Ways to See a Ghost

about his chasing trips, and she even sounded interested.
    Actually, I’d never seen him like that with anyone, even Mum when they were still together. Mind you, I can hardly remember that, it was such a long time ago. Mostly I remember the after bits. Like, me sitting on Mum’s lap and crying, “I want Daddy, I want Daddy!” I don’t even knowwhy I wanted him, but I can remember Mum crying too.
    Anyway, Isis didn’t say a thing for ages. She was drinking this bottle of juice, looking like the pub was the last place she wanted to be. I ate a packet of cheese and onion crisps, then a packet of smoky bacon. Because I was in shock – I needed the salt. I thought Isis was too, or maybe she was just stuck up. Some girls are, specially the ones who’re really into clothes. But she didn’t look the type – her uniform was a bit too big for her, her shoes were scuffed.
    She picked up one of the empty crisp packets, smoothed it out and folded it over and over into this little wrapped-up triangle. When she’d finished, she put it down on the table, and looked at me.
    “He was really cold,” she said.
    “What?”
    “The man in the garden. Mr Welkin. He was really cold.”
    “He was
dead
,” I said.
    She twizzled the crisp packet triangle on the tabletop.
    “Yes, but then why couldn’t I…” she paused, then said, “I saw his hand.” She turned hers over, palm up, palm down. “It was all glittery.”
    There isn’t another girl in our whole school whowould’ve touched a dead body. Only a few boys, probably. I picked up the last packet of crisps. Barbecue chilli.
    “I saw this thing on telly,” I said, crunching. “All the blood sinks down, because your heart’s not pumping any more, and your hands and feet go black. Then you start drying out, so you shrink a bit and it makes your hair and nails look like they’re getting longer. That’s why people used to think they keep growing after you’re dead, but they don’t really…”
    Isis made a yuk-face at me, shaking her head. “Not like that. I couldn’t work out what it was for a second, and there wasn’t even any frost on the grass. But he wasn’t just cold, he was covered in ice. It was starting to melt, but he was definitely frozen all over.”
    “He had been out there all day,” I said, “and he was in a shady place.”
    She sort of rolled her eyes then. And she was right, because the days were getting warmer by then, like I said. Not cold enough to freeze in the daytime, definitely not cold enough to get coated in ice. She opened her mouth, but didn’t say whatever it was…
    “He was
that
Norman Welkin?” Cally cried, across the table. “Founder of the Welkin Society?” She clapped a hand to her mouth, looking horrified.
    Dad nodded.
    Cally’s hand dropped to her lap.
    “I had no idea,” she breathed. “Oh my God! Why did Sondra call
me?
”
    “You’re not one of them?”
    Cally shook her head. “I want to be.” And you could hear it in her voice, the longing. “Now, I don’t suppose it’ll ever happen.”
    Dad shrugged. “You’re probably better off anyway. That lot, they all sounded a bit…” he did a crazy little whistle.
    Luckily, Cally wasn’t really listening. “Sondra said she
couldn’t
call any of the psychics she knew.”
    Dad shrugged again. “You know those types, always falling out over their chakras or whatever. Actually, Norman had been complaining about his lot, the last year or so. How they were always ganging up on him because he wasn’t actually psychic, just the man with the money. About a month back he even told me he thought some of the group weren’t genuine, and he was a man who believed in
everything.
He was proper cut up about it. I told him to stop wasting his money.”
    Now Cally was listening. She looked horrified at Dad. “No, no! Norman Welkin created something wonderful!The Welkin Society is so well thought of. Membership is a real mark of respect, it gives you credibility.”
    “Oh, yes,” said Dad, seeing the look on her face and backtracking like a pro. “I meant he should rest up a bit, at his age, since it was all going so well.”
    Cally groaned. “The things I said to Sondra, I’ll never get in now.”
    “With what’s just happened…” Dad’s voice wobbled a bit. “I mean, Sondra probably won’t even remember.”
    “Do you think so?” Cally asked, hopeful sounding.
    “What’s up with your mum?” I whispered to Isis.
    She looked at me. “Haven’t you