When Cam's done with chapter 7, the pen drops conspicuously on the desk above the book.

"I do not know ghost nonverbal cues well enough to interpret that."

Tap tap tap on a page of notes.

The main ways I'm different are that I'm fully moored (no time skipping except sort of when I try to zone out really hard and can kind of sleep) and better at interacting with physical objects.  Sometimes ghosts can get really emotional and send a bunch of pots and pans flying around a kitchen or whatever like a horror movie, but I'm better at little stuff.  Flying is nice but it would be a lot better if I could go higher or farther.  I miss recorded music a lot.  I have all of this

(There are probably hundreds of albums up here, between the vinyl and the tapes and the CDs.)

but I can't play any of it without electricity.  What batteries does your flashlight have?  You can play anything you want if they'll go in my CD player and it still works.  I spend most of my time reading; I've read everything here so many times.  My night vision is better than when I was alive, I'm pretty sure.  Sometimes it's hard to turn the pages.  Once people know about ghosts we should play them lots of books on tape.  I think it might also be possible to kill objects and that would be pretty great, if we could pass out ghost books.  Or ghost food, especially if it can be tasted multiple times.  All of my senses are kind of flatter, I think, than when I was alive.  I don't know whether colors are as bright.  Touch is very different of course.

 

I realize that between the two of us I'm the one who's an axe murderer, but that doesn't mean I know you.  I don't want you to read too much of the book before I have a better idea of you.

"Batteries are double A. What kind of idea of me do you have in mind?" He goes to scan through the CDs with more of a view to what wouldn't distract him from reading a book, which alas his stereotype of most punk music definitely would.

Over here's a small (only ten discs or so) collection of classical?

You could start with your name.  But I've seen what this book can do in the wrong hands, and I've spent the last eight years trying to figure out what the right ones look like.  It's not like I can ask for references on you; anything I say I want in a person is something you can pretend to be.

The pen sets itself down, and a moment later a drawer opens itself and a CD player and a pair of little speakers bob over to the desk.

"I'm Cam. I mean, I could go get my dad, he doesn't have the day off but it's a small town and he can usually sit and wait for a call wherever he wants." He picks out some Beethoven and does the battery transfer. "If this runs 'em down I'm going to need to leave earlier, I don't want to try getting out to my truck in the dark."

Hi, Cam.  I'm Jeremy.  I'm not going to let you read the book today.  Sorry.

And you should leave before dark anyways.  The veil is thinner and my parents could show up at any time.  I don't think you'd want to meet them.

(Cam tears out another couple pages for him, it's not like he can't flip it over but if he's not going to read the book he's going to need more paper real estate eventually to have this conversation.) "I admit that is not my fondest ambition."

Th

The music comes in and the pen pauses.

After a few measures it starts conducting along.

"Can I at least read more of the first half, you had me skipping ahead in there."

The pen 'sighs'.

Why do you want to so bad?

"...it's about fucking magic? That exists?????"

If I point you at a useful but harmless spell will you chill out some?

"I was going to just spend the afternoon talking to you instead of reading the book, there's a case to be made that's a better use of your pen-holding hours anyway, but then you seemed like you'd rather focus on the music."

I really fucking missed music and I needed a minute.  Singing's a bit easier without lungs but it doesn't make up for not having everything else.  Will you miss the batteries if you leave before dark?

"Not especially."

Then maybe we pause it and I jam out after you go. 

Do you want a spell to let you know whether there's a ghost around?

"Yeah."

Go turn off the music while I find the page.

To Sense the Presence of Ghosts

Cast within the pair of Hours before or after Dawn, Noon, Dusk, and Midnight and not on Sundays, under the Quarter Moons, in the Week surrounding an Equinox or Solstice, on May Eve, or on The Caster's Birthday unless Halloween.

Take in Hand one Grave Flower.  Over a plate of any material on which a candle stands centered, destroy it Manually, Incanting:

O candle, you cradle of light and enlightenment's shining
Already revealing the world to my sight
Already disclosing the forms which by night try declining
Now add to this power, by my will and rite
The knowledge of spirits' proximity to your divining

Light the Candle.  Its Flame will then burn no other objects, and may not be extinguished until the Candle is spent.  In the presence of Ghosts, the Flame will burn blue, and more strongly so the closer they are, until it burns white at closest distance.

"Bossy," mutters Cam, but he turns off the music. "Grave flower mean a flower that was left at a grave or one that grew there or is there just a kind of flower I've never heard of? Does this mean that it's okay to do it before midnight Saturday but not the hour following on which it would technically be Sunday, does it track formal timekeeping like that? What's May Eve, just the last day of April? Week surrounding an equinox or solstice like three days either side of it or like seven days either side of it?"

Sorry.  My manners are 8 years out of use.

A grave flower is one left or grown on a grave with intent other than it being a magic ingredient.  Magically, the end/start of a day happens between midnight and dawn.  Walpurgis Night.  3½ days.

"Between midnight and dawn, that's not very specific."

There's a specific point but it moves around compared to human clock numbers.

"Gotcha." He rewrites the spell in a mostly-checklist format in his notebook.

Before I died, I had some luck with getting them to move closer and farther away for yes/no questions.  It works even if they can't touch anything.