Haunted America: Afterlife, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

The area along Highland Street was a nice residential neighborhood, except for all the dead bodies.

To be fair, I was probably the only one who knew they were there. The neighborhood, a couple of blocks from my home, was the site of the old Great Island Cemetery, once the oldest cemetery in the county. It had been moved in 1919, and houses built there, but the move had been done by the lowest bidder, and a lot had been left behind. It was safer to say they'd moved the top half.

I had my EMF detector out.

I walked the streets, taking readings. The cemetery had been created back in the 1700s, and it had some Revolutionary War soldiers buried there. Some of them still were. With the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of America happening this summer, I was expecting a surge in activity.

I got some spikes along the way, the readings going up and down as I passed some of the houses. 

Pleasant night.

My name is Lou. I live in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. You might know it as halfway between Penn State and Williamsport, or the home of Piper Aviation. If you're really good, you might know it as the birthplace of James Bacon, or Jimmy Carter's favorite town.

I know it as one of the most haunted, adventure-filled places in the state. I'm a paranormal investigator and the field leader of the Lock Haven Paranormal Seekers, and it was shaping up to be a fairly busy summer. With the 250th anniversary of the country coming up, there was a lot more paranormal activity happening recently.

When your life ends, my workday begins.

Chloe and I arrived at the same time, heading up the stairs to Jay and Lex's place in the Clinton Trust Building. I dropped by jacket on the floor for the purpose of the cats lounging on it, which they always do, and dug in my backpack.

"Jay, I got the cemetery book from Chapman Township for you. And here's a copy of my Wayne Township book. We saw the Shadle family from the fire when we were in Saint John's Cemetery the other day."

"Oooh, thank you," said Jay.

"Chloe, got you a copy of the Worst-Case Survival Handbook. My mother gave me one years ago, I think because she was resigned to the fact that I was going to get into these situations."

Chloe paged through it. "This stuff has actually happened to you?"

"About half of it."

"How to wrestle an alligator."
"You never know."
"Well, I do go to Florida. How to jump off a bridge into a river."

"In my younger days."

"How to escape from killer bees."

"Could happen."

"How to jump out of a moving vehicle."

"Twice."

"How to escape from a bear."

"A few times. So I want you to learn all this stuff, and then never get into situations where you might need it."

"What time do we want to leave for the investigation?" asked Jay.

"I figure half an hour early or so. I'd like to stop out at Dunnstown Cemetery with you guys. Dunnstown is the oldest community in Clinton County, and I wanted to show you a few graves. The oldest marked grave in the county is out there."

"That sounds good," said Jay. "Is it time to eat yet?"

You have to wonder what's gone wrong with your life when you spend half your time running around cemeteries. I walked through the Dunnstown Cemetery with the team following, Chloe clicking photos with her camera.

"Here it is," I said. "William Baird. The oldest marked grave in Clinton County. September of 1792."

"Wow," said Jay. The stone was so old it had had to be encased in an extra layer of concrete to hold it up. 

"Dunnstown was only recently founded during that time. William Dunn bought all the property from the Susquehannocks for some whiskey, beads, and a rifle. Over here is Peter Grove, a Revolutionary War soldier. Grove Street is named after him."

I stood by a stone, looking it over, touching it. Behind me, Lex and Chloe were whispering something about how I don't get any older, or something---I don't know. They do that sometimes. Jay stood next to me, looking at the stone.

"Oh my god, you guys," I said. "You know what I just realized? It's not called this anymore, but very near here was a village called Liberty back in the 1800s. At the beginning of the America 250 summer, we're starting off with an investigation near Liberty."

"Yes!" said Lex. "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of the paranormal."

"Give me Liberty and give me death."

The client was an old friend of Chloe's family, a nice lady in a wheelchair. We sat in the living room as Lex filled out some of the paperwork for the investigation.

"We hear things," said the client. "There was one time when we thought we saw someone in the hall, and they left a trail of footprints through the hallway. When I went to sweep them up, it was a sort of very fine black dust. I never did figure out what that was."

"That's interesting," I said. "I wonder where that could have come from."

"One more thing," said Lex. "Confidentiality."

"We can keep everything to ourselves if---" I said, but she waved her hand dismissively.

"I don't care. Tell whoever."

