The Ghost in the Attic

by Dori Hillestad Butler

  Claire had a hard time sleeping that night. So did Grandma Karen.

  A little after midnight, Kaz heard Grandma Karen’s bedroom door creak open. “What’s the trouble, Thor?” Grandma Karen whispered out in the hallway. “Where are you running off to in such a hurry?”

  Claire threw her covers off and went to open her door.

  “Did Thor wake you up, too?” Grandma Karen asked.

  “Yeah, I guess,” Claire replied with a yawn.

  Grandma Karen shook her head. “That cat has been acting strange all day. It’s like he sees something that isn’t there.”

  Claire bit her lip.

  Back in her bedroom, Claire told Kaz, “Your dog and my cat will make friends with each other eventually. They just need to get used to each other.”

  Kaz hoped she was right.

  The next morning, all was quiet inside the library. Too quiet, Kaz and Claire agreed.

  “Thor?” Claire called.

  “Cosmo?” Kaz called.

  Neither animal came when they were called.

  “I wonder where they are,” Claire said.

  Kaz followed Claire into the kitchen. Claire opened a cabinet, pulled out a bag of cat food, and shook it. The pellets inside rattled. “Thor?” she called again. “Are you hungry?”

  Thor padded into the kitchen. “Meow?” he said, looking up at Claire.

  But where was Cosmo?

  Claire poured some cat food into a small bowl on the floor. Thor went over and gobbled it up.

  Unfortunately, shaking a bag of food wouldn’t work on Cosmo. Ghost dogs don’t eat.

  “Cosmo?” Kaz called, wafting through the living room. “Where are you, boy?” Cosmo was normally a well-behaved dog. It wasn’t like him to not come when he was called.

  Kaz poked his head into all the bedrooms. Cosmo didn’t seem to be anywhere on the second floor.

  “Maybe he’s downstairs,” Claire said. “I’ll help you look.”

  Kaz and Claire searched the fiction room.

  No Cosmo.

  They searched the nonfiction room.

  No Cosmo.

  While they were searching the children’s room, a boy looked up from the book he was reading. It was that redheaded boy who lived next door to Mrs. Beesley.

  “Hey, aren’t you the girl who was at my neighbor’s house yesterday?” the boy asked. He had lots of dots on his face. “What’s your name?”

  “Claire.”

  Kaz glanced nervously at the fan in the ceiling. Fans were like the Outside wind, except they blew you around in circles and made you sick.

  “I’m Eli,” the boy said. “Why were you at Mrs. Beesley’s house? Are you related to her or something?”

  “No. She hired me to do a job,” Claire said.

  “What job?” Eli asked.

  Claire hesitated for a second. Then she said, “She hired me to find her ghost.”

  Eli burst out laughing.

  “What?” Claire frowned. “What’s so funny?”

  “Did you find a ghost?” Eli asked, still laughing.

  Claire put her hand on her hip. “As a matter of fact, I did.”

  “Really?” Eli’s eyebrow shot up. “You found a ghost at her house? A real, live ghost?”

  Claire shrugged. “I solved her problem. I don’t expect you to understand.”

  “I bet you didn’t. Solve her problem, I mean,” Eli said. “Mrs. Beesley’s problems are never solved. Whenever she hires me to do something, she makes me come back ten times and do it all over again.” He grinned. “But I always get even.”

  “What do you mean?” Claire asked.

  This conversation with Eli wasn’t helping them find Cosmo, so Kaz decided to keep looking by himself.

  There was still one room he and Claire hadn’t searched: the craft room.

  But Cosmo wasn’t in there, either. He didn’t seem to be anywhere in the library.

  So where was he?

  Kaz swallowed hard. If Cosmo wasn’t anywhere inside the library, then . . . he must be outside the library.

  Maybe when he and Thor had been chasing each other during the night, Cosmo had accidentally passed through the wall into the Outside. That was exactly what happened to Kaz’s brother Finn that horrible day when he, Kaz, and Little John had been playing Keep Away back at their old haunt.

  Kaz floated back to the main hallway and over to a big bay window. He peered into the Outside, but he didn’t see Cosmo. Kaz wasn’t surprised. By now, the wind would’ve blown Cosmo away.

