"No it ain't," Temple replied easily with the carelessness that a girl might have consummated if she didn't realize she was deader than dead. Dead as a doornail. Now wasn't that something? She guffawed a little at her own absurdity. What in tarnation did something like dead as a doornail mean anyhow? Doornails weren't dead, they were just things, unalive things. Temple figured you had to be alive to be dead.
"It ain't a nice song, fella. Clementine done drowned and her boyfriend couldn't save her so after she died he went and kissed her sister instead. Really makes a girl glad that she never did have a boyfriend or a sister for him to be kissin' on. Don't you think?"
Temple stopped her trolly and took a good hard look at Isaac. Now he looked like a nice enough boy. He had that look about him. His blond floppy hair and his bright blue eyes to match Temple's own gave a look of haunted sincerity. Like there were ghosts in him too but he was just better at keeping his on the inside than Temple had ever been. He was trapped betwixt and between that strange place that separated boy from man. Temple didn't know a dang thing about that but it made her awful glad she never had to worry about one of them things dangling between her legs fouling up her mind and such. People said girls were weak, needed protection but the real weakness came from the decrepit minds of old men.
"But if you were complimentin' my singin I do appreciate the kind gesture. Never had no formal trainin but it helps to hear the sound of your own voice in your ears sometimes after hearin nothin but slugs for days and days. You get real road weary that way."
She smiled at him, the first smile she had seen in awhile. "How can you see me anyhow? I'm a spirit you know." She reached out to touch him and her hand went right through him.