The Ghost Collector

The Ghost Collector — page 5 — yoga pants with her hair in a high ponytail We burned sage the woman says She tours Shelly and Grandma around her haunted apartment it’s bright and airy much bigger than the old duplex Shelly and her mom and grandma share To cleanse it you know Grandma smiles all bland and pointed and Shelly stifles a laugh with her hand at the image of this yoga lady waving her spice rack around trying to exorcise her apartment To cleanse it From the spirits The demons You know The woman gestures vaguely at Grandma at her soft brown skin and warm brown eyes at the little turtle earrings she wears every day The things that make some people say Native but Grandma corrects them and says Ililiw or Cree It’s cleansing The smoke We fanned it around the whole house and nothing The spirits are still here Shelly can see the ghost that haunts the lady’s apartment dancing around her feet It’s a little dog with a constantly wagging tail trotting around on tiny paws with nails that clack against the hardwood floors and echo through the hallways It noses its way over to Shelly and Grandma like it wants to play ALLISON MILLS

The Ghost Collector — page 6 — Grandma keeps smiling her eyes on the woman and not the ghost dog I don’t use sage to cleanse ghosts Oh So it’s like for other stuff Bad juju Grandma turns her back on the woman This is a tough case she says and winks at Shelly I might have to charge a little more for the work Do you mind Grandma heads deeper into the apartment listening to the woman talk seriously about the sound of claws scraping scraping over the floors and the cold wind that blows around her ankles whenever she comes home about how she feels like the spirits want her gone and isn’t it weird that her brand new condo is haunted like this Shelly takes a seat in the hallway and clucks her tongue at the dog smiling She’s never had a pet before too expensive but she likes dogs A ghost dog would be a good pet ghosts don’t need feeding the same way living beings do It’s okay she tells the dog leaning toward it so Grandma’s client won’t hear her whispering She tugs the tie off the end of the braid Grandma wove her long dark hair into and combs her fingers through it loosening it Grandma and I are going to take you for a walk The dog’s tail wags even harder and Shelly lets it dance THE GHOST COLLECTOR

The Ghost Collector — page 7 — around her nipping at the ends of her hair as she waits for Grandma to finish talking to the woman about the monster she imagines is hiding under her bed People are always coming by the house to see if Grandma will get rid of their ghosts cats that wind around their ankles and trip them when they walk Dogs that bark in the middle of the night startling them out of sleep Shelly catches the dog in the ends of her hair then scoops it into her arms when Grandma and the woman come back into the hallway scratching it under the chin Holding it is like holding a cold wind and when the puppy licks her face it feels like someone is rubbing an icicle against her cheek Will this take long the lady asks getting her wallet out of her purse Is 300 enough Three hundred is a lot for a ghost Most of Grandma’s clients pay in knickknacks and favors and food Grandma doesn’t normally charge much because if people know they have a ghost they might pay anything to get rid of them do anything Not long at all Grandma promises We’ll be out of here before you know it They walk the dog to the park and Shelly and the dog play ALLISON MILLS

The Ghost Collector — page 8 — fetch with an invisible stick until the dog fades away finally ready to rest They go home and Shelly helps Grandma out of her coat Shelly’s mother is in the kitchen and there’s a frozen lasagna in the oven You’ve got to be responsible Grandma tells Shelly You can’t charge people through the nose to get rid of a ghost Mom looks over from putting her hair up to go to work her uniform shirt all nicely pressed Her hair is long like Grandma’s and Shelly’s but she almost never wears it down outside the house She doesn’t want anything clinging to it I made dinner for you and Shelly Mom points a finger at Grandma as the oven timer goes off You could charge a little more We’ve got to undercut the frauds so people come to us instead We can help people Grandma says pulling the lasagna out of the oven Sit and eat before you go Someone has to pay the bills Mom says but she sits and cuts up the lasagna in its tinfoil pan What about helping us The duplex they rent isn’t anything like the fancy apartment apartment Shelly and Grandma spent the afternoon in The floors THE GHOST COLLECTOR

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