She held up a shiny pocket knife.
“Woa!”
I skipped over.
“Where’d you get that?”

“Right here, on the side, underneath a stryofoam cup.”
“What if someone comes  back for it? A guy once ran through my yard running from the police. It was scary.”

She ignored me.
“I don’t think they will miss it.”
“What if it was used in a murder?”

She cocked her head and gave me the look. The look 

I practiced and saw so much: the that is very unrealistic Ava look.
“Well,” my interest suddenly peaked. “What are we gonna do with it?”

And before she could answer I hopped up and down and spun around clutching the filthy straw in my fingers and almost singing, “I have an idea! I have an idea! I have an idea!”
Then I ran right up to her face, so close I could feel her breath smelled like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and placed my hand gently on top of hers, on top of the knife, looking her in the eyes.
“I know the perfect sacrifice for our magic ghost spell.”
I was so close I could feel her swallow without touching me.
“Do you trust me?”
We stared at each other and she let a little grin spread across her face. I could see the yellow of her teeth, the snaggle tooth, the remnants of her cereal. It didn’t bother me.
“Follow me,” and I grabbed her by the wrist and led her back towards the ditch.
I began running partly to show her how fast I  was and partly out of excitement to share my secret world with someone. Adelmira was dirty already. Most of my friends, while they will come to the edge of the ditch with me are hesitant about how carelessly I kneel, almost wallow, in mud.
“You’re going to attract bugs to you,” Anna said once
“Wow, you think they will think I’m the ground and like climb into me, into the mud and try to get inside of the dirt that’s on top of me? And try to make a house there?”
“What?!?!”
Adelmira seemed better, like she understood that nature was cooler than anything else that happened, even virtual reality.
“I know a good spot,’” I leapt over a stick feeling suddenly sure of myself.
I didn’t know a spot, I was just going to find a place where we can sit to make things easier. Worms were everywhere here. They were going to be big and juicy too. I hopped down the bank and plopped down, on the seat of my pants without care. My mom is used to washing my pants.
“Come sit, good dog Adelmira!”
I patted the patch next to me. Adelmira was hopping but more slowly, holding the pocket knife shut in her left hand. She fell to her knees and opened the knife again.
“We,” I turned to her because I was stalling and thinking, “are going to find the perfect worm for your super magical super magic ghost spell.”
She nodded.
“Now, we have to dig them up and we’ll need,” I put my fingers on my chin and tapped, feeling a smudge of dust left behind, “at least two for each of us. Wait!”
I held my hands out as if to stop her even though she hadn’t moved or made any motions to move.
“We will make them two.”
I dug my hands deep in the mud in front of her and moved them towards me in a sweeping motion uncovering not just one or two but several, at least nine worms, in the process. She leaned back a little as if to protect herself but I was undaunted. She would like this when it’s done. I grabbed one fast, knowing they try to wriggle deep back into the dirt when exposed and I pulled it. Sometimes I ripped them in half just doing this but today it popped right out: big, fat, juicy red one.
“Mmm,” I said and let it dangle in front of her. “Perfection. This is the best sacrifice worm I’ve ever found thanks to my trusty sidekick mutt beagle hound, Adelmira.”
She smiled exposing her full snaggletooth. I placed the worm on the ground and held its two ends.
“Adelmira, you are going to slice it in half with your special pocketknife and then you are going to eat one of the halves and bury the other one.”
She looked at me for a second before doing anything.
“Adelmira, this will make you so powerful you turn into a wolf and you can fly anywhere at any time and the other half of you is here in the ground leading you.”
I didn’t know what I was doing.
“And,” I said, “then you can communicate with your cousins maybe too.”
She nodded and I tried not to laugh not understanding what was happening or if she enjoyed this game. But she did. She neatly, cleanly sliced that worm in half and very neatly pulled one side from my thumb and without even any hesitation, as if this was an act of trust between us, not about the spell, she threw her head back and dropped it in.
“Oh my gosh, Adelmira!”
I watched her swallow it. I watched her face change. I watched her displeasure and her guts and her naturally slip into submission, into docility as if she was used to an authoritarian figure forcing her to eat.
“You swallowed that the way my brother eats Fruit Gushers like it tasted good or something.”
“I didn’t chew it.”
“Did  you feel it go down?”
She nodded.
“Oh my gosh, Adelmira. You are a wolf now.”