The Ghosts at the Movie Theater

by Dori Hillestad Butler

  “No,” Kaz said. And he wasn’t. Well, not too scared, anyway. “It’s just a movie. Plus we’re here to see if Dave came back. Where are your friends, Finn? I don’t see them anywhere.”

  “They’re probably in the theater,” Finn said.

  Claire yanked open the door and went into the dark theater. Kaz and his brothers wafted in behind her.

  The movie had already started. Loud, scary music pulsed from speakers on the wall as Claire sat down. Kaz tried not to look at the monster on the screen, but he couldn’t not look. The monster really did have five eyes, just like on the poster.

  “The ghosts aren’t in here, either!” Little John said, turning his back to the movie.

  “Maybe we should go look for them,” Kaz said.

  “We should definitely go look for them,” Little John said, swimming toward the door.

  Claire leaned back in her chair. “Okay. Come back when you find them,” she whispered to Kaz.

  He nodded, then followed his brothers.

  “I don’t know where else they could be,” Finn said. He looked up and down the dim hallway. The only person—solid or ghost—out here was Irwin.

  “They could be in one of the other stores on this block,” Kaz suggested. Maybe they didn’t like scary movies any more than Little John did.

  “Maybe,” Finn said. “Or maybe they’re in one of the bathrooms. Or upstairs in the projection room.”

  “Let’s check the bathrooms,” Little John said. He darted across the hall and into the men’s room.

  “Jessie? Conrad? George?” Finn called as the ghosts passed through the men’s room door. “Are any of you in here?”

  “I-I’m here,” George said in a wobbly voice. He wafted up above the stall door just high enough to peek over the top.

  Finn laughed. “Did that movie scare you, George?”

  “No,” George said, shaking his head. “It w-wasn’t the movie.”

  “Then what?” Kaz asked. “Where are Jessie and Conrad?”

  George gulped. “A bad boy came and blew them away!” he said.

  “WHAT?” Kaz, Finn, and Little John all said at once.

  “It’s true,” George said. “He didn’t see me. But he saw Jessie and Conrad. He’s like your friend, the solid girl. No one was glowing, but that boy saw Jessie and Conrad anyway.”

  The ghosts looked at one another. There was someone else like Claire?

  “We were playing that game we like to play,” George said to Finn.

  “You mean Solid Pass Through?” Finn said.

  George nodded. “It’s a game where you pick a spot anywhere in the lobby and you try not to move, and you see how many solid people will walk through you,” he told Kaz and Little John.

  “You don’t get points if you accidentally pass through them,” Finn added. “They have to walk through you.”

  “This boy walked right over to Jessie and Conrad,” George said. “He had this thing in his hand. It was like a wind machine. He turned it on and blew Jessie and Conrad right through the front window!”

  “When did all this happen?” Kaz asked.

  “Last night. After you guys left,” George replied. “And then that guy who takes the tickets gave the boy some money. The way they were talking, it sounded like the ticket guy hired the boy to get rid of us!”

  Kaz, Finn, and Little John went to tell Claire what they’d just learned. George was too scared to leave the bathroom.

  “There’s someone else like me?” Claire gaped at the ghosts. “Someone who’s not in my own family?”

  The two solid people in the row ahead of Claire turned and glared. “Shh!” the woman hissed at her.

  “Sorry,” Claire whispered.

  “Who’s she talking to, anyway?” the man asked.

  The woman shrugged. They couldn’t see the three ghosts hovered around Claire.

  Claire got up and followed Kaz, Little John, and Finn out of the theater. “I want to talk to George,” she said.

  “You can’t,” Little John said. “He’s in the men’s room and he won’t come out.”

  “He’s scared,” Kaz said.

  “Scared of solid people like you who can see ghosts when we’re not glowing,” Finn added.

  Claire leaned against the wall and sighed.

  Irwin turned his wheelchair and rolled it toward her. “Are you not feeling well again?” he asked.

  “George said that guy hired the other guy to get rid of the ghosts.” Kaz pointed at Irwin. “Why don’t you ask him about it, Claire.”

