The Ghosts at the Movie Theater Read online

  “Okay, who’s got an idea for how we can find Dave, Jessie, and Conrad?” Little John asked as Claire and Gabriel sat down on the couch.

  No one seemed to have one.

  “I could ask my parents if they have any ideas. They’re private detectives,” Claire told Gabriel.

  “Do they know that you can see ghosts?” Gabriel asked.

  “Yes,” Claire said. “What about your parents? Do they know about you?”

  “They know, but they don’t understand,” Gabriel said with a sad smile. “I’m not even sure they believe me when I say it.”

  Claire nodded knowingly. “My mom saw ghosts when she was a kid, but she doesn’t see them anymore. And I didn’t know she used to see them at first. I told her about the ghosts I saw and she said, ‘There’s no such thing as ghosts.’ Even though she knew from her own childhood that that wasn’t true. She stopped seeing them and she thought I’d stop seeing them, too, if I just ignored them. But then we talked about it more and now she understands.”

  “I don’t think my parents ever saw ghosts when they were kids. They think this is a phase I’ll grow out of,” Gabriel said.

  “How old are you?” Claire asked.

  “Twelve,” Gabriel said. “How old are you?”

  “Ten,” Claire replied. “I started seeing ghosts a year ago. When I was nine.”

  “Me too,” Gabriel said. “I mean, I was nine when I first started seeing them, too. I ignored them at first, but they never went away. Not unless I made them go away.”

  The ghosts cringed when Gabriel said that.

  Gabriel shifted on the couch. “People don’t believe you can see ghosts if they’ve never seen one themselves,” he said. “But if they have seen one, then they want your help getting rid of it. You can make a lot of money getting rid of ghosts!”

  “Not everyone wants their ghosts to go away,” Claire said. “And you don’t have to blow them away. You can bring them here.”

  “Or if they’re old, you can bring them to Valley View,” Little John piped in. “There are lots of old ghosts there.”

  “A lot of the solid people who live there can see the ghosts. They play cards together,” Kaz added.

  “Huh,” Gabriel said. “Where else do ghosts live? We know there are a bunch here at the library, and apparently at Valley View, too. There used to be three at the movie theater—”

  “Four,” Little John interrupted.

  “Yeah, there’s still one at the movie theater,” Finn said to Gabriel. “His name’s George. You missed him both times you were there.”

  Gabriel gave Finn a nervous half smile, then turned to Claire. “We should like, map out the town or something,” he said. “Find out if there are parts of town where there are more ghosts and parts where there aren’t any. Maybe that would tell us where the wind blows the ghosts.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Claire said as she turned to a new page in her notebook.

  “You’ll need a bigger piece of paper than that,” Gabriel said. “Maybe we should look for a map of the town. We can mark on it where we know there are ghosts. If we can find a map.”

  “We could download one from the Internet,” Claire said.

  “Or you could go downstairs and find one,” Beckett said. “You are in a library, after all.”

  “You want us to write in a book?” Claire asked. “I don’t think my grandma would like that very much.”

  Just then, Claire’s cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and checked the display. “Hmm. I don’t know that number,” she said with a frown. She put the phone to her ear and said, “Hello?”

  The person on the other end talked so loud that everyone in the room could hear her. “Hello? Is this C & K Ghost Detectives? I just saw your sign on a lamppost at the end of my street. I’m calling because I think I’ve got your ghost in my house!”

  Your ghost, the woman said. Not a ghost.

  “She found Dave!” Kaz said as soon as Claire hung up the phone. The other ghosts gathered around.

  “We’re about to find out,” Claire said. But then she remembered something. “Oh no. Mom said dinner would be ready in half an hour. She might not let me go now. I should’ve asked before I told this lady we’d be right over.”

  “Your mom has to let you go,” Kaz’s mom said. “This could be our chance to find Dave. If you don’t go now, he might leave. Or be blown away. Let me talk to your mother. Mom to Mom.” She swam toward the kitchen.

  Kaz and Claire exchanged a look.

  “How can that ghost talk to your mom?” Gabriel asked Claire. “You said she saw ghosts when she was a kid, but she doesn’t see them anymore.”

