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"Anyone versed in psychiatry will tell you it’s the same for dreams" Dr Gill’s voice was level, but her look said she was sick of parents and guardians questioning her diagnoses and defending their children "Even if Chloe is only dreaests that, subconsciously, she hasn’t accepted her condition We need to monitor her with urine tests"
"I--I don’t understand," I said "Why do I need urine tests?"
"To ensure you’re receiving the proper dosage for your size, activity level, food intake, and other factors It’s a delicate balance"
"You don’t believe--" Aunt Lauren began
Dr Davidoff cleared his throat Aunt Lauren pressed her lips into a thin line and started picking lint froument, but these doctors held the key toto say The urine tests weren’t to checkclasses, I was assigned lunch duty I was setting the table, lost in hts, when a voice said, "I’m behind you"
I spun to see Derek
"I can’t win," he said "You’re as skittish as a kitten"
"So if you sneak up and announce yourself, that’s going to startle me less than if you tap me on the shoulder?"
"I didn’t sneak--"
He shook his head, grabbed two rolls froed the others to hide the theft "I just wanted to say that if you and Simon want to talk, you don’t need to do it behind my back Unless you want to"
"We were just--"
"I knohat you were doing Si to give the You just have to ask"
"But you said--"
"Tonight Eight Our roo"
"Your side is off-lio up there, alone, with a boy?"
"Just tell her it’s for math She won’t question it"
Because he had problems with math, I supposed
"Will that be… okay? You and I aren’t supposed to--"
"Tell her Simon will be there And talk to Talbot, not Van Dop"
Twenty-two
RAE AND I DIDN’T SPEAK much all day She wasn’t nasty; Rae wasn’t like that She sat beside me in class and asked questions, but there was no chatter, no giggling or goofing off Today ere classmates, not friends
Before dinner, e’d norether, she took her books, retreated to the dining room, and closed the door
After dinner, I followed her into the kitchen with my dirty plates
"It’s my turn to do laundry," I said "Would you have a minute to show me how to use the machine?" I lowered ed "Sure"
"I’m sorry I didn’t tell you," I said as she de a hard time with it"
"Why? You can talk to the dead How cool is that?"
It wasn’t cool at all--it was terrifying But I didn’t want to sound like I hining Or maybe I just didn’t want to sound like a wimp
I dumped in the first load and added soap
"Whoa, whoa! You’ll give this place a bubble carpet" She took the soap box froent back out of the hosts, why not just tell theht, some deep-rooted instinct screamed Don’t tell! Never tell!
"I--I don’t want to tell anyone the truth Not yet Not here"
She nodded and set the box aside "Gill is a pencil pusher with all the iination of a thumbtack She’d keep you locked up in here until you stopped this ’ghost nonsense’ Better to save the spooky stuff for when you get out"
We sorted a basket of laundry in silence, then I said, "The reason I asked to talk to you down here is, well, there’s a ghost"
She took a slow look around, wrapping a T-shirt around her hand like a boxer taping up for a fight
"Not right now I host in here The saht" Before Liz showed up All day I’d been struggling not to think of Liz If I was seeing her, didn’t that mean…
Why hadn’t I asked Mrs Talbot when I could talk to Liz? Was I afraid of the answer?
"--he say?"
I shook it off and turned to Rae "Hhost say?"
"It’s hard to tell He keeps cutting out I think it’s the meds But he said he wanted me to open that door"
I pointed Her head whipped around so fast she winced and rubbed her neck
"That door?" Her eyes glittered "The locked baseo into the locked roo to the door
I said, "I thought maybe, we could, you know, check it out Like open it"
"Duh, of course I’d have done that days ago" She jiggled the handle "How can you live with the suspense?"
"For starters, I’ in there"
"Then why’s it locked?"
"Because it’s for storing stuff they don’t want usChristmas decorations"
"The bodies of Lyle House kids who never went ho of Liz
"Geez, I’irl"
"No, I’ve just seen too many movies"
"That, too" She walked back to the laundry shelves and rooted through a box "Another crappy lock, so easy a six-year-old with a credit card can pick it"
"Not many six-year-olds have credit cards"
"I bet Tori did That’s who this house is e, shook her head, and dropped it back into the box "Rich kids whose only use for a credit card is buying a new pair of Tiuys will turn the handle and say ’huh, locked’ and walk away"