  “That Eli isn’t very nice,” Claire said, joining Kaz at the window. “He told me about all these tricks he’s played on Mrs. Beesley.”

  “What kind of tricks?” Kaz asked.

  “Ringing her doorbell and running away,” Claire said. “Putting fake dog poop on her porch and then taking it away when she goes to get something to clean it up. Stuff like that.”

  “Why would he do that?” Kaz asked.

  Claire shrugged. “Because whenever he rakes leaves for her or mows her lawn, she makes him come back and do a better job. He likes to play tricks on her to get even.”

  All of a sudden, a catchy tune sounded from Claire’s detective bag.

  “Hey, that’s my phone,” Claire said. She pulled the phone out of her bag and put it to her ear. “Hello? Uh huh . . . uh huh . . .” Claire glanced at Kaz. “Really!” she said. “Yeah. I’ll be right over.” She put the telephone back in her bag and turned to Kaz. “That was Mrs. Beesley,” she said. “Her ghost is back! I wonder if Cosmo got out of the library and went back to Mrs. Beesley’s house.”

  Kaz’s heart gave a leap. Was that possible?

  “Where are you going, dear?” Grandma Karen asked as Claire reached for the doorknob. “And why are you taking an empty water bottle with you?”

  Claire glanced down at Kaz, who was safe inside the “empty” water bottle. She let out a small laugh. “Oh, did I forget to fill it? I better go do that.”

  Claire ran up the stairs two at a time, the bottle swinging at her side. Once she and Kaz were alone in the kitchen, she untwisted the lid on the bottle.

  “Is it okay to put some water in there with you?” Claire asked. “I don’t want my grandma to get suspicious.”

  Kaz knew what water was. It was like rain that solids could turn on and off inside their haunts.

  “Yes,” Kaz said. “But leave some room for me to swim above the water.”

  Kaz had seen Claire put water into a bowl for Thor before, but he had no idea how hard and fast it came out of the faucet.

  “Aaaaaaaah!” he shrieked as the water poured down on him inside the bottle.

  Claire yanked the bottle away from the stream of water. “What? What’s the matter?” she asked.

  Kaz shook himself. “I didn’t know the water was going to fall so hard. Or that it would pass through me.”

  “Sorry!” Claire said. “I’ll turn it down.” She moved a knob, and the water came out much slower.

  “Who are you talking to, Claire?” Grandma Karen asked from the doorway.

  Claire jumped. “No one. Just myself.”

  Kaz hovered near the side of the bottle as water rose below him.

  Grandma Karen stared hard at the water bottle. She stared so hard that for a second Kaz wondered if she could see him. But then Grandma Karen turned her attention to Claire. “You’ve been talking to yourself a lot lately,” she said.

  Claire shrugged. “I like to talk to myself.”

  Grandma Karen smiled. “I did, too, when I was your age,” she said. “So, where are you off to?”

  “Um . . . a lady asked me to come help her do some stuff,” Claire said as she turned off the water.

  “What lady?” Grandma Karen asked.

  Claire put the top ba
ck on her bottle. It was only about half full of water. “Her name is Mrs. Beesley.”

  Grandma Karen’s face brightened. “Do you mean Victoria Beesley who lives over on Forest Street?”

  “Yes,” Claire said carefully.

  “I know Victoria. She comes into the library from time to time. It’s nice of you to help her out.”

  “So it’s okay if I go?” Claire asked.

  “Yes,” Grandma Karen said. “As long as you’re home in time for dinner.”

  “Cosmo?” Kaz called as he swam around inside Mrs. Beesley’s house. He had to be careful because, once again, there were a lot of open windows. “Cosmo, are you here?”

  Claire sat on the sofa next to Mrs. Beesley. “How do you know the ghost is back?” Claire asked as she opened her notebook and dropped her detective bag at her feet.

  “I heard those sounds again,” Mrs. Beesley said. “Crying . . . thumping . . . marbles rolling across the ceiling. Someone’s up there. I can feel him when I’m up there, even if I can’t see him.”

