“Kaz must be happy to have his dog back,” Grandma Karen said. “We have to help him find the rest of his family.”
“I know,” Claire said. “That’s why he and I started a detective agency. We’re C & K Ghost Detectives. But we have to be careful because Mom and Dad don’t want me to talk about ghosts, and they don’t want me to be a detective. They just want me to be normal.”
“Pfft.” Grandma Karen waved her hand. “What’s normal? You have a gift—”
“A gift?” Claire said. “Seeing ghosts is a gift?”
“Well, yes. But that’s not what I meant.” Grandma Claire touched Claire’s hair. “You have a good heart. That’s your gift. You want to help your friend, even if it means doing something your parents asked you not to do. Let me help you with your parents.”
“Would you do that?” Claire asked.
“Of course,” Grandma Karen said. “Is Kaz here right now?”
“Yes. But he can’t glow, so you won’t be able to see him.”
“Where is he?” Grandma Karen looked around. “Is he in that water bottle? Is that why you’ve been carrying it with you everywhere?”
“Yes,” Claire admitted. “So Kaz can go outside with me and not blow away. But he’s not in there right now. He’s over there.” She pointed to where Kaz was floating in the room.
Grandma Karen got up from her chair and walked over to Kaz. “Hello, Kaz,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m Karen.”
“Nice to meet you,” Kaz said. But he didn’t take Grandma Karen’s hand.
“He won’t shake your hand,” Claire said. “He doesn’t like the way it feels when a solid hand passes through his. But he did say, ‘Nice to meet you.’”
“It’s nice to meet you, too, Kaz,” Grandma Karen said.
Funny—Kaz’s family had always told him to beware of solids. But so far, every solid—er, person who wasn’t a ghost—that he’d met had been nothing but kind to him. He wished he could tell his family that. Maybe one day he’d be able to. Maybe, with Claire and Grandma Karen’s help, Kaz would find the rest of his family again.
He hoped so.
But if not, Kaz knew he could be happy here with Claire and Grandma Karen for a long, long, long time. Maybe even forever.
The Ghost in the Attic Page 5
