The Haunted Library

by Dori Hillestad Butler

  “It’s possible,” Claire said. “But it’s also possible that Beckett lied to you and he is the one who’s been glowing.”

  Beckett charged through the wall right in front of Claire. “ARE YOU CALLING ME A LIAR?” he roared.

  Claire and Kaz both jumped.

  Beckett expanded to almost the full height of the room. “I . . . DON’T . . . GLOW and I CERTAINLY . . . DON’T . . . LIE!” Kaz could almost see smoke coming out of Beckett’s ears.

  All of a sudden, the library went dark. And they all heard a loud ghostly WOOOOOOOOOO!

  Kaz and Claire looked at each other.

  “D-did you do that?” Claire asked Beckett. “Did you make all the lights go out?”

  “Did you see me turn out the lights?” Beckett asked. “I’ve been floating here right in front of you this whole time.”

  “You still could’ve done it,” Claire said. “I know you’re mad. Don’t ghosts do crazy things when they get mad?” She turned to Kaz for support.

  “Crazy things like make the lights go out without actually touching the light switch?” Beckett asked. “You have a lot to learn about ghosts, missy.”

  “Don’t call me ‘missy’!” Claire said, leaning forward.

  WOOOOOOOOOO!

  “Look!” cried a voice from the entryway. “There’s the ghost!”

  Kaz, Claire, and Beckett all hurried to the dark entryway. They saw a ghostly figure above the plant, but it disappeared before any of them got close enough to get a good look at it.

  Strange, Kaz thought. A ghost could stop glowing and then any solids in the room would think the ghost had disappeared. But ghosts like Kaz and Beckett should still have been able to see a ghost when he stopped glowing. What kind of ghost could disappear in front of other ghosts?

  “Now do you believe I’m not the library ghost?” Beckett asked Claire.

  WOOOOOOOOOO!

  Several solid children ran to the entryway from the children’s room. “I think the ghost went in there,” one of them shrieked, pointing at the children’s room.

  “Do you see him?” asked a teenager.

  “No, but I hear him! Don’t you?”

  WOOOOOOOOOO! The ghostly wail did indeed sound like it was coming from the children’s room.

  “Must be a pretty sorry excuse for a ghost,” Beckett grumbled as he followed Kaz and Claire into the children’s room. “That’s one of the worst wails I’ve ever heard.”

  WOOOOOOOOOO! Kaz, Claire, and Beckett looked around. The ghostly wail seemed to be coming from a large desk in the middle of the room. But Kaz didn’t see any ghost.

  The lights came back on and Grandma Karen said, “Don’t worry, everyone. The ghost is gone. Everything is fine.”

  “I don’t know what’s going on here, Mrs. Lindstrom,” said a solid man wearing a business suit. “But if these hauntings don’t stop, we might have to close the library.”

  “Close the library? Why?” Grandma Karen asked.

  “We can’t have children afraid to come to the library,” said the man.

  “I’m not afraid to come to the library,” said one of the solid children.

  “Neither am I! I’m not afraid of ghosts,” said another child with a toothless grin. “I like ghosts!”

  The man pressed his lips together. He looked very serious. “If these hauntings continue,” he warned, “I will talk to the library board.”

  “Did you hear what that man said?” Claire asked when she, Kaz, and Beckett were back in the craft room. “If the hauntings don’t stop, the library might close.”

  “Good! I hope it does close,” Beckett said.

  “What? Why?” Claire asked.

  “Because then I can read my books in peace, day or night, without anyone picking them up and putting them away.” With that he disappeared behind the bookcase.

  Claire followed him. “For your information, Beckett,” she called through the bookcase, “these are our books, not yours.” She turned to Kaz. “If Beckett isn’t glowing or wailing or whatever, we need to find out who is. We need to find the real library ghost and make him stop so that man doesn’t try to close the library. Will you help me?”

  “Of course,” Kaz said.

