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“So they yelled.”

“Richard yelled. For a long time, actually.” Nate shrugged. “I’d expected him to yell. It was my mom who got to me.”

“She yelled louder?”

“She didn’t yell at all. She waited until Richard ran out of air. And then she told me, very calmly, that I didn’t get to decide what to do with my life. She reminded me that I had been chosen, picked by a higher power to do something great. She said she was disappointed that I would try to avoid my responsibilities. That I was acting like a child.”

“And you said?”

Nate stopped.

Leo waited.

Nate looked at his hands, and considered telling a more polished version of the events of that night, one that might make him look a little better. But he’d said he wouldn’t lie to Leo. He blew out a breath. “I blew up like a child, to be honest,” he admitted. “I was so angry I shot to my feet and my chair fell over. I yelled at her. Something about how I never got to be a child. That other kids were out playing soccer while I was talking to their dead grandmothers. That she never asked me if I wanted any of it. She just kept handing me obligations and calling them an honor.” He paused. “That part was true. I stand by that.”

“But?”

“It’s what came after.”

Leo waited for him to go on.

“She said the dead don’t have anyone else. That they’re drowning while I’m ignoring their cries to build porches instead.”

“What did you say?”

“Let them drown.”

Nate was not proud of this part. He could still remember everyone staring at him. Jonah with his fork halfway to his mouth.

“My mom was so offended she told me to get out. So I did. I drove away and slept in my truck. Took me less than a month to move out after that. I spent a few years on different construction sites, learning the trade, ignoring calls from home for the most part. When I did talk to my family we tried to keep things polite, but they were always trying to guilt trip me. All of them. Even Jonah, though he stopped after I made it clear to him that I wasn’t going to live my life in service to the dead.” He paused, because he was never quite sure if he’d made his next step because of the guilt trips or not. He liked to tell himself it had just been a good opportunity. “I found this great deal on a house I could flip. It was this little bungalow, priced way under market. You want to guess why it was cheap?”

Leo’s expression changed slowly.

“It was haunted,” he said.

“It was. By an old man who was waiting for his killer to be caught and never got the memo that she had been. Everyone thought the house had bad wiring but I knew it was just a confused ghost making the lights flicker. So I bought it and cleared the haunting and with a few small renovations I made very good money on the flip. So much money that I could buy a bigger house. Also haunted. Also cheap.”

“And that became your business model?”

Nate spread his hands. “I’m the only flipper in the country who gets the discount without the downside.”

“But then you’re still clearing ghosts. Isn’t that what your family wanted?”

“They wanted me to serve the dead. Not use my sacred calling to line my pockets.” Nate shook his head. “There are protocols. You’re supposed to sit with them. Learn what’s holding them here. Untangle it so they leave whole. It can take months. I push. It takes ten minutes.”

“You can’t push me.”

“No,” Nate agreed, “I can’t.”

Leo smiled slowly. “My house was a bad deal for you.”

If only he knew how true that was starting to look. “I’d be the one drowning now without my YouTube supporters.”

“You mean the strangers who watch you work?”

“That’s them.”

Leo hummed.