“Where are we going, Pavel?,” asked the little girl.

Pavel Konstantin paused in his walking to look down at her. He racked his brain.

Did he know this girl? How did he know her?

He decided the best thing to do was keep walking. If he knew her, he would

remember her name eventually. If he didn’t, it was best to not deal with strange

girls you didn’t know.

“What’s wrong, Pavel?,” said the little girl. “We used to be such good friends.”

“Keep walking,” Pavel told himself. “Keep walking.”

“Don’t ignore me, Pavel,” said the little girl. “I will do something rude if you do.”

“Go ahead,” said Pavel. He kept walking. “I have to get to my job. I don’t have time

for you.”

“Your job is more important than me?,” asked the little girl.

“I have to say yes,” said Pavel. “The coppers I earn feed my wife and children. I can’t

just stop because a strange girl wants to talk to me.”

“It’s me, Pavel,” said the girl. “It’s Ivanoviska.”

“You’re messing with me now,” said Pavel. He waved a hand at the girl. “Ivanoviska

is a large, ugly, bald man with scars on his face. You’re a little girl. You don’t look

anything alike.”

“I tell you I am Ivanoviska, and I need your help,” said the little girl. She clouted

Pavel on the leg with a tiny fist. “I stole this body so we could talk.”

“You have my attention,” said Pavel. He rubbed his leg. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” said Ivanoviska. “I was walking home and there was this thing.

I tried to run. I ran out of my body. It took me a while to think of what to do, and the

only thing I could think of was to talk to you and get some idea on what to do next.”

“The little girl?,” asked Pavel. He waved a hand at the body.

“I found out that I could take someone over,” said Ivanoviska. “This was the only way

I could think to talk to you.”

“Take the girl back where you found her,” said Pavel. “Make sure she’s looked after.

I will talk to you after work.”

“I’m a ghost, aren’t I?,” said Ivanoviska. He looked down at the petite body.

“I would be surprised if you aren’t,” said Pavel. “Take the girl back. I will meet you

at the city clock after I am done with work.”

“You can’t fix this, can you?,” asked the ghost.

“It depends on if your body is still alive,” said Pavel. “We will have to look for it and

make sure.”

“I don’t like this at all,” said Ivanoviska. “Look at me. I can’t bend iron with these

puny arms.”

“I can’t help you while you’re riding someone helpless,” said Pavel. “Take her back,

and then meet me. We’ll think of some way to deal with this.”

“I’ll be waiting by the clock,” said Ivanoviska.

Pavel watched the ghost walk away. He scratched his head. He couldn’t think of a

quick fix for the problem. Ivanoviska would have to move on. He couldn’t stay

among the living.

He turned and headed to his job. He looked at the problem from every angle that he

could. He didn’t see any way for Ivanoviska to have his old life again. The best he

could think of was the ghost possessing someone who couldn’t think on their own

and live out another life as that person.

That had a whole lot of problems on its own from his perspective.

Pavel put the problem at the back of his mind. He couldn’t do anything for Ivanoviska

at the moment. He probably couldn’t do anything ever. He would think on it while he

was working. He always thought better when he had something rote to do.

He walked into the Lodestan Financial Exchange and waved at the clerks getting

ready for the day. He went to his own cubicle and sat down at his desk. He had a ton

of paperwork to fill out from the day before. He grimaced at the stack.

The invoices for credits and debits always arrived right after he went home. He

wondered if it was magic. He had never checked into it, but it was an irksome habit

of his employer.

Pavel sorted the paperwork into what had to be done, what could be done, and what

he didn’t want to do. He quickly went through the first stack. Critical information

had to be sent back as soon as possible. Computers kept track of every exchange

of monies and credit with every invoice he sent down to their hands.

The second stack was full of requests about credit and the asking price of things. It

took him a bit longer to sort out what he had to sign for and what he had to send back

to the other branch, or other bank if that was the case. Eventually he finished those

after lunch time.

That left him the third stack of things he didn’t want to do. He looked at that stack.

There was nothing he could do about it. He had to go through and send them out.

The things in that stack were eviction notices, land seizures, forfeiture notices on

businesses that hadn’t been as profitable as the entrepreneur had thought they would

be.

He didn’t like signing the notices, but he couldn’t let his own workplace suffer.

It was a bind that he didn’t like being in, but couldn’t think of a way to leave without

putting his own family at risk.

Pavel put the last note in the outgoing mail and thought about Ivanoviska’s problem.

How did he fix the man being a ghost, and if he couldn’t fix that, how did he help

Ivanoviska face the future as a wandering spirit?

He had thought a solution would come to him, but he didn’t see one.

And he still needed to send a note to his wife to let her know he would be home

late. She would not be happy about that. There were too many things wandering

Bern at night now.

He had to send the note. Then he had to meet Ivanoviska. The future would take care

of itself after that.

