Ruth’s Volvo SUV cruised into Chinatown on the back of a dragon. Or at least that was what the bridge seemed like, with its concrete guard rails transformed into red and gold scales made of plastic and metal. The archway ahead possessed the same bold colors, with dragon heads at each end biting the edges of a white tarpaulin banner.

            It was an unusual sight but, better than that, it gave me the chance to break the silence. “What does that say?” I gestured to the Chinese characters slashed in black ink on the archway’s banner, desperate for distraction.

            After all the paper-signing in the council hall, Ruth had fetched Mae and Jonathan at a nearby mall. Mae welcomed me gladly. Jonathan…did not.

            “Yúlánpén,” she said. “It means Ghost Festival, and today’s the first day of Ghost Month.”Ruth threw me a grateful smile through the rearview mirror. Her normally cheerful round face still showed signs of strain after her earlier quarrel with her son – because of me.

            “Oh.” I wished I hadn’t asked. I couldn’t think of anything to say that would not make me sound stunned and alarmed by their holiday. Ghost Month? Really?

            “If you can’t deal with it, that’s your problem,” Jonathan muttered under his breath. He was glued to his side of the door, as if he couldn’t get far enough away from me. A now-familiar scowl had settled on his face.

            “Jonathan!” His mother’s voice was like whiplash.

            He exhaled an angry breath. “Sorry.” He sounded anything but sincere.

            “It’s okay,” I answered quickly. He was right, anyway. Amnesiacs like me can’t afford to be picky.

            Mae, his year-younger sister, threw me an apologetic glance over her shoulder from the passenger seat in front.I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile as the elephant inside the car only got bigger and angrier. Jonathan had never tried to hide the fact he was against his mother temporarily adopting me. I wished I could reassure him that I didn’t mean any harm, but I couldn’t.

            Traffic congested at the foot of the bridge and I watched the digits on the speedometer display trickle down.

            With our windows rolled down, the sound of something hitting the ground easily reached my ears, like a rainfall of pebbles.

I glanced outside. A throng of people were on the sidewalks, throwing on the ground curved red stones that looked like pairs of Ying and Yang.

            Mae saw where I was looking and explained, “It’s kind of like fortune telling from the Gods. You get ‘yes’ if both stones face the same way and ‘no’ if it’s not.”

            A huge moan drowned the last of her words, and I looked ahead when the moaning didn’t stop. The sound came from gigantic temple gates protesting against the yellow-robed monks pushing them open.

A cold gust of wind blew into the car, stinging my eyes into shutting closed. When I opened them again, a bloodied, half-naked man slammed into my side of the car, mouth gaping wide.

I screamed, backing away and bumping into Jonathan.

“Stop it, you idiot,” Mia hissed at the ghost.

My screams died when I saw Mia put her hand out to push the ghost away, rapping out something angrily in Mandarin.

“It’s just a guy in a costume,” Jonathan said under his breath.

Embarrassment flooded my face and I scrambled away from him, mumbling ‘sorry’. It had been a prank. Just a stupid prank. And I had acted like he was going to kill me. In fact, my heart was racing fast I seriously wondered if the others could hear it. Worse, the frantic tattoo of my heartbeat against my chest was awfully familiar, as if terror had a permanent place in my life – whatever it was.

I caught a glimpse of Jonathan’s face. His cheeks were flushed, and I wished I could disappear, hating how I seemed to keep giving him more reasons to consider me a nutcase.

Mia had finished snarling. The man’s face was white and he had sprung away from Ruth’s car, hands held up like her words had convicted him.

After stabbing the man’s back with one last glare, Ruth checked me through the rearview mirror, her dark eyes seeking mine, her slightly rounded cheeks made pink by her outburst. “You okay, Fiona?”

I watched the man slink away, his shoulders hunched, our roles now reversed, and I was the one haunting him. “Yeah.” But I wasn’t, and we all knew it.

“Ghost Month isn’t anything like Halloween, really, but some of these kids try so hard to Americanize it.” Ruth rolled her eyes.

“It’s okay.” I cleared my throat, hating how my voice croaked.“It’s my fault, too, for being so jumpy.”

            Ruth shook her head so adamantly her short hair bounced. “Don’t think like that. You’re actually doing quite well, considering the circumstances.”

            The circumstances…It sounded better than the proverbial elephant, I supposed, and way much better than the truth of having my memories carved out by an accident.

            “So,” Mia said brightly, “did you like the clothes I bought for you?”

            “Umm…”

            Everyone – even Jonathan - burst into laughter. “All the stuff you bought for her was either pink or had ruffles. Only someone silly like you would like something like that,” her brother retorted.

            Mia grinned shamelessly. “I just wanted to make sure we could swap clothes. And besides, I knew she’d look good in them.” She chatted nonstop about the things we could do over the summer, keeping the mood lighthearted throughout the ride.

Outside, the lively colors of the festival had gradually disappeared and muddied into bland and ugly shades of brown and gray as Ruth drove deeper and deeper into the throat of Chinatown – Ong Pin, which was the area’s main road.

There were no houses but just one low-rise building after another, nothing that went past five stories. I couldn’t imagine memorizing the ins and outs of Chinatown when everything looked exactly the same. A few more minutes passed and then Ruth was maneuvering the car into an expansive parking lot, waving back to a uniformed guard as she did.

