The Ghost at the Fire Station Read online

  FOR RUTH

  I COULDN’T HAVE ASKED FOR A BETTER MOTHER-IN-LAW.

  WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO DAVE LARSON FOR ANSWERING ALL MY FIRE STATION QUESTIONS —DHB

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Penguin Young Readers Group

  An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

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  Text copyright © 2015 by Dori Hillestad Butler. Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Aurore Damant. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  ISBN 978-0-399-53998-5

  Version_1

  Contents

  Dedication

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Glossary

  1. MEETING CLAIRE’S DAD

  2. A VISIT TO THE FIRE STATION

  3. THE GHOST AT THE FIRE STATION

  4. FIRE!

  5. THE BIG SEARCH

  6. A MESSAGE FOR CLAIRE

  7. GHOST HUNTING

  8. SLEEPOVER AT THE FIRE STATION

  9. WHAT’S UNDER THE BED?

  10. HELPING SPARKY

  EXPAND

  When ghosts make themselves larger

  GLOW

  What ghosts do so humans can see them

  HAUNT

  Where ghosts live

  PASS THROUGH

  When ghosts travel through walls, doors, and other solid objects

  SHRINK

  When ghosts make themselves smaller

  SKIZZY

  When ghosts feel sick to their stomachs

  SOLIDS

  What ghosts call humans, animals, and objects they can’t see through

  SPEW

  What comes out when ghosts throw up

  SWIM

  When ghosts move freely through the air

  WAIL

  What ghosts do so humans can hear them

  Claire’s phone buzzed during dinner, interrupting a big conversation her parents were having. Kaz, Little John, Beckett, and Cosmo hovered around the dining-room table.

  “No, Claire,” her mom said as Claire reached for her phone. “You know the rule. No phones at the dinner table.”

  “But it could be a case,” Claire said.

  “It can wait,” Claire’s mom said. “Your dad and I don’t take cases during dinner. You don’t need to, either.” She held out her hand. Claire’s parents ran a detective agency out of their home above the library, and held a strict “no work during dinner” policy.

  Claire groaned and gave the phone to her mother.

  “You’ll get it back after dinner,” her mom promised. She laid the phone in her lap, then turned to Claire’s dad. “Now, where were we?”

  “You were telling me that you used to see ghosts when you were a kid?” he said. “Real, live ghosts.” Kaz could tell he didn’t quite believe it.

  “Oh, yes. That’s right.” Claire’s mom twirled spaghetti noodles around her fork. “I started seeing them when I was around nine. Like Claire.”

  “And you saw ghosts when you were that age, too?” Claire’s dad asked Grandma Karen. Grandma Karen was Claire’s mom’s mother.

  “Yes,” Grandma Karen replied. “I don’t remember if I was eight or nine. Somewhere in there.” She took another bite of pasta.

  “But neither of you sees ghosts now.” Claire’s dad’s eyes shifted back and forth between the two women.

  “No,” they said at the same time.

  “Not unless they’re glowing,” Grandma Karen added. “That’s what ghosts do when they want us to see them.”

  “I can see ghosts when they’re not glowing!” Claire piped in. “I’m the only one in the family who can.”

  No one knew why Claire could see and hear ghosts when they weren’t glowing or wailing. It was a mystery! And no one knew why Claire’s mom and grandma couldn’t see or hear ghosts anymore. Kaz hated to think that one day Claire might not be able to see or hear him. It made him want to work harder on his glowing and wailing skills.

  “There are three ghosts in this room with us right now,” Claire added. “Four, if you count the ghost dog.”

  “Woof! Woof!” Cosmo barked as he swam in a circle around Claire’s dad.

  “I don’t know why all the solids who live here need to know about us,” Beckett grumbled.

  “Don’t call us solids!” Claire narrowed her eyes at Beckett.

  Claire’s dad looked right through Beckett. “Who are you talking to?” he asked Claire.

  “Beckett,” Claire replied, her mouth full of spaghetti. “He’s one of the ghosts here. I don’t like it when he calls us solids. That’s why he does it.”

  “Hmph,” Beckett grunted.

  Claire swallowed her food. “The other ghosts are Kaz and Little John. Kaz is my age. Little John is his six-year-old brother.”

  “Maybe . . . it . . . would . . . help . . . if . . . he . . . could . . . see . . . us,” Little John wailed as a bluish glow filled his body. “See, . . . Claire’s . . . dad? . . . Here . . . I . . . am! . . . Over . . . here!” He waved his arms.

  Claire’s dad’s mouth fell open.

  “Dad, meet Little John.” Claire nodded toward Kaz’s little brother.

  Claire’s dad blinked, then rubbed his eyes and looked again at Little John.

  Kaz wished he could glow and wail so Claire’s dad could meet him, too. But he couldn’t.

  There was something else he could do to show Claire’s dad he was here, though. He dove down to the table and picked up the salt shaker.

  Claire’s dad’s eyes opened wider. Since he couldn’t see Kaz, it looked like the salt shaker was floating in midair.

