Read Online The Year of Shadows by Claire Legrand - Free Book Online Page B

flushed. “Shut up.”
    “Careful.” I wagged my finger. “Henry, can I talk to you?”
    Henry was watching me in that quiet honor roll way of his. “Sure.”
    “Henry,” Mark hissed, but Henry ignored him. When we reached my customary table in the corner, Henry sat next to me like nothing had changed. He opened his milk carton.
    “So, what’s up?” he asked.
    “We need to hold a séance.”
    Henry shook his head. “Gosh, I’m fine, Olivia, thanks. And you?”
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m fine. Now, can I continue?”
    “Fine.”
    “Like I was saying, we need to hold a séance. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking”— while you’ve been avoiding me —“and I think it’s the only way to contact the ghosts.”
    “Why?”
    I hesitated. “Nonnie told me.”
    Henry raised his eyebrows. “Olivia, no offense, but . . . your, like, eighty-year-old grandmother?”
    “So? What does that matter? A séance is a real thing. Look it up if you want. You can speak directly to the ghosts. Henry, we can find them, see where they’re hiding!”
    “I don’t know . . .”
    “A séance ?” Joan appeared out of nowhere in the seat across from us. “Please tell me I heard you right. You’re holding a séance ?”
    Henry and I glanced at each other.
    “Are you okay?” Henry asked.
    Joan was practically vibrating. “If you’re holding a séance,can I do it with you? I know all about séances. I’ve even held a couple. You know, just stupid things at sleepovers, but I’m telling you, I know everything there is to know.” She looked back and forth between us. “Please? How many people do you have so far?”
    “Well,” I said, “just me and Henry, but—”
    “Oh, you’ll never get it to work with just two people. No, you need three people. But no more than that. Just three.”
    “Are you sure you know all about séances?”
    “Oh, yes. Absolutely.” Joan paused. “Please, can’t I help you?”
    Joan had this weird look on her face, a twitchy, tight-lipped kind of look, and I got this feeling that she actually had no idea whatsoever how to hold a séance.
    I also got the feeling that I’d been wrong about Joan. Maybe it was a little lonelier being a one-woman protester than Joan let on. Maybe she liked having someone to sit with at lunch, even if that someone was me.
    Henry sighed. “Look, I don’t even know what I think about having a séance in the first place. It seems kind of dumb.”
    Joan’s eyes widened. “Oh no, it’s not dumb at all. The spirits are all around us, just waiting to be contacted. Sometimes they even want our help . But some of them aren’t very nice. That’s why you need an expert to help you, someone who’s done it before. Like me. So.”
    I put a hand over my burn. Whenever my skin gotgoosebumps, my burn stung like crazy. “Some of them aren’t very nice?”
    “Just like some people aren’t very nice. It’s the same with spirits.”
    I took a long, hard look at Joan. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Joan’s supposed expert knowledge. Plus, Joan was someone completely outside the world of the Hall. What would she think about it? What would she think about how I lived?
    But Joan was throwing this pitiful face at me, and I just couldn’t say no. Plus, I wanted to contact the ghosts so bad it was like this hard knot in my stomach.
    “Fine,” I said at last.
    Henry looked at me in surprise.
    Joan squealed and drew out some paper and a pencil from her bag.
    “But I’m the boss of this operation. Okay? You’re the séance expert or whatever, but I run the show.”
    “Of course,” Joan said. Séance Instructions , read the heading of her paper. “Now, where are we having the séance, and why?”
    “At Emerson Hall. Henry and I . . .” I paused.
    He threw up his hands. “Might as well just tell her now.”
    “Tell me what?” Joan whispered.
    “We’ve seen ghosts. At the Hall. But only once, and we haven’t been able to find them since, and we