Dead Air by Michelle Schusterman (best books under 200 pages txt) 📕

we followed Mi Jin into one of the cells. “Because masks and rubber snakes aren’t amateur?” I muttered. Oscar ignored me.

“All right, gather round,” Mi Jin said cheerfully, plopping down on the dirt and unzipping her backpack. Jamie and Hailey immediately sat on either side of her, and I knelt down next to Jamie, doing my best to avoid a damp spot from the leaky pipes. Oscar sat cross-legged between Hailey and me just as Mi Jin pulled something out of her bag and set it in the center of our circle with a flourish. “Ta-da!”

“Wow.” I leaned forward, staring at the Ouija board.

Mi Jin had attached a small, square circuit board along the top between YES and NO. A thin cord connected the circuit board to a mouse, which was embedded in the center of a wooden teardrop-shaped planchette. At the tip of the planchette was a small, circular lens.

“Why’s it all . . .” Oscar waved his hand at the board. “Computerized?”

“Moving solid objects takes a lot of energy for ghosts—electricity’s easier to manipulate,” Mi Jin explained, flipping a switch on the circuit board. It hummed to life, the tiny lightbulb flashing green. “You use it just like a regular Ouija board.”

“The electrical current helps them move the planchette,” Jamie added. “Much better chance of communication.”

Oscar looked about as skeptical as I felt. Our eyes met for a second, and his lips quirked up. I ducked my head to hide my grin.

Mi Jin looked amused. “We’ve got a couple of nonbelievers here,” she informed Jamie and Hailey. “I’m counting on you two to change their minds.”

“You don’t believe in ghosts?” Hailey asked me, wide-eyed.

“Um . . .” I sat back on my heels, thinking carefully. I didn’t want to offend her or Jamie. “I guess I just need to see proof before I believe something’s real.”

Hailey nodded, turning to Oscar. “You too?”

Oscar shrugged. “Something like that.”

Laughing, Mi Jin stood and brushed the dirt off her jeans. “Try exactly like that. Just one of the many things Kat and Oscar have in common. Right, Kat?” She winked at me on her way out of the cell.

“So who are we contacting?” I said quickly, before Oscar could ask what Mi Jin was talking about.

“Sonja Hillebrandt,” Hailey replied immediately, her cheeks flushed with excitement. “She’s the nice one. Red Leer was evil.”

“Good call,” I said. “No evil pirates invited to this party.”

“Oh no, I totally want to contact him, too!” Hailey pulled a small notepad and a red pen from her pocket and set them next to the board. “Angry ghosts have more energy, so it’s a little easier. But Sonja’s the hero, right? She sacrificed her life to save her brother and all those prisoners. It’s only polite to invite her first.”

I couldn’t help smiling at her enthusiasm. “You’re not scared at all, huh?”

Jamie shook his head. “Nothing scares her.”

“True,” Hailey agreed, flipping the notepad open. “Oh, Kat! Do you still have that piece of paper you’ve got with the other messages? Can I use that instead?”

“Sure.” I pulled the square of paper out of my back pocket and handed it over. Hailey unfolded it, smoothing it out on the dirt. Jamie adjusted the Ouija board, then took the planchette and set it in the center.

“Ready?”

“Why not.”

He and Hailey placed the tips of their fingers along the edge of the planchette. Oscar and I followed suit.

“So, I’ll try to contact Sonja,” Jamie explained. “Hailey’ll write down any responses we get. We all have to focus on Sonja. Maybe try picturing her, like that portrait from your blog post,” he added to me. “Okay?”

“Sure,” I said, and Oscar shrugged again. The four of us stared at the board. When the planchette immediately started to move, I looked up at Jamie. “You’re doing that,” I blurted out, then cringed at how accusatory I sounded.

Jamie smiled without taking his eyes off the planchette. “This is how we get started—like a warm-up. We’ll move the planchette around until Sonja takes over.” He cleared his throat. “Sonja Hillebrandt . . . please join us. We’d like to ask you a few questions. We invite you to talk with us.”

As he spoke, we continued moving the planchette in slow circles across the board. I pressed my lips together, trying not to giggle at Hailey’s dead-serious expression. Jamie cleared his throat.

“Remember, everyone needs to focus on Sonja,” he said quietly. I chanced a peek at him. His gaze was still fixed on the planchette, but the corners of his mouth twitched. The urge to laugh increased, and I bit hard on the inside of my cheek.

Nearly a full minute passed with the four of us sitting in the dingy cell in silence, scraping a computer mouse stuck in a wooden plank across a board. The whole thing seemed more and more absurd with every second.

“Oookay,” Oscar said at last. “No offense, but this is—”

“It’s not working because you aren’t focusing on Sonja,” Hailey interrupted. Her tone was terribly patient, as if she were talking to a toddler. I started snickering—I couldn’t help it—and she turned to me. “You too, Kat! You have to focus.”

Her schoolteacher voice and stern expression just made me laugh harder. “Sorry,” I said, ducking my head. “It’s just  . . . Has this really worked for you guys before?”

Hailey nodded. “Yeah! We contacted our grandfather right after his funeral.”

The laughter died in my throat. “Oh, I didn’t realize,” I said, flustered.

“It’s okay,” Jamie said quickly. “It was a couple of years ago. And it was just a regular Ouija board. But we definitely talked to him.”

“Why are you so sure it worked?” Oscar asked.

“We asked him a few yes-or-no questions first,” Hailey replied, tapping on the board. “Stuff only he would know. And then we asked where his pocket watch was.”

“His watch?”

“It belonged to his father,” Jamie explained. “Kind of a family heirloom. And after the funeral, we couldn’t find it anywhere. Our mom was going nuts looking—she kept blaming herself for losing it.”

“So we used the board to ask Grandpa,” Hailey