A Fall for Friendship

by Megan Atwood

  Now that Olive had a better look, she could see that the ghost wasn’t a small woman at all, but one of Gloria’s friends whom she’d seen at the rehearsal the other night.

  Gloria swept in. “Pretty good for babies,” she said, throwing her scarf around her shoulder. Looking at her friend, she said, “You couldn’t have held your breath?”

  Her friend scoffed and said, “It’s way too cold in here. And anyway, we should run lines for the set we’ll be performing. We don’t have much time, and all this goofing around isn’t helping.” She waved her arms. “Come on, guys. Let’s go back to the house and start over. Now that the script actually includes more lines for actors and we’re not all barn animals anymore, we need to practice.” More people in black appeared by the girl, all holding flashlights. One of them also held a phone. He pressed a button and the low moaning sound stopped. Olive knew exactly where the sound came from—small speakers underneath the hayloft.

  Looking up at the hayloft, the girl who’d played Verity Wentworth said, “Good job, kids. Keep a skeptical eye out. But be sure to catch our performance when the haunted barn actually opens up. We’re pretty good. You coming, Gloria?”

  Gloria said, “In a minute.” Everyone on the ground floor left except Gloria. Olive, Peter, Lizzie, and Sarah looked at each other. They grabbed their flashlights and turned them on again. Then they made their way down the ladder to talk to Gloria.

  When they reached the ground, Olive said, “So you figured out we’d tricked you?”

  Gloria smiled a smug smile. “One cannot fool a fooler, babies. I act for a living. I know staging when I see it. Or hear it.”

  Lizzie said, “Gloria, where did you get that story about Verity?”

  Gloria shrugged. “Oh, Aunt Willow had a dream. And I may have embellished it a little. But you have to admit—it’s got DRAMA! Why, were you scared?” She put her flashlight under her chin to make her face look scary.

  Olive said truthfully, “I wasn’t. At least not until tonight.”

  Gloria shrugged and put the flashlight down. “Well, three out of four babies will do.” She turned to leave, but Olive said, “Wait.”

  She pushed her glasses up on her nose and tried to organize her thoughts. She still wasn’t quite sure how Gloria had done everything.

  “Okay, so we know you used the speakers under the hayloft like we did,” Olive said.

  Gloria barked a laugh. “Yes! I was there when they installed them. As if I wouldn’t know where the sound the other night was coming from . . .”

  “And we know that your friend put lights under her skirt so it looked like she was glowing. How did you make it look like she was floating?” Olive asked.

  “Oh, that’s easy. She just wore black shoes and socks. And Jenny is an accomplished stealth walker. From your angle, it would look like she was floating.”

  Peter added, “And you used your flashlights to make the glow seem like it came from somewhere else, right?”

  Gloria looked down her nose at Peter. “Every actor knows that lighting is everything.”

  Olive shook her head. “Okay, but how did you make it so cold in here? And how did you shut off our flashlights? I mean, I know you just made a wind blow to snuff out the candle. But I can’t figure out the other two things.”

  Gloria had gone still and stared at Olive. “Your flashlights went off?”

  Olive said, “Nice try. How did you do it? Are these trick flashlights or something?”

  Gloria shook her head slowly and backed up a little. Her voice had changed. It somehow sounded younger. “Um, we didn’t do anything to make it this cold. In fact . . . has it gotten colder in here?”

  Lizzie said, “It’s over, Gloria. Just tell us how you did it. Or I’ll tell Mom and Dad that you tried to scare us.”

  Gloria glared at Lizzie. “Well, I’ll tell Mom and Dad that you were out of the house in the middle of the night.”

  Peter said, “But wait, are you really saying you don’t know how the flashlights got turned off?”

  Sarah said, “Maybe they just malfunctioned?”

  Right at that moment, the flashlights that Olive, Peter, Sarah, Lizzie, and Gloria held all shut off again. And then the barn doors shut with a BANG, leaving them in total darkness.

  CHAPTER 17

  Illuminating the Issue

  All five of them screamed and ran for the doors. Peter reached them first and yanked on them, but they wouldn’t budge. The rest of the group rushed to help, but none of them could get the doors open.