  “Duh! Our mom can glow!” Finn said.

  “Oh. Right,” Gabriel said. “Well, if she still says no, I could check it out for you. Let me borrow your water bottle and I’ll bring the ghost back here.”

  “When you’re the one who blew him outside in the first place?” Finn said. “I don’t think so.”

  “I’m not sure a ghost would go with you, son,” Pops said.

  “He might if a couple of you came with me,” Gabriel said to Kaz and the other ghosts. “You could show him we’re friends.”

  Were they friends? Kaz wondered. Could the ghosts trust that Gabriel wouldn’t blow them into the Outside? Maybe. But still, he would rather travel with Claire than Gabriel. Just to be safe.

  Claire’s mom walked into the room. Kaz’s mom drifted beside her, the glow fading from her body.

  “Kaz’s mom and I just had a little talk,” Claire’s mom said to Claire and Gabriel.

  “Have you two talked to each other before?” Claire asked.

  “Oh, yes. Many times,” Claire’s mom said. Kaz’s mom nodded in agreement.

  “When?” Kaz and Claire asked at the same time, each one looking at his or her own mother. Kaz’s mom hadn’t been at the library that long.

  “When you’re not around,” Claire’s mom said, ruffling her hair.

  “What do you talk about?” Kaz asked.

  His mom made a face that said she wasn’t going to tell him what they talked about and that he should listen to Claire’s mom right now.

  “I know about that phone call you received a few minutes ago,” Claire’s mom said. “Kaz’s mom thinks there’s a possibility her long-lost brother is at this woman’s house right now.”

  “That’s right,” Claire said. “The lady’s name is Mrs. Sweet. She doesn’t live far from here.” Claire held up a scrap of paper where she’d written down the address. “I know it’s almost dinnertime. Can I go?”

  “Yes,” Claire’s mom replied. “But Kaz’s mom will go with you.”

  Claire tilted her head. “You say that like Kaz’s mom is going to be in charge of me.”

  Both moms smiled. “That’s because she is,” Claire’s mom said.

  Kaz, his mom, and Finn traveled to Mrs. Sweet’s house inside Claire’s water bottle. Gabriel went with them, too. Little John, Pops, and Beckett stayed at the library with Cosmo.

  Mrs. Sweet’s house was small and white with blue trim. There was no grass in the front yard. Just flowers, bushes, and trees.

  Claire and Gabriel walked up to the front door and rang the bell. A woman around Claire and Kaz’s moms’ age came to the door. She wore a white shirt that was splattered with paint, and her jeans were rolled up to her knees.

  “You must be C & K Detectives,” the woman said as she opened the door. “Which one of you is the C and which one is the K?”

  “I’m Claire, so I’m the C,” Claire said as she stepped inside. She glanced uneasily at Kaz inside her water bottle.

  “I guess that makes me the K,” Gabriel said with a nervous laugh. He did not offer his name and Mrs. Sweet didn’t ask.

  “Come on in,” Mrs. Sweet led Claire and Gabriel into the
living room. Large sheets of plastic covered the furniture and the floor. Mrs. Sweet had obviously been painting the wall behind the couch.

  “I like that color,” Claire said, gazing at the dark green wall.

  Mrs. Sweet smiled. “Thank you. I saw your ghost when I was putting the first coat of paint on this wall.”

  Kaz, Finn, and Mom passed through Claire’s water bottle. Right in front of Mrs. Sweet. She clearly didn’t see them. She went on with her story. “I dipped my brush in the paint and all of a sudden this ghost appeared in midair. Right in front of my face!”

  “Was it glowing?” Gabriel asked.

  “Glowing?” Mrs. Sweet looked confused.

  “Don’t!” Kaz raised a warning finger to Finn. They were here to find Dave, not to scare Mrs. Sweet.

  Finn put his hand to his chest and lifted his eyebrow as though to say, Who me?

  “It’s what ghosts do when they want people like us to see them,” Claire said.

  “Now that you mention it, he did have kind of a bluish glow to him,” Mrs. Sweet said. “He was not a happy ghost, let me tell you!”

