Jump When Ready by David Pandolfe Read Free Book Online Page B

other side of
that door. Without thinking about it anymore, I closed my eyes and plunged
through her.
    A moment later, I opened my eyes again to find myself
standing in Tommy’s room, not sure what to think. As I’d passed through Mrs.
Balboa, I’d actually felt her impatience with her sleeping son.
    Curtis grinned. “I admit, that part is kind of weird.
Takes a little getting used to.”
    I nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”
    Mrs. Balboa knocked again from her side of the door.
“Tommy? Get up and in the shower!”
    We listened as her footsteps faded. Tommy was just waking
up, sitting on the edge of his bed, yawning and stretching.
    “As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, we can be around
people on this side and not be seen. Or heard,” Curtis said. “Kind of cool,
huh?”
    I thought back to my dreams about Bethany, thinking how
strange it was that even in my dreams she’d been unable to hear or see me.
Almost as if my brain had already started to accept the fact that I was now
invisible to my family. I wasn’t convinced there was anything cool about it.
But I just said, “Yeah, it’s definitely different.”
     “Unless, of course, we want to be seen or heard.
Sometimes, that’s an option.”
    “Hang on,” I said. “How is that an option?”
    “Most of the time, it isn’t,” Curtis said. “Let’s not
worry about that right now. So, this is the jerk who used to pick on you?”
    “That’s him.”
    We watched as Tommy got out of bed. He crossed the room
and went to reach for his bathrobe, where it hung from a hook on the back of
his door right next to us. Curtis plucked the bathrobe off the hook. He dangled
it in the air, then dropped it to the floor.
    Tommy shook his head in disbelief. “What the—?”
    C urtis laughed and I
did too.
    “Watch this.” When Tommy bent to pick up the robe, Curtis
yanked it across the floor.
    Tommy jumped back and stood staring, wide-eyed. “No way.”
He looked around the room, then back at the robe. “No freaking way.”
    This was too much fun. When Tommy reached for the robe
again, I went to pull it away but my hand passed right through it. A moment
later, Tommy held the robe out at arm’s length, staring at it with his head
cocked to one side.
    Curtis burst out laughing, this time at me. “You are like
nowhere near ready to go Manipulator yet.”
    I felt my face grow warm. “What does that mean?”
    “It means you can’t have any physical effect here. Not
yet. Probably ever. Depends on what kind of talents you have, and there’s no
guaranteeing you have any at all. Not to bum you out or anything but most
don’t. Wait, there he goes.”
    Tommy had recovered from his shock enough to place the
robe back on the hook. He stood staring at it for a moment, then opened the
door and walked down the hall in his underwear.
    “Somebody please buy that dude some pajama’s,” Curtis
said. “Too scary.”
    I couldn’t help laugh. It was just so weird watching
Tommy Balboa walk around that way, having no idea we were there. “Okay, that
was pretty cool.”
    “Like we’re done.” Curtis followed after Tommy, so I did
too.
    “Tell me we’re not going into the bathroom,” I said.
    Curtis shrugged. “After he flushes, of course. What could
be freakier than having ghosts in your bathroom?”
    Ghosts?
    For some strange reason, a chill went up my spine. But
that creepy feeling made no sense now. After all, that’s what we were. Ghosts.
    Curtis didn’t leave me anymore time to think. “Come on.”
He walked through the bathroom door.
    Tommy stood at the mirror, poking at the pimples on his
face.
    Curtis flashed that grin of his again. “Okay, so Tommy
here has already convinced himself that what he just experienced never
happened. Check it out.”
    I watched Tommy gaze blankly into the mirror. He seemed
completely fine now.
    “That’s how it usually goes at first,” Curtis said.
“People—living people, that is—see what they choose to see. Like, who can wrap
his