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As she had been for the past two weeks, Jazz was shut up in her room, with blackout curtains and the lights off. The antibiotics for her nasty case of pink eye hadn't accomplished anything, and further tests had just come back totally negative for any infection after all. The optometrist couldn't find anything wrong with her either. Her eyeballs still hurt, and now she had no idea why. At least it was summer vacation and there wouldn't be academic consequences for her inability to read a whole page in one sitting.
Knock knock. Her door opened just wide enough for Danny to poke his head in. "Dinner's ready, do you want me to - oh, shit."
Jazz frowned. She had looked up to acknowledge him and now he stared at her with a level of consternation that did not make her feel better. "What?"
"Your eyes-"
"Yes, I know, they're probably really puffy and gross looking." Jazz dropped her head back into her pillow. "I know I shouldn't rub them but it's the only thing that makes them stop hurting for a minute."
"No, they were glowing."
Jazz snapped her head right back up. "What?"
Danny peered at her face, and opened the door to let in a little more light, which made her wince. "Not glowing," he corrected himself. "They're reflecting light, like a cat."
Jazz blinked and dropped her head back into the pillow. "What the fuck ?" She didn't normally swear, but the steroid pills from the doctor were only barely helping and she felt she had earned a little language.
"I wonder if it's because of the portal."
"Last I checked, you had the portal accident, not me."
"Yeah, but you have been going through puberty on top of a big fat hole in reality, maybe it's catching up?"
Jazz groaned. That was very reasonable and she knew her parents' guilt about it would be super annoying.
"Do you want me to call Tucker's mom? She's patched up Phantom a few times, I think she's got pretty good intuition about ghostly bullshit."
Jazz considered it. Dr. Foley was an E.R. physician, not a primary care doctor or optometrist, but E.R. workers had to be knowledgeable and creative enough to deal with all sorts of wacky emergencies, especially in Amity Park. "Yes please."
"If push comes to shove maybe she can prescribe you some of the good painkillers," Danny joked.
"Honestly at this point I'd take em."
Danny was silent for several seconds. " Shit ."
The next morning, Tucker and Dr. Foley stopped by FentonWorks. They and the Fentons gathered in the living room, where the windows had helpfully been draped with more blackout curtains. It was the first time Jazz had come downstairs in a couple of days. Danny and Mom sat on either side of her on the couch - Danny was a cuddler when he was worried and hugged her arm while Dr. Foley asked her about the pediatrician's findings and shone a light in her eye. Dad paced while Tucker sat behind and to the side of his mother, watching her like he was a med student.
"Well, Danny wasn't pulling my leg, your eyes really do reflect." Dr. Foley put her light away and thought for a moment. "Did one eye start hurting before the other? Your right eye is a bit… glowier than the other."
Jazz nodded. "My right eye started first, my left joined in a couple days later. That's when I first went to the doctor."
"Does the pain feel like it's happening in a particular area of your eyes?"
"Um, it feels like it's a plane going down the middle. Except it comes from all directions in that, vertical, not just from the top. Like the aperture of a camera, except my eyeball is wedged in the aperture while it's closing."
Tucker grimaced and she made an apologetic face.
Dr. Foley nodded. She pulled, of all things, a veterinary dictionary from her lab coat pocket and opened it to a page that had been sticky noted. She read a phrase to herself (checking pronunciation?) and slapped the book closed. "Well… it seems like you're growing tapetum lucidum. "
Jazz furrowed her brows. She felt Danny raise one of his from where his face was mushed against her shoulder. "And that is?"
"A membrane that a lot of animals have in their eyes. It reflects light within the eye so the animal sees better in the dark. When you shine a flashlight at a cat and their eyes seem to glow, you're seeing the reflection off the tapetum lucidum. I think you're growing those."
Jazz facepalmed. "I hate that that makes sense."
"But how would Jazz be growing an organ that humans don't have ? Humans don't just sprout extra organs, Angela," Mom said.
Dr. Foley frowned a little at that - she was happy to be Angela when talking carpools, but right now she was firmly in doctor mode. "I know the proverb is to look for horses when you hear hoofbeats, but Jazz here has gone far past horses and zebras. We're firmly in unicorn territory now, and this is the first unicorn I could think of that fits."