  But how do you find a ghost that doesn’t leave any clues behind? A ghost that even other ghosts can’t see?

  “There you are,” Claire’s mom said as she poked her head into the craft room. Claire’s dad was behind her. “Your dad and I are off to work.”

  “Okay,” Claire said.

  “You know, honey,” Claire’s mom said, lingering in the doorway, “being a detective isn’t nearly as exciting as you think it is.”

  “That’s right,” her dad chimed in. “Most of what we do is sit and wait for something to happen.”

  Claire’s mom kissed her on the cheek, then she and Claire’s dad left.

  “I don’t care if they won’t let me help them with their detective agency,” Claire said. “We’ve got our own case to solve.”

  “Yes,” Kaz said, drifting back toward Claire. “And they just gave me an idea for how we might catch the library ghost!”

  We have to do what your parents do,” Kaz told Claire. “We have to watch that spot where everyone sees the ghost and wait for him to appear again.”

  Claire grinned. “You’re right. We know where he’ll show up.” She grabbed her bag and went out into the entryway. “Everyone always sees him right there.” She pointed. “Right above that plant.” She went over to the bench and sat down.

  Kaz floated behind her, keeping one eye on the plant and the other eye on the door to the Outside. Sometimes that door opened when Kaz didn’t expect it. But as long as he stayed back by the bench, he would be safe from the Outside wind.

  They watched and they waited. But nothing happened.

  Claire opened her bag and pulled out a shiny, red ball. Kaz stared as she put it to her mouth and took a bite out of it.

  “You want some?” she asked between bites as she held the object out to him.

  “What is it?” Kaz asked.

  “An apple. Haven’t you ever tasted an apple before?”

  Kaz had never tasted anything before. Ghosts didn’t eat.

  “How can you throw up if you don’t eat?” Claire asked. “What are you throwing up?”

  Kaz shrugged. “My insides.”

  Claire and Kaz remained in the entryway for the rest of the afternoon. Lots of solids walked through. Some of them, like Grandma Karen, walked through more than once.

  But no ghosts wafted through.

  The next day, Kaz and Claire watched the entryway again.

  Still no ghosts. But the lady who used to own the house came in. Kaz wasn’t sure she saw Claire sitting on the bench, even though Claire wasn’t a ghost. The lady held her cane in one hand and a magnifying glass in the other. She hobbled over to the plant and peered through her magnifying glass.

  Kaz and Claire glanced at each other. What is that lady doing?

  Claire cleared her throat.

  “Good heavens!” the lady said. “You scared me half to death.”

  “Sorry,” Claire said. “What are you doing?”

  “I lost an earring when I was in here the other day,” the lady said. “I’m trying to find it. But I’m too old to get down on the floor.”

  “I’m not,” Claire said, dropping to her hands and knees. “Maybe I can find it for you.”

  Kaz swam along the floor beside her.

  “What does your earring look like?” Claire asked.

  “It’s round, with blue and silver jewels in it,” the woman said.

  “Is this it?” Kaz asked, hovering over a small, sparkly object.

  Claire grabbed the object. “Found it,” she said, handing it to the lady.

  “Oh, thank
you, dear,” she said.

  “Well,” Kaz said at the end of the day, “we may not have solved the case of the library ghost, but we solved the case of that lady’s missing earring.”

  On the third day, Grandma Karen said, “What are you doing, Claire? Why do you sit here day after day? If you don’t want to work in the library, why don’t you go outside and play?”

  “I don’t like to play outside,” Claire said.

  “Nonsense. Everyone likes to play outside. You could use some fresh air.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Claire said. But she stayed right where she was.

  Later, Beckett joined Kaz and Claire in the entryway. “Why do you two sit here day after day?” he asked. “Don’t you find it dreadfully dull?”

  “We’re waiting for the library ghost to appear,” Claire said.

  “What makes you think that he or she is going to appear while you’re sitting here?”

  “What do you mean?” Claire asked. “Why wouldn’t he appear while we’re sitting here?”

