"Who?" Nana Prescott asked. "Did you say someone was here? Celeste?"
I didn't answer. I dropped myself back, my head on the pillow, and stared up at the ceiling.
"She must be having a dream. I think she's still in it," Papa Prescott said.
"Yes, that's it. Poor child. The hard times she's gone through as an orphan are unimaginable," Nana Prescott said, and finally came to my bed and fixed my blanket around me. "There, there, dear. Papa and I are right nearby if you need us. Would you like me to leave the door open?" she asked.
I looked at her.
"Yes," I said. "Leave it open. Maybe he'll return." "Maybe who will return?"
"Noble," I said. I loved saying his name, and it had been so long, so very long, since I had told it to any-one.
They looked at each other.
"She'll feel better in the morning," Nana Prescott forced herself to conclude.
"Yeah, we all will," Papa Prescott predicted, and they walked out, she pausing once to look back at me.
"Come back, Noble," I whispered. "I won't be happy here. I promise."
But he didn't appear again that first night. Nevertheless, I knew he was sulking somewhere in the shadows. I could feel him there. Afterward, I knew he was following me everywhere, too. He even followed me to the new school I was to attend, and after I had been assigned my desk and had been introduced to the class by my teacher, I spun around and caught him standing in the back of the classroom. He smirked, fell backward into the wall, and was gone.
Over the next few weeks, I never stopped looking for him. My teacher complained to me and then to the Prescotts that I wasn't paying attention, that I was very distracted. She told them she couldn't understand how I had been doing so well in school. My first grades on her tests were always failing, and whenever she called on me in class to answer a question, I would simply stare at her.
Nana Prescott continually asked me why I was doing so badly. She volunteered to read with me, but I knew that would make Noble even angrier, since it was what he always did with me. I told her I didn't need her to do that.
"Noble will help me," I said.
"Who is Noble?" she asked.
"My brother."
"Your brother, but where ... when do you see him?"
"Whenever he wants me to," I said.
She shook her head and busied herself with some household chore. Later, she and Papa Prescott talked about me. I could hear them speaking softly in the liv-ing room after I had gone up to bed. Noble told me to tiptoe out to the top of the stairway to listen.
"I don't know," Papa said. "I don't
like it. We might have bitten off more than we can chew, Julia."
"Oh, I'm sure she'll get better after a while. It takes time to get used to a new home, Arnold. Children often invent imaginary friends."
"This isn't an imaginary friend. It's her brother who died. Can't say it doesn't give me the creeps to hear her talk about him," he said. "And the way she stares at nothing, as if she sees someone. Frankly, it gives me the chills. Funny how Annjill didn't mention anything about this."
They were quiet.
I started back to my room. Noble was standing in the doorway.
"See what I mean? You don't belong here," he said, turned and went inside.
But he wasn't there when I entered. I went to bed and waited and listened for him. He didn't return, and I fell asleep.
The following day Mr. Fizer, the school counselor, asked to meet with me. He had curly blond hair and very friendly and warm blue eyes. I saw the picture of his wife and two children on his desk. He had a girl who looked to be about fifteen in the picture and a son, whom I had seen in the hallway, who was eight years old and two grades below me. I couldn't help wondering why there was such an age difference between his two children. In the family portrait, I thought his wife looked older than him.
"It's always hard to start a new school," he said almost as soon as I sat in the chair in front of his desk. "We all understand that, Celeste, but Miss Ritowski thinks you're having more serious problems. Is there anything bothering you that I can help you with, perhaps? I really would like to help you and to see you succeed."