“I need to ask these ghosts one more question first,” Kaz said. “Do any of you know about transformation?”
“Transformation?” The four ghost ladies all looked confused.
“You know. Turning solid objects into ghostly objects,” Little John said, swimming forward. “Kaz can do it!”
“Well,” Kaz spoke up. “I did it once. But I don’t know how I did it.”
A strange look passed between Grandmom and Grandpop.
“So, it’s true,” Grandmom said.
“What’s true?” Little John asked.
“You boys have to understand,” Grandpop said. “That’s such a rare skill that most ghosts aren’t even sure it’s real. My uncle Benjamin claimed he had the skill, but no one ever saw him transform anything. We thought it was all talk. But if you have the skill, too, Kaz . . .”
“I may have the skill, but I don’t know how it works,” Kaz said. “Do you guys?”
Kaz’s grandparents shook their heads sadly.
“I was hoping you could tell us how it works,” Grandpop said.
Kaz sighed.
Claire checked the time on her phone. “You’ll figure it out, Kaz. I know you will. But if I’m not back at the library soon, I’m going to get in trouble.” She held out her water bottle.
Kaz and Little John started to shrink down . . . down . . . but Grandmom interrupted them mid-shrink. “Wait! You boys aren’t going with her, are you?”
“Of course not,” Grandpop said, grabbing each boy by the arm. “Now that we’re all together again, they’re staying right here with us.”
No!” Little John cried. “I don’t want to stay here. I want to go back to the library. Windy and Cosmo are there. We can’t leave Cosmo. We can’t leave Beckett, either. He’ll be lonely without us.”
“Who’s Beckett?” Grandpop asked.
“He’s the other ghost who lives at the library,” Kaz said.
“He’s old. Like you,” Little John added.
“Little John!” Kaz nudged his brother. “That’s not polite.”
“Oh, that’s okay, Kaz,” Grandmom said with a smile. “We know we’re old.”
“Why don’t you and Grandpop come to the library with us?” Kaz said. “We’ll have to shrink really small to fit inside Claire’s bottle. But there’s plenty of room for all of us at the library.”
Grandmom turned to Grandpop. “I like it here,” she said. “I don’t want to go someplace else.”
“Well, we like it at the library,” Little John said.
“I don’t mean to eavesdrop,” said the blue-haired solid lady. “But I think you should let those ghost children go back to the library with their friend. They want to be with people their own age.”
“And you two should stay here with us,” said one of the ghost ladies.
“I promise I’ll take good care of Kaz and Little John,” Claire told Grandmom and Grandpop. “And so will Beckett. I’ll bring them back here to visit you. Every day, if you want! Please?”
“Pleeeease?” begged Kaz and Little John.
“Well,” Grandmom said. “I suppose they’ve gotten along on their own this long.”
“And it sounds like they have a responsible ghost adult looking out for them,” Grandpop added.
“If you promise to come back and visit often, you can go with your friend,” Grandmom said.
“Hooray!” Kaz, Little John, and Claire cheered.
“Don’t ever tell your parents we allowed this,” Grandmom said.
“Deal,” Kaz said.
On the way home, Kaz asked Claire, “Did Mr. Helsing tell you why he didn’t want Mrs. Lock to knock down that wall in the library? Does he know about the secret room?”
“He said that wall was a main support for the rest of the house,” Claire said. “That’s why it couldn’t be removed. He didn’t know anything about any secret rooms or secret passageways in the house.”
Kaz groaned. He, Claire, and Little John were no closer to getting the Top Secret envelope out of the secret room. They were no closer to getting Claire into the secret room, either.
But they had found their grandparents! That was something.
Claire’s mom was waiting in the entryway when Claire returned to the library. She leaped to her feet as soon as Claire opened the door. “Have you been visiting with Mrs. Lock all this time?” she asked.
“Not the whole time,” Claire said as she closed the door behind her.