  “Because the ‘ghost’ probably isn’t a real ghost like Kaz and me,” Beckett said. “It’s probably a solid pretending to be a ghost.”

  “You know I hate that word, Beckett,” Claire said, glaring at him.

  “Wait, Claire,” Kaz said. “Beckett could be right. What if the ‘ghost’ isn’t really a ghost?”

  Claire thought about it. “Then he won’t come out while I’m sitting here,” she said finally. “Because he won’t want me to see him. He won’t want me to know he’s not a real ghost.”

  “Right,” Kaz said.

  “We have to hide,” Claire said, glancing all around, her eyes fixing on something at the top of the stairs. “And I know the perfect hiding place. Follow me!”

  Kaz followed Claire as she raced up the stairs. She went to the cabinet at the top of the stairs and flung open the doors.

  The cabinet was mostly empty, except for a couple of blankets on the floor.

  “I hide in here sometimes when I want to spy on my parents,” Claire told Kaz. “But I’m not sure it’s big enough to hold both of us.”

  “Sure it is,” Kaz said. “I can shrink, remember?” He sucked his body in and shrunk down . . . down . . . down . . . until he was small enough to float in a corner of the cabinet.

  Claire grinned. “It is so cool that you can do that!” She tossed her green bag into the cabinet and then crawled in after it. She closed the doors, but the cabinet wasn’t dark. Little circles of light shined in through several holes in the back of the cabinet.

  “Look! You can see the whole entryway if you look through one of these,” Claire said, pressing her eye against one of the holes.

  “Did you put these holes in here?” Kaz asked as he looked through another hole.

  “Me? No!” Claire said. “But they’re good for spying, aren’t they? I bet whoever put them here was a detective like us. Maybe this was their secret hideout.”

  “Could be,” Kaz said.

  Kaz and Claire watched. And waited.

  And waited some more.

  Claire shifted position. “This is starting to get kind of boring,” she admitted after a while. “Good thing I’ve got stuff to do in here.” She opened her bag and pulled out a strange object.

  “What’s that?” Kaz asked.

  “It’s a flashlight,” Claire said. She pushed a button on the side of the object, and light poured out of it.

  Kaz squinted against the brightness. “What do you do with it?”

  “Lots of things,” Claire said. “Mostly you use it to light up dark places like this.”

  Kaz peered into her green bag. “Is there anything you don’t carry in there?”

  Claire laughed. “This is my detective bag. A good detective is prepared for everything,” she said. “Let me show you what else you can do with a flashlight.” She held two fingers up and shined the flashlight on the side of her hand. “Look!”

  Kaz saw a circle of light shining on the wall of the cabinet. But in the center of the circle was a dark shape that looked like a bouncing rabbit.

  “It’s my shadow,” Claire said. “I can make an alligator, too.” She changed the position of her hands.

  “What’s an alligator?” Kaz asked. He’d never seen a figure like the one Claire projected onto the cabinet wall.

  “It’s a reptile that lives in Florida,” Claire explained.

  Kaz didn’t know what Florida was, either.

  “And here’s a horse,” Claire said. “It’s all in how you hold your hand.”

  Kaz was fascinated.

  “Do you want to try?” Claire asked. “Hold your hand like this and you can make a horse, too.”

  Kaz bent his fingers like Claire’s and tipped his wrist back. Claire shined the flashlight on his hand. But no shadow appeared.

  “Oh,” Claire said, disappointed. “Ghosts don’t have shadows. I should’ve known that.” She pulled out her book and wrote it down.

  “Oh well.” Kaz shrugged. He still enjoyed watching Claire make animal shadows with her hand, even if he couldn’t do it, too.

  Claire shifted position again. “My legs are getting sore,” she said, switching off the flashlight. “I don’t think the library ghost is going to show up tonight, either. Maybe we should give up.”

