The Ghost's Grave by Peg Kehret Page A

to claim her husband’s body, the coroner agreed.
    â€œThe brothers put me in a cart behind my horse and led the horse up the hill to a place I always fished, along the Carbon River. They dug the grave deep and buried me there, and Sarah planted wild roses on the spot. She was a good woman, Sarah. A good woman.”
    I didn’t know what to say. More than a century later, I could tell he still yearned for the woman who had been his wife.
    â€œThe only thing Sarah didn’t do for me,” Willie said, “was to remove my leg bones from the cemetery and bury them with the rest of me. I want to be all together in one place, far from Emil Davies.”
    â€œDid you tell her what you want? Did you ask her to have the bones dug up and moved?”
    A great sadness came into his eyes, and he looked down at his boot. “Sarah couldn’t hear me,” he said. “I tried and tried to talk to her, but she never heard any of it. She never saw me after I died, never sensed my presence. My boys couldn’t see or hear me, either. Most people can’t. I move among them, and they don’t notice. The girl, Florence, was the first to see and hear me. You’re the second.”
    Florence. I thought about Aunt Ethel’s peacock. If anyone could shed some light on that situation, it was Willie. “Do you know what happened to Florence?” I asked.
    â€œIt scared her that she could see me when her sister couldn’t so she quit coming to the tree house. Sure did miss that girl. It gets lonely with no one to talk to.”
    â€œCouldn’t you have gone to her house to see her when her sister wasn’t there?”
    â€œI could have, but once she got afraid of me, I left her alone. All I wanted was someone to talk to, andyou can’t hold a conversation when the other person’s jumpy as a jackrabbit. I watched her sometimes, though. Saw her grow up, teach school, take care of the critters. I liked that about her—she was kind to the animals.”
    â€œWhat about after she died?”
    â€œShe must have moved on right away. Never saw her as a ghost.”
    â€œDo people ever come back to Earth as animals or birds?”
    â€œBoy, you don’t know much about the hereafter, do you? Why would a person turn into a bird?”
    â€œMy Aunt Ethel thinks Florence came back as a peacock.”
    â€œMy Florence? The girl I knew?”
    I nodded. “Florence had said when she died she wanted to come back as a peacock, and a few months after her death, this peacock showed up at her house, and it’s been there ever since.”
    â€œIf that ain’t the most fanciful tale I ever heard. Boy, you ought to be writing a book yourself.”
    â€œIt’s true! The peacock hangs around the porch, and Aunt Ethel feeds it cracked corn and calls it Florence. Maybe you could go there and see if the peacock recognizes you.”
    â€œNo. I’m not talkin’ to no peacock.”
    â€œPlease?” The idea of proving or disproving Aunt Ethel’s theory excited me. “All you have to do is go talk to the peacock and see what happens. If it’s really Florence, she’ll remember you.”
    â€œIf it’s Florence and she sees me, she’ll be scared, just like when she was a girl. She’ll fly away.”
    I thought how Aunt Ethel didn’t want me to bring Mr. Stray home because she feared he could frighten the peacock, but this was different. This was like a scientific experiment.
    â€œThe peacock isn’t scared of people,” I said, “so if it’s afraid of you, that’ll mean it really IS Florence.”
    â€œOr it would mean the peacock’s scared of a ghost. Any ghost.”
    â€œPlease, Willie? It wouldn’t take long.”
    â€œNo. I don’t go around frightening people or birds.”
    â€œIf the peacock is scared, you can leave before it panics and flies away.”
    Willie thought a moment.