  A low light emanated from behind them. Olive whispered, “Gloria, are your friends still messing with us?”

  Olive could see Gloria’s eyes, wide and afraid. She’d never seen Gloria like this since she’d known her. She’d always seemed world-weary and like nothing would surprise her. But this expression . . . Gloria looked as terrified as Olive felt.

  Gloria whispered back, “I don’t think this is them.”

  All five of them turned around slowly.

  The light seemed to have no form—it was just a glowing ball. The cold was back, this time so frigid that Olive started shaking, though she wasn’t sure if that was from the cold or from the fact that they might be staring at a ghost.

  “Wh-wh-what do you want?” Sarah asked.

  The glowing ball of light just sat there.

  “Are you going to hurt us?” Peter asked it.

  The light dimmed.

  “Do you want to tell us something?” Gloria asked. The light grew brighter, then went back to the way it had been before. Now Olive thought she got it.

  “Am I Olive Wu?” Olive asked. Sarah, Lizzie, Peter, and Gloria looked at her. She whispered, “I think it’s dimming for no and growing brighter for yes. So I’m doing a test.”

  The light grew brighter, then went back to normal. “Are we on planet Earth?” Olive asked it. The light grew brighter again.

  “Is Gloria an alien?” Lizzie asked. The light dimmed.

  Gloria stared at Lizzie and she shrugged. “It said no,” she grumbled.

  Olive swallowed. “Are you Verity Wentworth?”

  Nothing happened for a moment, and then the light grew brighter and then resumed its normal state.

  A shudder ran through the group. Sarah asked, “What do you want us to do?” But Peter whispered, “You have to ask it yes-or-no questions!”

  Sarah said, “Oh, yeah. I forgot. Okay, are you here to hurt us?”

  The light dimmed. Olive relaxed just a little, but not totally. Because if a vengeful spirit wanted to hurt them, it would also probably lie to them.

  On top of that, they were talking to a ball of light. Nothing made sense to Olive at the moment.

  Gloria stepped up. “Was my aunt Willow right about your story? Were you killed by Baron von Steuben?”

  As before, there was a beat, but then the light grew so bright, all five of them had to cover their eyes. It finally dimmed back to its normal glow.

  Olive swallowed. “If we tell your story, will that help you be free?”

  The light brightened again.

  Gloria squared her shoulders. “Then we will tell your story exactly as it should be told. Starting next weekend—everyone will know what happened to you!”

  Lizzie said, her voice small, “We’re so sorry that happened to you.”

  The ball of light grew brighter and brighter until everyone hid their eyes again. Then, with a flash, the light was gone. All of their flashlights turned on again, and the barn doors swung wide open. The barn also seemed to warm up.

  Olive was the first to speak. “That was . . .”

  Sarah said, “CREEPY!” They all nodded.

  Olive turned to Gloria. “Tell us the truth, were your friends playing a prank on us? Do you know?”

  Gloria looked serious. She said, “If they were, that was a really cool trick. I guess they could have made that light. Maybe these are trick flashlights. . . .”

  But then Olive finished the thought. “But we still d
on’t know how they could have made it so cold. . . .”

  No one spoke.

  “Well,” Peter said. “Whoever or whatever it was, we know we need to tell the story, at least.”

  Gloria stood up tall. “Indeed we do. Next week, ACTING will save lives!” She threw her scarf around her shoulders again, and her usual Gloria expression came back. Here was the Gloria Olive knew. “I need to go practice my art, babies. If I were you, I’d try to find a way to help us tell the story.”

  With that, Gloria swept out of the barn and into the night.

  CHAPTER 18

  Superspies

  Lizzie, Sarah, Peter, and Olive practically ran back to Lizzie’s house. When they got there, the house somehow seemed big and shadowy. The full moon illuminated the fog traveling behind the house. Even the snorting of the horses all the way from the barn put Olive on edge.

  Once inside, they piled all their pillows and sleeping bags together in the family room and huddled up in the middle of the floor. No one said anything for a minute.

