Chino’s grandma was a wise woman. She had lived most of her life in Mexico and she knew a lot of things other people didn’t know. She had a cure for just about every sickness that had ever been invented. They were cures Dr. Cartwright at the town clinic had never heard of. Chino said that a lot of times they worked better than the medicines the doctor prescribed. And Abuelita knew about brujería, which is witchcraft. Of course she knew all about ánimas and fantasmas—souls and ghosts.

      Once when Chino and I were asking Abuelita about ghosts we asked her if she thought we’d ever see one. She told us that nine times out of ten a ghost will appear to a girl—a girl between the age of 11 and 17. She didn’t explain why that was true, but she told us she knew it was a fact. I’m sure that’s why she was working the needle so furiously as she listened to her son and daughter talking.

      And that’s why Abuelita had a long talk with Elena before she went to stay in the house with her dad. “Óyeme, nieta,” she said, “if you see anything strange in that house, you’ll be the only one who can see it. Porque un fantasma sólo se le aparece a una persona a la vez. A ghost will only appear to one person at a time.”

      Elena nodded her head. Her face was a little pale and she was listening intently to her grandma. Abuelita went on: “And the ghost can’t speak to you until you speak to it first. You have to say the right thing. You have to say, ‘En nombre de Dios, ¿eres de este mundo, o del otro? In God’s name, are you of this world, or the other one?’”

      Elena repeated the words to herself, “En nombre de Dios, ¿eres de este mundo o del otro?”

      “Eso,” Abuelita said, “that’s right,” and she shook her head in approval. “That’s what you need to say. And if it answers the other world, you say, ‘En nombre de Dios, ¿qué es lo que quieres? In God’s name, what do you want?’”

      Once again Elena repeated her grandma’s words. Then Abuelita came to the most important part: “If it tells you what it wants, and if you want to do it, and you’re able to do it, you still have to be sure that you make the ghost say that once the request has been fulfilled, it won’t come back again.”

      Elena said she’d remember everything and Abuelita hugged her granddaughter for a long time and recited a prayer for her protection.

      Elena packed some clothes in a bag and got ready to go live in the old house with her father.

       Chapter 6

       The Noise on the Roof

      THE FIRST NIGHT that Elena spent in the old house, she had her mind made up she wasn’t going to sleep. She lay in the bed with her eyes wide open, watching and waiting, listening for every sound. But as it got later and later, her eyelids began to feel heavier and heavier. She started to drift away to sleep.