Mind Games (7 page)

Ben's dad bought our lottery tickets that same night. I watched the drawing while I was talking on the phone to Katie. The winning number was 362.

"We got one digit correct," Ben noted the next day. Then he took more of our money. Two dollars apiece to play two numbers a day for six days.

Altogether, we wasted a total of $15 that first week with a return of $0.

"I can't pay my two dollars this week," Kathleen said the next time Ben asked for cash. "I'm saving my money to buy a ticket for the Halloween dance."

"I'll pay your two dollars this week," Claire offered.

Kathleen crossed her arms. "No."

"You can pay me back."

"No," Kathleen said again.

"You know what?" I said. "I'm with Kathleen. I don't want to pay, either. It's a waste. We're never going to win the lottery."

"Okay, wait. Let me see if I got this straight," Brandon said. "It comes down to some dumb dance or five hundred big ones, and you pick the dance? Think about it. Your future, Ji. Come on."

"I am," I said. "Claire and Kathleen are not psychic, we are not going to win the lottery, and I don't want to waste any more money." Anyhow, who was to say my future wasn't with Brian Murtaugh? The dance could be very important to my future.

"One more week," Ben said. "One more week, and if we don't win, we'll quit." He turned to Kathleen. "And I'll buy you a ticket to the dance. Okay?"

"You mean like a date? You'll be my date to the dance, Ben?"

"Um..." Ben blinked. Claire got out the tissues and gave Ben a look. "I ... Yeah, I'll be your date, Kathleen," Ben finally said. Kathleen threw her arms around him. "I guess that means I have to go, huh?" Ben gave a nervous laugh.

Mom and Dad both had to work late the night of the dance, so they made me get a ride with Claire's mom.

"This seems to be turning into a Mad Science field trip," Ben observed from the front seat.

I hung my head, and the point of my witch's hat accidentally poked between his shoulder blades.

"Ouch," Ben said.

My sentiments exactly.

School was decorated with scarecrows and cobwebs and scowling pumpkins. The lights were flickery and dim (thank God). Princess Claire and Kathleen the cat and Ben the astronaut (complete with authentic moon
rocks
from his astronomer father) and I almost managed to slip in unnoticed.

Then Kathleen let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"Blood!" she shrieked.

Two hundred people turned to stare at us.

But Kathleen was right. There was a trail of blood on the gold carpet outside the gym. And—much more gross—a tail. A lizard's tail.

"Gosh," Claire said. "What ... interesting decorations."

Marina and Brandon (dressed with stunning originality as basketball players—complete with sweat) came over to us and peered at the tail.

"Not decoration," Marina said. "When I am on Junior Olympic basketball team for Russia, we travel to Guam, and my grandmother accompany me. I practice and practice, and for two minutes I play in one game. Two minutes. Babushka chase gecko lizards with a broom in the night. The most exciting part of the trip. This tail..."—she pointed at the tail, which began to flop around on its own—"real."

I had the weirdest creepy-crawly sensation all of a sudden. Like something slithering over my feet. I shivered.

"Oh, no," Kathleen moaned. "Mr. Ennis's lizard can't be dead. Not like Alice. Not Lily the lizard, too."

"Do not worry, Kathleen. Lizards lose their tails when they are frightened and run away," Marina said. "Probably Lily is fine."

"Really?" Kathleen said. "But—" She grabbed Claire's arm. "Doesn't it hurt to lose a part of you?"

"Sure does," Brandon said softly.

Marina looked up at him. "I know, Brandon. I know." She paused. "But if small change lets you live, you can do it gladly." She sighed. "This I am telling Babushka all the time."

As usual, I didn't have any idea what Marina was talking about, but the conversation was definitely headed in an even more un-fun direction. I decided this was a good time to make my exit. "Well, there's Katie and Brian," I said as I hitched up my skirt. "I'm going to go say hi."

"Wait," Claire said. "I'll come, too."

I almost screamed. Did she have to be so clingy all the time? Did she learn that from Kathleen? Did she even know how much they were alike that way?

"Us, too." Kathleen pulled Ben behind her. The moon rocks swung around and hit me in the butt. I heard somebody start laughing. I saw somebody pointing.