  Lizzie said quietly, “I thought I’d be kind of excited about a ghost, but I don’t know if I am anymore.”

  Olive felt Peter shiver next to her, and she snuggled closer. She was scrunched between him and Lizzie, but she didn’t mind at all.

  Sarah said, “I just don’t know if I believe Gloria . . . That had to be a prank, right?”

  Olive thought for a minute. “I don’t know how. I really don’t.”

  Peter said, “That plus the other things . . . the horses being let out. The pumpkin patch fire. The lightbulb exploding . . .”

  Lizzie said, “Olive, can you think of reasons all of that happened? I mean, besides a ghost?”

  The question made Olive warm and happy. Why had she ever thought her friends didn’t listen to her? She thought about it for a very long time. She heard Sarah start to snore just a little bit when she finally started talking again. “Well, with the weird stuff that happened before, there are reasonable explanations. Everyone getting hurt in the barn really could just be because there was a lot of activity and people are clumsy. Especially Sheriff Hadley,” she said, looking over at Sarah.

  Sarah snorted. “That’s for sure. Good thing my mom is his good friend—he always needs help with something.”

  Olive said, “Just frie—I mean, yep. That’s true.” Peter elbowed her and smiled. She smiled back. “And like the research I found says, the barn doors could have been opened by a wind tunnel,” she continued. “And the lightbulb exploding really could have been an old house thing. I read about other old houses having weird electricity problems.”

  Peter said, “Maybe they had ghosts, too.”

  Olive thought about that for a moment. “Huh. I never thought about it that way. Anyway, as far as the pumpkin patch goes, I don’t really have an answer for that.”

  Lizzie spoke up. “You mentioned that it could have been kids. That is really true. Some kids like to hang out around the patch sometimes. And I think some of them”—she lowered her voice—“smoke.”

  “Hmm, yeah,” Olive said. “If they didn’t put their cigarette out right, it could have started a fire.”

  “Gross,” Peter said. They all nodded.

  “Okay, so that’s all the stuff we kind of knew about anyway. What about tonight?” Sarah asked.

  “Here’s where I’m stuck. So, I think the light tonight could have been made. Maybe one of the actors had some remote-controlled thing? They could have kept the barn doors shut. But the cold . . . and the flashlights going off . . . I don’t know how they’d do that,” Olive said.

  “Did we ever check the flashlights?” Sarah suddenly asked.

  No one answered.

  Olive sighed. “I don’t think we’re done with spying tonight, you guys,” she said.

  All three of them sat up on their elbows and looked at her. She sat up too. “I think we need to check Gloria’s room to see if she has anything that could make all that stuff happen tonight.”

  Peter said, “I don’t know, Olive. She seemed really scared.”

  But Lizzie looked thoughtful. “Well, maybe. But she is actually a really good actor. I’ve heard other people say it—she takes it seriously and she’s amazing at it. She could have been acting.”

  Olive stood up and stepped over the wall of pillows. They were all still in their black clothes—no one had wanted to get into pj’s.

  “Who’s up for looking in Gloria’s room?” she asked. No one said anything. “Yeah, me neither. But let’s go.”

  Everyone got up off the floor.

  • • •

  Olive put her hand on the doorknob and Lizzie turned on the flashlight on her phone, pointing it toward the floor. Olive looked back at the others, and they all gave her a nod. She turned the doorknob and tiptoed into Gloria’s room, the others following her.

  The place was super-clean, which was somehow surprising to Olive. She’d expected it to be strewn about with feather boas and sunglasses. Instead, there were a bed, a dressing table, a dresser, and a desk. And big windows that let in all the moonlight. Gloria lay in her bed, an eye mask over her eyes. She was snoring softly.

  Peter motioned to a corner of the room. A big knapsack sat in the corner. It was the only thing out of place in the whole room. Olive nodded.

  She tiptoed forward and the floor made a loud CREAK. Olive froze. So did the rest of them. Gloria sat straight up in bed, the mask still over her eyes. She muttered something that sounded to Olive like “staniskofbee.” But then she fell back into bed and resumed snoring.

