Em tenra idade, Ninguém Owens recebeu a Liberdade do Cemitério, que lhe deu a capacidade de atravessar objetos sólidos, conversar com os fantasmas que viviam no cemitério, etc. Ele faz bom uso dessas habilidades ao longo do livro, especialmente como ele está sendo criado especialmente por fantasmas.
No entanto, no final do livro, vemos que isso está começando a se desgastar:
Bod walked over to the pointed stone—tall, carved with upside-down torches, and he waited, but saw no one. He called to Alonso Jones, even knocked on the side of the stone, but there was no response. Bod leaned down, to push his head into the grave and call his friend, but instead of his head slipping though the solid matter like a shadow passing through a deeper shadow, his head met the ground with a hard and painful thump. He called again, but saw nothing and no one, and, carefully, he made his way out of the tangle of greenery and of grey stones and back to the path.
Chapter 8: "Leavings and Partings"
E vemos que ele tem cerca de 10 anos de idade até então:
But Mother Slaughter was pursing her lips and tilting her head. Bright old eyes scrutinized Bod from beneath her bonnet. “I called you boy, didn’t I? But time passes in the blink of an eye, and it’s a young man you are now, isn’t it? How old are you?”
“About fifteen, I think. Though I still feel the same as I always did,” Bod said, but Mother Slaughter interrupted, “And I still feels like I done when I was a tiny slip of a thing, making daisy chains in the old pasture. You’re always you, and that don’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Chapter 8: "Leavings and Partings"
Depois disso, Silas diz a ele que ele não pode ficar no cemitério e que ele precisa sair e viver sua própria vida.
Mas por que essas habilidades começaram a desaparecer quando ele atingiu a idade de "cerca de 15"? Por que a liberdade se desgastaria então? A liberdade não tinha se desgastado para Silas, mesmo que ele a tivesse usado por mais de dez anos.