Living with Spirit Girl: Cp8

Living with Spirit Girl
Chapter Eight

I found myself surprised that Dorothy stayed so quiet when I told her about what Arraelly had been doing at night. I expected some exclamations of surprise and disbelief. She however sat quietly in her seat at the back of her house.

Finally, Dorothy said, “She is not just rushing off after this Lorither. She’s not crazy, Blake.”

“I never said she was. She is however using my body.”

“She cannot use anyone else’s body. However, if you and her can figure out how to switch bodies, it could help.”

“I guess.” Attempting to see it her way, I thought back to an earlier conversation. “It would make us more like a superhero.”

“Yes, and you do not need to make her angry with you. She seems very nice. Arraelly let you put her in that form, then has only worked to do honorable things. You need to work with her, Blake.”

“I am trying.” Actually feeling that to be the truth, I went on. “This is however something I am not used to. Arraelly also is a lady, and being connected to female things is embarrassing.”

Dorothy smiled as she asked, “And what are you going to do when you get married?”

“I’m not getting married!”

I had to look around knowing others turned to look due to that outburst. Luckily, we were outside where our parents were not directly watching over us. Tim and Justus were also playing on their phones and having their own conversations with others. While they glanced at me probably wanting to make comments, their minds had not actually been registering what Dorothy and I said. Thus, while others looked, that was all they did.

Justus however whispered as he paused his game, “You and Arraelly getting along?”

Dorothy answered for me, “Yes, they are. Hopefully, even better, but any relationship take some getting used to.”

I had to mumble, “That’s true.”

Justus said, “Well, it is not like she can leave her lipstick lying around, or her panties in your drawer.”

“Actually, I do have panties in my drawer. Dorothy and her mother gave Arraelly some clothes.”

“Ooh, well if she puts on lipstick, do you end up with lipstick?”

“No!” Again people looked, and Tim paused his game to listen in, but I tried not to let an additional friend concern me as I said, “I still have girl stuff with my stuff. Felix picked on me, and I believe will continue until I have to explain things – and I do not want to explain things.”

Dorothy said, “You are going to end up having to explain sooner or later. What would help is you and Arraelly learning more about your relationship. Work at changing bodies.”

Tim had say, “Changing bodies? You mean you and Arraelly changing bodies?”

“No,” I was proud of myself for not blurting out that word, “but she can take over my body. She spent a night working out with Fernando Freight Train. I don’t know what she did last night, but she admitted she went out doing something.”

“Fernando Freight Train – dude, he’s big and mean.”

Dorothy said, “But Arraelly is nice. I can believe she made friends with him.” She then put a hand on my shoulder to reinforce the command, “You need to be nice to Arraelly. She can be a help.”

I felt that was good advice. I did like Arraelly. We spoke of ways I could wear the brooch and not have it show. It was an odd piece of jewelry. It looked like a side view of a squirrel. Dorothy said it was made out of white jade. It definitely was a stone and not plastic, but neither of us could find anything about white jade on the internet. She said the stones were onyx, but they shimmered with an oily sheen that had them appear as fake stones. It had been dark when I gained the brooch, and upon lifting it up to look at it in moonlight is when the strange radiation struck. I felt it had been altered with the arrival of Arraelly, although allowed that her presence in my life was a good thing.

We called up Arraelly and enjoyed spending time with her. She was willing to try things, but at no kind could she take over my body or I end up in hers. I was glad not to find myself in a girl’s body. While I did listen to Arraelly remind me that she was not in her native body, she did allow that she would have felt really peculiar having to spend time in a male body.

It took some mental work for me, but we managed to give Arraelly control over a physical body. Even with the brooch in contact with me, she was not completely substantial. I had to completely blank out to do it the first time. I came back into focus hearing my friends speak some advice. Arraelly was correct that my greatest problem was not to react, but I promised her that I would work on my mental control to keep her with control when she was busy with something.

I believe Arraelly did some things in the nights, but I did not find my sleep disturbed. She did spend time on the computer checking maps of our community. She could not say that she was finding out anything, but she spent time with me asking about churches and other places other than homes in the neighborhood. I found myself feeling she met other people than Fernando Freight Train, but nothing I heard her speak about had me wish I had been disturbed from my sleep.

Back at school, I felt find returning to the usual routine. Again I finished my work for Mrs. Carpenter, and again she gave me an assignment. As I moved off, I heard my name called. Officer Tarkenton was at the door to the book room, and as I moved to him he asked for my help.

“Need to get in, Blake. Could you open it?”

“No. I don’t have the key.”

“You got in to rescue me the other day.”

I was not going to call Arraelly, but simply said, “Let’s just say that was a special situation.”

“Yes, and if I was smart, I would have left that out of my report. Problem is, Mrs. Suzuki also reported you as entering a locked classroom. I might have others informing me to apply pressure on you about how you did it.”

