Marilyn Kaye - Finders Keepers

Jenna snorted. ‘That is so Amanda.’

‘What do you mean, Jenna?’ Madame asked.

‘She’ll do anything to get out of doing something she doesn’t want to do. She does a bodysnatch so she won’t have to go through the operation. She makes the other-Amanda have it instead.’

Ken agreed. ‘Yeah, she’s pretty selfish.’

Madame smiled slightly. ‘Oh, I don’t know if what she did was so terrible. Whatever takes over Amanda’s body when she’s not there — it’s not a real person. It’s like an impression of Amanda. I don’t believe it has any feelings.’

Jenna shrugged. ‘OK, maybe the fake Amanda doesn’t care if she has an operation. I don’t think the real Amanda cares whether fake Amanda feels it or not, as long as she doesn’t have to suffer.’

‘I think,’ Madame said slowly, ‘that you’re being a little hard on her, Jenna. But there’s something else about this situation that I find interesting. Sarah, do you know what I mean?’

‘Yes,’ Sarah said. ‘It’s getting easier for Amanda to snatch bodies. Last month she took over my body because she was afraid she’d be kidnapped. But when she took over Tracey, it wasn’t like that.’

Tracey nodded.‘She didn’t want to be me but she felt sorry for me, so the bodysnatch just happened. Why would she feel sorry for Sarah? She just wanted to get out of her own body so she picked Sarah’s.’

‘But we don’t know that for sure,’ Madame pointed out. ‘The only person who knows is Amanda. Ken, do you have an opinion about this?’

‘No,’ Ken said quickly. As far as he knew the others weren’t aware that Amanda had taken over his body for a while, and he wanted to keep it that way. But in the back of his mind he’d always wondered — why had Amanda done that? Had she felt sorry for him ?

‘What does it matter anyway?’ he asked.

Madame replied, ‘It matters because we need to be aware of what we can and cannot do, so that we can rely on each other in the future.’

Ken grimaced. She was going to start talking about the dangers they faced again. And he had something more important to tell them.

‘I’ve found a way I could use my gift to help someone,’ he announced.

‘How’s that, Ken?’ Madame asked.

He told them about Stevie, his dead father, the missing lottery ticket, and the plight of Stevie’s family.‘I’m thinking … if I work with the medium, if we put our heads together, maybe we can reach Stevie’s father and find out where the lottery ticket is.’

Madame frowned. ‘Ken, we’ve talked about this before and I thought I’d made myself clear. You cannot tell anyone about your gift.’

‘But why not? OK, I can understand why most of you have to keep your gifts secret, but bad guys have never been interested in me! Nobody’s tried to get me to help rob a bank or anything like that. My gift doesn’t have any value for criminals. Why can’t I use it to help someone?’

‘What about the rest of us?’ Charles protested. ‘If you tell the world about what you can do, it could lead people to this class. We could all be in danger.’

‘Charles is right, Ken,’ Madame declared.‘Revealing your gift can have serious consequences. If you can help Stevie without giving anything away, that’s all right. But you can’t tell Stevie or this medium what you can do.’

Ken slumped in his seat. He wasn’t going to continue arguing this. If he could help Stevie on his own he would do it, no matter what Madame said. Would he be putting the whole class at risk? Maybe Madame was exaggerating.

But what did it matter anyway? He had no idea how to contact Stevie’s father. He’d never contacted anyone . They came to him.

That appeared to be the case with live people too. He’d completely forgotten about Lucy and Jack and the iPod, but when he left the gifted class, he found her waiting for him outside.

‘I always wondered what goes on in that class,’ she said. ‘Do all of you talk to dead people?’

‘No. Look, I’ve got something for you.’

She beamed. ‘Really?’

He reached in his backpack and pulled out the iPod. ‘It’s from Jack. He told me to give it to you.’

‘Oh. Well, tell him thank you.’

‘Sure. I ’ll see you around.’

‘Ken!’

‘What?’

‘I did what you told me to do.’

‘What are you talking about?’ he asked.

‘I told Simon I didn’t want to go out with him.’

‘Oh. OK, good. I’m sure you’ll find someone else to hang out with.’

She smiled coyly. ‘I think I already have. Can we go to the basketball game tonight?’

Damn . ‘Uh, gee, I can’t go to the game, Lucy, I’ve got plans tonight. Bye.’

At least he didn’t have to lie this time. There was no way he was going to miss the evening’s seance.

When he arrived that evening Stevie was already there, and he presented Ken with a stack of books he’d checked out from the public library. Ken handed over forty-seven dollars, all the money he’d found in his dresser drawer. Stevie was thrilled.

‘You know, Ken, I can do stuff like this for you every day,’ he said eagerly.

Ken forced a smile, and nodded. ‘Yeah, we ’ll see.’ He could always make up errands to run. But where would he find the money to pay Stevie for them?

Crazy Dahlia was there, and Margaret. Ken absent-mindedly noticed that she didn’t look quite as good as she had the day before. Not as bad as she’d looked the first time he saw her though. Her hair was kind of messy, and she had on those big brown glasses again. But she wasn’t as pasty-pale.

Just as Cassandra called them to the table, there was a knock on the door.

‘Well, it seems we have another participant tonight,’ the medium said.

‘I’ll get the door,’ Dahlia offered.

Ken, Cassandra and the others took their seats at the table. A moment later, Dahlia returned with the new person. Ken choked.

‘Jenna!’

‘Hi, Ken,’ Jenna said in an artificially bright voice. She turned to the others.‘Ken is in my class at school. He was telling us about the seance, and it sounded so interesting, I just had to come.’

She must have followed him, Ken realized. And he didn’t believe a word she’d just said. Jenna was not the kind of person who would believe in mediums and seances.

He couldn’t see Cassandra’s veiled face, but he could tell by her tone that she wasn’t thrilled with this new addition to their group.

‘My dear, a seance isn’t for everyone. Do you have an open mind? Are you willing to connect with the spirit world? Will you be able to receive the spirits?’

‘Actually, I was thinking I’d just watch this time,’ Jenna said.

The medium shook her head.‘I’m afraid that’s not possible. You can’t simply observe a seance. Your mere presence could ruin the event. You could distract and interrupt the mood and frighten off any spirit who wishes to address someone.’

‘Then I’ll join the group and participate in the seance,’ Jenna said.

‘No, I cannot allow that,’ Cassandra declared. ‘I’m sorry, my dear, but I can feel that you are a non-believer. Please leave now.’

When Jenna didn’t move, the medium did. She came around the table and faced Jenna.

‘This is my apartment, my home. If you do not leave, I will call the police.’

Jenna gave up and went to the door. Cassandra waited until she was out of the apartment before returning to the table and beginning.

‘Join us, spirits, in our quest to find answers …’

Thank goodness there was nothing for Dahlia that evening, but Margaret’s mother returned.

‘Your mother wants to know how you’re feeling, Margaret.’