The Shade Riders and the Dreadful Ghosts (11 page)

“Nova, dear, are you all right? You didn’t
get the willies did you?”

The bell rang. Nova was late to study hall.
Still struggling to feel better, she talked into her watch.

"Yes and yes. I'll be fine in a minute.
Thanks for asking."

When Nova looked down at her watch, the eye
was gone. This was great! Leandra was watching over her. She sat in
a desk next to Benny feeling a bit better.

"Hey Nova, who ordered so many ghosts?" Benny
grinned. He sat in his wheelchair at a side table that was up
against the wall. He was fiddling with some gadgets he brought
in.

"You think it's a bit overboard too?"

"Oh Yeah."

"Yeah, I'm getting too distracted." Nova
opened her American History notebook to the final test notes.

"I never get distracted,” Benny said
grinning. “As a matter of fact, I can concentrate on two ideas at
once.”

"Show off. And besides, you never have to
study. You seem to know everything. You'll probably be skipped up
to seventh grade next year."

Benny winked. "Not if I can help it.”

Nova smirked. "Who do you think the Principal
will hire this time? Heads—psychics, or tails-priests?” Nova pulled
a quarter from her pocket.

"Well, let's see... hmm...wasn't it psychics
the last time. They did such a lousy cleaning job getting rid of
the ghosts that the Vice Principal ended up doing it herself. I
don’t think she did a very good job either.”

"I can't help you guess which way it will go,
Benny."

“I guess, priests this time.”

Nova flipped the coin into the air and tried
to catch it before it hit the floor, but it rolled away. A Brenda
came into the room; her big foot stomped on it.

“Oh, a lucky quarter.” She put it into her
pocket and sat down in her seat on the other side of the huge
room.

Benny dug around in his bag and pulled out a
small cookie, hiding it in his palm. “Are you going to get it
back?” He brought the cookie to his mouth.

“Hey,” she yelled. “That was my quarter you
found.”

The substitute teacher gave Nova a long, hard
look and put

his finger to his lips. Nova gazed back at
Brenda, who whispered “Prove it.”

Nova shrugged and turned back to Benny. “It’s
just a quarter.” She looked over the things he brought from
home.

“You should try one of my gadgets on some of
the ghosts.” Benny held up four small, technical-looking things,
with small windows for digital readings and various wires and
antennae. Nova picked up one.

“That one’s a pocket voltmeter,” Benny said.
Nova twisted it around in her hand, set it down, and looked at the
next one.

“What’s this? Oh, it’s a small laser.”

She pointed a circular red light around near
the floor.

Nova picked up another one. “So then what’s
this?”

“It’s an ammeter for measuring electric
currents,” Benny said. “You can clamp it on to things, see?” He
pinched the trigger part of the long triangle and opened the red
clamp at the top. It had a dial on it and a reading display window
near the bottom.

“That wouldn’t work with ghosts. There is
nothing to clamp onto.” Nova put it down with a thump.

“Shhhh! Nova.” They both turned to watch the
substitute teacher. He continued to read his newspaper.

Nova picked up the final gadget.

“Oh, wow. What’s this?”

It was a rectangular box that had a digital
display window and two wires at the top. It had buttons in the
center.

“It’s a moisture meter,” Benny said, reaching
for another small cookie.

“Let me have one… please?”

Benny rolled his eyes as he slipped her
one.

She took it and pointed to the moisture
meter.“Hmm… out of all of them, this one looks the most
interesting. I’ll try it, thanks,” Nova said, munching.

“Here, I’ll show you how to work it.” Benny
showed her how to turn it on and set the dial to zero. Then all
Nova had to do was point it at a few ghosts. Nova picked it up and
put it into her hip pack.

“I want it back when you are done.” Benny
looked deep into her eyes.

Nova swallowed her cookie and nodded.

“Do me a favor and let Takeesha have the next
pick. She hasn’t been herself lately, and if she is stuck with the
last one she might get really mad.”

“I’m not afraid of her.” Benny shoved the
blond hair out of his eyes. “Besides, first come, first served.
That’s how I did it with you.”

“Oh, okay.” Nova shrugged. Her stomach felt
much better now. The ghost effect had worn off. She turned around
and started going over her notes.