Lex checked off the box and had her sign, and handed the form to me. I said,"Since there's no real hot spots, let's start here. Chloe, get lots of photos. Check EMFs everywhere. The temperature baseline seems to be about seventy."

I put on the full outfit---shoulder bag, fingerless gloves, hood. The clientg looked at me curiously. "Are you gonna stay covered up the whole time?"

"No, this is just part of the outfit. I'm prepared for a couple of things."

We spread out through the room. I walked around, taking EMF readings. I didn't have to pay too much attention to the others; they know what they're doing.

"Do you have a lot of activity on investigations?" asked the client.

"Some more than others," said Lex. "Our first one this year was an abandoned funeral home, and that was really active. I got to lie down on an autopsy table."

"Oh, that's neat," said the client. "I want to see an abandoned ffuneral home."

"It was my first time," said Chloe. "I was scared to death."

I looked over at her. "I didn't know you were scared."

"Well, I wasn't going to admit it to you."

"I have a spike over here," said Jay, in the kitchen. "Spiking to red."

Chloe walked in. "Mine, too."

"The cat balls are going off."

"Okay, since we're getting activity here, let's start an EVP session," I said. "We have our recorders?"
'Got mine," said Lex.

"Turning on," I said. "Let's get started."

"If you like, you can go in the basement," said the client.

"There's a basement?" I asked.

"Right over there."

"Let's split up," I said. "Lex and I will take the basement, and Jay and Chloe can handle things up here."
"Sounds good," agreed Lex.

We walked down the stairs. The basement was finished, mostly, a nice little living space. We walked around and took a few readings, and spotted the hole in the wall.

The hole was a square cut out of the wall for the purpose of getting at the pipes and electricity. I glanced at Lex.
"So you know we gotta do this."

"Hell, yeah, we do."

I climbed into the hole. Lex followed a moment later. We walked behind the wall, all the way to the back of the house. I got high EMFs at the fuse box, which was expected. There wasn't too much to explore within the hole, and we climbed back out a moment later and went upstairs.

"You guys mind if we take a turn in the basement?" asked Jay.

"Sure," I said. "Go ahead. We'll hold the fort up here."

Chloe and Jay went down the stairs. I sat at the table with Lex. She said,"You think they're gonna go in the hole?"

"If I had to put money on it, I'd bet no."

"Yeah, I don't think so."
Jay and Chloe came back up a moment later. Lex asked,"Did you go in the hole?"

"No," said Jay. "Of course not."

"There was a hole?" asked Chloe.

"Called it," I said, and Lex and I high-fived.

"Why would you go in a hole?" asked Jay.

"Why wouldn't you go in a hole?" Lex said just before I could.

There's two kinds of people.

"You know," said Chloe as we packed up,"If we hurry, we have time to work in another cemetery visit."

"I've always wanted to show you guys Highland," I said.

She lit up. "We can go to Henry Shoemaker's grave!"

The EMF detector spiked to red suddenly. Jay said,"Did you see that?"

"I guess we're on for Highland," I said. "The ghosts want us to visit Shoemaker."

I still can't believe I get to experience moments like this.

Jay and Lex had never been up to Highland Cemetery. They hadn't spent a whole lot of time exploring cemeteries until I'd shown up. I directed Lex to the top of the hill, where we parked and got out to look around. Chloe was wearing my jacket; it was getting a little cold out.

"Up here, guys," I said. "Over near Soldiers' Circle. Here's Henry Shoemaker."

I'd been to the grave so many times I didn't even need to look. Henry Wharton Shoemaker, the writer and historic figure, was buried at the top of Highland Cemetery with his wife. 

I knelt down by the stone.

"This is it, guys. This is him."

The team gathered around me in the moonlight.

"Chills all around," said Lex.

Shirley You Can't Be Serious

"Kelli, has anyone stopped in asking for me?" I asked when I got into the office of the Hecht Building.

Kelli shook her head. "Not yet. Were you expecting someone?"

"Two of the team. Since we've had a lot of activity lately, we thought we might stop by and take a few readings if that's okay."

"Oh, sure. Did I tell you about the bag full of stuff that fell over?"

"Yeah, while the store was closed. Nobody was even here."
I walked across the street to the Dollar Store---Also haunted---And picked up a Pepsi, and by the time I got back, Lex and Jay were arriving at the print shop.

I gave them a hug. "Hi, guys. Thanks for coming. I figure since we're getting a spike in activity, might as well..."
"Might as well check it out," said Lex. "Hell yeah. Let's go."

