Ghost Invasion Read online

  Ghost Invasion

  A Castle Court Kids Book

  Zilpha Keatley Snyder

  To kids and dogs everywhere

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Preview: Secret Weapons

  A Biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder

  Chapter 1

  UNDER THE TALL TREES the shade was deep and dark and the only sound was a leafy whisper from high above. The air smelled of pine needles and sun-warmed dust. Kate Nicely and Aurora Pappas moved slowly and silently, watching and listening. They could see the barn now through the trees—paintless gray-brown walls rising to a sagging roof.

  “Shh,” Aurora said suddenly. “There it is. Don’t you hear it?”

  Kate listened. “Hear what?” she said softly.

  “Nothing,” Aurora whispered. “That’s just it. How quiet it is. Everything’s holding its breath.”

  Kate listened again. It did seem quieter, somehow. There were no bird sounds and even the leafy whisper seemed farther away. “What—what is it?” she asked again.

  Aurora shook her head slowly and thoughtfully, and then suddenly froze. Her face turned upward and her hands, too, as if her open palms were receivers, sensing sound or motion. Kate watched her approvingly. Aurora looked so—mysterious. Even in her usual grungy T-shirt and ragged tights, and with her crinkly hair frizzing out in all directions, she still managed to look like an enchanted creature. A gray-eyed creature staring out through flyaway strands of hair, like a wild thing in a tangled thicket.

  Following the direction of Aurora’s stare, Kate could see only trees and distant glimpses of barn, with slanting rays of sunlight making glittering pathways through the deep shadows. She sighed and went back to watching Aurora—and waiting. Like always. Every time they came to the barn they stopped and waited for a while before they went in.

  They’d been coming to the old, deserted barn for months now. Not often, of course. Only now and then when Aurora got a mysterious feeling that it was the right time. They would walk around the cul-de-sac once or twice, checking things out and deciding which secret path to follow. Whether to take the short, dangerous route, right through the Andersons’ property, or the longer, safer way, by a trail that started behind Kate’s house, wound up into the hills, and came down again into the small pine forest that surrounded the old barn. And even then, after they’d finally arrived safely at the barn, they always stopped and waited. And waited …

  “Now,” Aurora said. She turned toward Kate, her gray eyes glowing. “Let’s go in. It’s all right to go in now.”

  The heavy barn door creaked, groaned, and swung open into a dark, confusing maze of passageways, bordered by horse stalls and other dark, cobweb-filled rooms. The brick floor was covered by a thick layer of dirt and straw. The light was very dim and, as always, there was a special smell. An old, dead smell of dust and decay with a ghostly hint of hay and horse. Aurora led the way through the near darkness, moving slowly but surely toward the ladder that led to the loft. Kate followed close behind her.

  At the last box stall, an especially large one, Aurora stopped and, on tiptoe, looked over the door. It was a largish space, empty except for the remains of a wooden manger. They stood there staring into the stall for several seconds before Aurora sighed softly and moved on. They were almost to the ladder when Kate asked a question she’d been wanting to ask for quite a while. “Why do you always look in that stall?”

  Aurora stopped and turned back to face Kate. “I don’t know,” she said. “Not for sure, anyway. There’s just something …” She shrugged and turned away. “Come on. Let’s go up to the loft.”

  Kate liked the loft a lot better. She liked the open, soaring space and the beams of sunlight that drifted down through holes in the rotting roof. At one end of the huge floor a stack of straw bales made a good place to climb up and sit.

  “About that stall,” Kate said when they had climbed up onto the bales, “what is it? I mean, what do you suppose it is?”

  Aurora’s nod meant that she understood Kate’s curiosity. “I can’t exactly explain it,” she said. “But it’s like … like whenever I stop there she’s trying …”

  “She?” Kate asked quickly. “Who’s a she? Is the ghost a she?”

  Aurora thought for a while before she slowly nodded her head. “I think so. A girl, maybe. I think she wants to … Maybe she wants us to know something.”

  Kate was fascinated. Aurora had never said much about the ghost before, except to agree with Kate that there must be one. Usually when they came to the barn she’d let Kate do most of the talking. They would sit on the pile of bales and talk about the pigeons and mice and bats that lived in the loft. And then sometimes they would talk about ghosts. Or at least Kate did.

  Kate had always liked to read ghost stories. And she liked to talk about ghosts—and about what kind of ghost might live in an old barn. Usually Aurora would just listen. Actually, Aurora had never before said there was a ghost in the barn. Not in so many words. It was just that she acted as if there were. The main reason Kate was so certain there was a ghost was because of the way Aurora acted.

  And now she was actually saying there was a ghost and it was a girl. Kate was very interested.

  “What makes you think it’s—” she was starting to ask when Aurora suddenly grabbed her arm.

  “Shh,” she said. “Listen. Someone’s coming.”

  Chapter 2

  THEN KATE HEARD IT too. The creak of the barn door, a thud, and then the soft whisper of footsteps. Kate and Aurora stared at each other.

  “Mr. A.?” Kate whispered hopefully.

  Aurora shook her head. “I don’t think the Andersons come here very much. Not anymore.”

  The sounds continued. A door creaked open and slammed shut and the footsteps began again, moving on toward the ladder to the loft.

  Suddenly Kate clenched her fists. “Those creeps,” she said. “I’ll bet it’s Bucky and the PROs. I’ll bet it’s those creeps again.”

  Bucky Brockhurst, who was in Kate’s fifth-grade class, was a world-class pain in the neck. He was always teasing Kate and Aurora. And sometimes his friends, Carlos and Eddy, were in on his dirty tricks too. “They must have followed us here,” Kate said. “Come on. Let’s hide.” Kate grabbed Aurora’s arm and pulled her down behind a bale.

