“Well, why not.” I cross my arms.
“You wouldn’t have liked it there at the funeral. It was real long. We didn’t even know her that well.”
“Niv, why couldn’t I come, really?” I say lightly. Niv takes a bite of her apple and stares at me.
She does her little one-shouldered shrug she does when she doesn’t know what to say and then sighs. “See, you’ll laugh at me…it’s ‘cause they don’t let you kiddos around dead bodies, ‘cause – you know, they’re soft. Not in a bad way,” she says hurriedly when my eyebrows turn up. “Just that your brain is soft. Only before you’re a teenager. And… well, spirits… sometimes they want shit when they’re still wandering. They want to carry on their dreams and all that, and- sometimes they’ll use a kid as their host. Usually a little one. ”
A slightly childish giggle rises out of me and I stifle it. “Sorry.” She doesn’t seem to notice, pausing.
“It’s worse depending on the temperament of that spirit. You know, if they were crazy or something-”
“Not to be a skeptic,” I interrupt, slightly, my voice polite. “But that doesn’t make all that much sense… spirits and all that.”
“Look, it’s just-” she furrows her eyebrows, trying to think. “I’ll give you a real example, huh?”
My ears perk up. “Sure,” I shrug, half-seriously. “Tell me about some time that a kid got possessed.”
“I’m serious.” her voice sounds it too. She gives me her apple and I nibble on it from the other side. “You know Vi aunty right?” I nod.
“Ya. Emi’s mom?”
“Uh-huh. Well, you know, her mom passed…” she clears her throat. “Her mom passed a while ago and she went to her, well, her funeral, right? But when she went, she- well, I don’t know whether she knew or not, but she just conceived Leer– Emi’s little sister. And, uh, nobody else knew, else they don’t let her near her mum’s body ‘cause, well, she’s got her baby in there, and babies are perfect hosts-‘’ She coughed again. “But anyways. Vi’s mum was a little… a little spunky. She liked to tease- she was a total boss, you know? Like that. Bossy and she would throw tantrums and shit. She always told everyone she wanted to go to America – even before she knew Vi would go, she would always say one day she would be living it up in America. And she teased a lot. It was all in fun but she sure did. And you know Leer, right? She don’t look nothing like her momma or papa, and Vi aunty told me that she looks like her grandmom.”
“And I know this is all genes but Leer’s a real boss too. She likes to bully her pop a little- like not in a mean way, in a cute way, but she would comment on everyone snidely in these little ways like her grandmom, like, about someone’s hair or a trait they have or something. And, well, you know Leer’s an all American girl.”
“But she said the screaming was the worst. Whenever Leer had a tantrum when they went out, they had to take her to the car and shut her up, give her meds. Seizures, too. Sometimes she would just scream, like a lot.”
My eyes hang on hers.
“And I’m thinkin’- well, I’m thinking, what if… you know?”
“Uh…” I mumble under my breath, trying to think of what to say because that is a little freaky. My voice hitches a little unexpectedly. I guess that makes me sound real scared because Niv looks all uncomfortable and apologetic then.
“Listen, I didn’t mean to freak you out with some ghost story. But isn’t it sort of freaky?”
“It could be a coincidence,” I say a little quietly. It seems silly to me.
“Yeah!” She nods a little too enthusiastically. “Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean I don’t believe in this shit. But it is weird though. Right?” She stares at the apple between my fingers. “It’s not like she ate her grandmom’s soul or anything.”
I giggle, again. She sniffs awkwardly. “Sorry. Weird analogy. I’m a little wicked up right now.”
“No,” I say all quiet again. “It’s more like… it’s more like her grandma ate her, actually. Ate her up all good like that.”