I rolled my eyes at her. We had gone over this once long ago, the sort of boy I sweated. She always thought I fell for the wrong guys.

“So what did you buy at the mart?” While curious, I really wanted to talk about Josh more but didn’t want to be rude. Trace was far more experienced with ghosts and boys than I was and I wanted to know what I should do next.

Trace emptied the tote bag she always brought to the mart. I glanced at a gilded lipstick case, a pair of twisted red candles, and a couple of CD singles. The last object was mysteriously wrapped in pale tissue paper.

“Oh, that’s not from the mart,” she murmured.

I gingerly unwrapped a small clay statuette. “Amazing. Where did you find this?” It was a horse, at least at first glance. But it was stained light green as much as tan and the mane was white froth rather than hair. I turned it over and over, and with each look I saw something new: not hooves but small fins on the feet; a slight scale pattern on the legs; and eyes open wide and wild.

She grinned. “My brother made it for me.”

“Second Mike?”

“Uh-huh.” She took it back and held it up to her face. “I told him a few days ago about this book I’m reading that has a kelpie in it. That’s a mean fairy water horse. This morning when I woke up, this was on my nightstand.” She pranced the clay kelpie in the air a moment. “Must have taken him all week at school.”

The sculpture seriously impressed me and I lightly touched the clay with my fingers. The smooth glaze was cool to the touch, exactly how I imagined the feel of a water horse’s hide. “I never knew he could make something like this. You think he could make me something?”

Trace shrugged. “You’d have to ask him.”

I had said maybe twelve words to Second Mike, ever. But now my curiosity about him was totally piqued.