Indwell (Chasing Natalie's Ghosts) by Nicole Smith

his shoes and jacket.
“I’m leaving mom. I can’t live with that jerk anymore. I hope someday you will say those words too.” He kissed her on the cheek and patted Luke on the head as he headed for the front door. He stopped in front of me.
    “I hope you’ll have the courage to leave this dysfunctional environment soon too,” he gave me a hug and walked out. I didn’t know where he was going, but I was jealous of how he must be feeling right now, completely free of it all. `Don’t worry John’, I thought to myself. I am leaving soon too. I’m just taking a different way out, I smiled to myself.
    My parents had started packing a few days after New Year’s. I didn’t have too much time left to come up with a plan. I spent hours going over different scenarios with Adam, but we couldn’t come up with anything that would work. I wasn’t a ghost. I needed sustenance and in order to get it I needed money. I couldn’t travel as quickly as he could either. That could pose problems in the future for us. The unfortunate thing about Adam’s ability to travel was the restrictions he had. He was incapable of leaving a certain radius surrounding his house. Which explained why he couldn’t visit me when I was at the hospital, it was too far away, which is the reason why he won’t be able to find me when I move. He won’t be able to go far enough. It was extremely frustrating. He had tried several times to find an exit but nothing seemed to work. I had to build up my courage to do what was appearing to be our only chance. I just prayed we would be together at the end of it all.
    I quickly rummaged through the bathroom medicine cabinet. The one good thing about having psychotic parents is that there was always a wide range of mind altering drugs around. I thought if I made myself an antidepressant cocktail mix then that might put me out, hopefully stopping my heart. I was not too familiar with the effects of medication on the body but I knew a little about overdoses. My fathers’ friend had died from a heroin overdose right in the middle of our kitchen floor many years ago.
    I can remember that night so clearly, it was the same night Cheveyo introduced himself to me. My father had come home early with some of his friends. I could tell by the volume of their voices that the festivities had begun hours before they arrived home. I grabbed a hold of Muffy, my big white husky and took her outside. I was trying to find the boy that had saved me in the field from being run over by a tractor but I couldn’t find him anywhere. When I walked back into the house, I noticed that there probably wouldn’t be any dinner that night either as my mother had joined in on the party. The music was loud. The table was covered with bottles, ashtrays, foil, spoons, lighters and odd glasses with tubes. I just shook my head and walked into the kitchen. I grabbed a large bowl of cold mashed potatoes from the fridge, covered it with ketchup, found three cans of cola, some spoons and went to find John and Luke upstairs. We sat on the floor quietly and ate dinner. They thanked me for the grub then went back to setting up the broken racetrack in John’s room. I walked up the remaining stairs to my room and shut the door.
     I didn’t want to see any of my father’s friends. They gave me a creepy feeling when I was near them. I slammed the door as I quietly cursed them all. I closed my eyes as I fell onto my bed. I looked up at the ceiling and rolled over. There, sitting on the floor was my hero. I looked back at my door to make sure it was shut then turned on the lamp. He jumped back into the shadows of my room.
    “Hi!” I said. I was not really sure why he was here but I was happy he was. He looked kind of sad, so I decided not to ask too many questions right away, I didn’t want him to leave me.
    “So, I wanted to say sorry for being mad when you pulled me out of the field, so I’m sorry,” I said cautiously.
    “You are forgiven,” he