Read Online Audrey Claire - Libby Grace 01 - How to be a Ghost by Audrey Claire - Free Book Online

insisted. “Please believe me, Monica. I’m not dead.”
    Tears filled my friend’s cheeks and slid down her face. “What else can I believe? You went to that store and now this? George—”
    “I know but you said yourself, I could be in a hospital.”
    She sprung into action and pounded out four-one-one. Soon she had the number for the nearest hospital and gave my description to the operator who answered the general line. With no luck there, Monica called seemingly every hospital within fifty miles of Summit’s Edge. One or two matched my description, but in both cases, the families had already identified their loved one. With the last reasonable hope fading, Monica placed her cell phone on the side table and sat in silence.
    “Libby?” she said after five minutes.
    “Yes?”
    “I have to call Mason.”
    “No!” The TV screen brightened and then went dark. I hoped I hadn’t busted it. A new set was also not in my budget, as were a lot of other items. I knelt before Monica, and to her credit, she didn’t shrink away, but goose bumps did rise on her cocoa skin. She ran palms over her arms as if to ward off cold, and I shifted back a little, giving her space. “Please, just give me a little time, Monica. I’ll figure this out. I’ll find my body, and everything will go back to normal.”
    “You know I love you, girl,” Monica said with earnest. “But I have to think of what’s best for Jake too. Don’t you think he’s scared with you not here? He doesn’t know what happened. All he knows is his mom is gone. I lied to him and told him there was a family emergency that you had to go take care of, but you will be back soon.”
    I flinched. Neither Monica nor I liked lying to Jake, and if losing my body hadn’t killed me, being away from my baby would. “We don’t have any family that I know of. Jake knows that too. There was only Mason, Mama, him, and me. Then I divorced his dad, and Mama passed.”
    “And me,” Monica reminded me.
    I touched her hand. She didn’t shiver, but she stared down at my wispy hand, barely there.
    “I’m going to fix this, Monica,” I insisted.
    “How? Are you going to call him and tell him yourself that you’ll be back soon?”
    I wrung my hands. “I can’t use the phone.”
    She blinked.
    I pointed to the TV. “Something like that will happen, and a bunch of noise. I don’t understand it all.”
    “So what will you do?”
    I stood up and paced the room. Monica watched me float from one end to the other, her eyes full of curiosity and awe.
    “If I store up some energy, I can materialize completely. I haven’t been able to hold it more than a minute, but I think I might be able to stretch it longer with rest. Then I will show myself to Jake, and he will feel better. We can tell him I’m not feeling well and you can stay here and look out for him while I can’t.”
    Monica’s eyebrows rose, and she folded her arms across her chest. “You’re assuming I’m going to go along with this crazy plan.”
    I pressed my palms together as if I intended to pray. “A week at most, Monica. Please ?”
    She made an annoyed sound and rolled her eyes.
    “ Pretty please?”
    “A week, Libby. Not a day longer, and you be here tomorrow morning to kiss your son good-bye when I take him to school. Got it?”
    “Got it,” I chirped, and concentrated hard to give her a brief hug and kiss and the cheek.
    Monica touched her face staring at me. “You are a ghost, aren’t you?”
    “What do you mean? You felt that didn’t you?”
    She nodded. “Yeah, but it was weird. I don’t know how to describe it.” She narrowed her eyes. “Jake will notice the difference.”
    I held up a finger and smiled. “But I’m sick, remember? He will assume the clammy feel is just the fever.”
    “You say clammy. I say creepy.”
    I moaned. “Some friend you are.”
    “Hey, I’m letting you haunt me, aren’t I? Be grateful.”
    The way she said “let” reminded me of the possibility