clever little girl

The girl didn’t seem at all hesitant about the subject, so Joyce didn’t see a problem in discussing it. “I did die, but I’m not exactly a ghost. I was resurrected by the Man in the Moon. I still don’t fully understand it, but I guess he though I still had things to do in this reality.”.

“Oh.” That made no sense to her. Man in the moon? She’d never seen a man up there, even back when Daddy had let her use his binoculars. “I’ve seen people die before,” she said, matter-of-factly, so casually that it was like she was speaking of the weather. “A man at the hospital got his head ripped off. And my parents were cut all to bits, too. Were you cut into bits? ---It doesn’t look like it. How did you die?”

Joyce smiled and shook her head. “No, but I once was. Now, though, I’m a spirit. I have been for a pretty long time.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a spirit before,” Fran said thoughtfully, clasping her hands behind her back. “Like a Halloween spirit? You don’t look much like a ghost to me. Are you dead?”

“Oh! I suppose it’s hard to tell sometimes.” Fran looks the woman up and down, but doesn’t question her knowledge of other realities. It seems like lots of other people know about them; more than she ever would have guessed. “Are you not mortal like me, miss?”