  All of a sudden, they heard a loud CRASH! above their heads. And then footsteps scurrying across the ceiling.

  “What’s that noise?” Claire asked, looking up.

  “It’s the ghost!” Mrs. Beesley said as she rose to her feet. “Let’s see if we can catch him.”

  Kaz followed Claire and Mrs. Beesley up the attic stairs. But something was bothering him: Ghosts don’t walk with their feet on the floor, so they don’t make footsteps.

  When they reached the top of the stairs, Kaz, Claire, and Mrs. Beesley all looked around. Kaz didn’t see any ghosts. He didn’t see any solids, either. All he saw was a broken lamp lying on the floor.

  “Oh no,” Mrs. Beesley moaned when she noticed the lamp. She hurried over.

  “This was my mother’s lamp,” she said, staring down at the pieces. She shook her head sadly. “I came across it when I was sorting through some boxes the other day. I don’t know why I didn’t put it away.”

  “I’m sorry,” Claire said.

  Mrs. Beesley’s jaw tightened. “Well, lamps don’t break by themselves,” she said. “And I don’t see anyone else up here. It must have been a ghost who broke that lamp, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe,” Claire said with a sideways glance at Kaz.

  While Claire and Mrs. Beesley gathered up the broken pieces, Kaz drifted around the attic.

  “Cosmo!” he hissed, turning all around. “Are you up here? Did you knock that lamp on the floor?” He had seen his dog move solid objects back in their old haunt. Cosmo maybe could move a lamp.

  But if Cosmo was up there, he was hiding.

  Kaz checked under a bed . . . behind a pile of boxes . . . under two chairs. No Cosmo.

  He checked behind a bookshelf . . . behind another pile of boxes. Still no Cosmo.

  As he floated near the window, Kaz felt the pull of the wind. That’s odd, he thought . . . until he noticed that the window was open!

  Kaz was pretty sure that window was closed yesterday. But before he could ask Claire about it, the downstairs attic door slammed shut.

  Claire tramped down the stairs and tried the door. “Uh-oh,” she said, glancing up at Kaz and Mrs. Beesley. “We’re locked in here.”

  “What?” Mrs. Beesley cried. “That door is never locked.” Holding tight to the railing, she slowly made her way down the stairs and tried the door herself.

  It was indeed locked.

  “You have a key, don’t you?” asked Claire.

  “Yes,” Mrs. Beesley said. “But . . . it’s in the lock. On the other side of the door. Do you have a cell phone? We could call one of my neighbors and ask them to come over and unlock the door.”

  “I do,” Claire said. “But it’s in my bag. And I left my bag in the living room.”

  “What are we going to do?” Mrs. Beesley moaned.

  A noise in the Outside caught Kaz’s attention. He knew that window was open, so he didn’t want to get too close. But he was close enough to catch a glimpse of that neighbor boy, Eli, running across Mrs. Beesley’s yard toward his own yard.

  “Claire! Claire!” Kaz cried. “Come quick!”

  Claire clomped back up the stairs.

  “Look outside,” Kaz said, backing away from the window.

  Claire strode over to the window. “Hey, this window is open,” she called to Mrs. Beesley.

  “Yes,” Mrs. Beesley said from halfway up the stairs. “It smelled musty up here, so I opened it this morning.”

  “Do you see Eli?” Kaz asked Claire, stretching the top part of his body a little bit closer, but not too close, to the window. “I saw him running over to his own yard from Mrs. Beesley’s yard. Could he be Mrs. Beesley’s ghost? Could he have climbed that tree out there and sneaked into the attic? Could he have made all those noises, and broken the lamp, and locked us in here to play another trick on Mrs. Beesley?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” Claire said.

  Kaz darted out of Claire’s way.

  “What are you going to find out, dear?” Mrs. Beesley asked.

  Claire raised the window as high as it would go and swung her leg over the windowsill.

  Mrs. Beesley’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?” she cried as Claire climbed out onto the roof.

  “I’m going to climb down that tree and find out what’s going on. Then I’m going to come back through your front door and open the attic door.”

  Mrs. Beesley gasped. “B-but you could fall!”