"Do we need the recorders?" asked Jay. We set our packs on the table.

"I figure this will be a quick one. Maybe we'll depend mostly on the EMFs for this. Come on, I'll show you where some stuff fell off the shelf in the back room."

"Did anyone die in here?" asked Jay.

"We had a murder in the basement in 1962," I said. "Back when this place was a department store, a guy robbing the place shot a clerk named Shirley down in my basement."

"Oh my god. Really?"

"Really. Got all the newspaper articles about it at home. I'll show them to you later. There, that shelf---That's where something fell off for no reason. And it's not like anyone was over here; this stuff sits on the shelf for months at a time."

Jay held up her EMF detector. "I'm getting a reading. Is that...."

"There's a wire behind it," said Lex.

I tried with my detector. "Yeah, that's definitely hot."

The boss came down and walked to the color printer. I said,"Hey, boss. Since it's slow, I thought I'd show my friend around and we'd take a few readings if that's okay."

He grinned. "Sure, that's fine."

"Come on, I'll show you guys my haunted basement."

"We get to see your cave?" said Lex with some delight.

"Sure, nobody goes down there but me. Come on."

On the way down the steps, Jay's detector spiked all the way to red. I said,"Now, that's weird. I practice down here a lot, and I don't get too many readings."

"Nice detector," said Jay.

"I like this one. It's the all in one model; it does EMFs and temperature, and even has a little flashlight on the back."

"Where did Shirley die?" Jay asked.

"Right about there-ish. This is all one building, and it used to be a department store. This wall wasn't here, and her body was found right on the other side of it. See, that hole there is where, if I wanted to crawl through the ducts like Die Hard, I could get over into the furniture store."

We walked back through the big basement---I'm so used to the place by now, sometimes I forget just how much space is down there. "That's where we keep the holidays decorations. Up here is where I work; I made that table out of an old palette. This area up here is all this open space, so sometimes I come down and play with some of the sports equipment that the boss's sons left back in the Nineties."

Jay glanced at the pink string lights through the small window. "What's in there?"
"That's my office."

I opened the door and flicked on the lights. Jay looked inside and said,"Oooh."

Lex saw the signs on the door. "Warning, High Ghost Area. Raystown Ray Not Allowed. Do Not Feed The Jersey Devil."

"I make those sometimes while I'm warming up the laminator."

Sometimes I forget that my office was just a little storage space before I'd moved in. I'd cleaned some stuff out, left a recliner, brought in a chair, constructed myself a desk from two small tables, and added a computer. And now I had a quiet, cozy little office space all my own.

"This is actually nice," commented Lex. Chloe and Paul had both visited me in my secret underground hideout, but very few other people even realized it was there. It was a little like having Green Lanterns in the Batcave.

"I spent a lot of time down here unwinding. You know how in a lot of workplaces, you have that spot you go to cry? I don't really need that because this is a pretty good job, but I do have this little place all my own down here."

"Getting another reading," said Jay. "Does Shirley ever come in here?"

"I think so. I've told her she's going to be my secretary. If you hire a ghost, you don't have to worry about cost of living raises."

"Did you find anything?" Kelli asked when we got back up.

"We got some readings on the detectors," I said. 

"Are you going to stop next door and check it out? You said there had been some stuff happening there, too."

"You know, that's not a bad idea. I bumped into Misty in the alley, and she told me the TVs had been turning on by themselves."

"We got time," Lex pointed out.

The woman at the counter smiled at me when I walked in. "Hi! Got another poster for us to hang up?"

I grinned. "Not this time, no. We're doing a little paranormal investigation, and I was wondering if you'd mind if we checked things out in your basement a bit."
"We haven't had much happen...."

"Well, the TVs have been turning on by themselves," said the man next to her.

"We should check with Will," she said. "Go get him."

The man took off. I said,"We don't want to be a problem---"

"Don't worry. I think he'll like this."

A moment later, a Hispanic guy came from the back room; I'd chatted with him in the alley before. "Come on down," he said. "I kind of want to watch this."

We walked downstairs and unloaded our backpacks. Jay was showing some of the equipment to Will, and Lex elbowed me. "Look at her, teaching him everything."

"She's come a long way." Just a couple of months ago, Jay had been very hesitant about any kind of public appearance.

