Ways to See a Ghost

“Losing Angel, and then your dad. And I know I wasn’t… the best mum, for a long time.” She put her hand out, touching Isis’s cheek. “But things are better now, aren’t they? I’ve got Gil, and the Welkin Society. I’m so much stronger. I think… Maybe it’s my turn to help you?”
    Isis tried to smile, but it turned into tears. Everything that had happened, all the secrets she was keeping, they were bursting to get out. She couldn’t hold them; she was going to burst into crumbled pieces like the fallen tree.
    Just a part of it, that’s all I’ll tell.
    “Something did happen,” she said, more quietly than the rustling leaves. “That night when we went chasing UFOs, with Gil and Gray.”
    Wings fluttered at her back, her bones were light as air. She looked down at the strange, lumpy shapes of her body. Her wrong body, which wouldn’t fly.
    Cally stared at her, then gasped.
    “Oh, God!” she cried, pulling Isis into a tight, crushing hug. She whispered in her ear. “Did Gray… did he try and
touch
you?”
    Caught in a dark curtain of hair, it took Isis a moment to realise what Cally meant.
    “No!”
Isis pushed out of the hug, shaking her head. “It was nothing like
that
.”
    Cally rubbed a hand across her eyes. “Thank goodness. For a moment I thought…”
    And Isis plunged in. “It was the lights,” she said, watching Cally’s face, trying to gauge her reaction.
    “The lights in the sky?”
    Isis nodded. “When I watched them, I saw them turn into birds. And I felt like… I had wings, and I was flying.” She swallowed. “It wasn’t a dream. It was as real as this.”
    Cally frowned. “And that’s why you’ve been out of sorts?”
    “I can’t get it out of my head.” It was a bit of truth, enough maybe.
    Cally’s frown slowly turned into a delighted smile.
    “Isis!” she cried, “Why didn’t you tell me before? Don’t you see? This isn’t bad, it’s wonderful! You’ve inherited my gift! I’m sure you were frightened, but it was only the spirits speaking to you. I said it to Gil, didn’t I? There was spiritual energy all around the UFO!” She reached out, taking Isis’s hands. “It’s very unsettling, the first time they communicate, but you’ll get used to it.”
    Isis opened her mouth, then shut it again. Cally didn’t understand her better now – if anything, it was worse. And how could she put her right without telling a whole lot more? Things she
couldn’t
tell.
    Cally laughed, hugging Isis.
    “I’m so happy, Isis! And this makes today even more important!” She let go, keeping hold of Isis’s hand, her smile as bright as the sunshine. “Come on, we’re nearly there.”Another clearing, but larger this time and lawned with fine grass. A purposeful space, not just an opening in the trees. Tended by a warden who came each spring to mow back any encroaching gorse and bracken, and in the centre, a standing stone. Iron-grey, dappled with lichen, and shaped roughly like a pointed leaf. Around it was a low fence, with a small sign reading T HE D EVIL’S S PEARHEAD .
    “This is it,” Cally said quietly.
    Isis’s chest was tight, as if a hand had closed around it.
    A standing stone in the woods, half an hour’s drive away from Wycombe.
    “Is this where…?”
    Cally’s mouth was a flat line, her cheeks pale in the sunlight. She looked as squeezed as Isis felt.
    “It’s where we were going, the day that Angel… died.” Cally took a deep breath. “But I brought us in by another way. I couldn’t bear to take the main path, or drive along that road again.”
    Isis stared round. “Why did you want to come
here?
”
    In answer, Philip Syndal walked into the clearing from a path on the other side of the standing stone. He was pink-faced and sweat-glistened, wearing shorts that revealed his hairy, fat-calved legs. He looked like somebody’s uncle,innocently out for a ramble, but the hand tightened its grip on Isis’s heart. Why was he here? Was the shadow still inside him, a darkness waiting to pour out?
    “Cally, Isis,” he said genially, “so good to see you.” His habitual smile faded a little as he got closer. “Is everything all right?” he asked Isis. “Has your mother explained why I asked you here?”
    “I didn’t know if it would be right to,” answered Cally, awkward and guilty.
    Philip’s smile returned. “It was my suggestion we meet at this place. It’s important we work somewhere with resonance. Somewhere strongly