The Ghost's Grave by Peg Kehret Read Free Book Online Page B

knee.
    This angel needed a shave.
    â€œYou don’t look like an angel,” I said.
    â€œHow do you know? Have you met other angels?”
    â€œNo, but I always thought angels wore long white gowns and had shiny wings and halos.”
    â€œHa! That’s a stereotype, if ever I heard one.Angels aren’t all the same, just as people aren’t all the same.”
    â€œAn angel should look kindly, like Cinderella’s fairy godmother in the Disney movie.”
    â€œCinderella? Disney?”
    I could tell he had no idea what I was talking about. Maybe he really was an angel. What did I know about angels?
    Whoever or whatever he was, he didn’t seem to be a threat. My heart quit thundering in my chest, and my breathing returned to normal. Part of me still wanted to scramble down the ladder and run, but another part of me overflowed with curiosity. I stayed next to the door, ready to bolt if I needed to, but I kept talking to the man/ghost and listening to what he said.
    â€œTell me about yourself,” I said.
    â€œNot much to tell. What do you want to know?”
    â€œHow did you lose your leg?”
    â€œIn a mining accident. Got caught in the explosion of nineteen-oh-three. My leg’s buried in the Carbon City cemetery. My brother made a proper little casket for it, like you’d put a baby in. He said a Bible verse, and my wife sang a hymn, and they laid my leg to rest. ’Course, I didn’t attend the funeral service. I was still in the hospital.”
    â€œWhat kind of mine did you work in?” I asked as I tried to imagine burying my own leg.
    He snorted as if I’d asked the dumbest question he’d ever heard. “Carbon City had one of the biggest coal mines in the state. Lots of coal mines around here back in my day. The Northern Pacific built a railroad line up here to haul out the coal. Took out coke, too. There were rows of coke ovens down by the town. Some are still there.”
    â€œCoke?” Why would ovens be needed for Coca-Cola? Or did he mean cocaine? Was he a drug addict who imagined he lived long ago?
    â€œCoke. You know, the hard coal that’s left after it’s heated in the ovens. It’s used for fuel.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œFor a lad who lives in Carbon City, you don’t know much about the place. Ain’t you ever gone to see the coke ovens?”
    â€œI don’t live here. I’ve only been here two days. I’m visiting my aunt this summer; she told me about the tree house.”
    â€œI used to talk to a girl in this tree house a long time ago. She was a pretty young thing, name of Florence. Her sister came here, too, but the sister couldn’t hear me or see me so I only talked to Florence.”
    â€œSo you’re a ghost, not an angel.”
    â€œSame thing.
Ghost
sounds frightening, and
angel
sounds comforting. I didn’t want to scare you off so I said
angel
. That’s one thing book learnin’ did for me; I know it’s important to use exactly the right word for what you mean.”
    â€œAre ghosts and angels really the same? There’s no difference?”
    â€œOh, there’s a small difference. Nothing to get worked up about.”
    â€œWhat is it?”
    Willie looked annoyed. “If you must know,” he said, “a ghost becomes an angel when he’s ready to move on. That’s when you get the wings and the halo.”
    â€œHow long have you been a ghost?”
    â€œSince I died. May ninth, nineteen-oh-five. I was thirty-two years old.”
    â€œThat’s more than a hundred years ago! Does it always take so long to move on? When will you become an angel?”
    â€œDrat it, boy, you ask too many questions. I’m not going to be an angel, not now, not ever, because The Boss won’t let me.”
    The Boss? Did he mean God?
    Willie scowled and punched one fist into his other palm. “The Boss says I can’t get my wings and moveon until