Kaz and Little John passed through Claire’s water bottle and expanded to full size. Little John swam over to get his doll back from Beckett.
Claire’s mom followed Claire across the entryway. “So, what did you and Mrs. Lock talk about?” she asked. She seemed more interested in Mrs. Lock than she was in where else Claire might have gone.
“Did she say anything about a secret passageway or a secret room?” Claire’s mom asked. “Does she think that old soda-pop recipe is somewhere in this house?”
“I didn’t ask her about the recipe,” Claire said. “I only asked about the secret room.”
“What did she say?” Claire’s mother stood so close to her and stared so hard at her that Claire was obviously uncomfortable.
“She doesn’t think there is one,” Claire said, hanging up her coat.
Claire’s mom’s shoulders relaxed.
“Are you okay, Mom?” Claire peered at her mother. “You’re acting so weird.”
Claire’s mom ran her hand through her hair. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said.
“Well, you didn’t really want me to go visit Mrs. Lock. And now you’re asking lots of questions.”
“I’m your mother,” she said with a nervous laugh. “I get to ask questions.”
“Yeah, but you’re asking more questions than you usually do.”
Claire’s mom turned away. “Do you have homework?” she asked.
Claire clucked her tongue. “And now you’re changing the subject!”
“I’m changing the subject because the subject is finished,” her mom said. “Can you say the same for your homework?”
“No,” Claire admitted. “Fine, I’ll go do it.” She shouldered her backpack and headed toward the craft room.
But her mom stopped her in her tracks. “I really wish you wouldn’t always do your homework in the craft room. Can’t you do it upstairs?”
Claire turned. “What’s wrong with doing it in the craft room?”
“Must you argue?” Claire’s mom asked in a tired voice. “Can’t you just do as I ask?”
“Fine,” Claire said with a huff. “I’ll do it upstairs.”
“What’s the matter with your mom?” Kaz asked as he drifted beside Claire. Little John followed close behind with Windy.
“I have no idea,” Claire replied under her breath.
“I’m going to find out,” Little John said. He turned a somersault and swam after Claire’s mom. He got right in front of her so she could see him. Then, slowly, he started to glow. The glow spread through his body and into the doll.
“Little John! No!” Kaz cried, swimming over.
Claire ran after the ghosts.
“Why . . . are . . . you . . . acting . . . so . . . weird . . .?” Little John wailed at Claire’s mom.
There was no doubt Claire’s mom could see and hear Little John. “Wh-wh-who are you?” she stammered. “What are you doing here? And what are you doing with that doll?”
Claire sighed. “I hate to break it to you, Mom. But there are ghosts in this library. This one’s name is Little John. Little John, meet my mom.”
“Hello . . . ,” Little John wailed.
“What are you doing with that doll?” Claire’s mom said again. She pointed at the doll that glowed in Little John’s arms.
“Ohhhh!” Kaz
gasped. “I don’t know why we didn’t figure it out before!”
“Figure what out?” Claire asked Kaz right in front of her mom.
“What’s your mom’s name, Claire?” Kaz asked. “It’s Katherine, isn’t it? Your grandma called her Katherine. Could KL stand for Katherine Lindstrom?” He pointed at the letters on the doll’s dress.
Claire turned to her mom. “This is your doll!”
Yes. That’s my Sophie,” Claire’s mom said. She couldn’t take her eyes off the doll.
“Sophie . . . ?” Little John wailed. “I . . . call . . . her . . . Windy . . .” He hugged the doll tight and turned to Kaz. “Do I have to give her back?”
“Well,” Kaz said in a voice that only Claire and the other ghosts could hear. He wasn’t sure what to say. As soon as Little John let the doll go, it would stop glowing. Claire’s mom wouldn’t be able to see it. But it was still hers, not Little John’s.
“How did you get my doll?” Claire’s mom demanded.
“I . . . found . . . her . . . in . . . the . . . secret . . . room . . .” It took a lot of energy for a ghost to both glow and wail at the same time. Especially when that glow also filled another object. Little John couldn’t help it. Eventually his glow went out.
