Page 12 of Ghost in the Night

I suck my teeth. Every shot seems … normal. No ghosts.

“What’s wrong?” Robby asks.

“Nothing. Or, well. I don’t know how that lady got a shot of a ghost on her phone and I didn’t? I took mad photos of everything!”

He shrugs. “Yeahhhh. I don’t know. Her photo just looked like a fuzzy glare to me.”

“But that Asher guy said it was an orb.”

Robby snorts. “Of course he did.”

I start to snap back but come up empty, ’cause he’s right. A ghost tour’s sole purpose is to make people believe that ghosts are real. So of course Asher would play along. And that lady, she probably works for the company, a paid actress or something who pretends to be a tourist and makes us think she saw a ghost!

My jaw clenches and I throw my head back with a groan.

“Ugh!”

Robby shrugs. “Well, I had a good time. That Asher guy is hilarious. Probably makes lots of money.”

My stomach clenches tight. If Asher is making a lot of money, he’s not alone. I don’t want to admit how much I’ve spent on all these tours. It’s kinda embarrassing. But tonight has to be the last one ’cause I can’t keep on playing myself like this. If I can’t catch a ghost in the most haunted city ever, then something must be up, and that something must be me.

Real talk, traveling with Dad has been fun, but it probably broke my brain. Well, not just the traveling. I haven’t been thinking straight since Grandma died. But if she was here, she’d say enough’s enough. It’s time to get back to Harlem. Back to Truth, Kiki, and Aunt Peggy. Back to what I know, back to my block, and back to school. No more chasing ghosts all over the country.

With a sigh, I’m about to turn my camera off when something in the viewfinder catches my eye. It’s a shot of that abandoned white house in Calhoun Square.

I frown. I remember the house being all squares andrectangles, but something circular is in the windowpane. Thinking back, I purposely didn’t use a flash …

Wait!

I click the wheel, zooming in fast, and gasp.

“What? What’s happening?” Robby asks.

“Yo,” I mutter. I point a trembling finger to the first-floor window on the left, farthest from the busted-up door. “Do you see that?”

Robby frowns. “See what?”

“Look!”

Two white lights with a faint bluish tint shine in the window, a little blurred and fuzzy. But definitely there.

A chill falls over me, but a smile takes over my entire face. ’Cause those are not just white lights. They’re orbs. Which means only one thing …

It’s a ghost.

Robby stares silently at the photo for what seems like forever, then scoffs. “Yeah, right.”

FOUR

Girl,let me get this straight—you took a picture of a ghost? Like, forreal?”

“Yes!” I say, trying to keep my voice down. “Check that broken window. You gotta, like, really zoom in.”

Once Daddy and I made it back and settled into the guesthouse, I sent the picture to my girls and we jumped on FaceTime with the quickness to debrief.

“Hmmmm. I guess there’s something there.” Kiki shivers, her bonnet wiggling. Kiki is short like me, with prettydark skin and high cheekbones. “Oooh, I just got the chills.”

“Y’all trippin’,” Truth says, her phone propped up so she can sit on the floor and unbraid her hair. “Maybe it’s a car passing or something.” Truth is our tall brown string bean, all freckles and long legs she uses for track. Outraced every boy on our block.