Forest Ghost Read Free Page A

Sparky.
    ‘Yes, he is. I don’t know how the heck you knew about it, but yes.’
    Sparky’s eyes suddenly filled with tears, and he shook his head from side to side in grief and frustration. ‘I
told
him not to go. I could see it in his stars. All the signs pointed to it. I even drew his chart for him, and I showed it to him.’
    ‘I’m really sorry, Sparks. I don’t know what to say to you. You guys were so close.’
    Sparky sniffed and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. ‘He wanted to prove to everybody that he was tough. I told him it didn’t matter what everybody else thought about him. But he said if he went to Owasippe and showed everybody that he could swim and light fires and tie knots and all of that scout stuff, they wouldn’t call him a geek any more.’
    ‘But you did his star chart for him, and that showed you that he was going to die?’
    Sparky nodded, his mouth puckered in misery.
    Jack said, ‘I have to tell you that they
all
died, not just Malcolm. The whole troop, fifteen scouts and seven leaders. Sally came round and told me, but it’s probably going to be shown on the news, later.’
    ‘All of them? I didn’t see that in the stars. Not
all
of them. Only Malcolm. They weren’t murdered, were they? What happened to them? It wasn’t like
Friday the Thirteenth
, was it?’
    Jack hesitated, and then he said, quietly, ‘They killed themselves, Sparks. They all committed suicide, including Malcolm. That’s what Sally said, anyhow.’
    ‘I saw Castor in his chart,’ said Sparky. ‘Castor is a fixed star and that usually means a head or a neck injury which could be serious enough to kill you. The Sun was in Aries, and it was squared by Mars and Saturn. That was almost the same chart that Henry the Second of France was given in the year 1554. Five years later, when he was jousting, a lance went right through the eyehole in his helmet and into his brain.’
    Jack glanced at Sparky again. Although his voice sounded flat, tears were still rolling down his cheeks. Jack was used to this apparent contradiction. Sparky always spoke as fluently as somebody twice his age, and with very little emphasis in his voice, almost as if he were reading from a prepared script. But Jack knew how emotional he could be. The first time Sparky had witnessed Malcolm being bullied at school, he had come home trembling with rage and frustration.
    Jack said, ‘Malcolm’s mom has asked if we could go with her to Muskegon tomorrow – you and me. She has to identify Malcolm formally and the police are going to take all of the next of kin to the spot where they died. When something like this happens, some people find it pretty hard to get to grips with it, and I guess they think that might help.’
    ‘Does anybody know why they all killed themselves?’
    ‘I’m not sure. They might have left suicide notes, but if they did, Sally didn’t mention it.’
    ‘I don’t want to go.’
    ‘Are you sure about that? I think Malcolm’s mom could really use our support right now.’
    ‘Something made him do it and I don’t want to meet that something.’
    ‘I don’t get you. He committed suicide, Sparks. They all did. It’s not like Jason Voorhees came out of the woods in his hockey mask and killed him.’
    ‘I don’t want to go.’
    They had reached the Nostalgia Restaurant. Jack stopped outside the front entrance to let Sparky out, because his parking space in the back yard was so tight that Sparky wouldn’t have been able to open the Camaro’s door wide enough to lift out his astrological globe.
    ‘OK,’ said Jack. ‘If you really don’t want to go, I’ll call Sally and tell her we can’t do it. I did warn her that it might be too upsetting for you. Listen – you go inside while I park the car. Are you hungry?’
    Sparky shook his head. Jack put his arm around him and hugged him. ‘I’m so sorry, Sparks. I really am. I know how close you were, you and Malcolm.’
    Sparky whispered, ‘I told him not