Chapter Ten

 "Look, this is it!" said Xavier to the other children.   He held up a large wooden board with a diagram drawn on it.  It looked a bit like an overcrowded clock face.  At the top, where the number twelve is on a clock, was a circle with the word "Yes" printed in it.  Anti-clockwise, along the circumference to the left ran smaller circles with the letters of the first half of the alphabet down to the bottom.  Where the six should be was the word "No" in a another circle and climbing up the right hand side was the rest of the alphabet.

 "What is it?" Pere asked, in a whisper.

 "It's a Ouija board," his cousin stated.

 "Yes, but what does it do?"  Montserrat asked.

 "It's for getting in touch with the spirits of the dead!"  Xavier said.

 "I don't like it!"  Montserrat chipped in, a chill feeling running down her spine.

 "Where did you get it Xavi?"  his sister asked.

 "I found it at the back of the wardrobe in Granddad's room,  it must be very old, look at the date in the corner."

 Pere leaned over and read aloud:

 "Pujol and Fabra, spiritual suppliers.  Barcelona 1919.  Wow, it's ancient!"

 "I still don't like it," Montserrat said firmly.

 "What are you going to do with it?"  Pere asked excitedly.

 "We are going to hold a seance!"  Xavier announced.

 The children gasped and Xavier quickly argued:

 "It's the only way!  We've convinced you that this house is haunted, haven't we?"

 Montserrat remembered the cat's eyes and gulped saying:

 "Well yes, but-"

 "No buts!" interrupted Xavier.  "We've got to help Mother.  The only way we can do that is by finding out where Dad hid his documents."

 Despite their Mother's ban on telling any one about her plight, Xavier and Marta had relieved some of the burden of their secret by sharing it with their cousins.  The twins announced themselves willing to do anything to help and that is when Xavier had come up with his idea.

"I'm frightened," Montserrat confessed as Xavier set the board down on the living room table.

 "There's no need to be,"  Xavier reassured them. "We're convinced that the ghost-"

 "Or ghosts..." Marta added.

 "-are friendly," her brother asserted.  "I mean, if we are right, one of them is our Dad.  Now you were never frightened of him were you?"

 Montserrat had loved her Uncle Josep and despite her fear shook her head.

 "Right then," said Xavi, taking control.  "We need a glass, preferably a stable one, and not too heavy."

 "I'll get one from Grandma's collection," said Marta getting up off the sofa.

 "Are you sure that's a good idea?" Pere inquired, remembering the time he had watched Grandma carefully taking each glass from the cabinet and lovingly cleaning it.

 "We'll be careful!"  Xavier said, shaking his head.  "Now Pere, you close the blinds..."
 
 

 "That's my boy!"  Josep's ghost said with admiration as his son lit the candle and began the invocation.

 "I don't know what you're getting so enthusiastic about," Isidre countered.  "It won't work, we can't move anything; our hands just pass straight through everything."

 "We can try, can't we?  If it works I'll be able to tell them...  To tell them..."  His memory grew vague yet again.  "Well, whatever it is they want to know," he concluded, trying to hold on to the enthusiasm he had earlier managed to summon up.

 "That board looks familiar to me,"  Isidre noted.

 "It should do," Josep replied, hooking in to another memory.  "It was yours.  Me and Frank and cousin Lluis found it in your wardrobe one day and-"

 "What were you doing in there?" Isidre asked sternly.

 "Oh, you know, kid's curiosity and all that-"

 Josep was suddenly aware that he was in danger of losing the memory and he interrupted himself:

 "Anyway, we scared ourselves silly with it.  But it most definitely worked.   Wasn't that you then who answered all our questions that night?"

 "Not me," Isidre said simply.  "I told you we can't move anything.  I've tried for....  How long have I been dead for?"

 Josep tried to think:

 "Er let me see.  I was forty-five when I died and I was only three when you...  er forty-two years."

 "Well I must have spent twenty-five of them trying to give signals of my presence, but without any success."

 "Then who moved the glass?"  Josep demanded.

 "You'll see soon enough!" his father stated pulling an unpleasant face.

 The thing floated above the centre of the board invisible to the children.  It was not exactly formless, it had features which resembled arms and eyes, but it also had other bits, the purpose of which Josep could only guess.

 "Can't we chase it away?"  he asked.

 "No, it'll only go when they stop feeding it," Isidre replied.

 "Feeding it?"

 "Well, that's my theory anyway.  I reckon they feed on fear these blobby things, whatever they are," Isidre said, shrugging his shoulders.

 "But can it do them any harm?"  Josep asked, trying to feel more anxious.

 "Not physically," Isidre replied.  "But they'll do themselves mental damage by the nightmares and lack of sleep they're going to have after this session."

 "Is that you dad?"  Xavier asked with a tremble in his voice.

 The glass sped up to "Yes".

 "It's a lie!"  shouted his Dad's ghost impotently.  He tried to push the thing off the board, but his hands passed straight through it.  The thing did not even appear to be aware of his presence.
 

