Mom gave me a tight hug and said, "My gosh, Marcie! Now I'm having adventures, just like you!"
I rolled my eyes, and she burst out laughing.
"How do you get to school?" Mom asked Misty. "Do you walk, or fly, or...?"
Misty giggled. "Fly? No! I just think about Marcie in a certain way, and then I end up wherever she is."
"Really?" I asked. "Can you do that with anybody?"
"Anybody I know, I guess," she said. "Sometimes it doesn't work, but usually it does."
A light went on in my head. "Can you go to Susan's house and try to appear to her?" I asked. "She'd really like to see you."
"Okay," Misty said brightly. "I'll be right back." With that, she faded out.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Marcie?" my mother asked. "Susan could get a nasty fright."
"Believe me, nothing rattles Susan. If you put a bomb next to her she would look it over and try to find the OFF switch."
Mom drew a deep breath and smiled. Then she gave me a tight hug and said, "My gosh, Marcie! Now I'm having adventures, just like you!"
I rolled my eyes, and she burst out laughing.
Misty didn't come back right away. It wasn't until almost an hour later, when Mom called to me from the kitchen. "She's back!"
I ran down the stairs. Misty was so excited that her hands were waving and she was jumping like a little girl. "She could see me! She could see me! And she knew who I was! She recognized me right away!"
"Was she frightened?" Mom asked.
"No! Not at all! She just looked up and said, 'You must be Misty Sabatino' – as if she was expecting me!"
"Yeah, Susan is super calm," I said. "Nothing surprises her."
"You know what she said?" Misty asked. "She said that she should change her name to something that starts with an M."
"Why?" I asked, frowning.
"Because there's Marcie, Maisie, Misty, ...., and Susan."
"Oh, I see," I said. How weird. Usually Suze didn't say anything that dumb.
"Duh!" Susan said at lunch on Thursday. "Of course I don't! The point is, I proved that it happened!"
"How?" I asked.
"I sent you a message," Susan explained patiently. "Something you couldn't expect me to say, and something you couldn't receive any other way."
"Huh." She was right. "Did you think of it just then? in that moment?"
"No," she said, as if it were obvious. "I was ready, in case it happened. Now we know that none of us imagined her."
"Wow, Suze. You really are smart."
Susan stifled a yawn.
"Why are you so tired?"
"Because after you fell asleep, Misty came to my house and woke me up. She talked my head off. It was like she swallowed a radio. My eyes were rolling in my head, I was so tired."
"Why didn't you tell her to let you sleep?"
"Well, I did in the end, but it was so interesting talking to her! I've never met a ghost before. Oh, and I gave her that letter."
"What letter?"
"The one from the newspaper, about how she died. I don't know if it was a good idea, but it got her to go back home and let me fall asleep."
She groaned. "I could fall asleep right now." With that, she lay her head on the table.
Maisie came bounding up at the point and dropped her tray with a crash. Susan winced, but kept her head down. Miraculously, nothing spilled, but Maisie's soup splashed and narrowly missed my books.
"Hey, watch it!" I cried.
"Oooh, sorry, Princess," she cooed.
"What is it with you?" I asked. "You're acting more and more like a boy!"
"That's strange, coming from you," she countered.
I eyed her suspiciously. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She started eating, again chewing with her mouth open. "What do you think it means?" she asked.
"It means that you think that teasing me is funny," I said.
"Oh, sorry," she said in an exaggerated way. "I just thought you might miss your old days in Tarhent, back when you were Mark."
"Oh, brother," I said crossly. If she kept this up, I was going to go to the library.
Suddenly I got a wiff of cigarette smoke from her direction. Susan's head came up at the same moment, and she looked directly at Maisie. She must have smelled it too.
"Maisie," I asked, "Are you smoking more than usual?"
"Yeah, so?"
"No offense," Susan offered, "but you reek of it."
That brought Maisie down to earth. She closed her mouth as she chewed. She seemed to be mulling it over. Then she asked in a quiet voice, "Do you think your mother will smell it?"
"Yeah!" Suze and I said with one voice.
I looked at her and considered for a moment. My mother was the only adult with whom Maisie had a positive relationship. And it meant a lot to her. "Just air out your uniform tonight," I told her. "If it still smells of smoke tomorrow, we can try switching clothes before you go with my mother... though I'm not sure I could fit into your things."
Maisie smiled, and for once I thought she was going to say something nice. Instead she said, "Thanks, Marky, but I don't wear boy's clothes."
© 2007 Kaleigh Way
Comments
Now There Is The Question
Does Maisie know about Mark or is she teasing Marcie? But now that Misty can talk to Susan and Mrs. Donner, I wonder just what adventures will be happening now?
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
It's sad
What does it say when a ghost is nicer to you than your "best" friend?
Karen J.
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
Janis Joplin
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
I think the jig is up
If she checked out the Mark underwear, there are differences.
fabric stretch patterns marks where the "boy bits" fit.
Stains in a different location than females would have them.