"And ghosts do sprout extra organs," Tucker added. "Cores don't develop until the ghost is about a year old, and fangs and stuff usually come in later. Maybe all the ectoplasm you guys have been breathing from the portal is making Jazz get night vision, but since she's not really a ghost it had to happen… the squishy way." Tucker turned a little green and shook himself.
"That's… actually not a bad theory," Dad grumbled, still pacing. "Danny-boy's vitals have been funky ever since the portal started working. Why couldn't Jazz have picked up some quirks too?"
"But Jazz never got shocked by the portal," Mom argued.
"I've been going through puberty on top of it, isn't that enough? If alcohol can change how young people's brains develop I don't see why ectoplasm can't change how I develop."
"The basement is completely ectoproof! There's no way the rest of the house is that contaminated."
"Mom, we can't buy meat more than a couple days before we eat it or else it comes back to life ," Danny deadpanned.
Mom opened her mouth and then closed it again. She looked a little like a fish, and then sighed and hugged Jazz. "I'm so sorry sweetie, I promise we're gonna find a way to fix this."
"Is superior nightvision really something that needs fixing?" Tucker asked.
Dr. Foley picked the conversation back up. "I think that this problem might fix itself, actually. Have you had your wisdom teeth in yet?"
Jazz shook her head.
"Most patients say that it hurts . Babies cry when they're teething, and teenagers have joint pain during their growth spurts. My gut feeling is that once the membranes have finished growing in and the anatomy settles, it'll stop hurting. You might still be a little sensitive to light, but you're young enough and your brain is still plastic enough that you might also adjust perfectly well. If you don’t adjust, I’m happy to write an accomodation note saying you’re allowed to wear sunglasses indoors."
"You're not going to try to reverse or remove it?" Mom asked. Jazz winced; she wasn't nearly as squeamish as Tucker, but eye surgery was a bridge too far even for her.
Dr. Foley shrugged. "I'd rather not, honestly. I don't even know where I'd begin reversing the process, and removing tapetum lucidum isn't a surgery that happens on animals. I've dissected cow eyes in school and I can tell you the membrane is pretty firmly part of the eye. I don't know if it's even possible to remove it without damaging the rest of the eye. That would be a huge risk that I'm not willing to take unless the growth keeps hurting her. Honestly, part of me doesn't even want to touch this without guidance from an expert, but there are no experts in this," she sighed.
Jazz squeezed Danny. She was sure that he was thinking hard about Mom wanting to stop this ghostly development, and thinking hard about Dr. Foley wanting to let non-harmful changes remain in place.
"We're experts in this!" Maddie argued. "We built the portal in the first place-"
"But we've only ever had ecto-acne, and that was temporary. Vladdy had it worse, I'd dare say he knows more about ghostly mutations than we do," Dad pointed out.
"I don't wanna see Vlad about this," Jazz groaned, "he's gross ."
"We could go see Frostbite," Tucker suggested, before the Fentons could start arguing about Vlad.
"Who's Frostbite?" Dad asked.
"He's basically Phantom's personal trainer. Ghosts are really unstable while their cores are growing in and a lot of them need help from other ghosts to not accidentally blow themselves up. Or in Phantom's case, freeze himself into an ice cube in the middle of town. He's super old and he's basically seen everything. Maybe not this specifically, but he's probably seen something similar enough to have advice."
"We are not going to a ghost for medical advice," Mom and Dad said in unison.
"Frostbite's alright," Danny assured, "he likes Phantom a lot and he'll be happy to help Jazz."
"And how would you know that, Danny, you never go near the portal," Mom asked.
Danny froze for a second and then shrugged. "I've never met him myself, but Sam and Tucker say he's really nice."
"I don't want to go to a ghost for help when the only person vouching for it is a highly misled teenager," Dad said. "No offense, Tucker."
"Only a little bit taken."
Jazz raised her hand for attention. "Hi, I'm the one growing extra bits inside my eyeballs? If Frostbite can make my face stop hurting I would like for him to make my face stop hurting, please."
Dr. Foley snickered a little bit. "That is an excellent point, Jazz. You're the patient here, it's your opinion that's most important to me. Besides, if he's treated Phantom, then this Frostbite gentleman is technically my colleague and I wouldn't mind meeting him for myself."