Claire’s mom blinked. “Where’d he go?” she asked, looking all around.
“He’s still here,” Claire said. “He’s just not glowing anymore. There are two other ghosts here, too. My friend Kaz, who can’t glow.” Kaz waved even though he knew Claire’s mom couldn’t see him. “And Beckett. I don’t know if Beckett can glow. Can you, Beckett?”
“I choose not to,” Beckett said.
“Glowing is what ghosts do when they want us to see them,” Claire told her mom.
“I know what glowing is,” Claire’s mom said dismissively. “What I want to know is where is that ghost and what did he do with my doll?”
Claire tilted her head. “How do you know about glowing?”
Just then, Grandma Karen came into the library entryway. Cosmo swam behind her. “What’s going on out here?” she asked.
“Where are you, you ghost?” Claire’s mom asked as she walked around the entryway and peered into all the dark corners. “Come out and glow so I can see you!”
Little John and the doll glowed again, but not as brightly as before. “It’s . . . hard . . . to . . . keep . . . glowing . . . ,” he wailed.
Claire’s mom’s finger shot out. “There!” she cried, right before Little John and the doll stopped glowing again. “Did you see that, Mother? Did you see what that ghost was holding?”
Grandma Karen took two steps toward Little John, but she couldn’t see him or the doll anymore, either. “It looked a lot like the doll my mother made for you,” she said with surprise. “The one you lost when you were about nine years old.”
Claire’s mom shook her head. “I didn’t lose it, Mother,” she said. “A ghost took it. And now another ghost has it.”
Grandma Karen looked even more surprised. She scratched her chin. Kaz could almost see her piecing something together. “Katherine?” she said after a little while. “Did you see ghosts when you were a child?”
Claire gasped. “Did you, Mom?”
Her mom hesitated for a couple of seconds, then she nodded.
“YOU SAW GHOSTS, TOO?” Claire cried at the same time as Grandma Karen said, “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Claire’s mom opened her mouth, but no words came out.
“Let’s sit down,” Grandma Karen said as she led Claire’s mom over to the bench. Claire plopped down between them. Kaz, Little John, Beckett, and Cosmo hovered nearby.
“I saw ghosts when I was a child, too,” Grandma Karen said.
“You did?” Claire’s mom shifted on the bench. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Grandma Karen smiled. “I don’t know. I certainly would have if I’d had any idea you saw them, too.”
“I tried to tell you about the ghosts I saw when I first started seeing them in Seattle,” Claire said as she hugged her knees to her chest. “I tried to tell you here, too. But you always say, ‘no ghost talk.’”
“I know, honey,” Claire’s mom replied. “And maybe that was a mistake. It’s not normal to see ghosts. I didn’t want the kids at school to tease you. I also don’t want you to spend time with ghosts. Ghosts are dangerous!”
“Dangerous!” Beckett wailed. “You . . . solids . . . are . . . far . . . more . . . dangerous . . . than . . . we . . . are . . . !”
“Who said that?” Claire’s mom whirled around.
“That’s Beckett,” Claire said. “Beckett, say hello to my mom and grandma.”
“Hmph,” Beckett said in a voice that Claire’s mom and grandma couldn’t hear.
Claire’s mom leaned back against the wall. “Let me tell you about the ghosts I saw when I was your age, Claire. They all lived here in this apartment house. The first one I met was a girl named Molly.”
Molly? Kaz and Little John glanced at each other.
“That was Chester’s sister’s name!” Little John said. “Did Chester’s sister end up here when she blew away from their haunt?”
Kaz was wondering that, too.
“Molly was my friend,” Claire’s mom continued. “She had a very unique ability among ghosts. She could make things disappear from the solid world!”
“It has to be the same Molly,” Little John said with growing excitement.
Kaz agreed.
“Kaz can transform objects, too,” Claire said.
