PROLOGUE.

        Seven-year-old Maxwell Kanbayashi didn’t understand why his dad wouldn’t let him talk to ghosts. It started off as an innocent enough question: why did the spirits hanging around town always looked so sad and lonely? Why wouldn’t anyone talk to them? If he could see them, obviously everyone else could, too! Why were they ignoring them?
        He remembered the look on his dad’s face when he asked. Jun Kanbayashi was typically a goofy person, but Max had never seen him so distraught and shaken. The man went pale, his hands quivering–like that question was a very bad question.
        His dad warned him to stay away from the ghosts, that they might hurt him. But Max scoffed at the statement.
        “They’re see-through, Dad. How’re they going to hurt me?” He laughed.
        His dad put his foot down, forbidding Max from speaking to the spirits at all. Even when the boy pressed his father with more questions, he got no answers; just silence or warnings from his dear ol’ dad.
        If his dad would not tell him why, then it was up to him to find out for himself.