  Claire nodded slightly to show Kaz she’d heard him. “No, I’m fine,” she told Irwin. “But I was wondering, have you ever seen any ghosts in here?”

  “Ghosts!” Irwin exclaimed. “Are there more in here? Did you see them in the theater?” He frowned. “You’re not going to ask for your money back, are you?”

  “No,” Claire said. “I just heard there might be some ghosts here. That’s all.”

  “We have had a bit of a ghost problem,” Irwin admitted. “At first we thought it was good for business. People wanted to see the ghosts. But then when they saw one, they ran out of the theater and asked for their money back.”

  Kaz raised an eyebrow at Finn.

  Finn shrugged. “Sometimes Dave and Conrad and I liked to put on a little show for the solids.”

  “We couldn’t afford to give all those people their money back, so when a boy came in and claimed he could get rid of the ghosts, we hired him,” Irwin said. “He was here yesterday and the day before. He came in with a big fan and blew the ghosts out. Then he told us to leave all the doors and windows open. He said if there were any more ghosts hiding in here, the wind would blow them out.”

  So that’s what happened to Dave, Kaz thought. The boy probably blew him out of the theater the day before yesterday. Just like he blew Conrad and Jessie away today.

  “Who is this boy?” Claire asked, one hand on her hip.

  Irwin scratched his chin. “I’m not sure I remember his name. He wasn’t much older than you, though. Wait, he had a card.” Irwin felt in his pocket and pulled out a business card. He handed it to Claire. The card said Gabriel Goodman, Ghost Sweeper.

  Kaz, Finn, and Little John hovered safely inside Claire’s water bottle while Claire stood on the sidewalk outside the movie theater and stared at the card in her hand.

  “There’s an address on this card,” Claire told her ghost friends. “I don’t have to be home until dinnertime. We’ve got time to visit Gabriel Goodman before we go back to the library.”

  “Great! Let’s go,” Finn said.

  “Wait,” Kaz said as Claire started walking.

  She stopped. “What?” she asked.

  “Well,” Kaz said. “If this boy can see ghosts when they’re not glowing, then won’t he be able to see us? What if he somehow forces us out of this bottle and blows us into the Outside, too?”

  Little John let out a big breath of air. “Do you have to worry about every little thing, Kaz?”

  “Of course he does,” Finn said. “He’s Kaz.”

  Claire set her bag on a bench, then sat down beside it. “No, Kaz is right to worry,” she said, holding her water bottle on her lap. “We know this boy blew Jessie and Conrad out of the theater. He probably blew Dave out of the theater, too. We need to make sure you guys stay safe.”

  “We’re safe. We’re inside your water bottle,” Finn said.

  “It doesn’t hurt to take extra precautions,” Claire said. She unzipped her bag, picked up the bottle with the ghosts, and put it inside the bag.

  “Hey!” Little John cried as Claire started to zip her bag closed over them.

  Finn swam to the top of the bottle. “Don’t put us in here!” he shouted. “We won’t be able to see anything!”

  “That means Gabriel won�
�t be able to see you, either,” Claire said. “I think that’s best. At least until we know a little more about him.” She zipped her bag the rest of the way closed and everything went dark around Kaz, Finn, and Little John.

  Finn sighed. “Maybe she’s right,” he said. “Better safe than sorry. No one knows that better than me.”

  The ghosts could tell by the way the bottle jiggled back and forth that Claire was walking now. Kaz wondered how far away Gabriel’s house was.

  “This reminds me of when we traveled inside that box with the doll that didn’t shrink,” Little John said. He rubbed his hands together to make them glow, which provided a little light inside Claire’s bag.

  “Huh? What are you talking about?” Finn asked. He rubbed his hands together, too.

  Kaz and Little John told Finn about the doll they’d found in the secret room at the library. They thought it belonged to Little John’s friend Kiley. They wanted to take it to her, but they couldn’t make the doll shrink. That was when they learned that ghostly objects that used to be solid don’t shrink.

  By the time Kaz and Little John finished the story, it sounded as though they had arrived at Gabriel’s house. They could hear Claire talking to someone.

