The Shade Riders and the Dreadful Ghosts (2 page)

Nova carried five heavy paranormal books she
had taken out of the library three months ago. Any other sixth
grader would be slumped over with the weight, but she’s always
been…well… her mother called her “sturdy,” her brother usually made
reference to linebackers and fireplugs. But she didn’t care. As she
shuffled them in her arms, she thought about the strange language
used in the books. The authors were either talking over her head or
something else was going on. Suddenly, Nova heard an evil laugh and
not from a ghost this time. It was Brenda, the worst bully in the
school as far as Nova was concerned.

Nova was about to make a run when she
realized that Brenda was in the principal’s office to her left. She
must have already beaten someone up today. Even so, Nova hurried.
She knew she had to get past the door before Brenda came out and
saw her. She could see Brenda start to open the door. Just a little
further and Nova would be passed the door and at the library.

Takeesha was waiting near the entrance. “Hey,
girl!” She carried a few books and an Ouija board with the
planchette, which was a triangle board on casters that they placed
their hands. “Let’s go inside. Hurry, I think Brenda’s coming this
way.” Nova skidded on the waxed floor and grabbed for the door
handle.

They entered the library and
closed the door. Nova put her ear to the door and heard footsteps
fading into the distance. What a relief.

Nova looked around the book-stuffed, musty
smelling room. The librarian, Mrs. Munroe, had to be here because
otherwise the place would have been locked. Other than that, it
looked like they had the entire place to themselves.

The girls put their returned library books
into the drop-off box, and then Nova crept past the shelves full of
mouse chewed books into the open area with tables. Takeesha
followed.

“Hey Takeesha, I can’t wait to see the foal
today. Hopefully, it will be white like its father.”

“Oh, I know.”

Nova grabbed her arm, “Hurry, we don’t have
much time.”

Nova hesitated and frowned at the cold spring
rain still coming down in torrents against the brown-tinted
windows. Lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled as horses and
buggies rolled past on the street. Nova could make out the muffled
sound of hoofs thumping the pavement and thought she heard a whinny
in the distance. Short bushes grew under the windows, and she could
see the Bardsville harbor with its red lighthouse standing like a
sentinel in the distance. Lake Michigan did not have many boats at
the piers. Most had been moved to storage for the winter and part
of the spring and still hadn’t made it out onto the water. Nova saw
the colors but with so much rain she did not see much more.

A large oak tree stood outside to the left. A
brave soaked squirrel jumped down and scampered around the short
grassy school grounds. She realized it had been a long time since
she’d seen an actual car on the roads. No one was interested in
being a car mechanic or anything else that needed computer skills.
Business was being sent overseas. People were not willing to finish
high school. Why should they bother? Some jobs could be acquired by
being an apprentice, but most jobs were out in the fields, and a
person didn’t need an education to pick vegetables or milk a
cow.

No wonder they had the library to
themselves.

Nova turned from the window. She might as
well get this meeting started and see if anything, just anything at
all, would come of it. After all, millions of people, who believe
in magick, can’t be wrong. Can they?

"Takeesha, first off, do your African shaman
rain dance backward to stop this stupid rain!"

"Okay, you be the drums."

Nova began a slow, soul-grounding beat like
Takeesha had shown her. Takeesha hummed and swayed to the beat of
Nova's hands on the wooden, wobbly table.

Nova picked up the beat and began to chant,
something that was roughly Native American. Her mother told her she
was half Sioux. At least that's what Nova's dad, her mom's
boyfriend, had told her mom before he died of cancer.

They both sang over the rushing sound of the
fast rain. Then Takeesha elbowed her hard and sharp in the back.
Nova stopped chanting, and her legs danced about as she hunched
over the tabletop. Too bad she had to stay at the drum, or she’d
show Takeesha she can really dance her butt off. Nova watched
Takeesha move, shaking her taller, stream-lined body in an effort
to harness the paranormal. Takeesha’s sandals flip- flopped in the
air as she moved.

Nothing happened.

After three minutes, they stopped and panted.
Takeesha made fists and stamped her foot at the continuing
rain.

