The Hide-and-Seek Ghost Read online

  “If only I could glow,” Kaz said.

  “You can. You did it at Valley View,” Little John pointed out.

  “Yeah, but I don’t know how I did it,” Kaz said.

  “Well, there’s no one around,” Little John said. “Why don’t you practice?”

  Kaz looked at his arms. He looked at his legs. Glow, he told his body. Glow! Glow! Glow! He clenched his teeth and squeezed his fists.

  Nothing happened.

  Kaz sighed. While he was trying to figure out what else to try, Little John expaaaaanded really big in front of Kaz and screamed in his face, “BOO!”

  Kaz almost jumped out of his skin. “What did you do that for?” he asked.

  “I was trying to scare you,” Little John said. “I thought maybe you glowed at Valley View because Petey had scared you.”

  “I don’t think that’s it,” Kaz said, rubbing his arms. He wasn’t glowing at all.

  “Okay, relax,” Little John said.

  “How am I supposed to relax when you just scared me to death?” Kaz asked.

  Little John swam behind Kaz and squeezed his shoulders. “Like this. Breathe . . . ,” he said.

  Kaz breathed.

  “Breathe . . . ,” Little John said again.

  Kaz breathed some more. He could feel his body relaxing.

  “Okay,” Little John said as he swam in front of Kaz. “Now one more breath through your nose . . . and glooooowwwww. Like this.”

  Kaz took one more breath and watched as Little John started to glow. But he couldn’t glow himself.

  “I guess I’ll do the glowing, and you can do the transforming,” Little John said.

  “How are you going to find this ghost?” Eli asked Claire when they arrived at his house later that afternoon.

  Kaz and Little John passed through Claire’s water bottle and expanded.

  “Do you have some special ghost-hunting equipment or something?” Eli asked.

  “Yes. In here.” Claire patted her bag.

  “You should get it out,” Eli said.

  “I will if I need it,” Claire said as she and Eli wandered from the kitchen to the living room. Kaz and Little John sailed above them. “Tell me again what’s been happening. You said you’ve seen this ghost.”

  “Yes. Lots of times,” Eli said.

  Claire was about to open a closed door off the living room, but Eli stopped her. “No, don’t go in there,” he said. “That’s my mom’s office. She’s working.”

  Kaz tipped his head toward the door. Is that really Eli’s mom’s office? he wondered. Or is there something in there that Eli doesn’t want Claire to see?

  “What are you doing?” Little John asked.

  “Listening for clues,” Kaz replied. “I told you, Eli plays tricks on people. Maybe this is the room where he keeps all his tricks.”

  “We don’t have to listen out here,” Little John said. “Let’s go see what’s in there.” He passed through the door.

  Kaz passed through, too, and the ghosts found themselves in a small room. Eli’s mom was working at a computer in there.

  “Looks like Eli was telling the truth,” Little John said.

  “I guess so,” Kaz said as a phone on the desk jingled.

  “Hello?” Eli’s mom said into the phone.

  “Let’s go,” Kaz said, turning around. He and Little John passed back through the closed door and went to find Claire and Eli upstairs.

  “I don’t know what happens when people come to look at our house,” Eli was telling Claire as they wandered into a bathroom. “We’re never here when that happens. But the other people’s real estate agent always tells our real estate agent that they saw a ghost. And then they don’t want to buy our house.”

  “And that makes you happy,” Claire said as she wandered around the room.

  Eli shrugged. “It doesn’t make me unhappy. What makes me unhappy is getting blamed for something I’m not doing. And I’m not haunting my own house. I’m really not.”

  Kaz stared hard at Eli. He wished he knew whether Eli was telling the truth or not.

  All of a sudden, there was a loud clatter behind Claire. Claire’s ghost glass was lying on the floor.

  “That’s weird,” Claire said as she bent to pick it up. “This was in my backpack. How did it fall out?”

  Eli bit his lip. “I think the ghost pulled it out of your backpack,” he said nervously. “It’s probably hiding in the shower right now.”

  They both stared at the pink curtain that hung over the shower. Claire slowly reached over and pushed the curtain to one side.

  There was nothing behind it.

  “Eli?” his mom called from downstairs.

  Eli, Claire, and the ghosts all went out into the hallway. “Yeah?” Eli said, leaning over the railing.

  “That was another real estate agent on the phone,” his mom said. “We have to leave. He’s bringing some people to look at the house.”

  Eli groaned. “Now?”

  “Yes, now. Come on,” his mom said.

  Claire waited for Eli to start down the stairs, then whispered to Kaz and Little John, “See what you can find out while everyone’s away.”

  “Okay,” Kaz said. “See you tomorrow?”

  “See you tomorrow,” she promised.

  Kaz and Little John swam into a girl’s bedroom and peered out the front window. They saw Claire and Eli standing in the driveway with Eli’s mom. It looked like Eli’s mom was offering Claire a ride, but they couldn’t hear through the closed window.

  Claire lifted her backpack to her shoulder, and with a quick wave to Eli, she set off down the street. Eli and his mom got into their car and drove away.

  Now Kaz and Little John were alone in Eli’s house.

  Maybe.