“I am not a problem, Officer Tarkenton. All I do is –“

I hushed realizing the situation that Arraelly was in. All she wanted to do was help. She wanted to stop the really bad, bad guys. Doing that however got her sent here. Yes, she ended up haunting me, but she was nice and tried not to be a problem. She was not at pestering me. I found myself worried about Arraelly even as I spoke to Officer Tarkenton.

“I need to make copies for Mrs. Carpenter.”

“You are a good kid, Blake. We had a situation however, and we are treating it seriously. That means we want answers. I don’t mean you harm, but we will need to know things.”

I then realized that I could answer his question by having him choose the depth of what I said. “If you want the answer, you will have to hear about that ghost you saw. Hearing about that ghost, I don’t believe you will want to tell others the answer to your question. Thus, you probably better stop asking now.”

He actually nodded before saying, “The students in Mrs. Suzuki’s classroom also spoke of seeing a ghost. Did someone die that we don’t know about?”

“No, but what I know is as strange as a gorilla that escaped from a transport cage somehow managing to fire missiles at police cars.”

“There were no missiles fired at those police cars, Blake. Still, yes, there were sighting of the gorilla that escaped from the zoo. What do you know about that?”

“His name is Lorither.”

Officer Tarkenton raised a hand to stop me from saying more, then said, “His name is Calvin.”

I chuckled before saying, “I will tell Arraelly that.” Before the officer could say anything, I went ahead and provided the information. “The name of the ghost is Arraelly. Don’t ask any more questions unless you want to hear about ghosts, aliens, and superheroes.”

“Okay, Blake, we can leave it there. Since we have an understanding however, when I do come again asking questions, assume that I am ready to listen about such things.”

I finished the assignment, then went back to class wondering if I should contact Arraelly. What prevented me was the knowledge that I would have to speak. We had not developed a method speaking with just our minds. I however felt a need to see if we could do it. While we could switch bodies, I knew that would also be noticed in the school. All I could do was stay quiet in class thinking to wait until lunch.

Dorothy seemed also to have been planning to have me work with Arraelly. She met me in the hall even before I could get to the lunchroom to ask about summoning my alien other identity. I reminded Dorothy that contacting Arraelly was not a problem, but being seen talking to someone others could not see or hear was.

Tim arrived while we were discussing what might work, then pointed out the obvious, “You cannot just have Arraelly appear.”

Dorothy replied, “I gave her a school uniform. Surely she put it on this morning.”

I said, “It is not like Arraelly wakes up with us and everything.” I then had to allow, “But in being up all night, she was active in the shower this morning and did put on school clothes.”

Dorothy glared at me for a moment as if she was going to ask how I knew what clothes Arraelly put on, so I was glad to hear her say, “So it should not be noticed when one student is replaced by another student.”

Tim said, “You mean one male student is replaced by one female student.”

Justus sat down with us while asking, “What are we talking about?”

I answered, “Dorothy is claiming that no one would notice if I was suddenly replaced by Arraelly.”

“Shoot, yes, we would notice. That body we had her take is hot.”

Now I glared at Justus, but Dorothy said, “After we eat, let us get in a group and have you try, Blake. Since you worked with her this weekend, I believe it should not be a problem for you to do it now. Mentally drift out of control of your body, and see if Arraelly can take over.”

Wanting to go ahead and let the absent lady present her opinion, I pretended to check my phone while moving the brooch to a pocket where the back of the clasp was against my skin. I immediately sensed Arraelly. While she really was not visible, my friends stayed quiet while I explained the plan between bites of food.

“That is what I was thinking as well, Blake,” Arreally said. “The problem is that we both seem to have strong active minds. If you cannot stay in the background, you take back control rather easily, but then it is your body. What you are going to have to do is meditate and let me have control.”

Dorothy sought to reinforce those words. “Yes, Blake, you be a gentleman to the lady.”

I spoke to defend myself. “I cannot wake up knowing how to act.”

Arraelly said, “In his green striped pajamas.”

“Hey!”

Not only did eyes turn to me, but I felt that they saw the misty form of Arraelly standing behind me. I had Justus scoot over to make room for our spirit member. I then had to deal with her again speaking of me having to walk home in my wet pajamas because I interrupted her shower. Hearing Tim and Justus cackle at her description of me did not help my ego, but I silently endured the torment. At the end things went quiet, and when I looked to Arraelly I felt her hug me.

“You’re doing well, Blake.”

“Did well?” I had to think as Dorothy complimented me to make sense of the situation, although I still had to ask. “That was a test?”

Araellay said, “Yes, Blake. If I am to maintain a hold on your body, you are going to have to remain calm in spite of things.”

“I think I can. I am just surprised by a lot of things.”

“And you have every right to be. You are still going to have to learn not to react so strongly.”

We might have had her take the body of a young pop star, but it was times like that when I realized that Arraelly was an adult. I still found myself agreeing with Dorothy that Araelly was a nice person. She did not scold me or make strong demands. I did like her. I thus sought to let her know that I would work with her.

“Well, other than that, maybe we can work on just talking with our minds.”

“Yes, Blake, that would help on occasions. There are also certain things that we probably just need to keep to ourselves.”