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, he nearly knocked over the coffee maker.
“Hello!” I yelled.
Nothing.
Olivia joined in as Drew worked on trying to move the book. Sam moved forward and tried as well, while Olivia and I jumped and waved our arms, yelling and screaming.
He heard one of us because Clint stiffened again with wild eyes. “Hello?” he said weakly. “Is someone playing a prank on me?”
Just then, Sam succeeded in moving the book. It didn’t go far, just over a few inches. It wasn’t even enough to knock it off the stack.
But it was enough for Clint to see. Throwing his hands in the air, he yelled throatily and ran through me—yuck. Olivia was right. It was a disgusting feeling—and toward the back.
Snickering, we watched him go. “Was that mean?” I asked.
Olivia and Sam held each other up while Drew wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. “If it was,” he said through his chuckles, “then we’re all mean.”
Olivia waved her hand at me as she calmed down. “He’ll be fine. He’ll convince himself he imagined the whole thing.”
She turned toward the door. “Come on. Let’s head on to the house.”
We walked down Main Street for a little while before seeing another person. It was just too early for many people to be out and about.
“You guys give me a hard time about causing trouble.” Luci’s voice made us all freeze and turn around. He stood in front of the grocery store’s roadside sign, leaning against it with his arms crossed. “But you just put me to shame.” He shook his head. “You try to send me to Hell for having a little fun, but you guys take one trip to the in-between, and look at the lot of you.” He tsked his tongue. “Shameful.”
“Oh, lighten up.” I waved my hand at him and kept walking. “You’re no fun.”
“Excuse me.” Luci hurried forward. “I am nothing but fun.” He wiggled in between me and Drew. “Want me to pop you home?”
“No,” Drew said quickly. “I puked for days last time.”
Luci shrugged. “Suit yourselves.”
“This is all your fault, anyway,” I said, supremely irritated with the devil. “You caused this. Do you care to explain why?”
Sticking his nose in the air, Luci shook his head. “No, I do not care to, thank you very much.”
He looked like he was about to disappear, but Olivia shouted his name. “Hey, Luci!”
Blinking slowly, he turned. “Olive, isn’t it?”
She scowled. “You know my name.”
With a laugh, Luci winked roguishly at her. “Of course. What can I do for you?”
“Can you get us out of the in-between?” she asked. “We’re still not sure exactly how we got in, but we’re going to need to get back to normal.”
He hummed low in his throat and eyed Drew and me. “I think some of you do know how you got here. But, no, I won’t help you.”
He stopped and spread his arms, then bowed. “Not yet anyway.”
And with that, the devil disappeared.
I sighed. My feet were starting to hurt. And we’d forgotten to find our bags. Would they be moved to the real world since they came from it? Or were they lost here forever?
I had no idea.
Chapter Nineteen
By the time we got to my driveway, I’d had enough. It was full daylight, finally. We trudged up the driveway—well, I trudged. Olivia seemed a bit tired, too, but Drew and Sam were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Of course.
But then, they stayed in pretty good shape for their job. Me staying in shape for my job meant keeping my fingers limber. And my magic.
As we crossed the lawn, Snooze walked around the house. He stopped and stared then heaved a big, irritated kitty breath before continuing on his way. A few seconds later, before we even got to the front porch, Lucy-Fur, his new girlfriend, trotted around. “There you are,” she called. I’d healed her and animated her and now she could talk.
Snooze turned around and glared at her.
Uh-oh. Was my Mr. Snoozerton having regrets about keeping his girlfriend around?
Snoozer yowled at her, lifted his tail and twitched it, and kept walking.
“You haven’t gotten out of talking to me like that, you know,” Lucy-Fur yelled as we watched on.
She turned and noticed us, then gave the tiniest hiss. “What are you fools looking at?”
We all shook our heads and watched the little, long-haired white cat stalk back around to the back of the house.
“So, I guess we’re not sneaking up on Snoozer, then?” Sam said, snickering.
“Yeah, we’re sort of ghosts to them. And they can see ghosts.” I watched the little kitty turn the corner as an idea popped into my head. “Lucy! Wait, please.”
The slender, white feline sighed as she stopped.
“Lucy?” I asked.
She didn’t look my way. As she stared off into the distance, I waited for her to acknowledge me.
“Uhmmm.” I glanced back at Olivia, Drew, and Sam in time to see Wade’s truck turn up the driveway, hauling the rental trailer. I wasn’t sure what had taken them so long to get here. And where was Wade now that the sun was out? But I had a question to ask Lucy. “Hey,” I called. “Snobby cat?”
She sat on her haunches and licked her front paw. “Yes?”