"Fine, but we're riding in the Specter Speeder and we're coming with," Mom said. "How long does it take to get to Frostbite's lair?"
"About two hours, at the Speeder's top speed." Tucker saw the adult Fentons blanched and held his hands up, calm as can be. "I know, but Frostbite is the guy for this stuff. If we make some lunch right now and leave as soon as we're done eating, we'll be home by dinner, I promise."
"It can't be too dangerous if we're with them, Maddie. This is gonna be our longest trip into the Zone yet, isn't that exciting?"
Mom smiled a little, despite herself. "Yes, I suppose it is. Danny, can you fix us some lunch while I make sure the Speeder has all of its instruments of observation?"
Danny nodded and stood up. "Get heavy jackets and stuff for everybody too, the part of the Zone you're going to is called the Far Frozen and it's a fitting name."
Jazz sat back and closed her eyes while everybody prepared for their excursion. Half an hour and some sandwiches later, everybody clambered down to the basement. Phantom was waiting for them, sitting criss-cross applesauce on top of the Speeder. He waved.
"What is he doing here?" Mom demanded, while Dad went for the blaster on his hip.
Tucker stepped between them and Phantom. "Guys, chill. Phantom's our escort. The yetis in the Far Frozen are isolationists. They won't attack us, but they also won't necessarily let us find them if we don't have Phantom."
"Why didn't you tell us that earlier?" Dad asked.
"I’d rather ask forgiveness than permission."
That was the philosophy that had guided most of Mom and Dad’s education and research, so they could hardly argue with it. They weren’t enthusiastic about it, but they allowed Phantom to climb into the Specter Speeder with everybody else and sit in the front where he could navigate. Jazz buckled herself into her seat and put on a pair of sunglasses. When Mom shot her a questioning look, she just raised one eyebrow. “What? It’s bright in the Ghost Zone.”
“Point. Alright Phantom, since you know the way you can lead the way, just know that-”
“Yeah yeah, you’ll dissect me on a molecular level I know .”
Dr. Foley frowned disapprovingly at that and glanced at Tucker, who just shrugged unhappily. Their stern faces were amusingly similar. “Last month’s road burn was from a Fenton weapon knocking him out of the sky. It’s an established rivalry.”
“ Maddie and Jack Fenton! ”
“He’s a menace!” Dad yelled.
“Can we go ?” Jazz yelled back. Mom and Dad both softened a little. Mom reached back to pat her knee, and then took hold of the controls.
“Alrighty ladies and gentlemen, we’re going into the Ghost Zone in 3… 2… 1!”
The everpresent light in the Ghost Zone hurt even with the sunglasses, but Jazz kept her eyes open anyway to watch Dr. Foley’s reaction to seeing it for the first time. The doctor was smiling softly, taking in the scattered landscape. “I see what you meant about it being bright here. I was expecting spooky white fog, not neon. Where do all those doors go?”
Tucker, Phantom, Mom, and Dad spent a long time explaining the Ghost Zone. The parents were managing to be civil about it, so Jazz closed her eyes and dozed off a little. When she woke up and started paying attention again, they were skirting the leeward side of the Dragon Kingdom. A couple of the palace guards spotted Phantom and waved, he waved back, and then they were past.
“Who was that?” Dad asked.
“Some of Princess Dora’s guards. She’s the ruler of the Dragon Kingdom. This is one of the biggest stable patches of the Zone, so lots of ghosts live here. It’s like the Renaissance Faire all year round, there’s markets and theater and stuff, and lots of ghosts pass through so it’s a good place to go if you need news from other Realms.”
“Ghosts have kingdoms?”
Phantom smirked. “Yeah, dude. Lots of them, it’s called the Infinite Realms .”
“Maybe when Ghostwriter finishes his next play we can take Mom and Dad to see it, if they’re civil,” Jazz suggested.
Danny grimaced. “I don’t know about that. He’s a bit of a megalomaniac, I’m not sure if I can trust him with live humans in the audience. But Ember told me her drummer’s helping write some kind of Viking rock opera, that might be fun.”
“And this is an original story? Being written by ghosts?” Mom asked, dripping in skepticism.
