see Loreen's concerned expression. Her eyes plead with me. "You've got to talk to him, Kendall. Make Fair listen."
"I don't know what to say."
"Just try," Loreen says. "You're the one he approached first. If anyone can convince him to move on, it's you."
I wheel around in time to see massive tears gushing out of Courtney's eyes. No longer do I see the cocky bitch who terrorized me with pomegranate applesauce or the cheerleader who mockingly called me Ghost Girl. I see the good inside Courtney that's crying out for help. I concentrate on her soul and the peace it's seeking. As I try to connect with her on a spiritual level, her face becomes blurred in my sight. Her image shifts into that of a man in a blue uniform. Tall, too thin, and terribly hurt and confused. He steps forward, away from Courtney, but not totally out of her, and she slumps to the floor.
"What do you want, girlie?"
I'm standing face to face with Major Nathan Fair.
And, boy, is he pissed.
Chapter Twenty
"What happened, Major?"
"Can you see him, Kendall?" Taylor asks softly.
I nod. So does Loreen. I don't know if she can see him as plainly as I can, but I know she senses his presence.
Nathan Fair growls in my direction. He's taller than I am, but the hazards and wear of war have made him hunch over slightly. He seems dirty and sad and ... lost. Does he even know he's dead? That the war was finished a century and a half ago? How do you convey that to a spirit stuck in time?
"What do you mean, what happened?" he snarls beneath his mustache. " War's been happening, child! Death and starvation and weeklong marches. Pestilence and dysentery and blood and dismemberment. Men killing men without a thought about what the other may have left behind. Armies rising and falling. Women with no husbands returning. Babies with no fathers. Losing years of youthful days and love in your life."
Fury emanates from him toward me, and I feel each surge of his wrath hit me like a radioactive wave. I've encountered several spirits these past couple of months and none has had this amount of resentment and negative energy.
I close my eyes and try to breathe out love and understanding to him. "What can we do to ease this anger inside you? The turmoil that you've been taking out on Courtney."
He glances over his shoulder at where she sits, huddled on the ground, whimpering.
"She opened herself up to me."
"I understand that," I say, trying to be diplomatic. "But oppressing her like you've been doing isn't right. She's just a teenager and you're making her act the fool in front of the whole school."
"That was her choice."
"She didn't know any better," I plead. "She was jealous of me for a really stupid reason."
"I saw an opening and I took it."
Loreen steps up next to me. "Ask him about Ada."
Fair lurches forward, suddenly on my left, then my right, then straight on. "What about Ada? What do you know? Nothing!"
I take one of those long yoga breaths Mom's always telling about and I center my energies so I can focus solely on Nathan Fair. I've got to remain calm—and not freakin' pee my pants like I pretty much want to do. "We—my friends and I—we read Ada's diaries. They just ... end ... as if you ... just ended."
Furiously, Fair pulls his cap off and throws it to the ground. "Oh? Is that what her diary implies? Does it also say that Ada didn't wait for me?"
"Huh?"
His voice roars like the engine of a 747 whooshing away from Chicago's O'Hare. "She got married!"
I spin to face Becca and Jason. "Ada got married?"
Jason shakes his head. "I didn't read that."
"Neither did I," Becca adds.
Miss Evelyn speaks up. "Why, yes, she married. I could have told you that. The family Bible has her name as Ada Parry Kenney."
"Kenney!" Fair screams out so powerfully that I jump.
"That struck a nerve," I say as my pulse strums under my skin. "Who is Kenney, Major Fair? Did you know him?"
Becca moves her digital voice recorder in the direction of where I'm speaking. I hope she gets some of this! Taylor's taking pictures left and right. I have to ignore their investigative work and give my full attention to the spirit before me and the electrifying connection flowing between the two of us.
"Yes, I knew the bastard. His rank was colonel, but his status was weasel."
Now we're getting