At lunchtime, Nova and her friends came
together at their favorite cafeteria table. They all handed back
the instruments they’d used on ghosts – Takeesha did get second
pick - and talked about what they found out.

“Max Kim, you look all excited.” Benny opened
up a bag that had a pickle loaf sandwich in it. “What did the
ammeter tell you?”

“Well, I was only able to try it out three
times.” Max Kim grinned as he fiddled with a milk box and straw.
“But it jumped whenever I got near a ghost.”

“Okay, so they do give off an electrical
field. Takeesha, did you have any luck with the laser?”

“No, I even tried to see if reflected light
off a mirror in the girl’s bathroom would do something, but it
didn’t. I also held the laser up inside the ghost, and it didn’t do
anything. I was only able to try my tests on one ghost.”

“I tried the voltmeter on two ghosts, but it
didn’t do anything to either one of them,” Benny said. ”How about
your test with the moisture meter, Nova?”

Nova wasn’t able to eat her lunch. “The meter
didn’t do anything and did you notice that the ghosts being killed
all look like me?”

“What?” Benny said. “The ones I saw didn’t.
That’s just your imagination going overboard.”

“I don’t think so. Look at that one right
there.” Nova pointed to a ghost getting her hair pulled as she
tried to get away. She was screaming as the two ghosts dragged her
in opposite directions.

“See what I mean? The victim looks like me
even though she has long hair.”

Benny studied the ghosts. “Yeah… maybe she
does. So What does that mean if Nova is being depicted in these…
what?... tortuous skits?”

Max Kim and Takeesha shrugged. They packed up
their uneaten

lunch in silence – apparently none of them
felt like eating now.

Outside the doorway of the auditorium, Brenda
and Amanda waited as The Shade Riders passed.

“The ghosts picked the right victim,” Brenda
and Amanda said, and laughed.

The word ‘victim’ really stung Nova. That
made her so furious she wanted to punch Brenda’s lights out. Brenda
continued to laugh as she pointed out the various ghosts hurting a
“Nova” ghost. Nova tightened her right fist.

Before she was really aware of what she was
doing, she pulled up her arm and let it fly, right into Brenda’s
jaw. Brenda stumbled back, eyes wide. For the first time, she
looked terrified. In the fraction of a second while she was
throwing her second punch, Nova remembered she was above the
bullies. She pulled back in time. Her fist only touched Brenda’s
cheek lightly. The bullies didn’t say anything more. They just
turned around and ran down the mostly empty hallway.

Max Kim grabbed her arm. “How did you do
that, Nova?”

“What?”

“How did you turn your eyes from blue to
white to red!”

“What?”

During the peak hours of dusk – a sliver of a moon
was just visible - Nova traveled with her mom in the vet truck
toward school. In the parking lot, a glorious aurora borealis
billowed above the darkened school building. Waves of red, blue and
purple light stretched across the vast sky. Back on the pavement,
three silhouetted horses stood at a hitching post with their carts
behind them. Fifteen bikes were locked to the bike rack.

Mom pulled to the curb. “I’ll pick you up in
a couple of hours.” Nova closed the truck door, and Mom drove
toward the farms where she would vet the sick or injured
animals.

A few kids goofing off near the entrance ran
inside when they saw Nova approach the doorway. “What is their
problem?”

Nova strolled into the school and headed to
the gym. The clean odor of floor wax, old books, and erasable board
cleaner tickled Nova’s nostrils. She found her friends at one of
the folding tables. “Hey you guys, I decided to come and haunt
you.”

“You didn’t have to,” Max Kim said. “We’re
already being haunted.”

Nova looked around and saw about ten ghosts
harassing the science fair exhibitors.

“Great.” She noticed the ghosts were all
staring at her. “Looks like you repaired your Autogyro.”

“Not just repaired. Now it sports a new
motor, top propeller, and it has a communication system to talk to
someone a mile away.” Sweat was pouring off Benny’s face and
pooling on the table. He went back to trying to finish off a
hamburger and fries from a local fast food place. He looked bound,
and determined to eat, and miserable with the ghosts there. As soon
as he swallowed the food he turned to his friends with a flushed
and beaming face.

