my mother did. And I hated her for it. I don’t want to leave my dad and have him hate me. Right now, I don’t want to think about it. So I concentrate on Trey, the edges of his form shining so very brightly. Not as luminous as I am, but for someone who has been here since the Great Depression, he’s certainly not lost a lot of his glow.
“Your shine,” I say gently. “It’s so bright. And you’ve been here so long. It’s almost as bright as Jack’s.”
He looks down, his face reddening. “Yeah. For a long time I wanted to go back. I was like Jack. Bitter. Angry. I volunteered to be a guide just so I could go over to the other side and see what was going on. See what I been missing. And I missed a lot. But I don’t mean to go against your momma. She’s a good lady. Treated me like my momma would’ve. I won’t do that to her.” He looks up at the sky, shakes his head. “But I come to realize there’s no point thinking about going back. It can’t happen. Not for me. Come on.”
We reach the edge of the river. There’s a small rowboat there, tied to a stump. He motions for me to get in, so I do. “Where are we going?” I ask.
“You’ll see.” He takes up the rope, pushes the boat out a few feet from shore, and hops in.
As he starts to row, I’m suddenly aware what this means. We’re going across. To where Justin is. To where my father is. They won’t be able to see me. I’m remembering how I was screaming at Justin and Angela, and how they just looked through me. The thought of that empty look in their eyes makes my chest hurt. I don’t know if I could stand it if my dad looked through me the same way. “I thought my mom was going to make me alive again?” I ask. “She said that it has to be done quickly.”
“Problem with that.” He looks over his shoulder. “We need your body. That’s what she sent me over to get.”
I nearly choke. “My … body? Why?”
“Well, it won’t do no good if your momma brings you to life and then a month later a fisherman stumbles on your bones, will it?”
“Okay, okay.” I shudder at the idea of seeing my lifeless body again. “Did you get it?”
He shakes his head. “It’s gone. Someone took it.”
“What? Who would do something like that?”
“Don’t know. Humans may have found it. Maybe I didn’t hide it good enough. That would be a problem.” He looks up at the sky, where the sun is beginning to slump from its highest point. “And if we don’t have it back before a search party finds it … Yeah. It will be too late.”
I slosh in my hiking boots through what feels like thick mud. When I come up on shore and attempt to clean my boots, I realize they’re almost perfect. Trey glances at me, and I wonder how the rest of me looks. It feels like I haven’t had a shower in ages. I think of my mother, day after day, wearing the same Phillies shirt she died in years ago. I guess I don’t need to shower, and that thought makes me instantly miss the heavenly spray of hot water on my face and back. And then I look at Trey and realize I’m being stupid, that unlike him, at least I have a chance of getting back, which I’ll probably blow if I keep thinking silly things like how much I miss showers.
“I don’t understand. What would that person do, if the person took over my mother’s rule?”
He says, “A bad ruler here would keep the people angry and bitter, and it’s the angry and bitter people who take a long time to come to peace. They stay here.”
“Like you.”
“Yeah. Like me. Look how long it’s taken me to come around. The bigger the kingdom, the more power the ruler has.”
“So wait—what you’re saying is that if my mom brings me to life again, she will weaken to the point where this person can take over? I will destroy the entire kingdom?”
“Listen. Your momma’s gonna take care of you. Don’t give up this chance. I wouldn’t.” He steps onto a boulder and reaches for my hand, but I’m just standing there, not able to move.
“You wouldn’t?” I mumble. “Really? I feel like