Somewhere In-Between ~ An Adventure in the Afterlife

CHAPTER 23 - COLLABORATION

That weekend, while Max sulked in the graveyard, Carl invited Lizzie over to listen to the tape he recorded that Friday at school. His parents were more than shocked to see him bring a friend over, let alone a girl.

"I want to show Lizzie the project I'm working on," he explained to them, leading Lizzie up the stairs.

"Oh, sure you do," Dirk replied with a sly smirk, leaning against the railing at the top of the stairs. He practically blocked the way with his quarterback size.

"Do you mind?" Carl said as he nudged his way past.

"Don't mind at all," Dirk winked at Lizzie as she followed Carl.

Lizzie furrowed her brows at Dirk as she walked past him. "You'd better call the zoo, Carl," she said. "Looks like one of their gorillas escaped."

Carl beamed a great smile, and nodded to his brother. Dirk returned the gesture with a sneer. Carl opened the door to his room with a grand gesture. "Welcome to my office, Miss Boggs!"

Lizzie couldn't believe her eyes. Carl's room really did look more like an office than a kid's bedroom. He had an old roll-top desk filled with drawers, each labeled. A laptop computer was open on his desk, which looked slightly out of date, but more high-tech looking than the rest of the room. She saw an interesting piece of furniture she'd also never seen before. "What's this?" She asked.

Carl was so happy to have a visitor to share his secrets with. His voice sped with excitement. "My parents are big time antique collectors and dealers. This is an old library card catalog." This piece of furniture was as large as a dresser, but was filled with at least thirty little drawers, each labeled with a metal plate and a little silver handle. "This thing is the coolest, Lizzie! Look! I have each drawer labeled chronologically." He opened one of the drawers and held out a tape. "See? All my tapes, categorized according to date!"

"Wow," Lizzie nodded slowly, not sure what to think. "That's very... organized, Carl."

While Lizzie continued to look around the room, evaluating the magazine articles he had pinned up on corkboard all over his walls, Carl took out the tape from Friday, popping it into his recorder to play it for her.

Lizzie's eyes were drawn to a poster on Carl's wall. "Hey, you like anime, too?" The poster showed a single female character with long, flowing, white hair and a pair of wings wrapped around her.

Carl looked up. "Oh, yeah, that's from an anime called 'Angel Beats.' It's about a bunch of teenagers in the afterlife world. Pretty interesting. I think you'd appreciate it. Hey, Lizzie, there's something I have to play for you!"

Lizzie turned to see Carl sitting at his desk with the recorder and a pair of headphones. "Here, put these on, Lizzie! This is what I recorded during class on Friday. It's the clearest supernatural vocal anomaly I've ever gotten. It's a super big deal!"

Lizzie put the headphones on, and Carl cranked up the volume. Lizzie heard her voice surrounded by mumblings of others in the classroom, and then finally she heard Max's voice crackle loudly as she pressed the headphones against her ears. "Wow, Carl, I didn't know it was possible for a recording device to pick up on a ghost voice."

"Really? You didn't know that?" Carl was surprised. "People do it all the time. There are paranormal societies all over the world, working with machinery ten times more sophisticated, and I can only imagine the stuff they're picking up. When I get old enough, I'm gonna get a job and buy all the equipment I need. I'm already starting to save, mowing lawns around town. Just got my first EMF detector! Wanna see it?"

"How long have you been into this stuff, Carl?" She eyed the articles spread across his walls.

"Oh, a few years now. But I've been concentrating more and more just in the past year or so. I've been looking into the hot areas of Amherst."

"Hot areas?"

"Yeah, areas with the most supernatural activity. I can't get around much since my parents still have to drive me anywhere."

"Doesn't your brother drive already?"

Carl squinted. "I think you can imagine I'd rather walk a mile in bare feet than ask my brother for a lift anywhere."

"I get it." Lizzie nodded.

"Anyway, I walk around town with my recorder and just see what I pick up. Most of the time I just get noises. Sometimes mumbling. But that voice I caught on Friday was the crown jewel!"

"It seems too much of a coincidence, Carl."

"What?"

"Well, you know. Here we are, living on the same street. You're a ghost hunter, and I'm the ghost whisperer. It's pretty amazing when you think about it."

It sure is, thought Carl. He was shocked with a sudden idea. "Hey, you and I could join forces!"

"What do you mean?"

"What I'd really love, someday, is to write my own book on ghosts, as I learn more about them, myself. With your help, I could learn so much and maybe start getting articles into some local magazines."

"Oh, I don't know, Carl."

"And I'll be sure to give you credit in any articles I get published! I could name you as my partner in research. Oh, my gosh, this is great! "

"Carl, really—"

"I know, Lizzie, I'm going a mile a minute, here. But just think about it, okay? I'll be writing all weekend, now. You go ahead home, and we can talk it over on Monday on the bus, okay? I don't want to pressure you." He stood up. "I'll see you out."

Every time Lizzie looked out her bedroom window, she saw Max sitting on that same headstone. At first she thought it was pathetic. But as the weekend wore on, she decided it was just plain ridiculous. She finally decided to approach him Sunday before nightfall.

"Aren't you going to watch over me, to protect me from those spider-demons again?" She hopped up beside him on the headstone.

"You have people watching over you. You don't need me." He said, stone-faced.

"My gosh, Max, I don't think I've ever met anyone as stubborn as you!" She hopped back down off the headstone, facing him. "Are you seriously just going to sit on this freaking gravestone forever? It's getting creepy, you know. I look out the window, and there you are, just sitting here. You haven't budged an inch since yesterday morning! It's insane."

Max shrugged. "Whatever."

Lizzie folded her arms. "Well, you might be interested to hear that your funeral service is on Wednesday. So if you're just sitting here waiting to be buried, congratulations. You only have to sit out here another three days." She turned to leave.

Max started to watch her walk back to the house, and finally called out. "I'll miss you, Liz!"

Lizzie stopped and turned to look at him. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

She shook her head. "Then why are you sitting out here like an idiot? Come on inside, Max." She smiled. "We're watching a movie." She waved her hand. "Join us, okay? Please?"

Max hopped off the gravestone. "It better not be a chick flick," he said.