The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen

“Mine’s Van Sinderen,” Annie says quietly.

Maddie freezes, beer halfway down her throat. She’s so surprised that she coughs beer up her nose and has to put the mug down and blow her nose into a paper napkin.

“Awesome,” Tyler says.

She hacks, gasping for breath. Annie pounds her back gently.

“Are you messing with me?” Maddie asks once she can get her breath back.

“No,” Annie says.

Maddie looks at me. “This is a put-on. What the hell do you think you’re doing, huh?”

“I’m not doing anything, I swear,” I say.

“You knew that was my last name. How did you know?” Maddie seems pretty angry. Her knuckles are white where they’re gripping the beer mug handle.

“Well,” I hedge. “Cinders isn’t that big of a leap to Van Sinderen. Why don’t you want anyone to know your last name?”

Maddie looks like she’s thinking about leaving. Her lips are pressed together, and some of the color has gone out of her face.

Annie leans in closer, and runs her hand softly down Maddie’s arm. “He’s not teasing. I promise. That’s really my name. It’s yours, too, isn’t it?”

Maddie looks wonderingly at Annie, studying her face. Slowly, she nods.

“And what’s your real first name?” Annie asks.

Maddie swallows, and something in her face changes to make her look younger. Like she’s afraid she’s going to get into trouble. Tyler and I both lean forward, listening.

“It’s Malou,” she whispers.

“But you tell people it’s Maddie. You like that better?” Annie presses.

“Malou’s Dutch,” she mutters, getting all shifty-eyed. “Embarrassing. And, anyway. My family sucks. They’re basically bad people. They’ve always been basically bad people. Why would I want to have the same name as them?”

Annie laughs, that excellent mouth-open laugh she has. Then she throws her arms around Maddie’s neck, crushes her lips to Maddie’s ear, and says, “I do the exact same thing.”

“What?” Maddie gasps.

“I’m Annatje,” Annie explains. “And I hate it! It’s too old fashioned. I made them all start calling me Annie, and everyone did it just to please me, except Mother. She calls me Annatje out of spite, because she knows how much I hate it.”

Maddie’s eyebrows bow upward in shock, and then she, too, starts laughing. They collapse onto each other and with their old-fashioned hair and strangely sloped cheeks, they could pass for sisters.

Tyler’s leaning in to me to whisper, “Maddie could see her? Without a camera or anything? How’s that possible?”

“I guess so,” I say, mind whirring trying to keep up with what this might mean. “In the house. But on the street, too, it sounds like.”

“That’s crazy,” Tyler says, staring at them from behind the shelter of his beer glass.

“Maybe it’s not crazy, if they’re related,” I whisper to him, watching the girls giggling over something that I can’t hear. They’ve sunk immediately into an intense whispered conversation. When girls get like that, it’s like they’re speaking in code.

“Related?” Tyler repeats.

“Sure. Why not? How many other people in New York have that name?” I insist. The moment I say it out loud I’m sure I’m right. “Maybe Annie was . . . I don’t know . . . haunting her? Without knowing it?”

“Come on,” Tyler says.

“Well? Why not? How should she know? She doesn’t make the rules.”

They’re leaning their heads together and whispering. I catch Annie point at me, and Maddie glances at me quickly before hiding her face in Annie’s shoulder and laughing.

What’s so funny?

“Hey!” I say too loudly, my ears purple under their stares.

“Wes,” Annie says, gulping her laughter back. “Guess what? Maddie’s going to help us find it.”

“Find what?” I can’t keep up. Things are happening too fast.

“Her cameo,” Maddie says. “But we’ve got to get out of here. You guys ready?”

Tyler and I exchange a fast glance.