  Kaz had just learned how to pick up solid objects, so he couldn’t hang on to the salt shaker for long. He held it carefully between the tip of his thumb and second finger, then transformed it into a ghostly salt shaker. It floated in the air beside Kaz’s hand, but Claire’s dad couldn’t see it anymore.

  “Where did the salt shaker go?” Claire’s dad asked.

  “It’s still there,” Claire said. “You can’t see it because Kaz transformed it.”

  “Kaz can’t glow or wail like other ghosts,” Claire’s mom explained. “But he can transform things. That means he can turn solid objects into ghostly objects, and he can turn ghostly objects into solid objects. It’s a very rare skill.”

  Kaz felt proud when he heard Claire’s mom say that.

  Claire’s dad rubbed the back of his neck. “So where did all these ghosts come from?” he asked. “Why are they here?”

  “I don’t know where Beckett came from,” Claire said. “But Kaz and Little John used to live in an old schoolhouse with the rest of their family. Then one day last summer, some people tore down the schoolhouse, and Kaz and his family ended up outside. The wind blew Kaz here. For a long time he didn’t know what happened to anyone else in his family. But we found Cosmo when we were out solving a case. And you know that purple house on Marion Street? That�
��s where the wind blew Little John. The other ghosts who lived there told him there were ghosts in the library, so he came here inside a library book and found Kaz. We don’t know where the rest of their family is.”

  “We . . . know . . . where . . . our . . . grandma . . . and . . . grandpop . . . are . . . ,” Little John wailed.

  “Oh, yeah,” Claire said. “We found their grandma and grandpa at the nursing home.”

  Claire’s dad jumped when Little John’s glow went out. “Now where’d that ghost go?” he asked.

  “He’s still there,” Claire said. “He just ran out of energy. It takes a lot of energy for ghosts to glow brightly enough and wail loudly enough so we can see and hear them.”

  Claire’s dad rubbed the back of his neck some more.

  “I know it’s a lot to think about.” Claire’s mom patted her husband’s arm. “But I’ve been wanting to share our little family secret with you for a while.”

  Claire’s phone buzzed again in her mom’s lap. Her mom glared.

  “What?” Claire said, throwing her hands into the air. “I can’t help it if someone is calling me. They don’t know we’re having dinner.”

  The look on Claire’s mom’s face softened. “That’s true,” she said as Claire’s phone continued to buzz. She turned back to Claire’s dad. “Do you have any questions?”

  “Yes. Am I ever going to see the salt shaker again?” Claire’s dad asked.

  “Oh!” Kaz said. “Here you go.” He transformed the salt shaker and it “reappeared” in midair, then fell to the table with a thump.

  Claire’s dad picked it up and turned it around. Kaz had a feeling it wasn’t just the disappearing and reappearing salt shaker that Claire’s dad had to think about. It was everything Claire and her mom and her grandma had just told him. Plus seeing Little John with his own eyes.

  “Don’t worry, Dad. You’ll get used to the ghosts,” Claire said.

  After dinner, Claire’s mom returned her cell phone as promised.

  “I’ve got voice mail!” Claire said as she skipped up the stairs to her bedroom. Kaz and Little John swam beside her and listened while Claire played the message back:

  “Hi, Claire? This is Brynlee Larson. We don’t really know each other because we’re not in the same class. But we’re in the same grade. And I think you’re in my brother’s class. Do you know RJ Larson? He’s here, too.”

  Another voice said, “Hi.”

  Brynlee continued: “Anyway, we’re calling because we heard you solve ghost mysteries. Is that true? If it is, call us back. Or talk to one of us at school tomorrow. We’ve got a . . . situation we want to talk to you about. Okay, bye.”

  “Hmm,” Claire said. “Sounds like we may have a new case! I’ll call her back right now.”

  Claire’s cat, Thor, growled at Kaz and Little John as he strolled beneath them. Claire was still talking with Brynlee on the phone.

  “Why doesn’t Claire’s cat like us?” Little John asked. “We never did anything to it.”

  “Well, Cosmo chases him,” Kaz pointed out.

  “Cosmo isn’t here. He’s downstairs with Claire’s grandma,” Little John said.

  Kaz shrugged. “Some solid animals just don’t like ghosts very much.”

  “Funny you should mention that, Kaz,” Claire said as she tossed her phone onto her bed. “Brynlee and RJ have a new dog named Sparky. Well, Sparky really belongs to their dad. He’s a firefighter, so they got Sparky to be a fire station mascot. Anyway, everything was fine at first. But now there’s this room at the fire station that Sparky won’t go in. He just stands in the doorway and barks at something in there. No one knows what he’s barking at.”

  “Is he barking at a ghost?” Little John asked.

  “That’s what Brynlee and RJ think,” Claire replied. “There have been some strange things happening at the fire station, too. Some of the firefighters have heard weird noises during the night. One of them even saw a ghost. That’s why Brynlee and RJ want me to come over. They want me to catch the ghost.”

  “I wonder if the ghost is Mom or Pops or Finn,” Little John said.

  Finn was Kaz and Little John’s big brother. He got lost in the Outside even before the old schoolhouse was torn down. No one in the family knew where he was now.