  “I’m looking for Gabriel Goodman,” she said. Her voice sounded muffled, but Kaz could still make it out.

  “That’s me,” a boy replied. “I see you have my card. Do you have a ghost you need me to take care of?”

  “No, I—” Claire broke off. “This is kind of hard to explain. Can I come in?”

  “Okay,” Gabriel said. The ghosts heard a door open, then shut.

  “Let’s go out there,” Little John whispered. He started to pass through the water bottle into Claire’s bag, but Kaz and Finn each grabbed one of his arms and pulled him back.

  “Not yet,” Kaz whispered back.

  “Not until we know it’s safe,” Finn added.

  “I’m like you,” Claire said to Gabriel. “I can see ghosts when they’re not glowing and I can hear ghosts when they’re not wailing.”

  “What’s glowing? What’s wailing?” Gabriel asked.

  “You don’t know what glowing and wailing mean?” Claire asked. “Haven’t you ever talked to any of the ghosts you’ve seen?”

  “No. Why would I do that?” Gabriel said.

  “Because that’s how you get to know people,” Claire said. “You talk to them. You tell them about yourself and they tell you about themselves. That’s how you become friends.”

  “Why would I want to be friends with a ghost?” Gabriel asked.

  Claire sighed. “Why wouldn’t you want to be friends with a ghost?” she asked. Then she told Gabriel about Kaz and his family, and how she and Kaz had formed a detective agency to find Kaz’s missing family and to solve ghostly mysteries.

  “So, when you solve these cases and you find new ghosts, you don’t blow them outside like I do?” Gabriel asked.

  “No,” Claire said. “I bring them home with me. Or I take them someplace where they’ll be happy.”

  “How do you do that?” Gabriel asked. “You can’t take them outside. The wind blows them away.”

  Claire paused for a second. Then she said, “I’ll show you. If you promise to be nice. You can’t blow the ghosts outside or attack them in any way.”

  “You mean you’ve got some ghosts with you right now?” Gabriel said.

  “I do,” Claire said. She started to unzip her bag and light poured in around Kaz, Finn, and Little John.

  The ghosts blinked, squinted, and covered their eyes.

  “Oh, wow.” Gabriel breathed as Claire slowly lifted her water bottle from her bag. He was a teenager like Finn. He wore dark gray pants and a gray hoodie. His hair was long and uncombed.

  “The medium-size ghost is my friend Kaz,” Claire said. “The older one is his big brother, Finn, and the younger one is their little brother, Little John. Guys, this is Gabriel.”

  “Hello,” Little John said. Finn raised a hand in greeting. None of them moved from the bottle.

  “How’d they get so small? They’re like miniature ghosts,” Gabriel said, peering in at them.

  “You don’t know much about ghosts, do you?” Claire asked. “They can shrink and expand and pass through walls. And most people can’t see them when they do that, which helps when you’re a detective. My friend Kaz can even transform stuff. That means he can turn a solid object into a ghostly object.”

  “For real?” Gabriel looked at Kaz. “Show me.”

  “Go ahead, Kaz,” Claire said, motioning for him to come out of the bottle.

  Kaz wasn’t sure he should, but Claire seemed to think it was okay.

  “We’re with you, Kaz,” Finn said as the three ghosts passed through the bottle and expa-a-a-a-anded BIGGER than their normal sizes.

  Gabriel leapt backward.

  Kaz looked around for something to transform. There was a fan on the floor. It looked about the same size as the handheld vacuum Claire used as her “ghostcatcher.” Was that what Gabriel used to blow Jessie, Conrad, and Dave into the Outside? If so, that would be a good thing to transform.

  Kaz swam over, put his thumbs and second fingers on the fan, and POOF! The fan turned ghostly.

  “Wow!” Gabriel said, his eyes open wide. “C-can you put it back?”

  “He can,” Finn said, swimming in front of Kaz. “But he’s not going to. Not until you tell us what happened to Jessie, Conrad, and Dave. Did you blow them out of the movie theater?” Finn expanded even larger. He was twice Gabriel’s size now.

