A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano Read Free Book Online

introduced anyone to Felix before—not since she realized she was the only one who could see him. She wasn’t entirely sure how this would work.
    The tree branches shook on the wind. There were few leaves left clinging to them, and they shivered like paper bells.
    Felix stood below them, arms crossed, scowling.
    “Don’t be angry,” Pram said. “I’ve brought Clarence because he’s my friend, and he’d like to be yours, too.”
    “Who are you talking to?” Clarence said.
    “ Felix,” Pram said. “He’s a ghost.”
    Clarence stared at the empty space below the tree. “Oh,” he said. “Are you sure?”
    Pram laughed. “Very,” she said. “He’s in a mood today.”
    Felix dived backward into the pond. The splash was extraordinary, but Clarence didn’t see it. Felix was in charge of whether or not the living could see his tricks. Any other schoolboy would have doubted Pram at this moment. Seeing ghosts wasn’t a common talent, and young girls were known for their imaginations. But Clarence had come to know Pram in the time they’d spent together, and he believed her.
    “Felix,” she said to the pond crossly. “Please come out of there.”
    Felix bobbed to the surface. “What does it matter?” he said. “Your boyfriend can’t see me.”
    Pram’s face turned red. “He isn’t—he’s not—just let him know you’re here.”
    Clarence waited with more patience than Pram, who was fidgeting. But then her face broke into a smile and she pointed to the sky. “Clarence, look,” she said.
    In the fall sky, the clouds shifted and took on the shapes of ballroom dancers twirling about.
    Clarence was astonished. “You’re doing that?” he said.
    “ Felix is.”
    The scene melted back into clouds. An ill-timed blink, and Clarence might have missed it entirely.
    “Shall I sing and dance for you as well, Your Highness?” Felix grumbled.
    Pram looked overhead to where he was sitting in the tree. “Thank you,” she said. When she smiled, he found it hard to stay angry, but he didn’t want to admit it, and so he disappeared from sight.
    Clarence looked at the clouds as though they might perform for him again. He wasn’t very surprised that they had danced. There was something about Pram; when he was with her, he felt that anything was possible.
    “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Clarence said.
    “I didn’t know how you’d react,” Pram said. She sat in the grass with her legs folded, and she smoothed her skirt pleats. “Felix says that people like me get sent off to the circus if they’re found out.”
    This hadn’t occurred to Clarence, but now that he thought about it, the circus did seem to be a home for people with surreal talents.
    He sat next to her. He stared at her bare knee, admiring the fine blond hairs that glinted in the sun. He didn’t see the ghost ladybug that she saw flutter and land there.
    “I also thought you would be angry because I couldn’t help you find your mother,” Pram said. “Sometimes people don’t become ghosts. Sometimes they just move on.”
    “Where do they go?” Clarence asked.
    “I don’t know.” Pram shrugged. “Just . . . on. I used to look for my own mother, but she’s never answered me. She’s moved on, and maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe she’s happier wherever she is and she wouldn’t want me to come find her.” She looked at him, sympathetic. “It doesn’t mean we have to stop looking for your mother,” she said. “Maybe she’s still hiding somewhere.”
    “She wouldn’t hide from me,” Clarence said. “She might hide from my father; she was angry with him for being gone most of the time.”
    He looked up at the clouds, and so did Pram.
    Even though Pram hadn’t asked him to, Felix made the clouds dance again.

CHAPTER
    8
    A fter school the following day, Pram visited Clarence’s house for the first time. It was a majestic Tudor house surrounded by gardens that had gone to sleep until the springtime. Stone gnomes and