The Shade Riders and the Dreadful Ghosts (6 page)

“Mom!” Screamed Wilha. “Look what she did to
my book!” She retrieved it from the fire pit and held it up to the
light. Ashes covered the pages.

Mom was on the couch reading. She lowered her
book onto her lap. “Well, you can hardly blame her. You always
manage to kick her out of bed. I don’t know how she puts up with
your shenanigans over and over. Now you two go to sleep.”

Wilha shrugged and stomped into the bathroom
off the kitchen to clean up her book.

Grateful to her mom, Nova hit the pillows of
the queen size bed she shared with Wilha and fell fast asleep. That
night, she dreamt about the rainbow. In the dream, She woke up to
the strong smell of what she thought was ammonia, like someone was
holding smelling salts under her nose. She was wet and shivering
from the rain. Her bike was nearby on its kickstand, and there were
three bearded, big-boned men standing together. They reminded her
of the Neanderthals pictured on the cover of one of the books she
had borrowed from the school library.

Then Nova felt her half-sister’s feet press
up against her back, and the dream disappeared. Nova shoved her
feet aside but a minute later they were on her back again as she
began to kick violently and groan in her sleep. Nova lay there
fuming as her back took the beating. Finally, she sat up. What
could she do to Wilha? She opened the door quietly and snuck out
into the living room. Her mother must have gone to bed. Nova
tiptoed through the living room and entered the kitchen. The tile
floor felt cool to her bare feet. She opened the door leading to
the garage and grabbed a long horse’s lead rope that was on a hook
next to the door. She shuffled back to the bedroom. Nova jumped on
Wilha’s legs and struggled to wrap them with the rope. Just when
she thought she succeeded, Wilha knocked Nova off the mattress.
Nova landed on the floor with a thump all tangled up in the sheet
and blankets.

Well, that didn’t work.

Wilha was still thrashing about. She panted,
sweated, and moaned in her sleep. Nova tried to sleep on the
farthest side of the bed, but Wilha continued to kick her. Nova
finally gave up and lay on the floor. She slowly fell back asleep.
She was back near the rainbow, and there was a fireball hovering in
front of her. But it wasn’t scary. Usually, she was afraid of fire.
She had taken the trash out to burn it and burned her bangs, brow
ridge and eyebrows right off. The fireball this woman was holding
had fractal shapes floating inside and felt warm and inviting.

She reached out to touch it, but the woman
from her dream put her face into Nova’s and said, “Stop! Fireballs
are not to be trifled with.” Nova woke up again and rolled over.
She tried to get comfortable on the hard floor. She yearned to
continue the dream. She thought she might be dreaming about what
happened in her two missing hours.

Oh, Wilha I’m going to get you back!

In the morning, Nova’s mother told her to get
up from her warm bed and go to school. She wondered how she had
gotten back in bed. She must have been in a very deep sleep if she
couldn’t remember either getting back in bed or being awakened by
the rooster in the hen house.

Had she dreamed again? The only dream Nova
remembered from last night was the one about the lady and the
fireball. Oh and the Neanderthals and the bicycle. Could
Neanderthals still exist? She was sure her mom told her that Modern
Humans wiped them out thirty thousand years ago. Maybe Nova was
getting the wrong information, or her “dream” was just that- a
dream. It was getting late. Nova could already smell the bacon and
the blueberry pancakes. Wilha was probably making breakfast for
everyone.

In the morning light that filtered through
the curtains, Nova looked around her room. Half the room was Nova’s
to decorate, and half was for her sister. Wilha filled up every
inch of wall space on her half with hearts, country music stars,
and her favorite flowers. Then she filled more with love poetry,
kittens, horses, and musical instruments such as banjos, violins,
guitars, and pianos. Her walls also had pictures of dream houses,
recipes, a reply from a country music star, teddy bears, and dream
clothes.

Nova always thought Wilha’s wall looked silly
like she needed all that stuff hanging in front of her to remind
her what she liked.

Nova’s wall had two items against the
light-blue background, which you couldn’t even see on Wilha’s end.
There was the black and white photo of three horses running through
waves of the ocean and the dream catcher her mom bought her a while
back. How could she be Native American? She recalled that they
dressed up in bright colors and beautiful feathers in their dances.
She felt that she just couldn’t relate. That she didn’t fit in
anywhere.