  “Hello? Is anyone else here?” Kaz gazed around the bedroom.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Little John called.

  The ghosts heard a strange popping, dropping sound. It was coming from somewhere below them.

  “What is that?” Kaz asked.

  “I don’t know,” Little John said. “It sort of sounds like . . . popcorn.”

  “No. It sounds like . . . ” Kaz thought for a second.

  “Like what?” Little John pressed.

  “I don’t know,” Kaz said. “Not popcorn, though. The pops are too slow.”

  The ghosts wafted out into the upstairs hallway.

  “Hello?” Kaz called again. “Is anyone there?”

  Pop . . . pop . . . pop . . . pop . . . pop . . .

  Kaz noticed a desk over by the stairs. The top drawer was open. “Hey, was that drawer open a few minutes ago?” Kaz asked Little John.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Little John replied.

  They swam over and peered down at the open drawer. There wasn’t anything very interesting inside, just some paper, envelopes, pencils, and pens.

  The popping stopped.

  The ghosts drifted down to the main floor and saw a bunch of marbles lying all over the front hallway.

  “Those were definitely not here before,” Little John said.

  “Was that what made the popping sound?” Kaz asked. He dove down and picked up a solid marble. Then, holding the marble carefully between his thumb and first finger, he carried it over to the stairs and let it fall. It bounced down the bottom three steps with a pop . . . pop . . . pop sound.

  “It’s the same sound,” Little John said. “But no one’s home, so who dropped all these marbles down the stairs?”

  Kaz had a bad feeling about this, a very bad feeling.

  Click! The front door lock turned. “I think you’ll really like this home,” a man with a briefcase said as he opened the door and came into the house. He was probably the real estate agent. A
well-dressed man and woman stepped in behind him.

  Kaz and Little John swam backward, away from the open door.

  “It’s well maintained and this is a lovely neighborhood,” the real estate agent added. He set his briefcase down and closed the door.

  “Oh!” the woman cried out as she slipped on a marble. “Be careful. There are marbles all over the floor!”

  “I see that,” the agent said. He hurried around the room and picked up all the marbles. He dropped them into a decorative bowl on a table and smiled uneasily at the couple. “Perhaps we didn’t give the family enough notice that we were coming. Let me show you the living room.”

  Kaz and Little John followed the group into the living room.

  “Notice the beautiful stonework around the fireplace.” The real estate agent tapped the stones.

  “Woooooooooooo!” Something inside the fireplace wailed.

  The woman gasped. “What was that?” she asked.

  “Probably the wind,” her husband said, patting her hand.

  Kaz and Little John raised their eyebrows at each other. It didn’t sound much like wind to either of them.

  “Hello?” Little John said to the beautiful stonework. Then he and Kaz swam into the fireplace and looked up toward the chimney. They didn’t feel any wind. And they didn’t see anything that could have made that woooooooooooo sound, either.

  By the time Kaz and Little John returned to the living room, the solid people had moved on to the kitchen. The ghosts hurried after them.

  “These are state-of-the-art appliances,” the real estate agent said.

  While the man and woman checked out the stove and refrigerator, another pop . . . pop . . . pop . . . sound came from the front hallway.

  “What is that?” the man asked.

  Kaz and Little John followed the sound. Now there were more marbles on the entryway floor.

  The real estate agent walked right through Kaz and looked around. “I see I missed a few marbles,” he said as he gathered them up and added them to the small pile in the bowl.

  But Kaz and Little John were pretty sure he had picked up all the marbles before.

  Pop . . . pop . . . pop . . . A single marble rolled down the stairs. All by itself.

  “Where are those marbles coming from? Is someone home?” the woman asked.

  Kaz and Little John passed through the ceiling to the second floor. There was no one in the upstairs hallway, but the ghosts noticed something else. The desk drawer that was open a few minutes ago was now closed.

  Who closed it?

  The real estate agent and the man and woman were just arriving at the top of the stairs. Kaz and Little John darted out of their way, into the first bedroom. It was Eli’s room, according to the sign on the door. There was a large can of marbles sitting in the corner of the room.

  “This is probably where the marbles came from,” Kaz said as he floated past the can.

  “Look! There’s a book on Eli’s bed,” Little John said.

  The book was open to Chapter 10: “How to Make People Think Your House Is Haunted.” Suggestion number one was roll marbles down the stairs.

  “This is the master bedroom,” the real estate agent said as he led the man and woman into the bedroom across the hall.

  A couple of seconds later, the man and woman ran out of the room SCREAMING.

  Kaz and Little John swam over to see what all the fuss was about.

  “I—I’m sorry,” the agent called to the couple as he walked through Little John. “I don’t know what’s going on around here.”

  Kaz and Little John quickly poked their heads into Eli’s parents’ bedroom. They didn’t see anything unusual, so they followed the solid people downstairs.

  “This house is haunted!” the woman exclaimed as she yanked open the front door.

  Kaz grabbed Little John’s arm and swam backward so they wouldn’t be blown into the Outside.

  “We’re not buying a haunted house,” the man told the real estate agent.