I pointed the laser thermometer around the room. "Temp steady at mid-sixties."

"Look at these beds," said Jay.

"If I were haunting this place, I'd spend all day lounging around on these mattresses," I commented.

"Well, now I won't want to come down here anymore," added Will. "Let me turn the lights on for you back here."

We walked into one of the back rooms, taking readings. I said,"This place is way bigger than I realized."

Lex had her thermal imager out. I like the thermal imagers, and hers is even nicer than mine. She said,"Jay, just stand there where you are a minute."

"Something interesting?" I asked.

"Yeah. This concrete floor is so reflective that I'm seeing the heat reflecting on it." Lex showed me the screen, and I could see the red and orange of Jay's body, and, yes, there was a blue reflection in the floor underneath.

"Huh. I've never seen that before."

"Right?!"

"So what's the scariest thing you guys have ever seen on an investigation?" asked Will. "I mean, what scares even you?"

"Some of the clients," I said immediately.

"There was a house in Gettysburg," said Jay. "The Farnsworth House. Lex won't go in that one anymore."

"Oh, yeah, that one," said Lex.

When we got back upstairs, Jay immediately said,"Babe, look at this couch." She sat down on it. "Isn't this nice? We should buy it."

"Jay, we just got a couch."

"But we didn't get this couch."

Lex rolled her eyes. Will said,"If you two need a couch, I'll make you a great deal. You can come in anytime."

"Babe," said Jay. It was her strongest argument.

"You know, if you guys aren't doing anything, we could always see if we can find Shirley's grave," I said.

"Could we?" asked Jay.

"I don't see why not. I just need to stop back at the print shop a minute before we leave."

I walked to the shelves in the print shop, by Tom's desk. He said,"You're back!"

"Yeah, we're going to go find Shirley's grave. I figured I'd just stop in here for the records instead of running all the way home, because we printed them."

I flipped through the box; I'd used the cemetery records so many times it was easy. A moment later, I was back out in the office, where Jay and Lex were waiting.

"She's in Rest Haven," I said. "Let's go."

It was a pleasant day, and we sat in the grass around the small gravestone. Shirley's stone.

"I've been working at the print shop for almost two years now, and this is the first time I've ever been out here," I said. "I never saw this one before."

"Now you're here," said Jay.

"I got you a photo," Lex said.

"All this time, I never got to the grave. I've worked where she worked, where she died....but this is the first time."

I looked down at the grave, mounted in the grass.

"We've had a pretty good day," I said.

Over My Dead Body

"I know what I wanted to ask you, Lou," said my boss. "There's a small cemetery out in Woolrich, near Crestmont. I saw it the other night. You know the one?"

"Sounds like the Rich Family Cemetery," I said. "I'll double-check that, but that's probably it. It's where the whole Rich Family is buried, the ones who founded Woolrich clothing."

"I was wondering," he said, and went up to his office.

I stood up from where I'd been laminating some menus. Slow day. I walked over to our file archive---We have our old files going back years along one wall. I'd been put in charge of keeping them organized and clearing out the old ones, so I'd arranged them to my satisfaction, which meant all the historic ones in one easily reachable place.

I pulled the file for CCGS, Dunnstable Township. The compiled cemetery indexes. I paged through and found the one---It was only two pages. I made a copy, refiled the original, and took the copy upstairs to the boss.

"Here you go," I said. "This is the cemetery you asked about."

He looked it over and smiled. "This is the one," he said. "My gosh. How did you find this?"

"All the cemeteries are indexed," I said. "I have them all at home, but why wait? We printed them all."

It was the most excitement I'd had in a while.

Since getting home from Utica, I'd been kind of at loose ends. I had no new adventures planned, and nothing had yet come out of the woodwork to interest me. Sooner or later something would, but in the meantime, I was mostly just going through the days, being bored.

The problem with trying to make an adventure happen is that you can't. No amount of trying to force it will really get something exciting to happen. So all I could do was wait, and talk to Chloe, and hope for something good to come along.

"Well, I got a message this morning," I said. "A woman in Mill Hall wanted to know if we do house cleansings."

"Cleansings?" asked Jay. "You mean like...."

"Yeah, like you walk around and try to exterminate the ghosts," I said. "I told her we didn't, that we're researchers who handle things scientifically. And, it turns out, she's interested in an investigation."

