Chapter 3

Evan used to be a proud kid.

After school he'd watch cartoons with me, and he played games with me too. My favorite was Red Light, Green Light.

Except one time, we were playing out front. Evan called it, and then some boys from school pulled him away to shoot hoops, and I stood right where I was for a long time, waiting.

A stranger picked me up and carried me off. I fought as hard as I could, and my head came down on something sharp. The stranger dropped me and ran.

Mom and Dad saw what I'd turned into, and then they got divorced.

Only Evan stayed. He put all of us on those skinny shoulders of his.

But even somebody as slow as me knew this much: none of it was Evan's fault.

My brother was supposed to be the kid who went wherever the wind took him and got everything he wanted. Not the one dragged down by me. Not the one too scared to say out loud that he loved somebody. I knew that if Molly hadn't taken the first step, he'd have watched her from a distance forever and wished her well from where he stood.

My chest ached. I looked up at the chime swinging in the wind.

There were tears at the corner of his eye. I reached up to wipe them away and caught nothing.

Thank goodness for Molly.

"Evan, I want a home with you.

"As long as I have you, the rest doesn't matter to me."

"It matters to me."

Evan turned and pulled her hard against him.

"I can't even promise you the simplest thing.

"Maisie will always be the most important person in my life. She's like this because of me, and I owe her the rest of my life to make up for it."

No. No.

I shook my head like crazy, trying to argue with him. Maisie's brain doesn't work right, but Maisie can live on her own. If Evan just taught me how to work the appliances, I could even take care of Grandma.

Evan, don't you dare give up Molly because of me.

He was crying harder now, like he was cutting his own heart out to show her.

"Sometimes I wish I'd been the one they took. Then I wouldn't be carrying all this.

"Last time Maisie snuck out, I actually caught myself thinking that if she got lost for good and never came back, that would be easier.

"Molly, does that make me a monster?"

I stopped, and I thought about the time I snuck out.

Usually I did what Evan said. I never left the yard. But that day there was a dog outside tearing into the stray cat Molly always fed, and the way I saw it, if Molly was sad, Evan was sad, and if Evan was sad, I was sad. So I went out to keep everybody from being sad, and I chased the big dog off. Then I got too far from home, and it took me a long time of asking people before I found my way back.

So that was what Evan had been thinking.

Something in my chest twisted. But I talked myself out of it fast.

It's okay, Evan. Maisie isn't going to weigh you down anymore. Maisie's a ghost now, and Maisie can ring the wind chime for you.

Chime, chime. It sounds nice, doesn't it?

Molly got him calmed down, thank goodness, and the two of them put a whole spread of food on the table. Evan wiped his face and knocked on my window.

"Maisie. Dinner."

Oh no. I was a ghost. Could ghosts still eat?

Nobody answered. Just as he reached for the door, he saw the shape humped up under my blanket and stopped.

Watching him turn around, I let out a breath. Good thing I was smart enough to stuff my doll under the covers.

Now he thought I was in there sleeping like a rock.