He had no idea what Philly was sniffing up on the other side of town, but Ghost Thing wasn’t seeing a lot down in South Riverdale. He scooted along the top of the neighbourhood, keeping an eye on those who would be suspicious, but nothing turned up. Desperate to find something, he followed a couple of thuggish-looking guys he saw hanging outside a hardware store– their faces shrouded with caps and their chins tucked into colrs. When they got into a pickup, Ghost followed them up past the train tracks before resigning that they were likely not mobsters and not heading to a secret hideout. He returned back to South Riverdale, having wasted about an hour of his time.

  Discouraged, when he got back to the neighbourhood, he squatted on top of a house with a (retively) ft roof and looked out around the horizon. There had to be a better way to find a gang than this.

  If the frustration of not sure how to track down a criminal gang wasn’t trouble enough, Philly’s comment earlier about not liking people was twirling inside him, roughing up against his heart. He groaned, thinking about the implication his fox friend id on him; that he didn’t like people.

  “I like people,” Ghost Thing thought out loud. “As much as I should.”

  He stewed in that upset until a voice was heard below.

  “And where do you think you’re going?”

  It was the voice of a male, maybe a teenager.

  “I’m–” The voice of a child, cut off by nervousness– “going home!”

  This got the liquid d’s attention. He peered his head out to get a clearer look up and down the street and saw a trio of guys standing on the sidewalk, blocking the path of a kid in a blue coat. Nothing too arming but Ghost had a bad feeling about the situation.

  “You know,” said one of the guys, but that’s all Ghost Thing heard. Unfortunately, what he said after that was too quiet for Ghost to comprehend.

  This could have been a situation. Ghost Thing got up and snuck across a couple rooftop towards the group of people. The guys looked like they could have been adults– maybe 18 or older. They definitely looked older than Ghost Thing’s human form. The kid was probably 8 or so. The grown-ups stood over him like watch towers ready to shine a light on a prisoner.

  I don’t like the look of this, thought Ghost, peering from the top of a folded roof.

  “Little kids like you shouldn’t be out rolling the streets alone,” said Pete, trying his best to look like an authority figure in his camo jacket.

  “It’s not dangerous,” said Rafael, barely confident in the statement.

  “It’s dangerous,” said Barry, pushing up his thick-framed gsses. “Haven’t you heard about all the violence that happens in this city?”

  Rafael stomped his feet, frustrated that some grown-ups were hassling him for no reason! “Mom says that this area is safe.”

  “That’s what everyone says,” said Pete, scratching one of his sideburns. “They aren’t aware of how bad things can get.”

  Oh, this gives me a bad feeling, thought Ghost. He readied himself to intervene, checking the houses around for a good route down. No; he examined the tree on the front of the wn near Pete and his friends. Ghost would hop across the tree and nd between the kid and those harassing him.

  Rafael had no idea what Pete was talking about, but he was getting upset. He wanted to believe his mom that the neighbourhood was friendly and safe but the grown-ups were so serious and he couldn’t prevent himself but wonder if what they said was true! Fear came over Rafael.

  The sudden appearance of Ghost Thing did nothing to calm the child’s nerves. The liquid hero fell from the sky, splitting the ranks of Pete and his friends from Rafael and his blue winter coat.

  “Ah!” screamed Pete. His eyes were untamed for a moment, but then he focused and his voice hissed quietly but fiercely, “Oh god, it’s Ghost Thing!”

  Barry and Pete’s other cohort Matt were just as stunned as Pete at the appearance of Ghost Thing. They couldn’t believe it. They expected the stories to be false. Heck, Barry had barely heard the aquatic crime-fighter. But there he was, in the flesh. Or... in the liquid.

  Ghost Thing stood with his chest arched out and he pointed an indignant finger at the trio of sidewalk bullies. “Leave this boy alone!”

  Matt gripped and hid behind Pete’s shoulder, his voice squealing, “Maaaaan, it’s Ghost Thing!”

  “I know,” said Pete, backing away from the water d.

  “You think we should fight him?” asked Barry, edging away from the marine cryptid.

  Pete stared at Ghost Thing. Ghost lowered his brow and gred back at Pete.

  “No,” said Pete, “Let’s scram!”

  Like rabbits away from the fox, the three guys turned face and bolted into the distance. Hoofing it like nobody had ever done, they disappeared into the distance.

  Ghost chuckled. They put up less of a fight than the kids the other day!

  In all of this, what was Rafael doing? Ghost Thing turned around to see the boy looking back up at him, confused and maintaining some disbelief.

  “Uh...” said Ghost. He waved some nervous fingers. “Hi.”