I was sitting with Lex and Jay in their living room. They have an apartment downtown, and between thirty and forty cats. We each had a cat on our respective laps. I had a cute little stripey one. There was a small fat yellow one I hadn't seen before---That one had been too shy to come out from under the bed before, but was now coming out to make friends with me.

"Well, good," said Lex. "I can use an investigation."

"Me, too, to be honest," I admitted. "And Chloe's back from Florida, and she said she's looking forward to one, as well. The client is in an apartment complex in Mill Hall; I'm going to see what I can find out about the property. She says she's experienced sounds, items moving, and full-bodied apparitions. She has lost two brothers recently, so I want to handle her gently."

"When can we plan this one?" asked Lex. The cat jumped off my lap, and was immediately replaced by a bigger, stripier cat with a patch of white covering half its face.

"We do have the sixteenth available. We all talked about that. I think I'm going to see if I can set it up then. Jay, I'll get you her number, and you can start the paperwork."

I love researching in the courthouse annex. I actively despise having to get into the courthouse annex. I chained my bike in the parking lot, pulled out the spare pocketknife I carry at these times, and left it with the bike. I really miss the pre-2001 days when you could get into these places without being treated like a potential terrorist.

I signed in and put everything from my pockets into the little bin. "What can I help you with?" asked the security guard.

"Coming in," I said.

"Where?" he asked me.

Into a public building funded by my tax dollars, where I will look up legally public information. "Register and Recorder." Asshole.

I went upstairs and started going through the deeds. This one was much easier than many of them; the deeds went back in time in big jumps, and mostly seemed to be within the same family. They had spent a total of about six dollars on this property over the past century. I wound up with the information the Michael Jobson, Civil War veteran, had bought it with his wife in 1886 and started a farm there. They'd given it to their daughter Jennie when she'd married Thomas McLean, who'd died in 1937. That was something. Then their kids had inherited it, and mostly kept it between them, eventually buying the others out until T. Scott McLean had sold it to the current rental company in 1983.

I copied all this down into a little notebook I'd made myself at work, then stole a few paper clips before I left. Might as well get some of that tax money back.

I could find out the rest of what I needed without ever leaving my office. First I checked the owners against the cemetery records, and found most of them buried in Dunnstown. I found out that Thomas had died of an ulcer at age sixty-four. Okay, that's old to be going off to college, but young to die. I marked him as a candidate.

Using the cemetery records, which I keep on a shelf by the wall, I checked every member of the family. It turned out there were two granddaughters, as well, who'd died at very young ages. Okay. There was always something. I added them to the list.

If you got it, haunt it.

"Lou!" Chloe leaped up and ran down the hallway to give me a hug as I got into Lex and Jay's place. "I've missed you!"

"Missed you, too, kid," I said. "Happy sixteenth. I have some presents for you."

Jay was getting her team shirt on. "Ow," she said. "Ow ow ow. This is rubbing on my new tattoo, and it hurts."

"Jay, you're not required to wear the uniform. Just pick something with short sleeves."

"I can't. There might be selfies. Is the food done yet?"

"Be patient," said Lex.

"Chloe, I'm gonna let you direct Jay to drive to the investigation tonight," I said. "It's basically your territory, you know Mill Hall. You know the easiest way to get there."

"Okay," said Chloe.

I sat down on the couch and opened up the black pack I'd brought. "Some of this, kid, is stuff I've wanted to give you for a while. Some of it's birthday stuff. You can even keep the pack." I pulled out a couple of bandannas.

"Yes! Bandannas!"

"You told me you only had the black one. I have some extra colored ones for you. And....Here's a couple of Henry Shoemaker books. I had doubles."

"Oh, yes."
"And here's the last seven of the cemetery indexes. You can now look up any marked grave in the county. Up until 2008, and anyway, we don't really deal in anyone that recent."

"Check that out," commented Lex.

"My goal is to give Chloe all my resources," I said. "I'm not gonna last forever, and someone will need to take over." I pulled a stuffed Bigfoot out of the bag.

"That's adorable!" Chloe said.

"Someone gave me this who, it turns out, wasn't a very good friend. Make good memories with him. Give him a good home. Now, my grandmother died in 2007, and I inherited her teddy bear collection. Like three hundred of them. Every now and again, I meet someone worthy of owning one. Here you go." I handed her a small teddy bear, with a hat and a little bag. 