“Yep! Ghosts have way less physical needs to continue existing than live people do, and they’re easier to meet, so they spend a lot of time indulging in their hobbies. Most of the markets work on a barter system, and people trade arts and crafts and stuff. Though some places use currency too.”
Mom thought for a moment. “Does that have anything to do with the highly ecto-contaminated gold at the pawn shop?”
“Oh, yeah. Skulker killed a kraken a few months back, and its lair had a wrecked pirate ship. The gold coins were like, real actual Element Number 79 gold that got pulled into the Zone from the human world when those pirates died, so Skulker sold it.”
“What does a ghost need money for?”
Danny shrugged. “Humans mostly don’t use the barter system anymore. If you want human stuff, you gotta get human money. Or just steal the stuff, but all of our frequent fliers in Amity Park know I’ll kick their ass for that.”
Neither of Jazz’s parents muttered the word “hypocrite” and she was very proud of them for that.
“I know Skulker likes slasher movies, and the last time he and Ember were off-again he got them back on-again by buying a vintage speaker system from an antique store and getting it restored.”
Jazz smiled. “It was the exact model that she drooled over when she was alive. Skulker’s mostly the worst but that was so romantic.”
“They’ve been on-again for a whole month,” Tucker added. “But we should totally take you guys to a ghost theater sometime. It’s way better than human theater; ghost powers make for great practical effects.” He snorted. “We should see if we can convince anybody to put on Phantom of the Opera .”
Danny groaned loudly. “I’d rather watch another marathon of Shakespeare’s history plays.”
“That sounds… exhausting,” Dr. Foley said.
“It was. The intermissions were the best parts.”
“Why did you sit through all of that?”
Danny shrugged. “Ghostly hospitality rules. A lot of ghosts are really into etiquette and stuff, and if they invite you to a play and you don’t sit through the whole thing they break out the pitchforks and torches. Also I was hoping that they would do one of the fun ones and not just the history plays. Who puts on a Shakespeare marathon and doesn’t do A Midsummer Night’s Dream ?”
“Watch out now Phantom, if you keep talking about Shakespeare all your fans might figure out you’re not really a teenager,” Dad warned.
“They show freshmen the Baz Luhrmann Romeo and Juliet movie,” Jazz countered. “Everybody loves it.”
“I desperately want Tibalt’s shoes from that movie.”
Dr. Foley raised an eyebrow at her son. “The metal kitty cat heels?”
Tucker shrugged. “They’re iconic.”
Jazz rolled her eyes a little (and immediately regretted it: ouch) because she knew the real reason why Tucker pined for those shoes. After the “King Tuck” incident, the memories and opinions of Tucker’s pharoah ancestor had slowly leaked into his mind. Old man Duulaman was a real dandy in his day, it turned out. “I would dare say they’re regal .”
“I’m a regal man.” Tucker struck a royal pose and all the teens snickered.
Jazz shifted in her seat and went back to dozing. She didn’t really sleep , but she closed her eyes and mostly let everybody else talk. Dr. Foley’s presence seemed to be keeping her parents civil. That was nice, babysitting her parents was exhausting . She became alert again when she started feeling cold.
“I assume we’re getting close?” Dr. Foley asked as she conceded to the weather and put on a puffer jacket over her white coat.
“We should be to the edge of the Far Frozen in about ten minutes. I’m gonna go out and sit on the roof so they know not to go all stealth mode, okay?”
Mom and Dad only reluctantly agreed to let Danny out of their sight. As a concession, he dangled his feet over the windshield so they could see he was still on board. It mostly annoyed them more. Dad grumbled about punk spooks and smudging my windshield and made references to surgical implements that made Dr. Foley frown. Soon enough, icebergs began to appear, floating opalescent in the green atmosphere. The bergs gave way to real landmass, and they spotted a squad of yetis watching them. Jazz pulled the hood of her coat down over her eyes. Why did snow have to be so reflective ?
Jazz listened to Tucker move to the front of the Speeder, so he could point out and name the yetis he recognized.
“You’ve been this far into the Ghost Zone before?” his mother asked nervously.
