Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 27 (Saturday)

Ripple knocked softly on the door. The crying on the other side stopped, so she whispered, "Lily?"

"I'm not Lily," Flora said darkly.

"Oh," Ripple swallowed. "I thought this was Lily's room..." she glanced down the dim hallway, counting the doors. She got to three before Flora answered.

"It is."

"Really?"

"Yes, Ripple, don't you know anything?"

Ripple stepped back. Sure, she wasn't around the inner world that often, but that's because she was the host--that meant she was fronting the most. Other than this past week, anyway. "But, Flora--"

"Go away I said!"

She stared at the door. "Fine," she said bitterly, turning away. "I didn't want to know why you were crying anyway."

That sounded lame. That's why she'd knocked on Lily's door in the first place.

"You...could hear me?"

Ripple stopped, and backtracked softly to the door. "I mean...that's why I knocked on the door..." she whispered.

The door opened. Flora looked up, pink pigtails hanging nearly to her waist, tears staining her cheeks. Ripple crouched, awkwardly holding Flora in a hug. "Are you okay?"

Flora started sobbing harder. "Lily's supposed to play with me."

Ripple scrunched her eyebrows. Why wasn't Lily with her? She was only four--most of the time--and she and Flora were usually inseparable. "Is she with Mina?" she leaned back on her heels. "In the kitchen?"

Flora shook her head, sniffling. "She went with Lucille."

"With Lucille?"

Flora nodded. "In the movie."

Oh.

"She's conscious with Lucille?" Ripple wouldn't know, the movie theater had been locked shut for her since last Friday. Not since she'd gotten back from...running laps for Coach Preta?

Flora nodded again. "In the movie."

"Well that's good," Ripple forced a smile. "I bet she's having lots of fun!" Flora started crying again, and Ripple's smile slipped, realizing what she'd said. "...but we can have lots of fun too! We can color, or go help Mina cook, or paint..." she hesitated. What did Flora and Lily usually do?

Flora brightened up, beams of sunlight springing around her feet. "Hide and seek?"

Ripple nodded. "Yeah, sure."

Flora squeaked, jumping up and down. "I'm seeker first," she shut her eyes and counted rapidly, blurring her words together.

"Wait, wait, wait, slow down!" Ripple exclaimed, hopping to her feet and looking frantically down both ends of the hallway. "I don't know where I'm hiding!"

Flora kept counting, switching to Spanish sometime around fifty.

Ripple dashed off. The only hiding spot she could think of was under the dining room table, but that wouldn't conceal her at all from someone Flora's height. But she ran there anyway, cutting around a corner and nearly bowling a large potted plant over. She caught it right before it hit the ground, but Flora shouted "ready or not, here I come!" and Ripple panicked.

She lurched the ceramic pot upright and scrambled behind it, trying to calm her breathing. She pressed herself close to the wall, since the pot only concealed one side of her body. The fern fanned out and covered most of her from the waist up, but that didn't help her legs. Slowly, she reached a socked foot out and hooked it around the small table a few steps away, then pulled it closer. Didn't something belong on top of this table? Like a smaller pot? As it was, Ripple's thighs had nothing--