"I don’t understand it. My shaman book said
this works every time." Takeesha scratched her head between her
tight cornrows.

“You ruined it by adding your song. You know
what I mean?"

"No! In this experiment, the magick should've
been more powerful."

Takeesha tossed her head, her nose flaring.
Nova realized her friend took the unsuccessful dance very
personally.

She couldn’t even meet Takeesha's eyes when
she was like this. Nova looked away and noticed Mrs. Monroe come
out of the back storage area. She grabbed the giant cardboard
Easter bunny left over from spring break and carried it into the
back. Nova looked out of the corner of her eye at Takeesha and felt
better because her friend was smiling at a book she had pulled off
the shelf nearby. Nova shuffled over to another aisle and searched
the shelves. She found what she was looking for, took the book out
of hiding, shook off the mouse droppings and rubbed the book off on
her jeans.

"Takeesha, here's a book you'd like. I put it
in the science section so no one would check it out. You get first
dibs."

“'Sewing for Money’? Say… I like the looks of
this! Thank you." She hugged the book.

“Hey, Takeesha? I haven’t seen you wear that
patterned outfit you worked so hard on. The one from the African
Heritage Days.”

“Oh, girl, I’m just waiting for the right
time, you know what I mean?”

Suddenly, Nova jumped in excitement, “Quick,
let’s do the séance.” They grabbed a corner table near the
windows.

From her hip pack, Nova dumped out sixteen
dice from the game Boggle. The dice had a letter on each side. “I
think we can roll these and get messages from beyond the
grave.”

Also from the hip pack, Nova pulled out a
pink crystal heart.

“This pendulum can be used to ask spirits
questions. When it swings north and south, it is a ‘yes’. West and
east is a‘no’ and a circle is a ‘maybe’.” Nova brought out a
handful of strong smelling sage, eucalyptus, and wormwood. Takeesha
wrinkled her nose.

“These smells will get us in the spiritual
mood,” Nova said smiling.

“Let’s close the curtains,” Takeesha said
pointing to the windows.

Nova and Takeesha raced to close the curtains
and darken the corner. They shuffled back to the table. Takeesha
brought out, from her fanny pack, three battery powered tea lights
and turned them on. They flickered like real flames. Their faces
pulsed in the lights as Nova crushed the herbs together with her
fingers and waved them about. Takeesha placed the Ouija board in
front of them on the table, and they put their hands on the
planchette.

Again, Nova glanced at the rain against the
window to her right missing a dark shade. The rain sluiced down
cascading over the ledge in the center creating a sheet of water.
Nova thought she saw a man with cropped white hair, white beard,
and mustache, moving his hands as he rotated them over a basin.
Unruly colorful geometrical shapes in 3-D rose up from his hands.
Nova thought they might be what Benny called Fractals. “Holy
chaos.” Nova blinked her eyes, and then he was gone.

In the library, the planchette moved over the
letters on the Ouija board, even without questions being posed.

It spelled out N. O. V. A.

Suddenly, the planchette began to speed all
over the board. The girls couldn’t keep up with it.

“Something just grabbed my hand, and I can’t
lift my other hand,” Nova said breaking out in a sweat.

“Let go.”

“I can’t,” Takeesha yelled back.

“Holy chaos. It won’t let my hand go.
Takeesha, I need your help.”

“I can’t move my left hand.” Takeesha bit her
lower lip as she struggled to pull away from the planchette.

“What do you want from us?” Takeesha screamed
at the board.

Then the mysterious presence abruptly
released Nova from the planchette and forced her from her chair.
“Gahhhh.” She was pulled and pushed to an aisle of books. Finally
loose, Takeesha ran after her.

“Takeesha, help me. It’s hurting my wrist.”
Nova couldn't see or smell anything unusual, but she did feel a
shiver up her spine.

What had she gotten herself into?

"Holy chaos!" Her hand searched the
bookshelves- as if it could read by itself. Finally, it reached out
for a chewed up book. She heard a loud ‘click’ inside her head--
What was that?

She tried to pull her hand back. But it was
as though the book had a vacuum attached. She removed the book from
the dirty shelf.

Takeesha soon caught up to her. “What’s
happening?”

