Absent (Katie Williams)

No.” But she rises and stands by the edge of the net, staring off into the field as if what we’re saying has bothered her somehow.
    The sun is almost gone now, its last few rays skating along the flat field. The soccer players amble off in twos and threes, balls kicked out ahead to chart their trajectory, the lines all meeting back at the school. The school building looks small from out here at the edge of the field, like you could jump off it and stand up on the ground with a ta-da!
    “Did she say anything else?” Evan breaks into my reverie.
    “Who?”
    “Kelsey Pope. Did she say anything else about you?”
    “No. I . . .” Inhabiting Usha had made me clean forget about Kelsey and the suicide rumor. But then a thought punches through me, strong and quick as the soccer ball through Brooke’s gut: If I could mark Usha’s quiz score, what else could I do? Could I walk around as her? Could I say things as her? Could I use Usha to tell people that the rumor isn’t true?
    I think of Evan’s words in the library: We can’t talk to anyone, can’t touch anything, can’t change anything. I smile because maybe now I can do all of those things.

10: THE TASTE OF SALT
    THE NEXT MORNING , I MEET USHA IN THE STUDENT PARKING lot, noting that her old station wagon has a new dent in it. She has a punky black lace dress on and red rubber rain boots, even though it’s far too chilly for rain. We head into the school, her breath a cloud in front of her face. I exhale nothing.
    At the doors, one of the biblicals joins us, asking Usha how she’s doing about ten times. I roll my eyes. The biblicals took no interest in Usha until I died, and now they practically want to baptize her. They’re pleased, probably, that I supposedly killed myself; it gives them something to pray about. I’m so preoccupied with my thoughts that I’ve fallen back, so when Usha thinks my name and I lunge forward, my fingers just miss swiping her arm.
    The next time Usha thinks of me doesn’t come until late morning in her first art class—sculpture and pottery with Mr. Fisk—which means I can’t take advantage of it then either. Since it’s Fisk’s class, that means Evan is perched on the low cupboard in the back of theroom, and I’m forced to sit next to him like I’ve stopped by merely for the day’s lesson.
    The clock is a creeping sundial as Mr. Fisk spends most of the hour laboriously explaining glazing techniques. Even worse, he keeps dropping his marker, ducking to get it, then popping back up with a “Where was I?” before starting over at the beginning of the explanation.
    “This is gripping,” I say.
    Evan’s eyebrows shoot up. “You don’t think he’s a good teacher?”
    “You sit in here day after day. I guess I thought he’d be amazing.”
    “Come on. He’s not that bad.”
    That’s when I hear it again—Paige—in Usha’s whisper. She’s doodling dragonflies on her notebook, their wings so huge that they spill over the margins, obscuring half her notes. I can’t go near her, though, or Evan will see it. Which is precisely when he says, “I get why you’re here.”
    “What do you mean?” I say. “Maybe I just like learning about glazing techniques.”
    He nods at Usha. “You want to know if she’s thinking about you.”
    “Yeah, that’s it,” I say, and it sort of is.
    “Well has she?” he asks.
    “A couple of times.”
    “See?” Evan says. “She didn’t forget you.”
    At lunch, people turn to look as Usha enters the cafeteria in her ridiculous red boots, but she glares at them and their faces spin away like targets in a carnival shooting gallery. I’ve never seen Usha narrow her eyes at people, much less outright glare at them; that was always me. Usha bypasses the table of biblicals who are waving her over and takes a spot at an empty table, yanking an orange,a sandwich, and chips out of her lunch sack. She sets them in a row, then goes straight for the chips, pulling apart the silvery lips of the bag. I stand directly behind her, hands at the ready, almost as if we were doing a trust fall.
    “We saved you a seat,” a voice chirps over my shoulder.
    Two of the biblicals have appeared; they step past me and hover on either side of Usha. An angel on each shoulder. And a devil at her back. “You don’t have to sit alone, you know.”
    Usha looks from one to the other of them. Paige, she thinks. This time the whisper has an annoyed quality, and I know why. The biblicals only want