  But just as she said that, the lights in the library went out. And Kaz and Claire heard that same ghostly WOOOOOOOOOO! They each peered through holes in the cabinet and saw a figure dart across the dark entryway below them.

  Claire grabbed the flashlight, which was still switched off. She flung open the cabinet and tore down the stairs in darkness. Kaz swam behind her.

  Beckett hovered above the door to the Outside. He wasn’t glowing, so Kaz and Claire could see him, but no one else in the library could.

  Another ghost appeared above the plant. The same place Kaz, Claire, and Beckett had seen it before. Except up close it didn’t look much like a ghost. It looked like . . . a cloud of white fog.

  A dark solid figure tiptoed away from the “ghost,” toward Kaz and Claire.

  “Aha! Caught you!” Claire said. She switched her flashlight on, and a bright light shined on . . . Claire’s grandma!

  “I knew it,” Beckett said in a bored voice. “A solid pretending to be a ghost.”

  At that exact moment a small solid boy cried from the children’s room, “GHOST! I see the library ghost!” He pointed to the fog behind Grandma Karen and Claire.

  Grandma Karen turned. She put her hands to her cheeks. “I see it, too!” she said as several other solids came running.

  But she was only pretending! There was no ghost. Kaz and Claire knew this, even if the other solids didn’t.

  Grandma Karen shook her head at Claire and put her finger to her lips.

  The foggy “ghost” disappeared.

  “Where did he go?” asked a solid boy in a red shirt. He stomped his foot. “Why does that ghost always disappear before I get to see him?”

  “I don’t think the ghost wants too many people to see him,” Grandma Karen said. She opened the door under the stairs and flipped a switch. The entryway grew bright again.

  “Maybe we’ll get to see the ghost the next time we’re at the library,” said a solid girl as she and her mom headed for the door.

  “Grandma!” Claire said, once everyone had left the library. “You’re the ghost.”

  Grandma Karen blushed. “Yes,” she admitted. “I am.”

  “But why?” Claire asked. “Why are you pretending to be a ghost? And how? How did you make the ghost appear? How did you make it wail? How did you make all the lights go out? How did you do it all at the same time?”

  “Oh my. So many questions,” Grandma Karen said with a nervous laugh. “I’ll answer your questions if you promise not to tell anyone what I�
�m about to tell you. Do you promise?”

  Claire nodded.

  “Okay,” Grandma Karen said, leading Claire over to the plant. “First, there’s a fog machine hidden in that pot. That’s why I didn’t like you poking around here the other day.” She pushed some of the dirt aside until a red button appeared. “Here’s the button to turn it on.”

  Claire pushed the button and the “ghost” rose up above the plant again.

  “What about the lights and the sound?” Claire asked. “How did you make all the lights go out, and how did you make the ghost sound?”

  Grandma Karen led Claire to her desk in the children’s room. Kaz and Beckett floated along behind.

  “Remote control,” Grandma Karen said, opening the top drawer. She pointed. “Don’t push this button. That’s the one that turns out all the lights. But you can push the other button.”

  Claire did.

  They all heard the ghostly WOOOOOOOOOO! coming from a box on Grandma Karen’s desk.

  “I told you that didn’t sound like a real ghost,” Beckett grumbled. Then he swam away.

  “But why, Grandma? Why are you doing this?” Claire asked. “Aren’t you worried about that man closing the library?”

  Grandma Karen smiled. “No,” she said. “I think people like the idea of a ghost in the library. In fact, they might come to the library more often because they want to catch a glimpse of the ghost. Mr. Argen might complain to the library board, but the board will never vote to close the library.”

  “Are you sure?” Claire asked.

  “I’m sure,” Grandma Karen said.

  Later, when Kaz and Claire were talking in the turret room, Kaz said, “I guess we solved the case of your haunted library.”

  “I knew we would,” Claire said happily. She peered at Kaz. “You don’t look very happy that we solved the case.”

  Kaz shrugged. “I’m happy that we solved the case, but I miss my family. And I miss my old haunt.”