The booth sat between the volcano that was
oozing red chunky stuff and the story of evolution display. Nova
sat down next to Takeesha and Max Kim.

Nova bit a fingernail."They’re staring at me.
What’s up with that?"

"Wow, if it's not one thing with Nova it's
another,” Takeesha mumbled. Half closing her eyes, she looked
away.

Nova recoiled. Why couldn’t she be more
supportive? Even Max Kim stared at Takeesha as if she were a
stranger.

"I'm going to walk around and look at the
other people's work," Nova said and stomping away.

Nova counted twenty white-faced and sweaty
exhibitors all trying to deal with the ghosts’ presence. Maybe
thirty more people milled about looking over exhibits. It didn’t
take long for her to look at everything.

And wherever she went, the ghosts were
defiantly watching her. Why did they stare so much? Was it because
she was going over to the dark side? To science? Nova was sure she
didn't want to know why. She scanned her surroundings and noticed
that one of the students not only displayed his exhibit but was
selling it after the show. She hurried back to the table, where
Benny was exhibiting to tell them the news.

"Hey, you guys, there are four Walkie Talkies
for sale over at Jomo's table. They cost six hundred dollars. If we
pool our money, we can get them. Of course, I’ll have to give you
an I.O.U. for now. My mom’s not here.”

"Yeah, cool!" Max Kim jumped up and strolled
over to ask his dad, who sat on the far side of the table talking
to other parents, for some money.

"Let's do it," Benny called his mom over and
asked her to write out a check.

Takeesha raised an eyebrow when Nova looked
her way and held out a hand.

“How about it Takeesha?”

“I’m not getting a stupid Walkie Talkie.”

“Why not? It’ll come in handy. You know, for
The Shade Riders.”

Takeesha huffed and put her head down. Oh,
well. Nova figured she could get Takeesha to cooperate later. Nova
looked at the boys. “Can you guys afford to buy two each? You know
we are good for them.”

“You’re lucky you caught me on a good day,”
Benny said.

When Nova kept staring at him with a question
on her face he sighed and said, “Fine.” Max Kim nodded and
grinned.

“Thanks, guys.” Nova took their checks and
strolled over to Jumo’s table. Jumo told Nova he was still going to
need the Walkie Talkies for his display, but she could pick them up
after the show. Nova skipped back to the table and carried a
receipt in her hand to prove she bought them.

Takeesha was resting her head on her arms.
She lifted it to see what was going on. Her eyes were puffy as
though she just woke up.

“Wow, Takeesha, you look tired.”

“I was out late last night.”

Nova didn’t want to pry. She found a scrap of
paper in her jeans and, borrowing Benny’s pen wrote: I.O.U.
Seventy-Five bucks. She gave one to Benny and one to Max Kim. Nova
looked around the gym.

Two ghosts dressed in cowboy clothing stared.
Those were the same two she saw in the hall when she was in a fight
with Brenda and Amanda when Benny, Max Kim, and the autogyro came
to her rescue. Nova chewed her lower lip. Her watch vibrated, and
the red crystal face lit up. A live eye with a blue pupil peered
out at her.

"Don't worry, mate, I'll handle this,"
Leandra’s voice boomed from the watch.

“Leandra.”

The science fair judges approached Benny's
table. They told him to fly his model autogyro in an area roped off
for it. Benny grabbed his machine and wheeled over to the special
place. He set it on the tile floor gently and got ready with the
controls.

Benny’s autogyro rose from the floor. The
propeller quickly and noiselessly chopped the air. It hovered.
Benny handling the controls shot the missiles at a target. Nova
raced over curious to see what would happen. Two ghosts watched her
with angry faces.

"Watch this, you’ll be as good as gold!"
Leandra said from Nova’s watch.

A huge FIZZZZZZ split the air as a red rocket
from one

of the tables took off. Nova ducked as it
came by her. Flying past Benny's autogyro, it hooked onto the
footpads and knocked it into the two ghosts and against the white
brick wall, slamming into the school speakers. A static sound
filled the room. Nova heard the sound of a torn sheet --
rrriiippp.

The ghosts in the room scrambled to grab on
to the tables

to stay in the gym but to no avail. They all
disappeared,

pulling down various experiments onto the
floor with a crash.