You may not remember Sadie. When we last (first) met her she was helping Tina fight off a grim reaper while babysitting her sister Maria’s daughter. Don’t remember that? It’s okay, it was a while ago, but you can read that here. Or, if you want to read the first story with Tina, you’ve got to go back to just the third story I wrote for the first year of 31 Ghosts, The Ghost You Know – still one of Akilah’s favs.

The door to the women’s room creaked open. “Hello?” Sadie said as she stepped inside. She looked reflexively looked under the stalls for feet even though she knew she was the first person at the school except for staff. And judging by the few cars in the lot, she had beat most of them, too. Satisfied she was alone, she took her mask off and stuffed it in her pocket. She stood still listening for something, anything. Finally, she sighed. “I guess she must have left…”

The door to the handicapped stall at the end swung open and a shape blurred out towards Sadie. Before she knew it, she was tingling all over as the ghost hugged her tightly. “Oh my God, you came back! Sadie! I missed you!”

“Ow, ow, ow, okay, okay,” Sadie said, staggering back trying to disengage. When they separated, Sadie stared at the translucent willowy blonde girl with a huge smile. Sadie smiled back. “Nicole! You’re still here!”

“Well, yeah,” she said looking around the bathroom. “Where was I going to go? I’m kind of stuck here.”

“I… uh… wasn’t sure. My ghost friend, Tina? She can move around pretty freely. I don’t really know what the rules are…” Said said.

“Yeah, me neither,” Nicole said glumly. “And I am a ghost!” Both girls were quiet for a long moment. “So… what happened? You were here – everyone was here – and then nothing. For like a year! There was no one here! What happened?”

“You don’t know about the whole pandemic?”

“Pandemic?”

“Covid-19?”

“Covid what?”

“Girl, I gotta catch you up…” they both sank to the floor with backs against the wall.

Sadie told her about the virus, masks, washing hands, the vaccine, vaccine deniers, the whole lot of it.

“Holy shit,” Nicole said. “So you spent all of last year going to school online?! Did that… suck?”

“Eh,” Sadie said, “It had some advantages – going to school in your pajamas was kind of cool. But I missed seeing everyone. Seeing you.”

Nicole smiled shyly. “It was really weird being here alone… I thought I was, I don’t know…. Being punished.”

“For what?”

“You know…” she stood up and walked away from Sadie. “For killing myself,” she said quietly in almost a mumble.

“Oh, Nicole, no! No one was punishing you!” Sadie stepped next to her friend.

“Then why am I trapped here?” Nicole spun to face Sadie, tears in her eyes. “I can’t leave this goddamn bathroom where I… did it. I just… blacked out and then… here I am?” she raised her hands palms up with a sad smile on her face. “If that isn’t punishment…” she shook her head and wiped away the tears. “And then you – the only one who’s been able to see me and my only friend… disappears…”

“Nicole, you know…”

“I know, I know – everyone disappeared, whether they could see me or not. So, you know, I knew something was going on. But… I didn’t know. And I started thinking about everything…” she started crying again.

Sadie focused and moved in and put her arm around her friend. She immediately felt the painful tingles of contact, but her focus blocked it out after a moment. And comforting her friend was more important than a little discomfort. She held Nicole while the girl’s body wracked with sobs.

When Nicole’s crying started to subside, Sadie said, “Hey?” Nicole turned her tear stained face up to her and Sadie moved a damp lock of hair off the ghost’s face.

Nicole gasped. “How… how did you do that?” then she realized she was in contact with Sadie and scrambled back to create space between them. “Whoa, sorry, Sadie! I didn’t mean to touch you! I know you said that hurts…”

“It’s okay, Nicole,” Sadie said. “I’ve learned a lot about what I can do with my… powers? Is that too strong a word?”

“Not from where I’m haunting.”

They both laughed.

“Look, Nicole, I’m going to talk to Tina and we’re going to figure out how to get you out of here.”

“Aww, girl, you know it’s hopeless…”

“It’s not hopeless. If I’ve learned anything during this fucking pandemic, it’s you have to have hope. I’ve got hope. I know we’re going to get you out of here. Trust me.”

Nicole stared at Sadie for a long moment. “I trust you.”