  The four of them snuck over to the bag and opened it. Lizzie trained her light inside.

  Sure enough, a remote control sat in there.

  “That must have been for the flashlights,” Olive whispered.

  There was also a round ball that had lights attached to it and a translucent string attached to its top.

  Lizzie sat back on her heels. “The glowing light,” she whispered.

  Peter said softly, “There must have been others in the barn who helped make it seem like it was floating and answering our questions.”

  Olive felt around in the bag and only came up with a clipboard and a pen and various small props. None of it was anything that had appeared in the barn.

  They snuck back out of the room and reconvened in their blankets and pillows. Lizzie yawned big.

  Olive said, “So we know how they did the glowing ball. And our flashlights, but . . .”

  Sarah finished, “How’d they make it so cold in there? Lizzie, is the electricity installed yet?”

  Lizzie shook her head. “No, they’re doing that tomorrow.”

  “We would have heard anything that needed electricity. A generator would have been really loud,” Peter said.

  Olive let out a long breath. “Well, because I don’t know everything, and I’ve kept an open mind, the logical conclusion is . . . we may just have a ghost on our hands. So what do we do next?” She looked at all of them and saw their giant smiles, and she had to smile back too.

  “Let’s call Aunt Willow tomorrow,” Lizzie said. “We’ll tell her the ritual didn’t work and get her advice. Then we can solve this once and for all.”

  CHAPTER 19

  The Play’s the Thing

  Olive couldn’t believe it—the time for the zombie hayride and the haunted barn had finally come. She looked at her friends, who were dressed in different zombie costumes, and smiled.

  “Remember when we first met and found out we all loved zombies?” Olive said.

  Sarah grinned. “Yeah, I wasn’t very nice to you then. But you and Peter kinda grew on me.”

  Peter smiled at her, and Lizzie squeaked. Olive smiled too. “Clearly, I’ve always liked to be right,” she said. “But I was definitely right about you guys.”

  Before anyone could respond, Ms. Shirvani came up with Sheriff Hadley, who was dressed as a zombie too. She had her arm through his and she looked thrilled. “Hey, honey!” she said to Sarah. Then
she asked everyone, “Are you all ready for the first customers? Tell me how this goes again?”

  Lizzie said, excited, “It goes like this! The people go on the hayride and get to shoot zombies with Nerf guns.”

  Sarah narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you a zombie to shoot at?” she asked Sheriff Hadley.

  He grinned. “Nope. I’m the law around these here parts. Tonight I’m just the zombie law.” He winked, but Sarah looked at him suspiciously. Something in her face said she noticed her mom’s arm through his . . . and wasn’t quite sure about it.

  Lizzie jumped in. “So then the customers get off the hay wagon and hand off their Nerf guns. Then we get to chase them into the barn! They go through all the rooms and end in the big open area, where Gloria and her friends tell the story of Verity Wentworth.”

  Which, Olive thought, could get rid of a ghost if it existed . . .

  But then a commotion rippled through everyone standing around the haunted barn and interrupted Lizzie. The hay wagon had been spotted! Albert Garrison cheerily drove the wagon with the first hayride customers, and a zing of excitement shot through Olive. Sarah clapped her hands, Lizzie squeaked, and Peter laughed. Olive said, “YES!” and shared gleeful smiles with the rest of them. They ran to take their places outside the barn, along with a few other zombies.

  “Do you have the powder?” Peter whispered to Olive. She nodded and patted her pocket.

  She gave a thumbs-up to all three of them, and they squatted down behind the barn to wait for the people they would chase inside.

  The powder in Olive’s pocket was a whole bunch of herbs and spices they’d gathered from the Garrisons’ spice cupboard and combined. Plus some dirt from the orchard field and ground hay from the barn. Aunt Willow had said it was “justice powder”—something much stronger than just the words and the crystals they’d tried to use the week before. Olive was doubtful, but she’d decided to trust Aunt Willow. Who knew? Just maybe Aunt Willow knew what she was talking about. Olive was keeping an open mind.