“Plenty of times. We’re trying to map parts of it, and make an almanac for predicting the regions that move around. Phantom’s got friends in high places, and so do Sam and I, so we’re pretty safe.”
“Oh. Do cameras work here?”
“You have to put digital cameras in a special case or use different chemicals to develop film, but yes.”
“...Did you turn the attic into a dark room? I keep thinking I smell weird smells from up there.”
“Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry?”
“No, it’s fine honey. You should show me some of your pictures sometime. I’m assuming they’re not the naughty kind?”
Jazz giggled. She could hear the raised eyebrow of disapproval in Dr. Foley’s voice, and the blush in Tucker’s.
“No! They are not the naughty kind!” Tucker proceeded to make exaggerated gagging noises.
“Can we focus up on the potentially hostile ghosts that we are approaching?” Mom demanded.
“They’re not hostile, Mom. They’re just isolationists. They wouldn’t attack us if Phantom wasn’t here, they just wouldn’t let us find them. Once they decide to let you in, they’re really nice, I promise.”
“Have you been here before, Jazzypants?”
“Mmhmm. I interviewed Chief Frostbite for an AP Gov project, and an engineer here named Murti helped me with a chemistry paper about coolants for superconductors.”
“...Oh.”
“At this rate I’m going to have to go to UW-Madison,” Jazz teased, “I’ve gotten too accustomed to getting ghost tutoring whenever I want. Can’t exactly cite a personal conversation with the ghost of Eratosthenes for a history essay anywhere else.”
“Why is that name familiar?” Dr. Foley asked as the Speeder settled down on the snowy surface of the Far Frozen.
“That’s the guy who first calculated the circumference of the Earth. He was a cartographer in life and in death he studied portals between the human world and the Infinite Realms. When the Library of Alexandria burned, he used what he had learned to magically duplicate and transport the entire building, unharmed, into the Zone, along with the ghosts of everybody who died in the fire. He’s super cool.”
“That’s a very powerful ghost for you to be just hanging around with, Jazz,” Mom fussed.
“Who wants to help me out of the Speeder? I’m blinded by the light, here.” Not her most elegant subject-change, but she was distracted. Tucker hopped out of the vessel and gave her a hand down, and then did the same for his mother.
“Aw, I managed to raise a nice young gentleman after all,” Dr. Foley cooed while Mom and Dad warily climbed out of the Speeder.
“Good afternoon, friends of Phantom!” Chief Frostbite boomed. “I understand that somebody has come down with a ghostly ailment?”
Jazz stepped forward, squinting. Danny went to her side and held her arm in case she needed help navigating all the brightness. “Hi Chief. My eyes have been hurting and Dr. Foley - this is Dr. Angela Foley, she’s Tucker’s mom - she thinks I’m growing tapetum lucidum and wanted a second opinion from you or one of your healers before she does anything about it.”
Frostbite beamed. Mom and Dad tensed up a little from him showing so many of his teeth. “Well, I’m absolutely honored that somebody so close to the Great One would come here for help. Let’s go get you all some warm drinks and somebody to look at your eyes.” He looked to Mom and Dad. “I’m told that you would prefer to hike into the main camp than take a sleigh or iceboards, is that correct?” he asked. One of the yetis accompanying him - a hunter Jazz didn’t recognize - sat in the driver’s seat of an enormous sleigh, made from mechanized, enchanted ice. To her, it looked like something from a Disney princess movie and her inner child really wanted to ride on it, but Mom and Dad were staring at it like it might bite them, or explode.
“Are you aware of who we are?” Mom asked warily. Jazz facepalmed, while Danny stepped forward in case this turned into a fight. Tucker smoothly slotted into his place as her seeing-eye person.
Frostbite’s smile grew tight, and the yetis behind him shifted uncomfortably. “I am aware of your career and your relationship with Phantom, yes.”
“Then you understand why we have no interest in riding your deathtrap vehicles.”
“I mean, Mads, it does look pretty cool,” Dad murmured, eyeing the sleigh appreciatively.