  “That’s . . . because . . . you . . . jammed . . . a . . . paintbrush . . . through . . . my . . . stomach!” a ghostly voice wailed from the other room.

  Everyone turned.

  “Dave? Is that you?” Mom called. She swam toward the voice.

  “Sorry, Mom,” Finn said. “But that’s not Dave’s voice.”

  No, it’s not, Kaz thought. He knew exactly whose voice it was.

  Conrad!” Finn exclaimed as the solid people walked and the ghost people swam into the next room.

  Conrad hovered above the dining room table. “Dude! What are you guys doing here?” he asked.

  “We came to rescue you,” Kaz said.

  “Then why do you look so surprised to see me?” Conrad asked.

  “We thought we were rescuing Dave,” Mom said, trying not to sound disappointed.

  “You both heard someone say ‘that’s because you jammed a paintbrush through my stomach,’ didn’t you?” Mrs. Sweet said to Claire and Gabriel. Conrad had wailed those words, so Mrs. Sweet heard them. But she hadn’t heard anything the ghosts said after that. And she couldn’t see any of them, either.

  “ACK!” Conrad shrieked when he noticed Gabriel. He shot up to a corner of the ceiling.

  “Do you see the ghost?” Mrs. Sweet asked Claire and Gabriel. She still thought there was only one ghost in her house.

  “Yeah. He’s up there.” Gabriel pointed at Conrad.

  Conrad stayed where he was, but expaaaanded his arm and finger toward Gabriel. “That’s the guy who attacked me and Jessie!” he told the other ghosts. “He came with this big fan and blew Jessie and me out the front window of the movie theater. He probably blew Dave out, too. If you’re here to rescue me, why did you bring him with you?”

  Mrs. Sweet squinted up at the corner of the ceiling. “How come you two can see him and I can’t?”

  “Because he’s not glowing,” Gabriel said. “We can see ghosts when they’re not glowing. Most people can’t.”

  Mrs. Sweet looked like she wasn’t sure whether or not to believe that.

  Gabriel turned to Claire. “How are we going to get him down from there?”

  “Why don’t you back up a little and let me handle it.” Claire gave Gabriel a gentle push. “He’s kind of scared of you.”

  Mrs. Sweet chuckled. “The ghost is scared of us?”

  “Not all of us. Just him,” Claire said, tipping her head toward Gabriel. “Because he and the ghost got off on the wrong foot at the movie theater.”

  “A guy at the theater hired me to come in and get rid of the ghosts,” Gabriel tried to explain. “It was a job.”

  Claire turned to Conrad. “Gabriel wants you to know that he’s sorry for the way he did that job,” she said. “He won’t ever blow any ghosts outside again. He wanted to help us find you. He wants to find Jessie and Dave, too, and take you all someplace safe.”

  “I don’t know,” Conrad said, keeping a wary eye on Gabriel.

  Mrs. Sweet shook her head in confusion. “What’s happening here?”

  Claire raised her water bottle to Conrad. “I’ll take you wherever you want to go,” she promised. “Back to the movie theater, if you want. George is still there. We can pick him up and I can take you all to the library, if you want. You’ll be safe there. Then we can try and find Jessie and Dave.”

  “You can trust Claire,” Kaz said to Conrad. “You may not trust Gabriel, but you can trust Claire.” To prove it, he shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and swam into Claire’s water bottle.

  “Yeah. Come on, Conrad,” Finn said as he and Mom shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and followed Kaz. “Unless you’d rather stay here by yourself?”

  “No. We need to find Jessie and Dave,” Conrad said. “I don’t know what happened to Dave, but I do know what happened to Jessie. Will she really help us?” He gestured toward Claire.

  “Yes,” Kaz and Finn said at the same time.

  Conrad shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and joined the other ghosts inside the water bottle.

  “Okay,” Claire said to Mrs. Sweet. “I’ve got your ghost in here.” She patted her water bottle.

  “She does,” Gabriel said. “I can see it.”

  Mrs. Sweet scratched her ear. “Well, thank you,” she said. “I think.”

