“Too bad, Allie,” Karen said, her voice filled with mock sympathy. “You really blew it.” Smiling then, she added, “Looks like I’ve got the part sewed up.”
Allie wished for the perfect, witty retort to spring to her lips but, as always, she was too taken aback by Karen’s nastiness to think.
Once, when Allie, in despair, had wondered why Karen was so mean, Pam had said it was because Karen was jealous.
“The other kids like you,” Pam explained.
“They like Karen, too,” Allie answered.
“No,” said Pam, shaking her head. “They go along with her because they’re afraid of her, not because they like her. Nobody wants to be her next victim.”
Now, looking right into Karen’s smirking face, Allie tried to follow Dub’s often-repeated advice to ignore Karen Laver and everything she said. Sidestepping Karen, she headed toward Dub.
“Al, what happened up there?” he asked, looking worried.
“I’ll tell you out in the lobby,” Allie answered tersely.
When they were alone, Allie moaned, “Dub, I think it’s happening again.”
Dub looked quizzical. Then understanding dawned and his expression grew serious. “You mean…another ghost?”
To her surprise, in the past few months Allie had been visited by a series of three different ghosts. Each spirit had been unable to rest in peace because of an unresolved problem and had come to Allie for help. Each had finally been “put to rest,” but only after Allie had taken action, sometimes at great risk to herself, to Dub, and, once, to her four-year-old brother, Michael.
Her sudden attraction for the unhappy spirits had caused Dub to joke that she was a “ghost magnet.” He was the only person who knew the whole story behind each of her otherworldly adventures, and she was very grateful to have him by her side. The discovery that ghosts not only existed but seemed determined to involve her in their affairs had been an unsettling one. It was fascinating and exhilarating, yes, but also frightening and dangerous.
Furthermore, she didn’t really know why ghosts came to her. The question grew more puzzling when she discovered that her little brother, Michael, could see and hear the same spirits, though their parents had no idea that this was going on. That might not have worried Allie, except for one thing she and Dub had learned: ghosts were all different, just like the people they had once been. Some were kind, but some definitely were not.
Michael was too young to understand that some of the things he saw and heard were of supernatural origin, and as far as Allie was concerned the longer he remained in blissful ignorance, the better.
“Al? Hello? I asked you a question.”
Dub’s voice penetrated Allie’s reverie. “Sorry,” she said. “What did you say?”
“I said, was it a ghost who made you talk like that during the audition?”
Allie nodded. “It’s the only explanation I can think of.”
She had learned many of the ways ghosts could communicate and make their wishes known. Having someone else speak through her lips was just one of the interesting—and disconcerting—surprises she had experienced.
“At least the last time you came out with weird stuff you didn’t mean to say, it was in English,” Dub commented. “What was that?”
“I have no idea,” Allie said. “And I can’t believe Miss Lunsford was so nice, clapping and smiling afterward as if I’d done a great job. I mean, I totally blew it.” She made a face, remembering Karen’s comment. “Of course, Karen made sure to point that out to me.”
Dub scowled and was about to answer when Miss Lunsford called loudly from the stage, “That’s five minutes, people!”
“I’ll stay for your audition, Dub,” Allie said quickly. “But I’m going to sit in the back. That way, if I start babbling again, nobody will hear me.”
Sitting alone in the dimly lit shadows at the rear of the old theater, Allie experienced a mixture of excitement and dread at the thought of another ghostly encounter. Whose spirit was trying to reach her this time, and what did it want from her?
Also by Cynthia DeFelice
The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker
Under the Same Sky
The Missing Manatee
Bringing Ezra Back
Signal
The Ghost Mysteries
The Ghost of Fossil Glen
The Ghost and Mrs. Hobbs
The Ghost of Cutler Creek
The Ghost of Poplar Point
Picture Books
Casey in the Bath
illustrated by Chris L. Demarest
Old Granny and the Bean Thief
illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith
One Potato, Two Potato
illustrated by Andrea U’Ren
An Imprint of Macmillan
THE GHOST OF CUTLER CREEK. Copyright © 2004 by Cynthia C. DeFelice. All rights reserved. For information, address Square Fish, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Square Fish and the Square Fish logo are trademarks of Macmillan and are used by Farrar Straus Giroux under license from Macmillan.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DeFelice, Cynthia C.
The ghost of Cutler Creek / Cynthia DeFelice.
p. cm.
Summary: When Allie is contacted by the ghost of a dog, she and Dub investigate the surly new boy at school and his father to see if they are involved.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-9095-0
[1. Ghosts—Fiction. 2. Dogs—Fiction. 3. Family problems—Fiction. 4. Mystery and detective stories—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.D3597 Gf 2004
[Fic]—dc21
2003049051
Originally published in the United States by Farrar Straus Giroux
Square Fish logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
www.squarefishbooks.com
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