“ Jack! ”
Jazz cleared her throat. “If you guys want to walk, have fun and enjoy the scenery, but I’m really light sensitive right now and I basically can’t see anything here, so I’m taking the sleigh.” As intended, that stopped her parents' nascent argument in its tracks. Mom and Dad didn’t want to leave her alone with the yetis, so they climbed in the back row of the sleigh on either side of her. She chose to ignore their grimaces when she shook hands with the driver - Bell - before taking her seat. Sized for a species that regularly hit nine feet, even Dad’s feet dangled a little bit if he didn’t sit on the edge of his seat. Frostbite, Tucker, and Dr. Foley took the front row. Danny and the remaining yetis flanked the sleigh and gestured; the snow below their feet crackled into sheets of perfectly clear levitating ice.
Danny had a skateboarding phase in middle school, and his stance was still goofy-footed. But lots of people were goofy-footed, there was no reason for Mom and Dad to make any connection between Phantom and their youngest. If they did, they certainly weren’t indicating it. “I take it those are the iceboards they mentioned?” Dad asked.
Jazz nodded. “They’re the fastest way over the tundra, especially when you get to the high mountains, but they’re a bit dangerous too. Imagine surfing at sixty miles an hour.”
“A bit dangerous,” Mom grumbled.
“Everybody ready to roll?” called Bell. The humans assented with varying degrees of reluctance, while the yetis nodded and Danny gave a little salute. Bell whistled through their fangs and a light deep in the sleigh chassis responded, making the whole vehicle glitter with refracted rainbows. The whole entourage began to move forwards, setting a brisk pace over the snowy landscape. Jazz’s inner child was most satisfied.
Dad opened his mouth to say something.
“If you use the magic sleigh to start up the Christmas argument outside of Christmas, I will throw you both overboard,” Jazz warned.
Dad closed his mouth.
Jazz sank into the dark refuge of her hood and listened to Frostbite pointing out various landmarks and interesting natural features. Occasionally she heard a camera click: her parents taking pictures of ghostly flora and fauna. After about fifteen minutes, the company came to a halt. “Esteemed guests, welcome to Yarlang Camp,” Frostbite bellowed. He continued at a more normal volume, “we yetis are largely nomadic within the Far Frozen, this is our permanent settlement. It is named for the river in your Himalayas, which is said to be where the first of our kind were born.”
Jazz grinned a little bit as Mom helped her climb out of the sleigh. She didn’t know if Frostbite had purposefully poked holes in her parents’ ideas about ghosts not remembering their lives, but she appreciated it anyway. They were met by a yeti in an elaborate red sash, which seemed to hold the same significance as Dr. Foley’s white coat.
“Hel- loooo ,” the healer sing-songed. They had parked right outside the apothecary hall, and she held the doorway open for the humans so they could get straight inside the relative warmth. A ghostly messenger bird squawked at them from the roof as they filed in. “I hear we’ve got a human with eyeshine and a human doctor come to visit, is that so?”
Dr. Foley offered a handshake just like she was meeting any other colleague, and not the ghost of a mythical creature that towered at least a full foot over her. She introduced herself, and the yeti healer gave her name in turn: Mender Nimdoma.
“I took the liberty of warming up some tea for you all, help yourselves.” Nimdoma gestured to an antique-looking brass tea set on a table, then looked to Jazz. “Since you’re the only one wearing sunglasses, I assume you’re the young lady with the eyeshine?”
“That’s me.” Jazz poured herself a cup of tea and sat on a bench, overstuffed so it was really more like a chaise lounge.
“Jazz, is that really safe for you to drink?” Mom asked, eyeing the cup in her hands. “We’re here because you’re already ectocontaminated enough.”
“Oh I like you, mama bear,” Nimdoma chirped. “There’s still mortals in the Himalayas old-fashioned enough to leave offerings to us glacier walkers. Where do you think those offerings go? Some are taken by our living cousins, the rest appear here in the Far Frozen. That is perfectly normal tea, you have my word.”
Danny stole a sip from Tucker’s cup. “She’s right. Ghost food is kinda, tangy? Tangy, from the ectoplasm. This is regular old tea, it’s fine.”
Mom and Dad sat on either side of her. Dr. Foley sat on the opposing bench next to Nimdoma, with Tucker shadowing her again like a student. Danny hovered behind Tucker. Jazz and Dr. Foley took turns relaying the history of her eye pain, from when she thought it was a nasty case of pink eye to this morning’s diagnosis of tapetum lucidum . Frostbite summoned a little ghost light on one claw to check the reflections in her eyes. Nimdoma whistled appreciatively.