Nova’s mom came into the bedroom and grabbed
dirty laundry from a red plastic chair and headed back out the
door.

Nova sat up in bed. "Mom?"

"Hmm?" Mom stopped in the doorway.

"About that horse stall you finished
yesterday for me, do I still get the hundred dollars for it?" Nova
said, “I could sure use that money.”

"Don’t worry, there are other stalls for you
to clean."

"But I put two whole hours into that one. I
was almost done."

"Tough, honey," Mom said with a laugh. “I
needed another stall ready, right then for a pregnant sow.”

"Mom, why is $100.00 all we get for a stall,
anyway? The Johnson farm down the road pays us much more for
cleaning one," Nova said.

"Look, Nova, that's all I can afford to pay
you, kids.” Mom swung her arms, letting some of the laundry
fly.

Nova laughed. She was going to have a hard
time keeping a straight face. Sometimes her mom was a klutz.

Mom slumped and sighed as she bent to pick up
the clothes at opposite walls.

Nova put on her best pouty face.

"Nova, I really don't have to pay my own kids
to do work around here. You do get a roof over your heads and food
in your stomachs.”

"Fine." Nova sighed.

"All right, I'll see you at breakfast," Mom
turned and left with the clothes.

Nova got dressed and strolled into the
laundry room to check the dryer for socks. The dryer clothes were
still warm and smelled like softener. She tried to find a pair of
her own, but they weren’t washed yet. Nova found Scott’s and
Wilha’s socks each one missing its twin. One was a pink ankle sock
with pink roses on the side, and the other one was a white Nike
tube sock. So Nova couldn’t use them either. She called to her
mom.

“Mom, can I wear your socks today? I can’t
find any to wear but yours.”

“I guess you can.”

Nova put on a blue pair of soft cotton socks.
She shuffled up behind Wilha.

"You kicked me out of the bed again."

"I keep telling you, you must've been
dreaming," Wilhelmina said while pouring blueberry pancake batter
in a skillet on a wood-burning stove. Boy, that smells delicious.
And Bacon too? Great!

“I’m not dreaming, Wilha.” Nova trudged
outside to do her chores. It was chilly enough to see her to her
breath.

She let out the puppies and cleaned their
pen, then watered and fed them. She played with them just because
they were so happy to see her. She looked at the clock on the wall.
Twenty to six. Time to put them back into their pens. Scott
wandered back and forth, feeding and watering the pigs, cows and
horses. The barn radio was playing hard rock. Nova could hear Scott
cussing in the barn, probably at Chocolate. Usually talk was kept
to a minimum because everyone was still waking up.

Nova’s mother fed and watered the sheep and
chickens. The ice had to be broken out of the rubber water buckets
and bowls. Then Mom did what vets do best. She examined all the
animals, doctoring when needed and supervising her kids’ work.

After the animals had been taken care of,
Nova took a quick shower and blow-dried her hair. Some houses had
electricity. Nova’s farm had a generator for the water and a few
outlets. She strolled to the dining table and had breakfast. The
pancakes were golden brown, and the bacon was crisp and yummy. It
almost made up for Wilha kicking her out of bed. Soon an argument
ensued about who was going to get the last pancake and strip of
bacon. Scott accused Wilha of purposely not making enough. Wilha
told Scott he should cook then. As the argument continued, Nova
smirked. Throwing on her warm denim jacket, a scarf, and wool hat
with a chin strap, she put her book bag on her back and rode her
bike to the top of the driveway. She cruised toward school.

As soon as she was on the road, peddling
mindlessly through corn fields covered in stubble, Nova tried to
recreate the dream she had the night before. She could only see a
bit at first.

Nova was in a dark place that looked like the
inside of a big tent. She was lying on the ground on a black
bearskin rug.

She continued to pedal her bike just moving
along as she

remembered what was left of her dream.

A tall, muscular woman crouched over her. Her
brown wavy hair was tied back in a ponytail. She offered Nova a
warm, red towel. Nova accepted it and dried her face. Three
barrel-chested, bearded men stood behind her. They looked much
older than the woman.