He wrote out a quick explanation on the letter card the exchange allowed its

employees to use for business interactions. He called out his wife’s name. The note

passed from his hand to his wife’s.

He checked his desk and nodded. All of his work was clear. He looked up at the

clock. He stood up. The rest of the clerks had gone home from the looks of things.

The final things always took him the longest.

He wasn’t cut out for depriving people of their homes. He should switch to some

other part of the exchange when he was able. He pulled on his light coat and started

toward the exit.

Pavel looked back and saw one of the mail men coming into the room. He paused

near the door to watch the man.

The man put small stacks on his coworkers’ desks as he worked his way down the

aisle until he had one stack of papers left. He placed that largest stack on Pavel’s desk

with a smile. Then he took his cart and walked back out the other exit.

Pavel went back to his desk. He sorted the notices and took the stacks of didn’t want

to do, and delay doing and spread them around to the other clerks in his section. He

nodded to himself. If the same thing happened tomorrow, he would think of a more

permanent solution.

Pushing the mail man down the stairs to the mail room leaped immediately to the

clerk’s mind. He rubbed his hands at the thought. He closed his eyes and mentally

pushed the image away. He had to talk to Ivanoviska before he could plan his

revenge.

Once he had the ghost sorted out, he could think about his revenge on the mail man.

He would have to ask his wife what would she approve of before doing anything. He

didn’t want to be a wanted criminal without her support.

And Pavel admitted to himself, she was the brains of their marriage.

He checked the room one last time before leaving for good. Let his coworkers enjoy

tomorrow. That was all he had to say.

Pavel walked out of the building. He waved at his coworkers as he went. He smiled

back.

He walked to the center of Bern where the city clock stood in a small square

surrounded by flowers and stones that threw rainbows in the air. He took up a

position next to the clock stand and waited.

He doubted Ivanoviska would use the girl again. But you never knew. Ghosts

did what they wanted for the most part.

He looked in the direction where his house stood in the middle of other similar

houses. He should be there with his wife and children. He wondered when he had lost

the taste for helping people and having adventures.

He supposed that he had lost it when he had married and had his first child.

“Pavel,” said a man clad in mason clothes. It was a better look than the little girl as

far as the clerk was concerned. “It is me, Ivanoviska.”

“Let’s walk,” said Pavel. “Let’s go down to where you last remember being alive.”

“Are you sure?,” said Ivanoviska. “That sounds dangerous.”

“It’s all right,” said Pavel. “I already sent a note to my wife. If anything happens,

she will take care of it.”

“Your wife hates me,” said Ivanoviska.

“What can she do to you?,” said Pavel. “You’re already dead.”

“That’s not as comforting a thought as you seem to think,” said Ivanoviska.

“You’re dead,” said Pavel. He gestured for the ghost to start walking. “There’s not

much more she can do to you without killing your ride. She would never do that.”

“And yet she was the Terror of The Muskians,” said Ivanoviska. He marched away

from the clock.

“Don’t call her that to her face,” said Pavel. He put his hands in his pockets as he

walked beside the ghost. “It gets on her nerves.”

“You married a witch, Pavel,” said Ivanoviska. “It’s the way of things.”

“Definitely don’t call her that,” said Pavel.

“Everyone says it,” said the ghost.

Pavel punched him in the face. He had spent some of his youth fighting before going

on adventures with his wife. He knew better to punch the bones of a bigger man’s

face, but anger had caused the reaction.

“Don’t call her a witch,” said Pavel. “That is my last word on this, Ivanoviska.”

“I’m sorry,” said the ghost. He rubbed his face. “That hurt.”

“You’re riding someone else,” said Pavel. “You’re going to feel what they feel. It

won’t be good for either of you if things go wrong.”

“What can go wrong?,” said Ivanoviska.

“There are things out there that eat ghosts,” said Pavel. “What happens if one of them

decide they can get a two for one deal out of your situation?”

“Isn’t that why we’re trying to find out what happened?,” said Ivanoviska. “I might

still be alive.”

“You’re dead,” said Pavel. “The question is why aren’t you all the way dead. Once

we figure that out, then we can think of a way to move you on to your next life.”

“What if I want to stay here?,” said the ghost. He made fists as he walked. “I like this

city.”

“That’s not my call,” said Pavel. “It’s not your’s either.”

“I don’t like it,” said Ivanoviska.

“I know,” said Pavel. “Maybe we can put in a word with the Underworld to give you

a lenient sentence.”

“You can do that?,” said Ivanoviska.

“I know someone who might be able to do that,” said Pavel. “I wouldn’t expect too

much of it. He might be able to help you when we figure out what happened in the

first place.”

“Thank you,” said Ivanoviska. “I’m sorry for calling your wife a witch.”

“Don’t make me punch you again.”