“I don’t want this stupid book.” Nova was
going to fling it down, but her hand still clung to it.

“Hang on,” Takeesha said. “We wanted the
ghosts to talk to us. Maybe they are. What is that book?”

Nova began to calm down a little, mostly
because she seemed to be regaining the use of her hand. She looked
at the title. “The Legends of Gods Around the World.”

When she tried to open it, she couldn’t. The
pages were all stuck together. Nova caught her breath. Maybe the
entity didn’t want her to read what was inside. The title was
enough.

But what did it mean?

Suddenly, Nova danced in a circle then raced
across the room. “Fricken.” She almost ran over Takeesha.
"Something's got a hold of my arm again." Nova had squealed before
she disappeared down another dark aisle.

Takeesha ran after her.

"There is no running in this here library,
young ladies," Mrs. Munroe said. Nova noticed the librarian’s eyes
were glassed over. Mrs. Munroe suddenly remembered something. She
put her finger in the air and said, “That is what I need, and that
is what I shall have.” She turned again to go into the back
room.

Meanwhile, Nova was searching for another
volume. She scanned the titles on the shelves to figure out which
section she was in.

"Okay,” she said, “you want me to read
anthropology, the study of people? No. Archeology, the study of
ancient cultures? No. The Mayan people? No...” Her hand came to
another book. “Oh, of course, Neanderthals." And another ‘click’.
The book, all chewed –up and dusty, came off the shelf and hovered
in front of her face. Without the help of her hand this time.

"Holy chaos!" Takeesha said.

“Why not,” Nova said. “Go ahead and give it
to me.” The book lay down on the pile in her arms.

Then the herculean force that pulled her
around the library suddenly let her go. Nova groaned and dropped to
the floor like a rag doll. The book about Neanderthals flopped
opened to page 236 in her lap.

"What happened to me? Was that a ghost?" Nova
asked. Takeesha shrugged. Nova looked at the book in her lap and
began to read aloud.

”’The Neanderthals were able to survive in
colder temperatures because of their different physical
features.

They were short, about four to five feet tall
and much hairier than modern man. They also had a sloping head
making it appear they had no forehead. The Neanderthals didn't have
much of a chin and had big noses.’”

“What are you doing?”

“You said yourself that the…whatever might be
trying to tell us something. I’m trying to figure out what. ‘Their
hair was like human hair with many shades of color. Their freckles
were a different kind than that of the Modern Human.’” Nova looked
at the artist's rendition of the cavemen and women. They sure did
look different, but also a little familiar.

“Scientists believed they buried their dead
but had no evidence of a formal religion that they could
discern.

Some scientists think they died off from
disease or malnutrition. Other scientists said they died off
because there were no more trees or caves.’” Wow, this must be an
old book. Even she knew the Neanderthals were over-run by the
Modern Human people. Nova looked at Takeesha to see if she had an
idea. Takeesha shrugged. Nova rubbed her cheek bones and brow
ridge. No wonder they looked familiar.

“Do you think I look like a Neanderthal?”

“Let me see.” Takeesha grabbed the book and
looked closer at the pictures then gazed at Nova. “I don’t know,
maybe. What would you do if I said yes?”

“I guess I might be sad… and maybe I might be
relieved because that would explain a lot about--”

“Oh, what do you think happened to us?”

“I don’t know about you, Takeesha, but I’m
calling that encounter a visit by a ghost.”

"Are you two ready to check out?” Mrs. Munroe
said. “That was the final bell."

Nova closed the book, got up with her load,
and helped Takeesha pick up their things at the table, stuffing
various items into their hip packs.

“Hey, Takeesha, wasn’t it weird Mrs. Munroe
didn’t say anything about the ghost?” They started to shuffle to
the counter.

“Do you think it will bother her?”

“I don’t know. We should probably tell Mrs.
Munroe about her library being haunted now.”

“Well, if it is, it is our fault, you
know.”

Then Mrs. Munroe stopped what she was doing,
blinked rapidly, yawned, and seemed to notice the young women. She
pushed round glasses up her shiny pointed nose. Nova put her books
down on the counter creating a dust cloud.