 The children exchanged glances -  Montserrat was terrified, Pere was over-excited,  Marta was nervous, but strangely content to be communicating with her father again and Xavier was trying to remain calm, hoping the others hadn't noticed that his teeth were chattering.

 "Make sure!" Marta interrupted as Xavier began the next question.  "Ask him something only Dad would know the answer to."

 "Good idea Marta," said Pere, his eyes shining in the flickering candlelight.

 "What was your favourite T.V. programme?"  Xavi asked into thin air.

 The glass began to rotate around the circle, but the letters it stopped at made no sense.

 "Bargugleglick, what does that mean?"  Pere asked, disappointed.

 "It's not your dad Xavi, let's stop this,"  said Montserrat half getting up out of her chair.

 "Sensible girl!" said Josep's ghost enthusiastically.   "Go on, get up!  Take your finger off the glass!"

 "No wait!"  cried Xavier easing her back down. "Maybe he's having trouble reading the letters.  Let's try a few more Yes and No questions."

 "Was your favourite programme `The Price is Right'?"

 The glass shot down to "No"

 Xavier smiled with relief.

 "Was it `True Crime Cases'?

 The glass moved up to the middle of the board and then shot back down to "No".

 "Was it `Tomorrow's World'?"

 The glass sped up to "Yes".

 "How did it know?"  Josep's ghost asked his companion.

 "It didn't, but the kids knew it.  Maybe it can read minds."

 "So why didn't it just spell it out?"

 "Don't know," Isidre said, shaking his head.  "Perhaps this one can't spell."

 Josep's frustration grew as the thing successfully answered a string of questions, finally convincing even Montserrat that it was her Uncle's spirit.

 "So, ask him the big one," said Marta after the glass confirmed the date of Josep's wedding anniversary.

 "Where are all your papers Dad?"  Xavier asked.

 The glass moved around the circle slowly then came to a stop in the middle.

 "That's not a Yes or No question!"  Pere commented.

 "Oh of course," Xavi agreed.  "But how on earth are we going to..."

 The four of them became silent in thought.  At last Marta said:

 "Twenty questions.  Use the twenty questions format!"

 Xavi started the process:

 "Are they in this room?"

 The glass crossed to "No".

 "Are they in our old flat"

 "No"

 "Are they here in this house?"

 "No"

 Josep's ghost suddenly found an emotion - anger -

 "Yes they are!  You hideous creature!"

 He flung himself at the thing, but of course passed straight through it.  "Don't pay it any attention kids!"

 The next answer caused the children to shiver.

 "Are they in Uncle Raimon's house?"

 "Yes"

 "Are they in his living room?"

 "No"

 "His kitchen?"

 "No"

 "His bedroom?"

 "Yes"

 "In a cupboard?"

 "No"

 "In the wardrobe?"

 "Yes"

 "Could you see them if you opened the wardrobe door?"

 "No"

 "Are they in a secret compartment?"

 "No"

 "Why can't you see them then?"

 The glass rotated slowly.  Marta butted in:

 "Are they under some clothes?"

 "Yes"

 "Are they on the first shelf?"

 "No"

 "The second shelf?"

 There was a sudden horrendous howl and the children jumped out of their skins as Misha landed right in the middle of the board with her fur puffed up into a ball, her teeth bared, her tail erect and her eyes gleaming like a devil's.

 "Good cat!" shouted Josep's ghost as the thing in the centre of the board dissolved into nothingness.
 
 

 "Well I don't know why she reacted like that, do I?"  Xavier protested later when they had calmed down enough to talk.
 Montserrat pulled the blinds up and Pere blew out the candle.  Suddenly his eyes were drawn to something on the floor:

 "Oh no, the glass has got smashed.  She'll never forgive us!" he said, contorting his face into a grim mask.

 "I'm not going to explain how it happened," Montserrat insisted.  "I was against the idea from the start."

 "That's not important, right now," Xavier protested.  "What is important is that we know that Uncle Raimon is hiding Dad's papers in his wardrobe."

 "I don't see how that helps us," Marta said, throwing her hands out dismissively.  "We can hardly go up to him and ask him to hand them over, can we?  If we even mention that we know he's got them he'll move them or destroy them, won't he?"

 "Then we'll have to go and get them," Xavier said slowly.

 "You mean break in to Uncle's house?"  Marta asked, wide eyed.

 "But we don't even know if they're really there?"  Montserrat objected.  "The way Misha reacted, I'm sure that wasn't your dad's ghost we were talking to."

 "Then how do you explain that he knew all the answers to the questions they asked about Uncle Josep?" Pere demanded.

 "I don't know, but I really don't believe-"  Montserrat was interrupted by Xavier.

 "It's all we've got to go on.  I'm willing to risk it.  Who is with me?"

 Pere's hand shot up, followed slowly by Marta's.  Montserrat shook her head but said:

 "Well, I suppose I'll have to go along with it.  But come on, Grandma will be home from her club in an hour, we'll have to clean up and try and reposition the glasses in her cabinet so that she doesn't notice."
 

 Josep's ghost floated above their heads with his hands over his ears and his eyes closed.

 "I can't bear it any more," he said dramatically, but when he opened his eyes again it was night and the room was empty.