Christopher Golden - A Winter of Ghosts

Oh, great. Doubting him already.He just got back . She rolled her eyes at her own insecurity, even as sherealized that she had never cared so much about what anyone else felt abouther, except for her parents.

Amused at her own nervousness,she rapped on his door. She waited eight or ten seconds before knocking again,bouncing impatiently. Kara glanced up and down the hallway, wondering if hemight be visiting Ren or one of his other friends. That wouldn't bode well,either, priority-wise, though he had texted her, so that counted for something.

As she debated whether to knockagain, the door opened.

In his Boston Red Sox cap and arumpled sweatshirt, he looked very cute. She had often told Hachiro he was herown giant Teddy bear, which always got a shy smile from him. But for a moment,as he pulled the door open, she caught sight of a look on his face that wasanything but a smile. He seemed sad and tired.

And then he saw her, and hisface lit up in a grin, and she knew that all of her angsting had beenpointless.

Without a word he pulled herinto his arms, crushing him in his massive embrace, and she squeezed back forall she was worth. Hachiro kissed the top of her head — receivingwhistles and hoots from other boys in the corridor for the effort — andthen took a step back, holding her hands in his as he looked down at her.

"Hello," he said.

Kara exhaled contentedly. "Hey."

Hachiro lifted her chin and gaveher a gentle kiss. She pulled off his Red Sox cap, revealing his unruly mess ofhair, and donned the hat herself, setting it backward on her head.

"You gonna let me in?" she asked.

"Of course," he said,standing a bit straighter.

Hachiro had been raised to be aproper Japanese boy, with all the courtesies and formalities that implied. Karahad broken him of some of those manners, but he still treated her as a guestwhenever she visited his room. Now he stepped back to let her in, and she wentto his desk and slid herself up to sit on top of it.

He left the door open. Theschool had rules governing all areas of conduct, and were very strict about theinteraction between male and female students, but Kara thought he would haveleft the door open anyway so that no one would get the wrong idea about whatwas or wasn't going on behind closed doors.

Not that she would have minded alittle time behind closed doors. But that was what late night walks were for.

"Happy New Year," shesaid.

Hachiro gave her a very formalbow, but she knew that now he was overdoing it for effect. "Happy NewYear," he said in English.

"I'm sorry I didn't waitfor you to call, but I have news and I really wanted to share."

Hachiro sat on his bed, lookingmore than ever like a giant bear. The bed was too small for him. "Whatnews?"

"Well, there's a littlebad, but also some good. Which do you want first?"

His smile faded and she saw atrace of that uneasiness and exhaustion again. "Bad first, please."

"Don't worry, it's not thatbad," she said, swinging her legs where they hung over the edge of thedesk. "At the end of this term, my father and I are going home — "

Hachiro glanced downward,disappointment etched into his face.

" — for two weeks. Andthen we'll be back for senior year."

He laughed out loud. "You'restaying?"

Kara nodded. "Staying."

Hachiro got up and went to her,picked her up off the desk and swung her around. When he set her down, she feltlike she was still flying. He brushed a lock of her blond hair away from herface and traced his fingers along the cheek and the curve of her jaw. Karaswallowed hard, staring into his eyes, and for several long seconds she wasspeechless, despite a thousand unsaid things that blossomed in her heart.

He kissed her again, not nearlyas gentle as before, and they only stopped to breathe.

With a quick knock on the opendoor, Ren stepped into the room. "Hachiro, can I borrow — " hebegan, halting abruptly when he saw them and covering his eyes. "Ahhh, I'mblind."

Kara and Hachiro both laughed.

"What do you need?" Hachiro asked.

Ren shook his head, longbronze-dyed hair falling across his eyes. "Nothing. Go back to what youwere doing. I'll come back later."

Before either of them couldargue or ask him to say, he darted off down the hall. Kara hugged Hachiroagain, but as she did she found herself looking around the room, realizing thatsomething was out of place. Or, rather, not at all out of place. Hachiro'ssuitcase had already been stowed away, whatever clothes he had brought homealready integrated back into his school wardrobe. Even his books for the newterm were organized on his desk.

A little tremor ofdisappointment went through her as she stepped back from him.

"You've been home forhours."

Hachiro's happiness fell awaylike a mask and she saw again the sadness that weighed on him. He seemedexhausted by it.

"Since last night,actually," he confessed.

Her heart sank. Part of her mindimmediately started making excuses for him, mostly to make herself feel better,but the hurt was too much.

"What? You didn't. . whydidn't you tell me? Or come see me?"

"I meant to," he said."I came back on the train. I wanted to surprise you, but somethinghappened on the train and I've been trying to make sense of it, trying tofigure out if I really saw what I think I saw."

Kara felt a chill dance alongher spine. "What do you think you saw?"

Hachiro looked away from her,out at the darkness beyond his window. When he looked back, his face had gonepale.

"Jiro's ghost."

Her breath caught in her throat. Jiro's ghost. Oh, my God.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not sure of anything,"he said. "Once I would have said it was impossible, but — "

"But 'impossible' doesn'tmean much anymore," Kara finished for him.

"What do you think itmeans?" Hachiro asked. "Do you think it's just. . I don't know,symptoms of the curse? That we've brushed up against so much of thesupernatural that we're more aware of it now? Or do you think it's somethingelse, that something else has come to try to finish what Kyuketsuki and theHannya started?"

Kara shook her head. "I don'tknow. But we've got to keep our eyes open. We have to be on guard."

"I'm always on guard thesedays."

He took her hand, then, and shestepped into his embrace, relishing his warmth and strength and how safe shefelt in his arms. But she knew it was an illusion.

As long as the curse remained inplace, they were never really safe.

By Saturday morning, Kara'sschoolwork was already suffering. She sat in the back of 2-C while her homeroomteacher, the gray-eyed Mr. Sato, droned on about the drop-off in attentiveness — and thus test scores — that many students showed during winter term. Sheknew she ought to be paying attention, since he might as well have been talkingspecifically about her, but his voice was such a monotone that it lulled herinto a stupor.

For the past few days, she hadbeen able to think of nothing but Jiro's ghost, and what it might mean. Shefelt uneasy most of the time, an awful paranoia creeping up on her in quietmoments. Hachiro had been unnerved at first, but with every hour that passed heseemed less and less sure of what he had really seen, and now he acted almostembarrassed by his ghost sighting. Kara had not witnessed it herself, so therewas no way she could know for certain what he had seen, but she had a hard timethinking the apparition had been nothing but Hachiro's imagination, and hecouldn't claim that it had been some other boy who looked like Jiro, since thekid had been barefoot. . on a train. . in the middle of winter.

So either Hachiro hadhallucinated, or he had seen a ghost. And after what they had all experiencedover the course of the school year, the supernatural explanation seemed morethan likely.