  “Who are all those people he’s talking about?” Gabriel asked Claire.

  “The ghosts at the movie theater,” Claire replied. “Did you blow them outside?”

  Gabriel swallowed hard. “I-I blew some ghosts out of the movie theater,” he admitted. “Yesterday and the day before. But it was a job. I’m sorry. I didn’t know they were your friends. I didn’t know you could be friends with ghosts. Please, don’t hurt me.” He covered his head with his arms.

  Finn snorted. “We’re not going to hurt you,” he said.

  “But we want you to help us find our ghost friends,” Kaz said. “Will you do that?”

  “Yes.” Gabriel nodded. “Yes, I’ll help. But I don’t know what happened to them. I blew them through that big window at the front of the theater and then the wind took them.”

  “We’ll find them,” Claire said confidently. “I know we will.”

  I’m home!” Claire called as she and Gabriel thundered up the stairs. “And I brought a friend. His name is Gabriel.”

  Friend might be stretching it a little, Kaz thought as he and his brothers passed through Claire’s water bottle.

  Claire’s mom poked her head out from the kitchen. “Oh, hello,” she said. “Dinner will be ready in about half an hour. Will you stay for dinner, Gabriel?”

  “Sure,” Gabriel said with a shrug.

  Claire’s mom smiled and returned to the kitchen. Then Kaz’s parents and dog wafted out of the kitchen.

  “You must’ve put up a lot of those flyers,” Kaz’s mom said. “You’ve been gone all afternoon.”

  “More ghosts?” Gabriel said, staring at Kaz’s parents.

  “Woof! Woof!” Cosmo barked. He sniffed Gabriel’s ear. Gabriel tried to brush him away, but his hand passed through the ghost dog.

  “How many ghosts do you know, anyway?” Gabriel asked Claire.

  “Lots,” she said. She unzipped her bag and pulled out her notebooks.

  Little John pointed at the green one. “That notebook is full of ghosts she knows,” he said.

  Kaz’s mom wafted closer. “Who is this solid boy?” she asked, looking Gabriel over from head to toe. “What does he mean ‘more ghosts’? Can he see us, too?”

  “Yes,” Kaz said.

  “His name
is Gabriel,” Little John said. “The guy at the movie theater hired him to get rid of the ghosts.”

  “Oh, no,” Mom said. She put her hand to her mouth.

  “Oh, yes,” Finn said. “He blew Dave away from the theater two days ago and then yesterday he came back and blew Jessie and Conrad away.”

  Gabriel looked down at the floor and shifted from one foot to the other while Finn talked.

  “So, now they’re missing, too?” Mom said. “Why in the world did you bring this boy here?”

  “Because he’s sorry,” Little John said.

  Just then, Beckett’s head rose through the floor. Gabriel jumped out of the way.

  “I want to help find your friends,” Gabriel said to all the ghosts.

  “You should’ve thought of that before you blew them away,” Mom said, shaking her finger at Gabriel. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused? It’s extremely dangerous for ghosts to be in the Outside.” She expanded larger and larger with every word she spoke. “It’s like you being in a tornado! Have you ever been in a tornado? Have you ever lost loved ones?”

  Solid people can’t shrink, but somehow Gabriel looked smaller than he did before. His bottom lip quivered.

  “Mom, chill,” Finn said.

  “Yeah, everyone makes mistakes,” Kaz said.

  Mom looked at Finn. Then at Beckett. Embarrassed, Beckett quickly disappeared beneath the floor.

  Mom looked a little embarrassed, too. “How are you going to find the ghosts that you blew away?” she asked Gabriel as she shrunk to her normal size. Her tone of voice was a little nicer, but not a lot.

  “We’re open to suggestions,” Claire said. “From everyone. Even you, Beckett.” She raised her voice so he could hear her through the floor.

  Beckett’s head popped back in. “Really?” he said. “You want my help, too?”

  “The more people we have helping, the more likely we are to find the lost ghosts,” Mom said to Beckett.

  Beckett drifted up, up, up until his whole body was in Claire’s living room. But he still kept some distance between himself and Kaz’s mom.