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“I’m working on something.”

“You don’t want me to watch you work?”

“Not this time.” Nate said firmly. “Stay inside until tonight. That’s all I’m asking. No windows on the garden side either.”

“No windows.” Leo’s eyebrows rose. “What do you want me to do all day?”

Nate thought about it. “Watch Netflix?”

“Watch what?”

Ten minutes later, the laptop sat on a paint bucket in the sitting room, angled toward an armchair Leo couldn’t sit in but liked to pretend he could, anyway. Nate scrolled through his account while Leo watched the rows of titles slide past with open suspicion.

“How many shows are there?”

“A lot.”

“How does it work?”

“You pay a monthly subscription fee.”

“So it’s like cable?”

“Kind of.” Nate scrolled on. He needed something Leo would take to. Something long enough to keep him from snooping too early. His cursor stopped on a familiar orange logo, and he almost smiled. Perfect. “Here. You might like this one. It’s set in your time.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s set in the seventies.” Nate hit play. “It’ll play the episodes on its own, you don’t have to touch anything. I’ll come get you tonight.”

“Wait. Why would anyone make a show about the seventies?”

“People like looking back.”

Leo frowned at the screen, where a basement full of teenagers was coming into focus. “It wasn’t that long ago.”

Nate decided not to touch that one. He set the volume, checked the power cord, and left the ghost alone with the twentieth century.

He hadn’t reached the back door before Leo spoke again.

“Oh, leave him alone. It’s only a perm.”

The teenagers were arguing with each other on the screen.

Leo hovered in front of the paint bucket, watching. The show was inaccurate, he’d decided that around the second episode. The kitchen was wrong. The slang was overdone.

It was a ridiculous program about a decade that hadn’t been anything like this, all bright colors and people just lounging around.

Outside, Nate was doing something to the yard. Hammering, off and on. Leo did not look. Nate wouldn’t want him to, and anyway, the girl next door had just said something cruel to the boy with the sideburns, and Leo needed to see what came of it.

Except the episode ended and a message popped up on screen.

Are you still watching?

Leo stared at the message. The message stared back.

“Yes,” he said.

Nothing happened.