“Jonathan, get Fiona’s stuff,” Ruth said.

Without a word, Jonathan took my suitcase out of the trunk.

“I can do that---” I started but shut up at his look.  Five minutes later, and I was thankful I hadn’t insisted too hard. The Changs lived in the fourth floor, which would have been fine if their apartment building had an elevator. When I reached the fourth landing, I was breathing hard while the others still looked refreshed, like they had just stepped out of the shower.

I glanced down – the narrow, U-shaped stairs prevented me from seeing beyond the last two flights but its sight still made me dizzy. The thought of having to climb them every day made me feel even dizzier.

“Welcome to home sweet home,” Ruth said as she unlocked the door and pushed it open with her shoulder. A tall, dark shadow slipped past her, and the hairs on my nape stood up.

I glanced at Mia and Jonathan, wondering if they had seen it, too.

Jonathan caught me looking. “What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.” And there was nothing, I told myself, because I didn’t have the ability to see ghosts. I didn’t. I didn’t. 

I couldn’t concentrate on the movie, not when Stud’s fingers kept accidentally grazing mine when I dug for the bowl of cheese popcorn we had shared. And it was accidental. It had to be.

This was not right.

            My phone made another insistent beep. It could have played an MP3 tune instead, but I just hadn’t been able to muster enough interest to make the switch from default to trendy. I looked forward to the day that having the coolest ringtone in the planet would be the most important things in my life.

            “That’s him,” Will chortled.

            I love Will to death, but sometimes I could also cheerfully strangle her.

            “Will,” I hissed, sneaking a look at Stud, hoping he hadn’t heard her.

            But he had, and he saw me looking at him, and he knew then.

            Will gasped.

My heart sank.

Most times, she was irritatingly intelligent just when I needed her badly not to pay attention.

            “Who’s him?” Stud asked with a grin, sharp as a knife, and it slashed my conscience mercilessly.

            I opened my mouth to answer, but no words came.

            “Liam,” Will answered brightly. Maybe she thought she was coming to my rescue, but she was just digging me a bigger, deeper grave.

            “She asked me if I could hook her up with some guy---”

            “Will!”

            “Did she now?” Stud drawled, leaning back against his seat.

            I squirmed under his gaze. “I just thought I should start living a, well, more normal life.”

            “Do I know him?” Stud asked of his sister.

            “Don’t worry. He’s not like you,” she said sweetly before turning back to me. “Now, stop keeping me in suspense and just answer him. He said he’s going to text you now so that’s him. I’m sure of it.”

            Doing my best to ignore the icy blue gazes of the twins, I unlocked my phone and checked my inbox.

            Hi. Will gave me your number. My name’s Liam, by the way. Liam Somerset (just in case you wanna Google me and make sure I’m not a psychopath). :D Hope you don’t mind me texting you out of the blue.

            Oh, wow. Will had really done her homework this time. The last couple of guys she had recommended thought proper capitalization was only for folks aged sixty and above. They also spoke the same weird text lingo, one that I had never quite gotten the hang of. It went something like this: hw bout a D8, shawty?

            I hadn’t even known D8 was a ‘date’ until Will told me. I actually thought it was a kind of car or place or something. And I had no idea why he thought I was short.

            I texted my reply but had to backtrack several times because Stud was no longer pretending he wasn’t trying to read my message, causing my fingers to trip all over themselves. My phone beeped in flattering speed after a few moments.

            Will and I have this fun run the day after tomorrow.

            Fun run? Where did Will get this guy?

            I’m wondering if you’d like to come and join us. It would be a cool way for us to get to know each other. If you find me boring or weird, you could just run away or something. :P

            A teenage guy, humble?

            He was either ugly or he was faking it.

            I sneaked a suspicious glance at Will but she just winked at me. That wink was a bad sign. It was usually preceded or followed by crazy stuff, which could be bad or good. You never could tell with Will.

Me: Umm...sure...what time and where?

Liam: Well, the fun run sorta starts at 5 AM...think you can make it?

Me: Lol. I guess so. I’ll just tuck in early.

Liam: Cool! I’m really looking forward to meet you. Will’s been raving nonstop about you. I’ll pick you up. Just text me your address.

Me: Actually, I’m staying @ Will’s place. Do you know it?

Liam: Yep. I’ll probably go with Hades then.

Me: Hades?

Liam: Hadrian? Will’s date? So, I’ll come by around 230. That ok?

This was the first time I had heard of someone named after the Lord of the Underworld. I mean, Will knew that was what Hades meant, right? I sneaked another look at Will, but this time, she steadfastly ignored me. I resumed texting with a frown.

Me: Yeah, sure.

Liam: Great. I’m really looking forward to see you.

            Stud stood up so suddenly, I looked up in surprise then wished I hadn’t when I saw his eyes, which had dulled into an unemotional shade of blue.

            “I have to go.”

            No, he hadn’t.

            I made him go.

            I needed him to go.

            I knew that, and I knew that I had to do what I did, but it didn’t make me feel any better.          

            “You’re such an idiot,” Will said. She tossed a kernel of popcorn into her mouth. “He loves you. He loves you not. He loves you.”

“Shut up, Will.”

There was just one last kernel left. “He loves you not.” She took a half-bite. “He loves you!” she sang and took the last bit in, munching noisily.