  The boy smiled. “Wow! You are that Ghost guy who’s been the news!” He ughed.

  Ghost Thing chuckled, embarrassed that somebody was so happy to see him. He counted his blessings that the kid wasn’t terrified of him. Ghost looked around to check if anyone else was around. There were a couple people way down the road that were coming his way but the pce was mostly clear. It would have been a good time to get out of there, the kid seemingly safe from whatever those weirdos were going to do.

  “Are you for real?” asked Rafael, taking a hand to Ghost Thing’s leg to tap his pants. A weird moisture got on the kid’s hand and he pulled it away, rubbing his fingers together. He scowled. “Ewww...”

  “Hey!” said Ghost Thing, “Don’t touch me without askin’!”

  “You’re wet!” said Rafael, rubbing his hand on his coat.

  Ghost Thing fttened his brow and flicked his fingers off his cheek, spshing a little spritz of water into the air. “Yeah.” He was feeling exposed so he took one st look to see if those pests had left the area before turning back to the boy. “Are you okay to get home?”

  Rafael shrugged. “Iunno.”

  Ghost Thing dropped his head back and a beleaguered sigh escaped him. He raised his head. “Do you need someone to escort you home?”

  Rafael then looked concerned, his eyes peering around for unknown dangers. “Uhhhh... I don’t know. Should I? Do I?”

  Oh, this was great. Ghost unwittingly put worry into the kid. After checking windows on nearby houses to see if anyone was peeking in, he stroked a hand over his head. What he was going to do? “Uh, I don’t know if those guys will try to bug you again.”

  Rafael shuffled in his steps, uncertain. “I, uh...”

  This was awkward. Ghost didn’t know what to do. Did the kid even need someone to walk him home? “Where do you live?”

  Rafael pointed across a rge fenced-in yard at an array of houses in the distance. “Over there.”

  It wasn’t that far, but Ghost was already wary of the couple people coming his way that would soon realize that the purple kid down the sidewalk wasn’t someone in purple clothes. Actually, technically Ghost Thing was in purple clothes but that got into the nature of his wears when he was in water mode and he couldn’t get into that right then– he had to do something!

  “Okay,” said Ghost, leaning down to the kid to force Rafael to listen close. “I’m going to follow you home to keep you safe but I cannot be seen by others.”

  “Uhhh...” Rafael looked away, shy. “Why not?” He returned his eyes at Ghost Thing. “Are you imaginary?”

  Ghost Thing’s face quirked. “No. How does that make sense?” He leaned up and pointed at the direction the trio of bullies ran off to. “They saw me, didn’t they?”

  “Oh,” said Rafael. “Right.”

  Ghost readied a jump up into the tree to get out of sight. “Okay. You get walking home and I’ll stick by to make sure no one else messes with you.”

  Rafael nodded, still uncertain about whether he would need a walk home but wanting to cooperate with the weird water man. “Oh. Okay.”

  Ghost Thing sunk down into a puddle a little before popping up and out and firing himself up into the trees. From there he hopped back onto the roofs. From the top of a house, he called back down to Rafael. “You can go now!”

  Rafael got walking, moving down the sidewalk while taking occasional gnces up on the roofs to track Ghost Thing as the water guy roamed down the road with little Rafael, although walking a particurly unusual ne. The pair that Ghost spotted down the road, a middle-aged couple, came past Rafael and took quick gnces up at the roofs to see what Rafael was looking at. Ghost Thing got the idea to hide behind the back of a rooftop for a moment before the couple moved on.

  Once the couple was retively out of sight, Ghost Thing hopped along a porch overhang down to Rafael.

  “You don’t want people to see you?” asked Rafael.

  “No,” said Ghost Thing, matching his pace with Rafael’s as the kid walked towards the intersection.

  Rafael took a look up and down the strange water creature. “What are you?” asked Rafael, his voice perking up. “Are you from an alien pnet?”

  Oh god, thought Ghost Thing. How was he going to answer that one? He didn’t want to reveal anything about himself.

  Ghost clenched his jaw. “Uhhh-uh, that’s not important!”

  Rafael stared at Ghost Thing for a second, then said, “Okey-dokey.”

  They walked, and everything was quiet, until Ghost Thing heard a door click to his side.

  “Shoo-o-oot!”

  He hopped on a nearby mailbox and up onto another portico’s roof, climbing up on top of a house to get out of sight. He clung to the top of the house’s arch and looked down to see who was coming out of their house. But no one appeared. Nobody was seen.

  After a few seconds, he got out from behind the roof and went back down to Rafael, the little boy looking up at the water monster confused on why the guy suddenly zipped away.

  “What was that?” asked Rafael.

