Finally, he looked back at Chad.
"Are you all right sleeping in here?" "It's gone," I told them both, and Corban obliged me by signing it.
Chad nodded, and his hands flew.
At the end of it, Corban grinned.
"I guess that's true." He looked at me.
"He told me the ghost hasn't killed him yet." Corban hefted the bookcase upright again, and I looked down at the mess of books and game pieces.
I waited until Chad glanced my way.
Then I pointed at his two-hole destroyer, plainly visible, surrounded by white, useless missile pegs.
"So that's where you hid it, you little sneak." He grinned.
Not a full-fledged grin, but enough that I knew he'd be fine.
Tough kid.
I left them to their manly nighttime rituals and went back to my room, all thoughts of going home tomorrow shelved.
I wasn't going to abandon Chad to the ghost.
I still had no idea how to get rid of it, but maybe I could help him live with it instead.
He was already halfway there.
Corban knocked at my door a few minutes later, then cracked it open.
"I don't need to come in," he said.
He stared at me grimly.
"Tell me you didn't engineer that somehow.
I checked for wires and magnets." I raised my eyebrow at him.
"I didn't engineer anything.
Congratulations.
Your house is haunted." He frowned.
"I'm pretty good at sniffing out lies." "Good for you," I told him sincerely.
"Now I'm tired, and I need to go to sleep." He backed away from my doorway and started down the hall.
But he hadn't gotten two steps before he turned back.
"If it is a ghost, is Chad safe?" I shrugged.
Truthfully, the smell of blood bothered me.
Ghosts, in my experience, tend to smell like themselves.
Mrs.