6

A big dark shape filled the doorway, blotting out the sun.

“Jason? Is that you?”

I turned to jelly with relief. It was only Steve, my bud from next door.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “How come your parents are back already?”

I shrugged. “The job didn’t take as long as they thought, that’s all.”

“Yeah?” He sounded doubtful. “What was all the fuss over here late last night? I thought I heard screaming.”

“Must have been the ambulance siren,” I said, acting casual. Like it was no big deal.

“The ambulance? Cool! What happened?”

As I told Steve about our horrible night, with the ghosts chasing us up into the attic and out onto the roof, his eyes got bigger and bigger.

“You’re making it up,” he said. “The baby-sitter really broke her arm?”

I nodded. “She’s okay now.”

“So you guys were left here on your own?”

“Only for a little while,” I said. “Then my parents came back. The witch-thing is still here, though. She just came after me with a sledgehammer. I’m lucky to be alive.”

Steve was kind of staring at me, trying to figure out if I was telling the truth. He’s a big, athletic kid, a star pitcher for his baseball team, and a real practical joker. He was always pulling some prank or another, but he’d seen enough of the haunting himself to know I wasn’t making it up.

“Any grub in this joint?” he asked, switching his attention to the cookie jar.

“Help yourself,” I said.

Steve thoughtfully munched an Oreo and gave me a quizzical look. “You really got attacked with a sledgehammer?”

I pointed to the bruise on my forehead.

“I thought the ghosts only came out at night,” he said.

“That’s what I thought, too.”

He sighed and wiped crumbs from his mouth. “Totally weird,” he said.

Just then my mom came into the kitchen. “Hello, Steve,” she said. “I see you boys found the cookies.”

“Hi, Mrs. Winter,” he said. “Welcome back.”

“Jay, I just got off the phone with Katie’s mother,” Mom said. “Your father and I feel responsible for what happened to her.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I said.

“Nevertheless, she was in our house. We’re going over to the hospital to make sure she’s okay. Will you and your sister be okay for an hour or so?”

“Sure, Mom.”

“Sally’s still sound asleep. So I don’t want a lot of horsing around in here,” she said, eyeing Steve.

“No problemo,” I said.

A couple of minutes later the station wagon was heading back down the driveway. Steve and I watched it go.

“What do we do now?” he asked. “You want to play ball? Or we could go swimming.”

“I can’t leave Sally alone,” I said.

“But she’s asleep,” he protested.

“You know better than that,” I said. “But I do have something in mind.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Like an expedition.”

Steve grinned. “Right. Like to the North Pole, right?”

“Worse,” I said. “To the basement.”

“The basement?” he said, looking puzzled. “Why?”

“Because there’s something down there I want to find.”

Steve raised his eyebrows. “Like what?” he asked.

“A body,” I said. “A dead body.”