The Shade Riders and the Dreadful Ghosts (23 page)

“A doppelganger would work just as well,”
Captain Palherd said.

The group of Neanderthals murmured among
themselves, then said they would use a doppelganger and have Max
Kim visit every once and a while.

Captain Palherd strutted to a rainbow portal
in a nearby waterfall and pulled something only vaguely human out
of the color yellow. Max Kim and the being stroll into a VIP
bedroom and closed the door.

When Max Kim appeared half an hour later, he
said, “Okay I’m done. I hope they’re happy.” Another Max Kim
strolled out of the room and started doing magic tricks for the
group of Neanderthals. The men and women sang and clapped their
hands.

“Max Kim,” Benny said, “is that… you?”

“As near as I can tell, it’s like a
three-dimensional Youtube video of me. I just taught it a couple of
tricks to keep them busy.”

Nova hugged her dad, The Seven Sages, and
even Captain Palherd. The other Shade Riders taught a few Idealites
how to high five. The Neanderthal people looked confused then
smiled at the concept. They stood around the cart and Shade, who
was still a filly. And Captain Palherd waved her hands around doing
the sign for the space-time continuum. She stretched out her arm,
like she was measured the sun with her hand. Then did a circle with
her arms.

An iridescent whirlwind full of fractals
engulfed them causing their hair to blow around in the turmoil. The
wind moved faster increasing speed until they couldn’t see anything
but each other.

The wind eventually died down, and Nova could
see where they were. They were back at Leandra’s house.

Nova just saw the tail end of the cart
pulling through the rainbow and disappearing when the rainbow
vanished in a flash of green light. Nova and Max Kim took Shade up
the path making her big again. They put on the harness and attached
the cart and took off into the sky. When they got her in the air,
they circled the invisible house and waved to Leandra, who waved
back.

“I’ll see you, sprogs later. We’re home and
hosed.” She entered her invisible house and disappeared.

Nova flew to each of her friends houses to
drop them off.

“That was a clash trip! Thanks, Nova,” Benny
said unclamping his chair, replacing it with the old one, and
wheeling into the garage at his house. At Takeesha’s house, she
gave Nova a hug. At Max Kim’s house, he gave her a high five. She
took Shade back to the farm where she removed the cart and gear,
then let her horse go into the dark pasture with the other horses.
Nova put the cart back under the tarp in the garage.

The next week Benny found that a tiger sound
canceled out the infrasound that animated the ghosts nicely. The
ghosts that had roamed the halls simply vanished.

After being back a month or so, the Shade
Rider kids approached Ms. Chilldress after the English class.

“Ms. Chilldress,” Nova said, “we exorcized
the ghosts from the school. Now you can teach science and the
ghosts won’t bother you or the students.”

“We’ll see about that.” Ms. Chilldress nodded
and strode over to her laboratory. She grabbed a contraption out of
her science closet and plunked it down on the table. This machine
had a twelve-inch diameter glass wheel on top with a five-inch
diameter glass wheel on the bottom. The top wheel had a crank on it
on the right side, and there were two metal spheres about three
inches apart on short poles on the opposite side. The whole thing
was the size of a bread box.

“This is called a Wimshurst machine. When I
turn the crank, the wheels turn in opposite directions, and the
metal carriers hold the charges, which are then transferred to the
spheres. Watch. This should theoretically attract the ghosts
back.”

She turned the crank for what seemed like
fifteen minutes. The machines whirred and hummed, and nothing
happened. Then suddenly, what looked like a bolt of lightning ran
from one sphere to the other. It sizzled, crackled and popped.

“I’m creating a static electric charge.” She
said. They waited, looking all around the room. Nova ran to the
doorway and looked out into the hallway. Nothing. All was as it
should be. The ghosts didn’t come back and harass her. “Well, I
can’t believe it. After all this time, I can actually do
science.”

“Yes, you can.” Takeesha was wearing her
African patterned outfit.

“This is simply marvelous.” Ms. Chilldress
started to dance around. “I’m going to ask for my old job back.”
The Shade Rider Kids grinned, and Takeesha and Max Kim left the
room. But Benny cornered Nova behind the classroom door.

“I have one final test for you to pass or
fail.”

“What is it?” Nova said biting her lip.

“I want you to read my mind and tell me what
I’m thinking.”

Nova stared into Benny’s eyes, and Benny
stared back.

A long moment later, Nova said, “You wish you
could get out of that chair and ride on Shade, when she has wings,
in the night sky.”

Benny’s face crinkled up, and he wiped away a
tear. “You pass.”

Nova hugged him as his shoulders shook from
crying. After he had stopped, he took a deep breath and showed Nova
a newspaper.”Look at this.”

On page sixteen, there was a story about
Nocturnal Ned getting arrested for being a con man in the psychic
business. P.I. Leandra Contrast found him beat up and homeless,
living in a van. He surrendered without a struggle.

Nova had to laugh. They strolled to class
when the bell rang.

Later Nova found out Ms. Chilldress talked to
the Principal, and she was reinstated in a science class where she
could teach whatever science she thought would benefit an
eleven-year-old.

When Nova rode home on her bike that day
after school, she realized maybe she could use Wilha’s fairy dust
to get a good night sleep. That night before bed, Nova pulled out
the fairy dust from the dresser drawer and sprinkled some on her
sister’s side of the bed. From that night forward Nova was able to
get pleasant sleep in her shared bed with Wilha. And
someday—someday soon—she would go back and visit her father
again.

Bxerk is
married and has a son in middle school. This writer loves living in
the country, in southern, Wisconsin, where horses, dogs, cats,
rabbits and also plants can roam.

If you want to see some art work go to
www.Bxerk.net