The woman said, "Nova, are you okay?” It was
a familiar New Zealand accent.

Nova nodded. "Where am I?"

"You’re safe for now." She offered Nova a
bottle of cold water, but Nova declined because she didn’t know if
she could trust this woman.

Nova heard what she thought were howler
monkeys like those she had seen at the Madison Zoo. She also
noticed the chirps and songs of birds and insects. Mosquitoes
buzzed around her head. Foreign smells teased her nose.

"Where am I? In a circus? Or a zoo?" Nova
said.

"Neither one."

As Nova watched, the woman created a fireball
inside her hands, which warmed up the tent. For some reason, Nova
wasn’t afraid. In fact, the fireball made her feel much better. But
she still had to wonder how did she do that? And what was she going
to do with that fireball? Nova reached for it, and the lady quickly
held her back at arm’s length.

At that moment, the three men sniffed the
air, opened the tent flap and plodded quickly outside into the
bright sunshine. Nova caught a glimpse of a little bit of blue sky
and some green-leafed tree branches. She looked at the woman again
and thought she saw alarm on her face. Then Nova heard voices
outside the closed tent but she couldn’t make out what was being
said. She also realized who the three men were. They were friends
of the tall woman.

And they were Neanderthals.

At that point, she had been forced out of her
dream and the bed by Wilhelmina's kicking. She sighed and rolled
her eyes.

The really weird thing was that the dream
didn’t feel like a dream. Sure, there were some crazy things
happening – she didn’t encounter fireballs or Neanderthals in real
life. But nobody suddenly sprouted antennae, and she didn’t
suddenly shift to the top of a cliff or into one of her classrooms.
It all felt real, just… strange.

Of course, was that because she was just
dreaming about other strange things happening to her? Or was it
another one of the strange things itself?

Nova pulled up to the whale bike rack at the
school that the metalworking shop had made a few years ago.
Takeesha was already there, trying to lock hers to one of the
whale’s ribs. The happy whale spewed a stream of crumpled
sheet-aluminum water out of its blow hole.

Takeesha was pounding one of the links of her
bicycle chain with the back end of a wrench. "The chain came apart
again." She threw down the wrench into her book bag, making a large
clanging noise, tugged on the chain, then wrapped it around her
bike wheel and locked it. She wiped her greasy fingers on a paper
towel.

“Guess what? I saw a ghost in the hallway
when I was leaving school yesterday,” Nova said.

“Really? What did it do? Were you scared? Did
you throw up?”

Nova told her about the ghost but left out
her fight with Brenda. It was still a little embarrassing the way
she didn’t stand up for herself.

“Do we want to meet in the library again to
contact the ghosts?” Nova asked.

“Oh, shoot, I left the Ouija board at home. I
think at the assembly today we can ask Nocturnal Ned.

That’s right. She had forgotten that the
famous psychic would be visiting the school.

The first bell rang as they ran for their
lockers.

The first class of the day was English. As soon as
Nova and Takeesha hustled inside, Nova could smell the dry, dusty
odor that came from heaters. She took a seat in a rickety old desk
near the back of the room. It wasn’t the greatest seat, but it put
her behind Brenda the bully, which was a safer place to be. Or it
was until Brenda’s sidekick, Amanda, took the desk behind her.
Takeesha sat near the front, as she always did. A few other
students had already taken their seats. Ms. Chilldress walked to
the board and wrote: “RESEARCH PAPER DAY.”

A loud crackling made the hair on Nova’s neck
stand up and her stomach churn. Two ghosts in dark suits and
fedoras entered the classroom. They stood in the front, their arms
crossed over their chests, and glowered at the teacher. Ms.
Chilldress glanced at the ghosts, then turned her gaze deliberately
on the class. The only sign of worry was the way she played with
the erasable marker in her hand. "I propose that we have a great
science fair in May. What do you think, people?"

Nova had heard that Ms. Chilldress hated
teaching English and really resented the fact that nobody was
teaching science anymore. The principal felt sorry for her and was
going to let her run a science fair in May to make up for it. The
students only whined and moaned about more schoolwork.