  “What happened to Jessie?” Kaz asked Conrad. The four ghosts hovered inside Claire’s water bottle while Claire and Gabriel walked away from Mrs. Sweet’s house.

  “I saw her blow into a car that was parked in front of the movie theater,” Conrad said. He drifted to the edge of the bottle and peered up at Claire. “Please! You have to take us to the movie theater.”

  Claire held her water bottle so she could see and talk to the ghosts better. “Okay,” she said. “But you guys blew away yesterday. That car probably isn’t parked there anymore.”

  “It might be,” Conrad said.

  “It’s worth a try, isn’t it?” Mom asked.

  “Sure,” Claire said. She put the strap over her shoulder and let the water bottle dangle at her side. Right between her and Gabriel.

  “Um, excuse me?” Conrad called to Claire. “Would you mind moving us to your other shoulder?”

  “What do you think I’m going to do?” Gabriel yelled at the ghosts. “Open her water bottle and dump you out?”

  A solid lady who was pushing a stroller across the street shot Gabriel a strange look.

  “You never know,” Conrad said.

  Claire moved her water bottle to her other shoulder. And a few minutes later, they were downtown.

  “I don’t see any ghosts inside any of the cars parked out front,” Claire said as they approached the movie theater. “Is the car you saw Jessie blow into still here, Conrad?”

  Conrad peered around one of the stars on Claire’s water bottle. “I don’t see it,” he said, disappointed.

  Claire and Gabriel stopped walking.

  “What should we do now?” Claire asked, leaning against the mailbox in front of the theater. “Should we go inside and get George?”

  “I think we should wait here for that car to come back,” Conrad said. He shook his head sadly. “I don’t know why Jessie let go of my hand. We were holding hands when Gabriel turned on the fan. And we were still holding hands when we passed through that mailbox. But then she let go, and she floated into a car that was parked right over there.” He pointed to where a black pickup truck was parked now. “I tried to swim to the car, too, but I floated up and over all these buildings, and into that lady’s house where you found me.”

  “Wait a minute,” Kaz said, staring at the mailbox. “Did you say you passed through the mailbox?”

  “Yes. Why?” Conrad asked.

&nbs
p; “I wonder if Dave passed through it, too?” Kaz said. He glanced at the large window behind the mailbox. “In fact, if Gabriel turned on the fan right there . . .” He pointed. “Then it’s possible he blew Dave into the mailbox rather than into the Outside!”

  “That is about where I was standing when I turned the fan on,” Gabriel said. “Both days.”

  Kaz hovered at the edge of the bottle and craned his neck so he could see Claire. “Hey, Claire!” he called. “Would you hold your water bottle up against the mailbox? I want to see if Dave’s in there.”

  No, Kaz!” his mom said. “It’s too dangerous. What if you miss the bottle when you come back? You could blow away!”

  “I’m not going to pass my whole self through,” Kaz said. “Just my head. So I can see if Dave’s in there. Hold my legs, please.”

  Claire held her bottle tight against the mailbox. Kaz started to pass his head through, but Mom pulled him back. “I’ll see if Dave is in there,” she said. “You boys hold my legs.”

  “It can’t be that dangerous if Kaz is willing to do it,” Finn muttered as Mom swam headfirst through Claire’s water bottle and into the mailbox. Kaz and Finn each held one of her legs. They had to hold on tight because all of a sudden she started kicking and flailing around.

  “Mom? Are you okay?” Kaz asked. He wished he could see into the mailbox, too.

  “You have to shrink more!” Mom said. Her voice sounded hollow and far away. “Smaller! As small as I am.”

  Who was Mom talking to? Was Kaz right? Was Dave in there? Or Jessie?

  The three ghost boys sloooowly pulled Mom back into Claire’s water bottle. And Mom pulled another ghost in with her.

  “Dave!” Finn and Conrad cried when he finally popped through the edge of the bottle. Everyone had to shrink a little smaller to make room for Dave.

  Mom stared at Dave. “A-are you . . . ?” Mom asked. She couldn’t even finish the sentence.