My Friends Are Dead People (30 page)

“
How do you bury them so
quickly?” I said. It was only five minutes after twelve. Maybe
someone else . . . “Did someone else bury them?”

“
No. We did it. I guess
it’s a talent.” He smiled. “Dorian did most of it.”

“
Thanks,” I said, hugging
Jacoby.

To my shock, Jacoby embraced me back. Katie
was giving Dorian a monstrous hug, squeezing him like a tube of
toothpaste. I didn’t think he liked hugs at all. When I hugged him,
he started doing his quick step routine.

“
I will see you tomorrow,”
said Dorian anxiously. “That’s enough.”

“
Jesse,” Katie suggested
mischievously, “maybe we should hug Dorian at the same
time.”

Jacoby laughed while Dorian was trying to
pry me off with his elbows.

“
I’ll see you in a couple
hours,” I said, letting go of him.

Dorian backed away from me.

“
Jesse, you need your
rest,” said Jacoby.

“
Later on then, in the
afternoon?”

“
That’s fine. You two had
better get going.”

“
I might come early,”
Katie mentioned, “because there is a minimum day at school and –
so, I’ll be here earlier.”

All of a sudden, I didn’t want to leave.

“
Get going or I’m going to
have to take you home myself,” said Jacoby.

We both stood there.

“
We’ll see each other
later on, now go.”

Katie and I finally pitter-pattered away,
looking back a few times. I realized that the graveyard now felt
like a home to me, a place I could always go back to, to feel safe
and wanted. I thought of Oz and about how worried she had to be.
Every neighbor and cop in town must have been searching for us. She
probably was having them look for her jacket, too.

I inspected her jacket and, much to my
delight, found it intact. Unlike me and the rest of my clothes, the
jacket was pristinely clean, too. I whirled around and glimpsed a
large grin on Jacoby as he walked away with Dorian. They were great
samhains. My excitement level dropped when I remembered what time
it was.

“
Katie, Oz is going to
kill us! It’s past twelve!”

“
Kill
us
? You’re the one who’s gonna be in
trouble.”

“
But I got the jacket
back. I should be okay.”

The night was warm and quiet except for an
occasional barking dog. All the streetlights were on, and the full
moon made it even brighter. It was hard to describe how I felt
running up the streets. It felt a little like coming back home
after a long vacation: somehow everything around us seemed
different.

“
We have to be careful,” I
warned Katie as we walked through the outside entryway, “. . . very
careful.”

“
Why?”

“
Oz likes to hide under my
bed and scare me.”

Duma sat quietly in the shadows of the
living room, in his alert posture, his ears pricked up, and his
signature stare on.

“
Jesse, you ever hear him
purr?” asked Katie.

“
No. Because he’s never at
peace. All he wants to do is kill and plunder. He’s probably
thinking about what he’ll do to us next. We won’t be able to fall
asleep now–”

“
The Black Catties?” she
suggested.

I groaned, but it was too late. She started
singing.

“
A cat, a cat, I saw a
freakin’ cat
. L
ook it there, a freakin’ cat–
” She
waited for me to chime in.

Oh, fine. “-
a
black cat; one that
crosses my path. Twist my fingers and make a tight cross, for the
dead are coomiiing for meeee.
”

She did a little wiggle of her hips, and we
started dancing around Duma, whose eyes were now as big as dollar
coins.

I came in with my part.
“
C
ross your
fingers and say your prayers because the black catties are
here.
”

“
They run
everywhere
.
T
hey never like to lose a
race
–
”
She had changed the lyrics.
“
–
we must
get the lead in the hallway now. It’s the perfect place to win the
race.
”

“
Who can figure a thing
with race and hallway, a perfect place? Nor Albert Einstein could
figure you out.
”

Katie started doing her hair-tossing dance
out in the hall, hinting for me to follow her. By the time she
finished dancing and singing, we had crept up halfway down the
hall. Duma was sitting at the living room entryway, looking at us
with a confused tilt of the head. We were at a huge advantage. For
once, we could actually beat him into my bedroom. Katie took off
running while I barricaded the hall.

“
Go!” I shouted as Duma
shot under my legs and dashed for my room.

Katie saw him coming and threw her body
across his path, but Duma dodged her and entered my room first.

“
Crapper!” said Katie,
picking herself up. “We can never beat him.”

“
I know. Stupid things
can’t be beat.”

“
Jesse, be nice. Duma just
wants attention.”

“
Okay, cat lover. Wait
until tonight. He’ll probably – Katie, wait!” I prompted as she
walked into my room. “Oz might be in there.”

“
No, she’s not. We don’t
do that kind of stuff.”

“
Oz is not a girl. She
isn’t even normal. The government must’ve gotten to her. Have you
ever heard of them coming into people’s houses and cutting a piece
of everyone’s brain out and planting it into a rabbit–”

“
Stop talking. I’m going
to gag.”

I poked my head into my room. “Look under
the bed.”

“
No, you do it! If she’s
there, she already knows we’re here.” Katie bravely lifted the
sheets. “See, she’s not there.”

“
Well, sometimes she is.
Hurry, get in my bed. I’ll take the floor.”

“
No, I’ll take the floor.
. . . Why don’t we both sleep in the bed?”

I gaped at her.

“
Just kidding. Okay, I’ll
take the bed.”

She jumped inside, and I sat down to take
off my running shoes, which were no longer new. Everything we had
was covered in dirt.

I looked over at Katie, making sure she
wasn’t looking at me, and snatched my journal and pencil from under
my bed.

“
What’s that?” she
said.

“
What?” I stalled, turning
red. “Uhmm . . . what’s that?” I pointed at the wall behind
her.

“
What’s what? The
wall?”

“
Yes. It has dirt on it.
Have you ever seen dirt like that?”

“
You’re a psycho.
Night.”

“
Night,
Cat
,” I said.

“
Yeah, let’s see how long
that’s going to last, booty bejo.”

What in the heck did that mean?

“
Buenas
noches.”

“
Buenas
noches.”

Katie and I both turned onto our backs and
stared up at the ceiling. Who knows what Katie was thinking, but I
was thinking about Oz and how mad she must be right now. She was
probably going to kill me.

I heard Duma yowl over where Katie was.

“
Then don’t bite the gown,
you ugly fur ball!” she snapped. “It’s not mine! I’m gonna kick you
off the bed if you do it one more–” The door was creaking open. I
dropped my head on the floor and pretended I was asleep, keeping
one eye open though. I couldn’t tell who Oz was looking at. All I
could see was her white tennis shoes in the doorway. She wasn’t
coming in. After a minute, I heard her say, “Love you
two.”

Katie and Duma fell asleep
not long after she closed the door. That was the signal I could
start writing in my journal.
October
31
^st
.
It all started one morning with Duma slipping off my
face.

^{End of Part
1}

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