plane.”
As soon as the train was out of sight, the train station disappeared. We landed on the concrete sidewalk of Shipton with a thump, right in front of Imaginary Homes Bookstore, where Owen and I worked part-time.
“We gotta find out if that train station was ever actually there,” Olivia said as she looked around.
“The sun’s almost up.” Drew looked down Main Street. “But you’re right. We didn’t come out of the ghostly plane.”
He was right. Everything was still dull and almost greyed out. I extended my magic to see what I could figure out, but it didn’t feel a hundred percent right. “Yeah, we’re still ghostly.”
We turned in a circle, looking around at each other and the town. “Can anyone see us?” I asked.
Whistling along the sidewalk, the owner of Peachy Sweets, our local—and delicious—bakery where Olivia got her sweets every morning, walked around the building, jingling her keys.
“Hey,” Olivia said. “Kelly!”
But Kelly didn’t hear her. On light feet, Olivia crossed the road and stood directly in Kelly’s path.
And Kelly walked through her.
“Ahh!” Olivia screeched. “That tickled!” She hurried back over and tucked herself in Sam’s arms. “Not in a good way. I don’t want to be dead anymore.”
“You’re not dead.” I giggled. “None of us are. We’re just in an alternate reality, I think.”
“Now what?” Drew asked. “How do we get out of this reality and back to our own?”
“Let’s get back to the house.” I started down Main Street in the direction of Winston. “Owen will be able to see us. He can call the coven and we’ll figure out how to come through.”
With a sigh, Olivia followed. “I can’t see what else we can do.” She sniffled. “This was fun at first, but now I’m kind of freaked out. What if I never see Sammie again?”
I looped my arm through hers. “You will. Don’t worry.”
We started walking with the guys following, and then I spotted Clint exiting his car. “Oh, I forgot. He’s doing inventory this week and coming in several hours early.”
An evil thought crossed my mind. We could have a little fun while no one could see us. “Want to lift your spirits?” I asked, nudging Olivia.
Olivia looked at me with narrowed eyes, suspicious. “What are you thinking?”
Stepping forward, first I tested to make sure Clint couldn’t see me. When none of my silly faces I made got a response from him, I giggled. Then, I followed him into the store.
Olivia was stuck outside, though, because he shut the door before she could slip through. As he walked toward the back of the stacks, I focused on trying to unlock the door, but couldn’t because my hand slipped right through it. “Oh.” I laughed. “Just walk through.”
Olivia, Sam, and Drew walked through the bookstore’s glass front door. I laughed some more. This was going to be fun.
“If we’re going to mess with Clint,” Drew said. “The thing is, how? We can’t touch anything, and he can’t hear us.”
That was a valid point. “Let’s see if that old movie from the early nineties holds up. The more we focus, maybe we can move stuff in this world.”
He rolled his eyes but then chuckled. “What else do we have to do?”
“Yeah,” Sam added. “Plus, if we succeed it’ll be hilarious.”
Clint walked back to the front with a pile of books in his hand. He set them on the counter.
Focusing on the top book, I tried to touch it. I pushed my index finger into the book, and it really went into it. The book didn’t move. Dang it. Olivia sidled up next to me and tried. And failed.
“Focus,” Sam encouraged. “Envision yourself touching the book.”
We both kept trying, but our hands passed through the book. Crud. That wasn’t working.
“Why aren’t we falling through the floor?” Drew asked. “There’s a basement here, isn’t there?”
I shook my head. “Not that I know of.”
He stomped around, clomping his big boots on the floorboards. “Odd,” he said. “Can I go upstairs?”
Drew gave a particularly strong stomp, and Clint heard it. My boss’s head jerked up and he looked around in surprise. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
We all burst out laughing. “Drew, you’ve got the gift,” I exclaimed. “Come try to move this book.”
He stomped toward us. Clint didn’t seem to hear each footfall, but he did some of them. And the ones he did hear were effective enough. He backed away from the counter until he had his back pressed against the far shelf.
“Hello?” Clint whispered as he leaned so far back,