  “I’ll be okay,” Claire said. Holding her arms out to the sides for balance, she sloooowly walked across the roof.

  Mrs. Beesley stood at the window and wrung her hands nervously. She didn’t take her eyes off Claire.

  Kaz was just as worried as Mrs. Beesley was. What if Claire slipped and fell? What if she fell all the way to the ground? Solids weren’t like ghosts. They could get hurt. Really badly.

  Mrs. Beesley gasped again as Claire reached for the tree branch that ran alongside the roof.

  Kaz closed his eyes. He couldn’t bear to watch. But he couldn’t bear to not watch, either. He opened one eye and watched Claire crawl along the tree branch.

  Careful not to get too close to the window, Kaz watched Claire climb down the branches as though they were stairs. Soon she disappeared from Kaz’s view.

  Kaz sailed across the attic and down along the stairs. There was no carpet here like there was on the second floor of the library, so when he reached the closed door, he took a deep breath, made himself as flat as a piece of paper, and swam under the door. He needed to get someplace where he could see Claire.

  He started to go inside one of the bedrooms, but the window was wide open. Kaz could feel the pull of the Outside, so he backed away.

  He tried the next bedroom. The window in this room was open only a crack. He swam to the top of the window and looked outside. He saw Claire talking to Eli, the boy next door.

  Whew. Claire was safe.

  Claire and Eli didn’t talk for long. After a couple of minutes, she broke away and ran toward Mrs. Beesley’s house. Kaz couldn’t wait to hear what she had found out.

  He swam to the living room. The windows in there were open, too, but it was a larger room, so he wasn’t as likely to get pulled into the Outside. Not unless he got too close to a window. He watched as the knob on the front door turned.

  But the door didn’t open.

  “That door’s locked, too?” Kaz cried.

  “No problem,” Claire said from outside. “The window’s open.” She climbed in through the window, then closed the window behind her.

  Kaz was so happy to see Claire that he wanted to hug her. He did it very carefully, so he didn’t pass through.

  “Aw,” Claire said. “Were you worried about me, Kaz?”

  “Sort of
,” Kaz admitted. “So? Is Eli the ghost?”

  “He says he’s not,” Claire said, grabbing her bag. “He said he came over to Mrs. Beesley’s yard to get his ball and then he left.”

  “So how did the attic door slam shut?” Kaz asked.

  “I don’t know.” Claire turned toward the open dining-room window. The curtains around it fluttered in the breeze. “Maybe the wind blew it closed?”

  “Maybe,” Kaz said. There certainly wasn’t anyone else, ghost or solid, in the house who could’ve slammed it shut.

  “Or maybe Eli lied,” Claire said.

  All of a sudden, there was a scream from the attic.

  Claire ran and Kaz swam to the attic door. “Mrs. Beesley?” Claire cried. “Are you okay?”

  “Claire? Is that you? Hurry and open this door,” Mrs. Beesley demanded. “The ghost is back, and it’s after me!”

  Claire wiggled the key in the lock, and the attic door popped open.

  Mrs. Beesley hurried out and quickly slammed the door closed behind her.

  “Did you see the ghost this time?” Claire asked.

  “No.” Mrs. Beesley shook her head, her back pressed firmly against the door. “But I heard it. I think that ghost is angry with us for disturbing it.”

  “Why do you think it’s angry?” Claire asked.

  “Because it was making a lot of noise, more than before, like it was trying to scare me away,” Mrs. Beesley said with a shiver. Her face had grown very pale.

  “I didn’t hear any noise after you left the attic,” Kaz told Claire. “But I was swimming around down here looking for you.”

  “What did you hear?” Claire asked.

  “Thumping, scratching, and a sort of reH-reH-REE noise,” Mrs. Beesley replied.

  ReH-reH-REE? “Like a dog?” Kaz asked, though reH-reH-REE wasn’t really a sound Cosmo made.

  “Did it sound like a dog?” Claire asked.

  “No,” Mrs. Beesley said. “It sounded like a ghost!”

  “ReH-reH-REE doesn’t sound like a ghost wail at all,” Kaz said.