“You hit the nail on the head, Dr. Foley!”
“This isn’t going to cause Jazz any permanent problems, is it?” Dad asked.
“Almost certainly not. This is just like any other growing pains; once everything’s fully developed and settled, she won’t be in any pain and she’ll have better night vision than all her pals, to boot. And it looks like the membranes are almost complete, so you should only be achey for another week or two. We make an eye ointment for ghosts growing tapetum lucidum and third eyelids, would you like a jar of that in the meantime?”
“Would that work on me?”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure, to be quite honest. But you’re a human experiencing a ghostly ailment, so I figure the best way to keep you comfortable is to use human and ghostly medicines.”
“That sounds reasonable to me. What’s in this ointment? I don’t want to accidentally prescribe something that won’t play nicely with it.”
“I can show you how to make it,” Frostbite said. “In fact, since your whole town was shifted into the Ghost Zone for a brief period, you may see other children with similar conditions. We have treatments for all such growing pains, shall I write them down for you to spread around with the other doctors in Amity Park?”
Dr. Foley’s eyes widened, all curiosity. “That would be fantastic , actually.”
“Are you implying this could be an epidemic? Of human children growing ghostly features?” Mom asked.
Nimdoma blinked. “Yes? I mean, it wouldn’t be an epidemic , per se, this is hardly contagious. I can’t say for sure that every kid born in your town since you built your portal will have extra bits, but if there were any pregnant ladies caught in the plane shift, I wouldn’t be surprised if their children wind up growing fangs instead of wisdom teeth. Time will have to tell.”
“And there’s no way to reverse this? Jazz’s eyes?”
“Oh, certainly not at this point. It’s only visible now, but this growth has been in the works for months. Let me guess, Miss Jazz, you’ve been craving dairy and dark leafy greens lately.”
Jazz blinked. “Yeah, actually. At the end of the school year I ate a huge pan of brussels sprouts and usually I hate brussels sprouts.”
Nimdoma and Frostbite laughed. “That’s a good food for Vitamin B2 and Vitamin A, those are your eyeball vitamins,” Dr. Foley mused.
“Okay, if we can’t reverse it, can we fix it?” Mom asked. “Surely there’s some way for her to be normal again.”
Jazz and Danny made eye contact with each other, Jazz made a gagging face. “ Oh boy, ” Nimdoma muttered. Frostbite pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply. Jazz guessed that the yetis suddenly understood why the Great One was so reluctant to spill his true nature with Mom and Dad.
“There is no way to remove the tapetum lucidum without tearing up the entire eye,” Frostbite said firmly.
“Also she basically has a superpower now,” Tucker pointed out. “What’s so bad about having night vision?”
“It’s not human !” Mom sputtered.
Dad squeezed Jazz’s hand in his. “Are you not… bothered by this?”
Jazz snorted. “If I was any less bothered by this I would fall down dead because my heart stopped beating. Having night vision isn’t a problem, I just want some of this ointment and some better steroids until the painful part is over.”
“But what about other people, what would they-”
“I don’t care, Mom. I don’t know if you know this about people, but they’re mostly really oblivious.” Danny and Tucker snorted a little bit. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
And that was that on that. Mom and Dad were still uncomfortable, but they were outnumbered, including by the actual patient. Tucker, Dr. Foley, and Frostbite disappeared into a workshop for several minutes and came back with a jar of a vaguely blue, goopy substance, and a stack of handwritten papers. Danny and the humans bid Chief Frostbite and Mender Nimdoma goodbye, and Bell drove them back to the border of the Far Frozen, where the Specter Speeder was just as they had left it.
Jazz rubbed the goo into the inside of a sleep mask at bedtime to wear overnight, and took a big dose of prednisone with breakfast, and between the two of them sunlight was almost bearable. She was back to normal well before the end of summer break, and it became a lot easier to fight ghosts and sneak around VladCo at night. By the first day of school, Mom and Dad stopped fussing about her eyeshine. On the first day of school, Wes Weston caught a glimpse of it and had an absolutely hilarious fit about it.
The End.