"I love it!" said Chloe. "Thank you!"
"Happy birthday, kid."

"Is it time to eat yet?" asked Jay.

"We should turn up here," said Chloe, in the back of the car with me.

I looked out the window. "Before 1983, this was all farmland. It was in the same family for almost a hundred years."
"Careful where you park," Lex told Jay. "I think they're really touchy about parking here."

Jay pulled in, and the client, Patty, came to the door and met us.

"Thank you for coming," she said.

"Thanks for having us," I said, and we went in.

Chloe had her camera out, which, of course. Lex and Jay were moving around the living room with their EMF detectors. Jay said to Patty,"I just need to finish a little paperwork, and have you sign the confidentiality form. Are there any hot spots here?"

"Well, mostly down here. It's where I spend the most time."

"What's the move, Lou?" asked Lex. "You're in charge. What's the first step?"
They'd actually already been doing it, without being told to---Photos and an EMF baseline. I said,"Well, this is a democracy."

"Great. We elect you. What's your orders?"

"Once we're done checking the EMFs, let's sit down for an EVP session. Who has a recorder?"
"Got mine," said Lex. "Ashlin couldn't make it, and she usually has the other one."

"I have one." I said.

Chloe smiled. "Of course you do."

We sat down on the floor and turned on the digital recorders, and started the session. Dates and times, locations, everyone goes around and says their name. Procedure. Lex said,"I'm showing a weird temperature drop on the stairs."

"Check it out. Get photos."
Lex and Chloe moved for the stairs. I stayed with Jay and the client in the living room, continuing the EVP session for a few minutes.

"Lou?" Lex called. "Do you have some painkillers? Chloe's not feeling well."

I pulled them out of my pack and gave Chloe two of them. "Are you okay, kid?"

"Just....Something affecting me," she said. "I'm not feeling goog, all of a sudden. I don't know why."

"Do you need to get outside, get some air?" Lex asked.

Chloe nodded. "Yeah. That'd be good."

We walked outside to the backyard, which was pretty nice for an apartment complex. The land dropped on a slope, and we had a pretty nice view. Chloe took the painkillers with a can of soda Lex got her from the car.

I looked at her. "You okay, Chloe?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Let's do this."

We went back in, and took up positions on the stairs. Everyone sat down; Lex and I were at the top, Jay and Chloe midway down on the landing. Lex said,"I'm feeling something here, too. The air is....I don't know, heavy. Something's affecting us."

"I'm getting no EMFs." I said. "This place is well wired. So that's good news/bad news. It's good that any EMFs we get aren't immediately explainable, but bad that I can't write off your feelings to high EMFs."
"Does that affect people?"

"Some people. EMFs can cause mild illness in some people, headaches and nausea. I had an investigation a few years ago where the place wasn't haunted, the family was just affected by very high EMFs."

"I'm starting to feel it again," commented Chloe.

I walked down the stairs to her and took her hand. I've always felt intensely protective of Chloe, and for a moment, there was no investigation, no apartment---Just me and the kid. 

"Hey. You don't have to do this. Nobody's gonna force you to push through it."

She squeezed my hand. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? We can fold right now."

"Do you trust my judgement?"

"I do."

"Okay, then. I'm good."

"Okay."

I got back into position.

"I can't believe you don't feel that, Lou," said Lex. "I'm about to go all autopsy table again."

"I'm not very sensitive to these things," I said. "I'm pretty impervious."

"Got a weird photo in that room over there," reported Lex.

"Temp drop right over here," said Jay.

"I'm getting that on the thermal," Lex said.

I looked at it. "Oh, that is strange."

The sun was going down when we left. Jay and Lex were standing in the doorway, and I was standing by the car, talking to Chloe.

"You okay? How you feeling?"

"I'm fine now. Something in there was setting me off. I don't know....I didn't want to act like I'm psychic...."

"You were definitely feeling bad," I said. "That's not in question. As long as we don't jump to conclusions about it, it's fine. Something was causing it."

"But I'm okay now," she assured me.

I nodded. "You know, Chloe, you're one of the things that makes me glad I lost my job at the library. I think if I were still working there, you and I wouldn't have reached out to each other, and we wouldn't have gotten this close. You'd still be just the kid who comes on my tours. And I wouldn't want to miss out on knowing you."

She smiled. "Me, either. I'm glad you got fired."

I grinned. "Yeah. Me too."