Ways to See a Ghost

cheekbones and a narrow, almost lipless mouth. She was staring at Isis from her heavily made up, deeply sunken eyes. As were the other eight people at the table.
    “I… er…” Isis kept her hand on the door handle, looking in.
    It was Philip Syndal’s dining room, but it was decoratedlike the interior of a castle, with bronze candle brackets on the walls and a dark wood table filling the room. A dragon mural coiled across all four walls.
    The members of the Welkin Society were sitting around the table, like knights of old. Instead of swords and silver goblets they were surrounded by files, folders and sheets of paper, business-like. The only thing Cally had on the table in front of her was the letter, her hands flat on the paper as if she was scared it might blow away.
    She was glaring at Isis.
    Isis smiled, trying to act normal, while scanning the room for Angel.
    There. The see-through shimmer of a little girl, sidling along the wall, working her way to Cally.
    “Is everything all right?” asked Philip, starting to get up. “Do you need any more biscuits? I can get you some…”
    “No, Philip. Please.” Cally scraped her chair back, the letter fluttering onto the floor. “I can deal with this.”
    She walked quickly round the table and grabbed Isis’s hand, pulling her back out into the hallway and shutting the door behind them before Isis could think of a way to stay in the room.
    “Please, don’t embarrass me,” Cally hissed, pulling Isisinto the kitchen. “The society aren’t going to let me come to meetings if you keep interrupting.”
    Isis yanked her hand out of Cally’s. “Then you should have let me stay at home!”
    “You know I couldn’t find anyone to look after you.”
    “I don’t
need
anyone!”
    Cally stood by the kitchen door, and took a deep breath through her nose.
    “We can discuss this later. Just tell me what you want and then I can get back to the meeting.” She flicked a glance back at the dining room. “They’ll be waiting.”
    Isis followed her gaze, and saw Angel slinking out through the wall. Little arms waved.
    “Isis! I here!”
    There’d been no shouting from inside the room, no cries or questions. Angel was out, and no one had noticed her. The knot in Isis’s stomach untightened. She looked straight at Cally, and shrugged.
    “I just wanted to know where the toilet is, that’s all.”
    Cally laughed, and rolled her eyes.
    “It’s over there, you silly.” She hugged Isis briefly, then hurried back to the meeting. “Nothing to worry about—” she said as she opened the door. Her wordswere cut off as it closed behind her.
    Isis ran into the hallway, plunging her hands into Angel’s smoky form, grasping hold of her and pulling her back to the kitchen.
    “Oooow!” wailed Angel, kicking with weightless legs, trying to hit Isis. “You hurting me!”
    Isis’s hands were going numb, she let go with one of them.
    “Don’t go in there again!” she hissed. “That was very naughty!”
    She pulled her other hand out of the little ghost, who sank onto the floor, her edges dissolving a little.
    “I not naughty,” she wailed.
    “Don’t start crying,” snapped Isis. “It won’t work. I told you not to go in there! One of them could have seen you.”
    Angel became a little more solid, and started fiddling with the flowers on her sandals. “No one see me,” she mumbled.
    Isis sighed, it was hard to stay angry with Angel. She crouched down and touched a finger to Angel’s cool-whisper cheek. “They
might
have,” she said. “They’re psychics.”
    “Like Mummy?”
    Isis shook her head, her throat tight.
    “Not like Mummy. Proper ones.” She sat down on the tiles next to Angel. “This is Mummy’s big chance, you see? It’s what she really wants. But if the others spot you, and find out she can’t…” Cally would be crushed. Cut to pieces. “They won’t let her join their club.”
    Angel scrunched up the cloth flower. When she let go it was still perfect. She looked up at Isis.
    “They dint see me,” she said.
    “That’s because they weren’t looking,” said Isis. “I distracted them.”
    Angel’s eyes were round in her not-quite-there face. “After. When you and Mummy wented out.” A smile sneaked onto her lips. “I runned on the table.”
    Isis groaned, dropping her head into her hands. Angel poked her face through Isis’s fingers.
    “They dint see me. Even when I show my tummy, like this.”
    Angel stood, pulling up her