  “‘Thought I heard someone coming out their front door,” said Ghost Thing, checking the horizon to see if anyone was nearby.

  Ghost and Rafael continued down the road, Ghost Thing keeping his eyes wide open as they approached the intersection. Worrying how many people would be on a halfway-busy street, he clenched his fists so hard that his fingers dug into his palm and the watery forms fused together. He gritted his nonexistent teeth as he stepped out onto the road’s sidewalk and scrambled behind a power line’s pole when he saw a car coming. He squished his body together as best he could as he heard the car roll by him.

  “That’s not a good hiding spot,” Rafael said, looking over at him.

  “Yeah, I know.” Ghost Thing got out from behind the telephone pole and scanned the area. There were cars coming from both directions and a couple pedestrians from way down the sidewalk. He couldn’t stay out in the open.

  He saw the sidewalk across the road towards the series of houses that Rafael’s home was allegedly located. Ghost pointed. “Meet you over there.”

  He smushed down into a ball and shot himself up on top of a streetlight, then flung himself across the road to the other side of the street and dropped behind a brick wall closing in that section of the houses. Ghost peeked back over the wall to check on Rafael as he carefully crossed one street then another to come up to the sidewalk where Ghost was.

  Ghost looked up and down the road, spotting more cars and pedestrians pounding the sidewalks. He guessed that those weirdos bothering Rafael earlier had left the area.

  With Rafael close by, Ghost said to him. “I’m going to try to remain out of sight but I’m right nearby, okay?”

  “Alright,” said Rafael, starting a confident walk towards home.

  Ghost Thing followed Rafael, the aquatic fellow trespassing through the side yard of whatever block of houses he had jumped into. He passed an electric meter and at the front of the property he hopped over the wall to a small street. No one was around so when Rafael crossed the road and continued his way towards home (at least, that’s where Ghost assumed the kid was heading), Ghost Thing crossed the road with him and walked onto the wn on the other side, checking nearby windows for peering eyes. The edge of the property was lined with short but bushy trees that would have hid him from sight.

  Rafael looked over at Ghost Thing digging through greenery to follow along with him. “So you can turn into putty?”

  “Yeah,” said Ghost, vaulting over a square hedge to move along with Rafael.

  “Does it hurt?” asked Rafael.

  Ghost had rules about telling people about himself and revealing too much of his reality to strangers– the process of making information avaible. But then he looked over at Rafael, gazing back at him with curious eyes, and he just couldn’t care about those guidelines.

  “No,” said Ghost, “but it felt weird at first. I got used to it, though.”

  “So what do you eat?” asked Rafael. “Or do you eat? Do you drink?”

  “I drink water,” said Ghost, which was kind of true in a way.

  “Do you sleep?” asked Rafael. “Do you breathe?”

  “Yeah and yeah,” said Ghost, which was also true. Although, he didn’t sleep as Ghost Thing. And he breathed as a human. His water form didn’t need to breathe.

  “Do you pee?” asked Rafael.

  Ghost poked his head through the branches to give Rafael a serious look. “I am not answering that question.” He looked over and spotted some pedestrians coming towards he and Rafael. “Let’s keep quiet while these folks pass.”

  Rafael rolled his eyes. “Uh, alright.”

  Ghost Thing pulled his head back into the shrubs. He and his infant companion kept going forward– Rafael on the sidewalk, Ghost shifting through the shrubbery. As he got towards the front of the property, Ghost peeked an eye around the front of the building to see if anyone was in the yard. Nobody was, so Ghost kept himself hidden from behind a small tree and remained still as the pedestrian voices got close.

  One voice said, “He was in Good Burger. Oh! He was also in those Mighty Ducks movies!”

  “He’s an adult now so he has to get on the big boy programs,” said another.

  Their voices faded.

  Rafael said to Ghost, “They’re gone now.”

  Ghost peeked out and saw that there was no one around. Heck, there wasn’t a car for blocks. Ghost popped out of the shrubs to join Rafael again, picking a few leaves out of his watery body and pulling a twig out of his neck.

  “How far to your house?” asked Ghost, tossing the twig on the grass.

  Rafael pointed up ahead. “It’s up the... second road up there. My house is on that street.”

  “Okay,” said Ghost.

  He looked down at his young companion. The kid probably could have made it home no problem. Those guys that were hassling him– they’re nowhere around. The kid was safe. He had been safe ever since those goons ditched. That job was done and Ghost still had to patrol Riverdale for any gang connections.

  But Ghost stared at the kid, the kid’s pace keeping up with his. The boy wasn’t afraid of the ghost.

  Maybe Ghost would see Rafael home. Just to be safe.