole. Even the paint is cracked, and the pole is pulling loose from the bolts holding it to the plexiglass. “This’ll be your face if any of you blabs about what you saw.”

“See, Blaine?!” Henderson wails, as he and Foley trip over each other to be the first out of the shelter. “We told you, bro! We told you!”

“There!” Sophie says after the trio beat a quick retreat down the street. She pops out of my body again, looking triumphant. “Problem solved!”

I sigh, shaking out my throbbing hand. By all rights, it should be busted after hitting a big hunk of metal that hard, but it’s just kind of sore. “Sophie,” I say, trudging back down the sidewalk toward the school. “Thanks, but...”

There’s no way this won’t come back to bite me, but Sophie’s smiling so big. She really was trying to help me. What good would scolding her do now, anyway? What’s done is done.

“Thanks, Sophie.”

She beams all the brighter as we approach the school and possibly my impending doom. “You’re welcome, Clark!”