A Winter of Ghosts (The Waking Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

claim that it had been some other boy who looked like Jiro, since the
kid had been barefoot . . . on a train . . . in the middle of winter.
    So either Hachiro had
hallucinated, or he had seen a ghost. And after what they had all experienced
over the course of the school year, the supernatural explanation seemed more
than likely.
    Though Hachiro had been
reluctant to talk about it any further, Kara had insisted they tell Miho,
Sakura, and Ren. If this were indeed a sign of new supernatural activity, they
had a right to know. They had discussed whether to mention it to Kara's father
and Miss Aritomo — and by extension, to Principal Yamato and the police —
but decided against it for the moment. If anything else happened, they would
report it right away, but Hachiro had sensed no menace in the apparition. He
had thought it seemed sad, but not evil, and in the days that had followed none
of them had seen anything remotely out of the ordinary. In the past few days,
the strangest thing any of them had seen was the bright orange tie that Mr.
Sato had worn on Wednesday. Kara took some comfort in that, but still, the idea
that ghosts were wandering around Miyazu City disturbed her.
    People were always reporting
ghost sightings. All over the world there were places that were believed to be
haunted. Japanese folklore was rife with ghost stories. And despite what Kara
felt, they could not deny the possibility that Hachiro really had been
dreaming or half-awake and imagining things. It might not have anything to do
with Kyuketsuki's curse.
    Still, much of the excitement
and enthusiasm they had all had about the new year had vanished. Kara knew that
she had not been alone in thinking of the new term and the change in the
calendar as a fresh start, but they would not escape the curse so easily. Such
thoughts troubled her so much that she had been finding it very difficult to
pay attention in class, so much so that even her father had noticed. Her
homework had been rife with errors and she had started having difficulty
retaining what she had read. All of that, and they had only been in school for
a few days.
    She wished she hadn't had to
come into school today. It had been hard for her to get used to having classes
on Saturday mornings. This weekend she really needed a break, and something fun
to distract her. But at least she would have this afternoon and all of Sunday
off. Maybe she could talk her friends into going to a movie tonight. She had
already decided to try to persuade them to go tubing. She doubted her father
would have time to take them up to one of the mountains tomorrow, but the
weather reports had been hinting at a potential snowstorm. If it arrived
quickly enough, they could go someplace nearby. She knew a hill not far from
the school that seemed promising.
    Mr. Sato finished his lecture
and glanced at the clock. Soon the bell would ring to signal the end of
homeroom period and the teachers would all move to their first classes of the
day. That was one thing Kara loved about school in Japan. It made so much more
sense for the teachers to be nomads, roving from room to room for each class,
instead of sending hundreds of students herding into the halls between each
period.
    "Miho," Sato-sensei
said. "I believe you have responsibility for the toban today."
    Hearing her friend's name, Kara
perked up for the first time this morning. Miho's shyness had lessened over the
course of the school year, but as she stood up and went to the front of the
classroom she looked like she wanted to crawl out of her skin. No matter how
much she might come out of her shell, Miho did not like to be in the spotlight.
    She took a clipboard from Mr.
Sato and turned to face the class, adjusting her glasses. Her long hair fell in
a curtain across her face and she did not push it away, choosing instead to
hide behind it as if it were a veil. Toban was a rotating duty schedule for the
homeroom. Every day a different student took attendance and made