“She is buried, in México,” he says.
“Oh,” I say.
“We need to talk to her espiritu.”
“How do we do that?”
“It’s easy. We just need ... how do you call it? Un tablero de Ouija. A Ouija board?”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a board used to communicate with the espiritus.”
A board to talk with the spirits. I have no idea where we’re going to find one of those.
For the rest of the ride we sit in silence. A couple of times my neck heats up and I’m wracked with waves of burning icy cold.
Then it’s our stop, and we get off together.
Enrique walks up to his house and I follow him. “So, you don’t have one of these Ouija boards?” he asks.
I shake my head.
“Me, neither,” he says. “We need to go buy one, maybe.”
“Where?” I ask. “At Shaw’s? At Stop and Shop?”
“No,” he says, looking at me like I’m an imbecile. “At Natural Magic. On Main Street. They sell herbs and natural vitamins. And lots of tarot cards, that kind of thing. It’s like a twenty-minute walk. You have any money?”
“I have like twenty dollars in my room.”
“Go get it,” says Enrique. “And then I want to show you something in my room.”
Inside, I drop my backpack and pick up the cash. My house is empty; my mother must be out with Josh. In my room, though, there’s a strange smell. It’s coming from my open window, from the roof outside it. I look out, but there’s nothing there. I shake my head. It’s the same musky odor from before, on the bus, and from the locker, too—and from Enrique.
Enrique meets me at the front door.
“Notice anything?”
“What?” I say.
“Smell anything?” he asks, holding his nose.
“Yeah, to be honest, it smells funky. Like a cat.”
Enrique smiles. “Cat smells better than wolf.” He invites me in. The smell is stronger inside, and this weird feeling comes over me. We walk upstairs. In his room the smell is strongest, and the hair stands up on the back of my neck.
“Is there a cat in here? A big cat?”
Enrique smiles. “There was a cat here. He went by your window too. A jaguar. But he’s gone now.”
It takes me a moment to realize what he’s saying.
“You can change?” I ask. “Just like that?”
Enrique nods.
“Does it hurt?”