Preloved by Shirley Marr

floor.
    “What a day!” exclaimed Mum as she started plonking plates and cutlery down on our little dining table.
    I couldn’t agree more. Public lunacy, theft, detention and an aborted exorcism all in one day.
    What was next in store for me?
    “If you don’t mind, I’m going to eat in my room,” I said to Mum.
    “Of course,” replied Mum, but I could see the disappointment in her eyes as she looked at the table she had set out for two.
    Logan followed me as I headed upstairs with my plate of dinner.
    “After that, I think I need a smoke,” he said.
    “You smoke?” I asked him, surprised.
    “Doesn’t everyone?”
    “You’re not having a smoke. Anyway you can’t,” I replied. “And later I’m going to have to educate you on the dangers of smoking.”
    I walked into my room and let out a heavy yawn at exactly the same moment as Logan did. We stopped and stared at each other. I think we each held our breath for a little while, afraid to make another mirrored movement. It was weird to know that he was tired. I guess he was an energy field of some sort and he could become depleted too. I closed the door behind us.
    “Okay, so you’ve seen my room. Twice. Out with your opinions then,” I said, as I sat down on my dresser chair.
    “Do you know the show Beyond 2000 ?”
    “No. I could ask Mum. She’d know. She’s been alive for yonks before 2000.”
    I popped a chip in my mouth. I was so exhausted I could hardly chew.
    “It was a science program and it showed you what technology there would be in the future.” Logan looked at my three papered walls (the remnants of an ancient 1950s civilisation) and my one bare concrete one. “It predicted a lot more than this.”
    I pulled off my school shirt. I was so tired that I was beyond caring. Plus I had a singlet on underneath, an essential shield against the slightly transparent fabric of the polo shirt and the perverted boys at school. I dropped it onto the floor.
    “See that?” I said to Logan. “If I don’t pick it up myself, no robot maid is going to come and do it me.”
    I shook out my hair and wound my fingers around the necklace possessively as if it was the most precious object I owned. I could feel a presence at the back of my neck and when I turned my head, Logan was there. I didn’t jump this time, but I felt myself break out in a billion goosebumps.
    “Amy, I think this is the best part of us being together. It’s an unconventional relationship. I’m the ghost and you’re the freaky little girl who can see ghosts. None of that awkward boy and girl stuff.”
    I stuffed some more chips and a bit of fish into my mouth and then wiped my hands on my skirt.
    “Okay. Since you’re my guest, I ought to be nice to you.”
    I was making a resolution to be super-nice to Logan. I felt bad that I had tried to get rid of him. Deep down somewhere in my jealous, crazy, neurotic heart, I was trying to pull out that good person Logan said existed.
    I spied my MP3 player sitting on my dresser.
    “Here, why don’t you play with this?” I held it out to him.
    “What is that?”
    “It’s an MP3 player. I’ve got some good Eighties music on it like The Cure and The Smiths. Thought it might make you feel, y’know, at home.”
    I held the player out to him.
    “Right,” said Logan. “Where do I put the cassette in?”
    “You don’t. The music’s already inside. I’ve got a stack of albums in there. Maybe you can even find something modern that you’ll like.”
    I went to press the player to his hand, then I realised that wasn’t going to work.
    I slid over to my desk and flipped open my laptop. I typed “poltergeist” into the search engine.
    “What is that?” asked Logan.
    “A computer.” I scrolled through the search results.
    “Get real. That’s not an Amiga 500.”
    “Check this out. According to this site, poltergeists or ‘noisy spirits’, as opposed to ghosts – which are considered to be the apparitions of dead people that