Ghost Cabin by Mariko Tamaki

Author:Mariko Tamaki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2019-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

A dance floor is a magical space. It’s a place where music transforms a person into a dancer. Dead or (stayin’) alive.

This is what Ripley, who was dressed in her very best most sparkly leg warmers and matching headband and jumper, matching Bubbles’s leg warmers and headband, believed with all her heart and dancing soul.

“Right.” Ripley circled back to the sound system and selected the next track. “So now we’re going to work on our power moves.”

Admittedly, at first, Ripley hadn’t been sure how much Maggie was going to be into dancing. At first Maggie mostly made fun of the music, all of which she thought was “too noisy.”

“What the SPROUT! You have to play everything all at once all the time?” she’d grumbled, hovering near the ceiling, like she was trying to stay as far away from the sound as possible.

“This music is BROCCOLI!”

By which Maggie meant “bad.”

It was also possible that Maggie didn’t like Bubbles, who also didn’t like Maggie, as was evident from the low growl Ripley could hear rumbling under the music.

Ripley was undeterred, which is to say, not in any way bummed out by Maggie’s somewhat unpositive attitude about the music Ripley picked, because Ripley knew that the key was finding the RIGHT music.

If you don’t like ABBA, there’s Rihanna, if you don’t like Rihanna, there’s Sleater-Kinney. Don’t like Sleater-Kinney? There’s lots of other things to choose from.

Music soothes everybody—savage beasts, grouchy ghosts, the whole lot.

And for Maggie, that music was MISSY ELLIOTT.

As soon as she heard Missy, Maggie floated down. “HOLY TOMATO,” she squealed, her curls bouncing. “What is THIS?!”

“It’s good,” Ripley said, momentarily unsure. “Right?”

“You bet your beans it is!” Maggie closed her eyes and twirled around the room like a plastic bag blowing in a storm.

Now, with the right soundtrack, Maggie was a dancing FOOL who was only a few moves away from her Jeté Set Go! badge, having mastered her Tour Jeté, Petit Jeté, and Glissade.

Given that Maggie was not at all affected by gravity, great leaps were kind of her specialty.

Really there was pretty much no move Maggie couldn’t do. Except tap. Tap was a bit of a stretch for someone who had trouble making noise with her feet, because her feet didn’t really hit the ground.

While Ripley rested, because Ripley didn’t have a ghost body and she got tired, Maggie floated like a starfish on her back in the center of the dance floor, three feet in the air, as the disco ball lights shone through her.

“I will say,” Maggie spread her fingers out and stretched. “This is divine.”

“Yeah! I’m glad we get to dance together,” Ripley cheered. “Dancing is the best. I’m sorry you can’t wear leg warmers, but it’s still the best.”

“I am good with what I have on,” Maggie said. “Once you’ve been wearing something for this long, it’s sort of a second skin. Thanks, though.”

Amazingly Maggie didn’t have to worry about keeping her hat on her head, since ghost hats are far more securely fastened than your average living person hat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.