Status Updates From La ciudad de los fantasmas ...

…through her ribs like the filament in a lightbulb. An adult’s voice, calls « Places! ». She knows what this is. It’s the night of the fire. She snaps a few photos, a shadow of what’s here. Jacob says they could be eating with normal people rn. She says he can’t eat and she sees ghosts. She tries to look for a source for the fire. Jacob says, « That’s not how it works. »

She mentions how her dad used to come in her room to check if there was any monsters in her room when she was little. « Crossing the Veil is like opening the closet door. » For a second, she was backstage but underwater. Jacob said her name and then the water went away. The stage is faded but not as dark now. Jacob looks solid. A light inside her chest- a coil of cool blue-white brightness that shines…

Right now, it dances between her fingers and waiting to be caught. She grabs hold of curtain, taking a deep breath and pulling.

She has seen « ghost whisperers » on TV talk about « crossing over, connecting with the other side like it’s flipping a switch. » For her, it’s this curtain and finding part in curtain and catching hold of fabric and pulling. The Veil is more smoke than cloth and hard to catch hold of. But when a place is really haunted, the fabric twists around her, practically pulling her through.

The Veil! « The boundary between this world and somewhere else, between the living and dead. This is what I’m looking for! » Jacob shifts his weight from foot to foot, « Let’s get this over with. » « Ghost five. »- putting up hands and them pretending they are touching. Both murmuring a soft smack sound on contact. They laugh and she feels a bit better- clearing our fear and nerves.

She is halfway across the darkened stage, when she trips over- something and stumble forward. Jacob tries to help but she falls through him- hanging her knee. Then the floor bounces a little and she’s on top of the trapdoor. The tap-tap-tap becomes more insistent under her hands. At edge of sight- a thin gray curtain caught in a breeze - different from the heavy red curtain. This one, no one else can see.

She goes on the stage. Jacob follows. She can hear the whisper of the flood boards and maybe paper. Some kids dare each other to go back here to put their ear to the floor and listen for the boy who didn’t make it. Some claimed they did wear the boy’s voice. She said her parents write books about paranormal activity, and people do assume she is weird enough to come down alone which she did.

She thinks how she scares just as easily as anyone. She said how she can’t ignore the ghosts because they are there and can feel their breath of her neck. « Your mind just makes it worse because in the end, what you don’t see is always scarier than what you do. »

…to the stage, she knows there is a particular story that a boy died in a play. It was when the school first opened- there was a fire in the second act of Midsummer Night’s Dream. They thought everyone got out. Until they found the boy under the trap door. Jacob shivers. She rolls her eyes and thinks he scares easily. « Have you ever thought that you don’t scare easily enough? » he said.

… Down the stairs and along the hall, and with each turn, the tap-tap-tap gets stronger and turning into a pull (like a rope). « Ninth rule of friendship, ghost watching is a two-person sport. » She takes out her camera. She says that she gets to figure out if it’s real about the ghost stories and most of the time, it’s not.

She follows tap-tap-tap down the theatre aisle and up …

« But we both know Jacob’s not a normal ghost, just like I’m not a normal girl. » She thinks not anymore. « A bike. A frozen River. Long story short, he saved her life. »

She thinks how it is amazing, her best friend is ghost, when she got accustomed to it. Jacob says she should go to the cafe to meet others implying but she decides to go right- to the stairs.

…rented beach house on Long Island so her mom and dad can work on their book. At the beach house, there is « far fewer ghosts » down there than here in New York. She is excited for did full weeks of sun and sand and good night’s sleep. « Six weeks of feeling almost normal. »

« I would rather be alive and not psychic than physic and a ghost. »
Jacob says he prefers, « corporeally challenged. » She wants him to ask without reading her mind because « boundaries » she wants. She snorts and others hear it and look at her. She doesn’t mind that she doesn’t get an invite to Melanie’s party- the sheet of paper Jacob read. Bookworm and going to the …

« The living may take strength from love and hope, but the dead grow strong on darker things. On pain and anger and regret. »
She doesn’t know how long Jacob’s been dead (she thinks quietly because she knows he doesn’t like it). It can’t have been since there is nothing retro about him. He didn’t say what happened. Friends deserve privacy- even if he can read her mind.

Jacob reads what her sheet says and looks offended when Melanie’s hand goes through his chest. The pen doesn’t move for him. She says how in the movies, it takes a lot of spiritual power for a ghost to reach across the Veil- the curtain between ours and the world. And the ghosts that do have that strength, they tend to be old and not nice.

She thinks how he could be a popular kid, he shots a devilish smirk as he goes to her desk. « He could be, but there’s just one problem. Jacob’s dead. »

Matt is working on the latest paper football. Alice and Melanie are making a list- they are popular - shiny hair. She says how she is all elbows and knees- round cheeks and curly brown hair. She said how she never wanted to be popular as others have. She thinks it would be exhausting. « Jacob and I have rules but those are different. » Jacob walks too and perches himself on Melanie’s desk.

She knows the only way to make it stop - so she doesn’t focus on it- is to « give in ». Jacob catches her eye and shakes his head- he can’t feel the tap-tap-tap, but he knows her enough to know she did. She forces herself to focus on the front of classroom, where the teacher is trying to teach but it’s last week of school before summer vacation. Derek and Will are sleeping with their eyes open and Matt …

Chap 1: Ghosts are everywhere, even if you can’t see them, they are there. In History Class, she felt a tap on her shoulder. « Some people call it intuition, others second sight. » « The tickle at the edge of your senses, telling you there’s something more. » She has felt it many times. She tries to ignore it but knows there is no point.

When open book, « To the city where I keep my bones ».

Dedication:
« To die will be an awfully big adventure »- J.M Barrie from Peter Pan.

Novamente, um livro muito intrigante, mas como eu estava lendo em inglês, acabei demorando mais para ler e perdi o acesso ao livro