  “Where’s your water bottle, Claire?” Little John rubbed his hands together. The rubbing made his hands glow.

  “Not so fast, Little John,” Claire said. “We aren’t going now. It’s almost bedtime. We’ll go tomorrow after school.”

  “Aw,” Little John groaned.

  “I’m not sure Little John and I should go then, either,” Kaz said.

  “Why not?” Claire asked.

  “Yeah. Why not?” Little John asked. The glow faded from his hands.

  “Because that dog probably doesn’t like ghosts,” Kaz said. “That’s why he barks, right? Who knows what he’ll do if two more ghosts show up?”

  “Yes, but lots of ghosts don’t trust people like me,” Claire said. “Sparky might not be happy to see you, but I bet the ghost at the fire station would be very happy to see you.”

  “Claire’s right,” Little John said. “Mom or Pops might swim away from her. But they wouldn’t swim away from us.”

  Kaz had to admit that Claire and Little John had a point. “Okay. We’ll go,” he said finally.

  “Tomorrow,” Claire said again. “After school.”

  Kaz had seen both Brynlee and RJ at Claire’s school before, but he’d never seen them together until they stepped out onto their front porch.

  “Those two solids have the same hair and the same face,” Little John said as he and Kaz hovered inside Claire’s water bottle. Beckett and Cosmo were back at the library.

  “They’re twins,” Kaz said.

  “It’s cool that you live so close to the fire station,” Claire said to the twins. “Isn’t it right around the corner?”

  “There’s a shortcut through our backyard,” Brynlee and RJ said at the same time. They looked at each other and slapped high fives.

  “We keep saying the exact same thing—” Brynlee began.

  “—at the exact same time,” RJ finished.

  “It’s a twin thing,” Brynlee said.

  “Cool,” Claire said again.

  “Come on,” RJ said, hopping down the porch stairs. “We’ll show you the shortcut.” They led Claire around the house and through the bushes at the back of the yard.

  “This is the back of the fire station.” Brynlee pointed at the tall brick building. “We can go in that door over there.” She ran ahead and opened the door.

  “Wow!” Kaz said, wide-eyed, as Claire stepped inside the fire station garage. Neither he nor Little John had ever been this close to real fire trucks before. The trucks were so big. So red. So shiny.

  As soon as the door was closed, the ghosts passed through the side of Claire’s water bottle and expanded to full size.

  “What are all these trucks?” Little John asked as he swam alongside a truck with a long ladder stretched across the top.

  “Do they have special names?” Kaz floated above another truck and gazed down at all the strange dials.

  “Do the fire trucks have special names?” Claire asked Brynlee and RJ.

  “Well, this is the chief’s car, and this is just an ATV,” RJ said as he touched another truck. It was much smaller than the ones Kaz and Little John were looking at.

  “What’s an ATV?” Claire asked.

  “It’s a truck that can go off road,” RJ said. He pointed at the truck by Kaz. “That one over there is a pumper truck, and the one next to it is a ladder truck. That ladder can reach the top of any building in Kirksville.”

  “Wow,” Claire said.

  “Come on,” Brynlee said. “Sparky’s probably inside with Da
d.”

  Kaz and Little John had to swim fast to catch up to Claire, Brynlee, and RJ, who were tromping up the stairs at the back of the garage. Brynlee opened a door at the top of the stairs, and they all stepped into a long white hallway. There was a little room off to the left where a woman in a uniform sat in front of three computer screens. She had her back to the kids. A large window in front of her looked out over the inside of the garage.

  “That’s the radio room,” RJ said to Claire. “The lady in there answers nine-one-one calls and sounds the alarm when there’s a fire.”

  They continued down the hall to a large open room with lots of desks. There was a counter at the far end of the room. All the people in there were wearing uniforms and looked very busy.

  On the other side of the counter was the main door to the fire station.

  “Hello, kids.” One of the firefighters waved from his desk. A large white dog with black spots was curled up on a red pillow beside him. The dog raised his head when the kids walked in.

  “Hi, Dad,” Brynlee said. “This is our new friend, Claire. Claire, this is our dad.”

  “Welcome, Claire! I’m Dick.” The firefighter stood up and shook Claire’s hand. “And this is Sparky.” He gave the dog a pat on the head. “You better say hello to him, too.”

  Claire tried to pet Sparky, but Sparky got up and trotted over to the ghosts. He sniffed Little John’s foot. Then he turned to Kaz’s foot.

  “Ahh!” Kaz cried out. He shot up to the ceiling and stayed there.

  “Woof! Woof!” Sparky barked cheerfully and leaped at Kaz. He wagged his tail and danced around on his hind legs.

  Dick laughed. “Sparky likes you, Claire,” he said. “He’s showing off for you.”

  Little John snorted. “He’s not showing off for Claire. He’s trying to get Kaz to come down here so he can sniff him.”

  “I don’t want him to sniff me,” Kaz said.

  “Why not?” Little John asked. “He’s not going to hurt us.” He drifted down to Sparky’s level and called, “Here, Sparky!”