The Night Tourist
green dress looked Euri up and down. “Not so good dying in a school uniform, is it, sister?”
    Jack could see a small vein on Euri’s temple throb. She looked ready to say something really nasty. He decided to step in. “We want to talk to him,” he said, pointing to the stone-faced man. “We need some information.”
    “Him?” said the ghost in the green dress. “What does he know?”
    “Well,” Jack stammered. “We need someone who’s been dead awhile. Who might know about some of the . . . the unnatural things that can happen.”
    A hoarse, croaky voice cut in. “I been dead only seventeen years,” said the old-looking ghost.
    Jack looked at Euri, who had crossed her arms and was working her jaw in an angry way. He raised his eyebrows to signal that maybe they should go.
    “What ‘unnatural’ things?” asked the ghost in the green dress, narrowing her eyes.
    Jack didn’t answer.
    “Sit down,” she said, patting the space next to her. “Level with me, and maybe I can help you. Bartender!”
    Jack looked uncertainly at Euri, but she was fingering the skirt of her uniform. A busty barmaid blew through the wall. “Yeah?”
    “Four spirits.”
    The barmaid didn’t move. “How old are you?”
    “For crying out loud, Trixie,” said the ghost in the green dress. “I’m ninety-seven. Old enough to have a drink.”
    Turning to Jack, she explained, “I died eighty years ago. I’m ancient.”
    “Well how’s about those two?” the barmaid said, pointing to him and Euri.
    “I’m twenty-one!” Euri said smugly, forgetting her skirt. “I died seven years ago.”
    Everyone turned to Jack. “Uh, me too,” he said.
    “He doesn’t look that dead to me,” droned the barmaid before she disappeared back through the wall.
    A minute later the drinks arrived: three tumblers and a glass of soda with a straw. Jack tried to hide his disappointment when the waitress slammed the soda down in front of him. “Don’t drink it,” whispered Euri. Jack remembered the Unofficial Guide and fiddled with the straw instead.
    “To death,” said the cat-eyed ghost, holding up her glass.
    “To death,” said her grizzled companion, knocking back his drink and emitting a satisfied burp.
    Euri mumbled something indecipherable and took a small swallow of her drink.
    “To death,” said Jack. He winked at Euri then held up his drink and stuck the straw between his lips, pretending to take a sip.
    After a while the ghost in the green dress spoke. “I’m Ruby,” she said. “This here is Harry. I was stabbed to death, so I don’t like knives. Harry froze on the street.”
    “Was a night like this,” he added. “I was drunk.”
    Ruby turned to Jack. “How’d you die?”
“Train.”
“A tragic bunch. How about you?” she asked, cocking her head toward Euri. Jack waited to hear what Euri would say. “Accident,” she said after a pause. Ruby chuckled. “Is death ever not? Care to specify?” Euri shifted in her seat. “Not really.”
    “Okay, Miss Mysterious.” She looked back at Jack, studying his eyes. “You’re a funny lot, you two. What do you want, anyhow?”
    “We want to know about an asterisk,” Jack explained.
    “What asterisk?”
    “We went to look someone up in the death records and she had an asterisk next to her name. The record keeper seemed upset by it. Do you know what it means?”
    Ruby shrugged. “An asterisk? I have no idea. A cross, I know. A circle . . .” She turned to Euri. “You’re all secretive. I bet you have a circle.”
    “What’s a circle?” asked Jack.
“Shut up,” Euri hissed at Ruby. “It was an accident.”
Jack felt confused. “So you don’t know anything about an asterisk?” Ruby shrugged. “Can’t help you, kid.”
    “It was an accident,” Euri repeated. She looked like she wanted to cry.
    “You got anything else to go on?” Ruby asked.
    Jack opened his backpack and pulled out the map. “This.”
    Ruby grabbed the map out of his hands and

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