“Can he?” Claire’s mom asked.
“Well—” Kaz said, squirming a little.
“It doesn’t count if he can’t do it on command!” Beckett said.
“So, what happened to Molly?” Little John asked. “She’s not here now.”
“Let’s listen and maybe we’ll find out,” Kaz said.
“I don’t know about Kaz, but Molly liked to transform things like socks and keys. As a joke,” Claire’s mom said with a smile. “Sometimes she took toys from kids who lived here. Especially if those kids teased me. But she always returned them to the solid world. Eventually.”
So it is possible to return a ghostly object to the solid world, Kaz thought.
“I don’t understand why you want Claire to stay away from the ghosts, Katherine,” Grandma Karen said. “Molly seems like a perfectly nice ghost friend.”
“She was. But then another ghost blew in,” Claire’s mom said. Her smile fell. “Her name was Annie, and she was a nasty, nasty ghost. She wanted Molly to transform everything in every apartment in the whole house. Even the furniture. She wanted the people who lived here to get scared and move out so the ghosts could have the whole place to themselves.”
“That’s not very nice,” Claire said.
“When Molly refused, Annie got very angry,” Claire’s mom said. “She PUSHED Molly through the wall. I ran outside to try to help Molly, but there was nothing I could do. I never saw her again.”
“Ohhh,” Claire said with sympathy.
“When I came back inside,” Claire’s mom went on, “Annie had gathered up all the things that Molly had transformed, including my doll. She took them back behind that wall, where the secret room is. And she said that if I, or anyone else, ever went near that room, she’d do something really terrible. That’s why I didn’t want you to visit Mrs. Lock, Claire. I wasn’t sure what she knew about the secret room. And I didn’t want her to encourage you to go poking around back there.”
“So you do know about the secret room,” Claire said.
Her mom nodded. “I don’t know what’s back there, but you have to stay away from that wall, Claire. We don’t want any ghosts to hurt us.”
“Oh, honey,” Grandma Karen said, taking Claire’s mom’s hand. “These ghosts aren’t going to hurt
us.”
“That’s right,” Claire agreed. “And you don’t have to worry about Annie. She’s not even here anymore. Is she?” she asked her ghost friends.
“No,” Kaz and Little John said.
“I’ve never met a ghost named Annie,” Beckett said.
“Beckett says he’s never met a ghost named Annie here,” Claire told her mother. “And he’s been here forever. All the ghosts who live here are nice ghosts. Really!”
“You said your friend Kaz could transform objects, too,” Claire’s mom said as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Is he nice enough to transform my doll back?”
“He’s definitely nice enough to do it,” Claire said. “But he doesn’t know how to do it. He’s only transformed something once and that was a total accident.”
“Oh,” Claire’s mom said. “Well, maybe I can help with that. I know how Molly’s ability worked.”
The secret is in the tip of your thumb and your second finger,” Claire’s mom said to the wall beside Kaz.
Kaz wished he could glow so Claire’s mom could see him when she spoke to him.
“You have to touch the very tip of your thumb and your second finger to whatever it is you want to transform, and then quickly pull your hand away.” Claire’s mom demonstrated with her own hand. “That’s what pulls the solid out of the object. If you’re a ghost that has the ability to transform an object.”
“Try it, Kaz,” Claire urged. “See if you can transform that leaf on the floor.”
Kaz dived down to a leaf that had fallen from the plant in the corner.
“Remember, just the tip of your thumb and your second finger,” Claire’s mom said again as all eyes focused on Kaz. And the leaf.
Kaz slowly picked up the leaf. He held it between his thumb and second finger and then let go.
The leaf remained solid as it fluttered back to the floor.
“I think you have to let go faster,” Claire suggested.
“And don’t squeeze it too tight,” Claire’s mom said. “You need to hold it kind of loose. Molly used to sort of balance things on the tips of her fingers, then flick her hand away!”
The Secret Room Page 4
