Dan and the Dead by Thomas Taylor

1
MY INVISIBLE WATSON

    I’m like that kid. You know, the one in the film who says, ‘I see dead people.’
    Only I’m not an actor. And the people I see, well, they’re not part of some script. They’re real.
    And yup – they’re dead.
    For a long time it was scary. And I mean pooing-my-pants scary. When I first realised I was the only one who could see the shapes in my room at night, the only one who could hear them, yeah, I waspretty uncool about it. My parents thought it was nightmares. The doctors thought it was something else and gave me pills. No one believed me, so I’m guessing it’s pretty rare what I can do.
    Anyway, dead scary – the endless chatter, the reaching hands, the staring ‘help me!’ eyes. I suppose I was headed for the loony bin. But then something happened a couple of years back, around my twelfth birthday.
    I met Simon.
    Simon’s one of them too – a dead person, I mean – but he’s the one who made me realise that I was looking at things the wrong way round. Because yeah, okay, the people who haunt me are
dead
, but they’re something else too. They’re still people. People who need my help. And when people need something, people will always pay.
    Simon’s a bit of a mystery though. When the dead linger it’s because they’ve left something undone or unsaid, or because they want revenge, and boy, do they go on about it! But Simon’s the first one I’ve met who’s keeping his problems to himself. He’s been dead so long, perhaps he can’t even remember.
    Or perhaps it’s because someone put a musket ball through his brain.
    Anyway, Simon sticks to me and keeps the other spooks in line, making sure I can get a bit of normal life during the day. Then at midnight (when else?), the interviews start. It’s like I’m a psychic private eye or something, only I don’t have candles or anything cheesy like that. Simon brings me the desperate dead, one at a time, and I see what I can do for them. Then, if I can help, they give me something very special in return.
    You’ll find out what later.
    And what does Simon get out of all this? I honestly don’t know. He just likes to help, I suppose. It’s like he’s my main ghost.
    Hey, everyone wants to feel important.

2
YEAH, SIMON REALLY DOES
TALK LIKE THAT

    â€˜Si, are you there?’
    â€˜Yes, Master Dyer,’ comes the silky voice, and I spot Simon in the corner of my room. It’s odd how they just appear like that, but I’m used to it.
    â€˜Got anything for me tonight?’
    â€˜Naturally. You have a sizeable waiting list, though the dead are nothing if not patient. Excepting the old magician, of course. Mr Lugubrian’s beendemanding to see you again. He has found out about your school show.’
    â€˜Si, I’ve explained,’ I say, and not for the first time. ‘Lugubrian’s a psycho. I’m not doing what he wants, and that’s flat. And I wouldn’t be seen dead at the school show. Bring me someone else.’
    â€˜Someone more your own time, Daniel?’
    I sit on my beanbag and turn up the music. I don’t want my parents thinking I’m talking to myself again.
    â€˜Yeah, hit me.’
    There’s a moment when nothing happens, then Simon’s there again, and now there’s someone else there too. I hear a gasp and a high spectral cry, and I dig my fingernails into my hands because it’s still a bit scary, all this. A figure runs into the room and stops dead still in front of me, staring down with a ghastly look.
    She’s about my age, or she was, and even with the terror and fury of the wronged dead twisting her face, I can tell she was quite a looker. Don’t take that the wrong way – I just wish I’d met her before, that’s all. I often feel like that.
    â€˜You can see me?’ she shrieks.