Maybe even the panties are stretched out from the "boy bits". (more so from California when it was all still there, but still some even yet)
Maybe she found paperwork indicating "M" (scholastic records or even birth certificate)
Hmmm
Essence of Brat
Maisie is completely out of control. If she was a boy, she'd be out there in the parking lot, mugging kids for their lunch money. Actually, there are girl bullies, too, in the real world, and Maisie seems to be working on it.
Well, at any rate, she's starting to better fit the description that our long-distance telephone psychic gave for the soon-to-be-unfolding events involving an attack that would affect Marcie.
So, this would be when? Oh, of course! Probably tomorrow, or next week, on a Friday! Grrrr...
What is up with Maise?
She is on the verge of alienating everyone and if she outs Marcie/Mark, she losses Susan and Marcie's mom too.
Is someone or some entity manipulating her? Or is she more like her ass of a father than she wants to admit? Soeone needs to save her, poor Marcie I imagine.
Since we have proof of innocent fun loving ghosts like Misty is there a manevolent spirt that is affecting young Maise and Yvette (Mrs Overmore), the cop brother of Sister Honoraria and maybe even the adult Maise, Mrs Wix? All three are not as they were and the cop is simply not all there, in his mind if you can call it that.
Good lord, Misty was killed ias part of a love triangle over the cop?
Or did my mind just implode?
Great stuff, you evil clifhanger writer.
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. About the next Marcie seres, the *Yeah I'm a real girl!* one, HOW real, periods and children real?!
John in Wauwatosa
*You* added the word "real"
I just said "whee-I'm-a-girl" -- all I meant was that the next story would be all skipping and la-la-la.
Remember the Psychic
Remember what was said in Chapter 28:
"Is it bad?" I asked.
"You'll be alright," she replied. "The cards that talk about your health and well-being, they're all good. So, you won't be harmed. Maybe a little scared, but you're a brave girl. What you need to remember is this: you have to try to be the best friend that you can be. That's what will save you; that's what will get you through."
Oh, brother! It sounded like an after-school film! Incredulous, I asked, "I'm supposed to be best friends with a person who tries to hurt me?"
"No, that's not what I said. You have to be a friend to the people around you. People your age."
"Is someone my age going to try to hurt me?"
"Hold on. Try to stop interrupting, okay? This danger that I mentioned, it involves an adult, a man, not a relative. Someone you've met." I thought of the bank robber and the purse snatcher. Who else could it be?
For some reasons, Sister Honororia's brother, the policeman, came to mind as well, but it couldn't be him. He wouldn't hurt me. He was a jerk and a power freak, but he was a policeman, after all.
"As far as people your age... there is a girl close to you, probably in your class, your school, who will be... very negative toward you. VERY negative. But there, too, you have to try to stay open, to love, to be a good friend. I see this girl has a broken heart. And this is someone you've already met. Do you know who I'm talking about?"
"Oh, yes," I said, and tears came to my eyes. It had to be Maisie.
"Okay, so be ready. This is going to happen soon, too. The good news is that both things are going to come in the next week or two, and then it will all be over. Oh, and hmm. It says here that you just got some money, but I saw that in the newspapers already. Put it in the bank. You'll need it for something... I don't know what."
Something green I think
... is causing Maisie's attitude. Marcy is a new comer and she is waltzing in and grabbing onto and doing better, relationship-wise, with those people around her that, even if she can't admit it to herself, matter to her. And yes, her own mother.
Jealousy and quite a bit of resentment I think.
And at the same time she cannot yet bring herself to attack Marcie even more because she is so desperate to have a caring parental figure in her life - Marcie's mother. Also, she is probably amazed that Marcie would care to be friends with her so she might be reluctant for that also. I suspect her chip on her shoulder has probably alienated most people who have gotten to know her.
Kim
Maisie teasing
Maisie is actually teasing in a boy pattern. I've got cousins who do this. Picking a subject and making fun. One of my older cousins actually brought up to tease me about it when I made myself sick at age nine by eating too many peanuts. :)
I don't think Maisie knows about Mark. If she did, she wouldn't tease Marcie about it! Maisie thinks it is harmless but bugs Marcie, that makes it fun. Has she teased Susan about her overly strict parents? Maybe a little but that isn't as funny because she knows the subject is actually painful to Susan. She can't see how the mark business could be really painful, so it seems like a safe thing to tease about.
This is Maisie's principal means of social interaction with her peers. That and sarcasm. :) She seems very real to me.
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Very real
That's the problem. I had this sort of thing inflicted on me when I was young. It's not harmless, it's a form of bullying. Maisie has identified something she can use that makes Marcie uncomfortable, if it didn't she would drop it. As for not teasing Susan in the same manner, I would suspect Marcie is the "target of the month"; Maisie having gotten all the fun she can from teasing Susan. Maisie may not know any better, but that doesn't excuse it. Of such behaviors are Columbine-style incidents spawned.
Karen J.
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
Janis Joplin
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Maisie is getting worse
and worse. :-(
I do hope you're planning to resolve her issues. I'm looking forward to Susan, Misty & Marcie haveing a nice sleepover together. :-) {I say that with the full understanding of how much sleep teen girls get on a SLEEP over.)
Thanks,
Annette
If you think she's bad now, brace yourself.
She will get worse before she gets better.
what's up with Maisie?
she going past "teasing" to being cruel.