Vanished!
As in disappeared!
We just froze where we lay on the floor. By the glimmer of the flashlight, we stared at the space that used to be Kelly.
“K-K-Kelly?” I whispered.
No answer.
We got up, took a step toward where Kelly had been, then fell down again. The flashlight went out again.
“What do we keep tripping over?” Mara asked.
“Sparky!” I called, and he trotted over and shone his light on a small chair, sitting right by the parlor door.
“A chair,” I said. “Right by a door?”
“Everything is right by a door in this house,” said Brian.
Mara started to wobble. “But … but … if Kelly vanished behind that door … that door must be the door to Ghostville! We have to rescue her!”
“Brian,” I said, “straighten your tie. You’re going in.”
Brian shook his head and stepped back. “Uh … I like Kelly and stuff, but … I don’t want to. I’m … sc-sc-Scandinavian!”
“Should I run and get my mom?” I asked.
Brian thought about that, then took a deep breath. “No. This is a mystery. Maybe it’s way more scary than goofy, but if we don’t solve it, we may not get another case.”
Mara gasped. “That’s exactly what Kelly said before she vanished!”
Brian’s eyes went wide. “Maybe I’m channeling the ghost of Kelly!”
Mara gasped again. “That means she’s still nearby. We need to do a séance!”
Brian tilted his head like Sparky does when he doesn’t understand something. “Is a séance where you take a nap during the day? Because I could sure use a séance right now.”
“That’s called a siesta,” I said.
“I thought siesta was a brand of iced tea,” he said. “And you’re not supposed to drink iced tea while you nap. You could drown.”
“A séance,” said Mara, “is where we call a ghost to talk to us from the world beyond. If the ghost of Lavinia Hyde took Kelly, we can try to get her back.”
“We should try to get all of her, not just her back,” said Brian. “If you leave her back back there, we’ll have to go back for it—”
“Brian,” I said, “calm down.”
“But I’m … sc-sc-scrambled!”
I patted his shoulder. “We’re all scrambled,” I said. “Let’s do a séance.”
“First, we need a round table,” Mara said. “I think I saw one a bunch of doors ago.…”
“Wait!” said Brian. “Let me set a trap in case Lavinia Hyde tries to grab someone else.”
He slid the crumpled paper out of his top hat. “Jeff, write this down. I call it How to Trap a Ghost with a Newspaper.”
I wrote down everything he did:
“What will that do?” asked Mara.
Brian sighed. “So many things. First, if the ghost comes for us, she’ll walk over the newspapers and we’ll hear her crunching them. That’s called turning a newspaper into a noisepaper.”
“Okay, but—” I started.
“Next,” he said, “because Lavinia Hyde has been a ghost for so long, she hasn’t seen the news. When she sees the Badger Point News, she’ll stop to read it.”
“Okay, but—” said Mara.
“Finally, the best part,” Brian said. “When she’s busy catching up on the news, we’ll catch her. With a net!”
Mara leaned close to me. “Between you and me, I think ‘Annette’ is also a ghost.”
We decided not to argue and left the parlor, heading toward the room with the table.
But the more I thought about it, the more Brian’s newspaper thing bothered me.
Finally, I had to speak up.
“Look, is everybody thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” Brian said. “Green peppers would be a great topping on a Goofball pizza.”
“I’m talking about the ghost,” I said.
Brian nodded. “They’d be a great topping on a ghost, too, but it would be hard to keep the pieces stuck on. On the other hand, if they fell off, Sparky would eat them.…”
“Goof!” said Sparky.
“No, look,” I said, “the ghost of Lavinia Hyde floats. Ghosts don’t use the floor. Not only that, but Kelly said they move through walls. So they don’t use doors, either.”
Brian looked unsure. “Meaning … what?”
“Meaning … I don’t know yet,” I said. “But this doesn’t really make sense. We’re missing something.”
“Something called Kelly!” said Mara.
Then she opened a door and froze. “Oh!”
“What is it?” I said, peering over her shoulder.
“A bookcase,” Mara said. “Kelly loved books.”
“We’ll get her back,” I told her.
Mara nodded as she closed the door. “But I agree with Brian. We should get all of her.”
Finally, we found the room we were searching for. We pulled a dusty old sheet off of the round table, then dragged four chairs to it. That’s when I remembered that there were only three of us.
I wondered again if I should get Mom.
But Sparky said, “Goof?” so I patted the seat and he jumped into the fourth chair.
“Place your hands—and paws—flat on the table,” Mara said. “Then spread your fingers and touch your thumbs together, like this.”
Our six hands and Sparky’s two front paws made a circle on the table.
Mara breathed deeply. “We have now formed an unbroken circle of spiritual energy. Kelly, if you can hear us, speak—”
Knock! Knock!
“Who’s there?” Brian asked instinctively.
“It can’t be Kelly,” I whispered. “She doesn’t do knock-knock jokes. It must be Lavinia Hyde!”
Then came a voice.
“Is … someone … there?”
Mara’s eyes went wide. “You give Kelly back!”
“All of her!” I added.
Suddenly, there was a thump and a crash, and then we heard it.
The terrifying sound of … of … crunching newspapers!