  The agent followed the couple outside, slamming the front door behind him. Kaz and Little John moved to the front window and watched the solids get into a brown car and drive away.

  As soon as the car was gone, Kaz heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see Eli’s sister, Lauren, walking into the living room from the kitchen.

  Where did she come from?

  Lauren hurried up the stairs.

  “Is she the ghost?” Little John asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Kaz said.

  “I think she is,” Little John said. “Otherwise, why is she here when everyone else is gone?”

  “Maybe she just got home,” Kaz suggested.

  “Or maybe she’s been here all along. Maybe she was hiding, and maybe she’s the one who dropped the marbles down the stairs and scared those people away,” Little John said.

  Kaz frowned. “Why would she do that?”

  “Same reason Eli would,” Little John said. “Maybe she doesn’t want to move. Or maybe she wants everyone to think Eli’s the ghost. She could be playing a trick on him because he plays tricks on everyone else.”

  “Could be,” Kaz said. But he thought it was more likely that Eli was the ghost.

  A little while later, the front door opened, and Eli and his mom walked in. Eli’s mom was talking on her cell phone. “Yes, I understand,” she said, closing the door behind her.

  Eli started to walk away, but his mom held him by the elbow. “I will have a talk with him,” she said into the phone. “Thanks for letting me know.” She set the phone on the table with the bowl of marbles. “Marbles on the stairs this time?” she said as she grabbed a handful of marbles from the bowl. “This behavior has to stop, Eli. Someone could have gotten hurt.”

  “I didn’t do it!” Eli said.

  Lauren came partway down the stairs. “Didn’t do what?” she asked, resting her chin on the railing.

  “Oh, I didn’t know you were home, Lauren,” her mother said.

  “I just got home,” Lauren said. “Cheer-leading practice was canceled today.”

  “The ghost was here again,” Eli told Lauren. “It rolled marbles down the stairs and scared away the people who came to look at our house.”

  “There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Eli’s mom said in a tired voice.

  Lauren turned and ran back up the stairs.

  “Well, I know I didn’t do it. I wasn’t even here,” Eli said.

  Lauren returned a couple of seconds later with a heavy book. “Look what I found on Eli’s bed,” she said, tromping down the stairs. She marked a page with her finger and held the book so her mom could read the title: The Big Book of Practical Jokes.

  “What were you doing in my room?” Eli cried.

  “You borrowed my markers yesterday. I went to get them back,” Lauren said. She turned to their mother. “Look what page the book was open to.” She opened the book and read out loud, “‘How to Make People Think Your House Is Haunted. Number one, roll marbles down the stairs.’”

  “Eli!” their mom cried, hands on her hips.

  “What?” Eli said. “That book was on my shelf when we left. It wasn’t on my bed.”

  “It was on your bed,” Lauren argued.

  Kaz and Little John looked at each other. They’d seen the book on Eli’s bed, too. But they didn’t know whether it was there when Eli and Claire were looking around upstairs or whether it had appeared after they left.

  “I wasn’t here when any of that stuff happened,” Eli said again.

  “You could have rigged up something to go off when you’re not here,” Lauren said. “You like to play tricks on people. You know you do!”

  Kaz knew it, too. He had seen Eli borrow books on the subject from the library.

  “I’m being framed!” El
i insisted. “Someone’s trying to make it look like I’m the one doing all this stuff.”

  Lauren snorted. “Who would do that?”

  “A ghost,” Eli said. “I’m being framed by a ghost.”

  Little John shook his head. “I think you’re being framed by your sister.”

  Later that night, Kaz and Little John saw Eli pick up his phone and make a call.

  “Hi, Claire?” he said. “It’s me. Eli.”

  Little John’s eyes widened. “He’s talking to Claire!”

  Kaz put his finger to his lips. He wanted to hear what Eli said to Claire.

  “The ghost came back when those people were looking at our house,” Eli told Claire. “It dropped a bunch of marbles down the stairs. Then it sort of appeared in the lady’s face and she got scared and ran away.”

  So that was what happened in Eli’s parents’ bedroom.

  Eli switched the phone to his other hand. “My mom still thinks it’s me,” he said.

  “It’s . . . not . . . you . . . ,” Little John wailed. “It’s . . . your . . . sister . . .”

  Eli jumped so high, he almost dropped the phone. “Who said that?” he cried.

  “Little John!” Kaz glared at his brother.

  “What?” Little John asked Kaz. “I’m just trying to help.”

  “That was the ghost,” Eli hissed into the phone. “Did you hear it? It said, ‘It’s not you. It’s your sister.’ ” He glanced nervously around the room.

  Kaz swam over and put his cheek next to Eli’s. He heard Claire say to Eli, “No, I didn’t hear it. Let’s be quiet and see if it says anything else.”

  “Claire? It’s me,” Kaz said into the phone. He was careful to talk and not wail. He wanted Claire to hear him, but he didn’t want Eli to hear him. “That was Little John who said ‘It’s not you. It’s your sister.’ We followed those people around the house. We didn’t see the ghost, but Eli’s sister was either in the house when those people were here or she came in right afterward. Little John thinks she’s the ghost, but I don’t know. I still think it’s Eli.”