Somewhere In-Between ~ An Adventure in the Afterlife

CHAPTER 25 - FINDING DAVID BLACK

The following morning was unusually quiet. No smart remarks or antics from Max. Lizzie was wondering what was up. "Are you okay? She asked him when they left the house that morning to head to the bus for another day at school.

"Tomorrow's my funeral." Max said. "Your dad told me that's when I'll get my second chance."

"Second chance at what?" Lizzie asked.

"To choose to go into the light... like I was supposed to do in the first place."

"Oh," Lizzie looked down as they continued to walk.

Max glanced at her. "I guess you'll be happy to see me go, right?"

Lizzie smiled and shrugged. "Well, I don't know about that."

"Yeah?"

"I guess I'm getting used to having you around. I'm..." She stopped walking, staring down at the sidewalk in front of her.

"What, Liz?"

Lizzie raised her head and looked him in the face. His face was gentle and kind – not the face of the Max Fletcher she remembered from before the accident. She saw how he had changed, in such a short period of time. Or maybe it wasn't how he changed. The way he looked at her was different from before. She saw in his face now that he trusted her completely... even respected her. She never saw anyone look at her that way before. Not since her father died.

"I'm... going to miss you, Max." She said. She felt tears start to well up in her eyes, and quickly blinked them away. "Even though you are a bit of a pain." She added.

Max laughed. "Yeah, I've gotten pretty used to you too, Liz." He was surprised to realize that Lizzie was becoming the truest friend he ever had. Most kids at school seemed to always want to be close to him just to be part of the "in" crowd, or to keep from being bullied. Lizzie was different. Of course being on the football team or being part of the "in" crowd didn't matter anymore, now that he was dead. All that mattered was being himself. Max was finally starting to realize what that actually meant.

Before Max had a chance to express anything further to Lizzie, Carl ran up to them, out of breath. "Hey, Diz!" He panted. "Oh, wait – You don't mind me calling you 'Diz,' do you?" Carl always wanted a friend he could give a nickname to.

"All right, 'Creep!'" Lizzie smiled and leaned toward him to show she was just teasing.

"Hey, I'll take it." Carl shrugged. "Whatever gives me the right to call you 'Diz.' Although I have to say, your nickname's better than mine."

Max folded his arms, shoulders back. "Did he barge on over just to be annoying?"

Lizzie realized the one time Max acted like a bit of a jerk was in reaction to Carl. She was getting a little tired of it. "Carl, did you find out anything about that kid, David Black?"

"You came to the right guy!" Carl stood proudly and produced a folded page from his jacket pocket. He unfolded it and handed it over. "Voila!"

Lizzie squinted in the dull early morning light. "I can barely read it – what's it say?"

"Well, there were a few David Blacks who kicked the bucket back in the 50's. None of them were teens, though. I did find out that there was a teenager named David Black who went missing back in the late 1940's, though. He just disappeared. The authorities must have decided he was a runaway, because I only found one article that advertised him missing. Did you notice the photograph? It wasn't a very good one. Really old and grainy, from the original newspaper ad."

Lizzie squinted harder, holding the page up closer to the street lamp. Max moved in, trying to get a closer look. The photograph showed an older kid with greased back hair and leather jacket. "This has to be him!" Lizzie stared. "What do you think, Max?" Max nodded in agreement.

"Max Fletcher?" Carl whispered, eyes wide. "He's here right now?"

"Yeah, Carl, he's been around me basically since the accident."

"Whoa." Carl's eyes nearly popped with excitement. "Is he coming to school with us?"

Max chuckled, amused by Carl's enthusiasm. He felt like a celebrity.

"He's followed me to school since Friday, too." Lizzie said.

Max huffed. "I'm not following you, Lizzie. I'm not a dog!"

"Okay, Max, okay!" Lizzie leaned closer to Carl's ear. "He's so sensitive!"

"I can hear you, Liz!" Max frowned.

The bus rolled up and Carl followed Liz to her seat so they could discuss David Black some more. Max didn't want to miss anything about Dave, so he sat in the seat behind them to listen in, beside a boy who was busy playing a game on his phone. Lizzie and Carl whispered their conversation, wanting to keep their investigation secret from other school bus riders.

"This kid, Dave, is a real jerk," Lizzie began to explain to Carl. "No disrespect intended to the dead. Seriously, though, he's pretty evil."

"So he's an evil spirit," Carl said. "I wonder if he's what other investigators call a 'shadow person."

"He wears dark clothes, but otherwise he just looks like a normal person to me," Lizzie explained. "Max says he can beckon demons from hell at his whim, so I'm not sure what his story is. It's almost like the opposite of what I've been learning to do. I'm learning how to use Holy Light to ward off these devils. So has Max. But this ghost, Dave, seems to have mastered the opposite task of bringing bad spirits – or demons – in to help him bully others."

"Wow," Carl sat back, overwhelmed. "Imagine that... a ghost bully. That's a pretty nasty thing to have at school."

Lizzie nodded. Carl had a good way of making the supernatural sound almost normal.

"So what do we do about it?" Carl sat up straight, looking at Lizzie.

She shrugged. "I have no idea."

Max butted in, his head between the two. "I've got one," he said. "But I'll need to hear every bit of info Carl has on Dave."