Under the green makeup, I felt my face turn red. I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand being with these people for one more minute. I wasn't Kathleen's twin.
We
weren't attached at the hip. I mean, she didn't even
like
me.

I told Claire she could come. But please, not Kathleen and Ben and the moon rocks.

Usually Claire would have said fine. No big deal.

But this time—don't ask me why—she turned white between her freckles. "No," she whispered. And then she said it again, cold and sharp. "No."

I felt much smaller than my actual height, which is 4'8". I felt as though I were nothing—air—and Claire could see right through me.

Claire took a deep breath. "Come on, Kathleen. Let's get away from this witch we used to call Ji."

"Witch with a B," Kathleen said, and she followed Claire and Ben to the food table.

If I had been using my brain, I would never have gone after them.

"Um, um ... why don't we dance?" Ben asked Claire.

I thought of Ben flapping his elbows at the fourth-grade square dance. Claire had traded partners with me so I didn't have to get stepped on by him.

Claire has never really minded getting stepped on, but still I didn't expect her to take Ben's hand and say, "Yes."

This was definitely the spookiest Halloween of my life.

"Witches use lizards' tails, you know," Kathleen said to me, "in their potions and stuff."

I took off my witch's hat. "Cats eat lizards."

Kathleen's cat whiskers began to tremble, and Claire dropped Ben's hand.

"I didn't kill Lily!" Kathleen cried. "I didn't do it, I didn't do it!"

If I'd wanted to prevent the whole seventh grade from staring at me, it was definitely too late now. I looked for Brian, but there were so many people behind so many masks that I couldn't recognize anybody's face. Why hadn't I worn a mask?

"We have to find Lily," Kathleen sobbed. "We have to find her and help her before something bad happens. You try, Claire." She gulped. "Use your ESP."

"Gosh," Claire said. "Uh..."

"The psychic detectives I read about," Ben volunteered, rolling his eyes at Claire, "when they look for a missing person, they usually try holding an object that belonged to that person and see if they can get some ... you know, vibes or something."

"But all we have of Lily," Claire said, "is her—"

"Tail," Ben finished.

"That is quite all right," Marina said cheerfully. "It is no problem to touch."

Marina reached down and pinched it between her fingers. "See? Here."

I could not believe Kathleen had just asked for Claire's help. And even more, I could not believe Claire was going to hold a lizard's tail in her sweaty little hand and pretend that there was anything she could do for Kathleen or for Lily at this point.

Claire took a deep breath as she watched the tail twitch its way from Marina's hands into hers. She closed her eyes.

"Claire—" Kathleen said.

"Shh," Claire replied, her eyes squeezed shut. "I'm concentrating."

Her face was translucent white. Dots from the strobe lights flickered across her eyelids.

"I'm getting a word," she said at last.

"A word?" Marina asked.

"Go."

Kathleen's whiskers twitched hopefully. "Go?"

"That's it," Claire said finally. "I have a sense of evil. Foreboding. Go. That's the word. I don't know."

And she looked right at me. The haunted house music creaked and groaned in a minor key. E minor. I thought about what go meant. When your name is Ji Oh, you don't forget what it spells. Of course I didn't do anything to Lily the lizard. I thought about why Claire would say it with her face glowing green in the light that night. The thought I had at that moment (though I should probably not include it in a formal report) was Go to
hell, Claire Phelps.

I called my parents to come pick me up from the dance. I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't stay there. I just couldn't. I didn't even get one dance with Brian. Two more months till I have another chance.

Mom sat on my bed that night and tried to talk to me about what happened. I didn't feel like talking.

"Ji Eun," she said, "life is changing. You are growing up. You must make your own way, your own happiness."

That's when she spotted the Zener cards. They were buried under like thirteen things, but Mom has sharp eyes.

She slid one out with her fingertip, as though she didn't dare touch it. "Now I see why you have been unhappy," she said. "You look for truth in all the wrong places."

Then she went and got Dad. And I got the Lecture.

Mom had heard about the lizard tail from one of her church friends who was chaperoning the dance. The
Halloween
dance. She must have been thinking Satan worship when she was untying my witch's cape and stroking my chin. "We worry for you, Ji Eun. Why you don't come to church with us. Why you have so many new friends at school."