  Kate was still crouched down in the straw when she heard Aurora whisper, “No, it’s not the PROs. Look, Kate. Look.”

  Kate raised her head in time to see an unbelievably weird figure rising into the loft. At first it was only the top of a head. A round, smooth, perfectly bald head. Then came eyes. The head turned from side to side and big dark eyes looked around the loft. Kate ducked down behind the straw and then raised herself up again in time to see ears appear. Small ears hung with all kinds of dangling, sparkling earrings.

  Suddenly she gasped with relief and poked Aurora. “Hey, it’s all right,” she said. “It’s just Bettina. Remember? I told you about meeting her. Last week while you were gone?”

  A body was now appearing. A tall, thin shape wrapped in something long and flowing and flowery. Something that looked more like a drape than an actual dress. And below the uneven skirt there was a pair of enormous, clunky army boo
ts. The weird figure finished the climb, straightened up, put its hands on its hips, and looked around. The bald head swiveled from side to side, setting the dangle of earrings to flashing and dancing.

  “Come on,” Kate said to Aurora, who was still crouching behind the bales. Climbing out of their hiding place, she yelled, “Hey, Bettina! What are you doing here?”

  When Kate yelled her name, Bettina Katzenbach whirled around and stared with wide, startled eyes. Kate had met her only once, because Bettina lived in New York City and had just arrived at Castle Court a few days before. But no one who had ever met Bettina would forget her. Not likely.

  Bettina was, believe it or not, an Anderson grandkid. Believe it or not, because she was sixteen, which was older than most of the other Anderson grandkids. Older, and also weirder. A lot weirder.

  When Kate called her name, Bettina jumped and whirled—but then she grinned. “Oh, it’s just you. What are you little dweebs doing up here? You really freaked me out, yelling at me that way.”

  Kate, followed by Aurora, climbed down off the stack of bales. “Sorry about that,” she said. “We didn’t mean to scare you. But you scared us too. We thought you were a ghost.”

  “Yeah? A ghost?” Bettina sounded interested. She started across the loft, in a flutter of flowery cloth and sparkling earrings. “Why’d you think—”

  “Watch out!” Kate yelled. “Look out for the chute.”

  Bettina had nearly stepped in one of the two hay chutes that led down to the stables below, but she managed to stop in time. When she got to where Kate and Aurora were standing she looked them over carefully, nodding her shiny bald head. “Yeah,” she said to Kate, “I remember you. You’re the kid who lives in that last house before the avenue. Right? The one with the geeky dog.”

  Kate had been walking the Nicelys’ poodle when she met Bettina, and Fifi had almost had a heart attack. Fifi did get kind of hysterical at times, but for once Kate hadn’t exactly blamed her. Meeting Bettina unexpectedly could do that to anybody. For instance, at the moment, Aurora was looking pretty freaked herself.

  “Relax,” Kate said to Aurora. “Bettina just dresses like that because she’s going to be a singer. You know, the kind that sings—” She paused. “What kind of songs did you say you sang?” she asked.

  “Well, kind of like grunge, maybe. And protest,” Bettina said. “I sing protest songs a lot. That’s why I shave my head. You know, it’s like a protest.” She looked Aurora over, obviously checking out the baggy T-shirt, ragged tights, and wild, crinkly hair. “You protesting something too?” she asked.

  Aurora smiled and shook her head. “No. I’m not protesting anything,” she said. “We were just waiting.”

  “Waiting?” Bettina asked. “What for?”

  Aurora didn’t answer, so Kate did it for her. “For the ghost. We were waiting for the ghost.”

  “The ghost!” Bettina stared at Kate. “What ghost?”

  Kate shrugged. “We don’t know what ghost for sure. But we’re pretty sure there is one.”

  Bettina went over to a straw bale and sat down, tucking up her feet in their enormous army boots. For a minute she just sat there, rolling her dark eyes thoughtfully and now and then nodding her bald head. “Yeah,” she said softly after a while. “There is a ghost. Actually, there’s a very famous one. The famous Anderson barn ghost. Do you want to hear about it?”

  Chapter 3

  “IT’S A VERY SAD story,” Bettina said. “A horrible tragedy, actually. Most ghost stories are like that. I mean, most ghosts come back because there was this terrible thing that happened to them when they were alive so they have to come back to, like, make it right.”

  She stopped talking and looked from Kate to Aurora and back again. “Look,” she said, “don’t just stand there. Sit down and get comfortable. This is going to take a while.”

  Kate and Aurora sat down in the straw. “What was the tragedy?” Kate asked.

  “Was it about a girl?” Aurora asked. “A girl who—”

  “That’s it,” Bettina interrupted. “There was this girl, see—”

  “An Anderson?” Kate asked. “Was she one of the Andersons?”

  “That’s what I was about to tell you,” Bettina said impatiently. “She was an Anderson. Only she lived a long time ago. Like hundreds of years. I guess you know the Anderson family has lived here practically forever. And this girl was—she had … Yeah. She had this boyfriend.” Bettina nodded sharply and her eyes suddenly were more focused-looking. “Only her parents didn’t like her boyfriend because he was—”

  “Was he a bandit?” Kate interrupted. “When we were studying California history we read about these bandits who used to ride around this part of the state and rob stagecoaches and ranchers. Was he a bandit?”

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Bettina said. “You guessed it. And this girl, this Anderson girl, whose name was …” Bettina stopped and thought for a moment. “Addie …,” she finally said. “Yeah, that’s it. Her name was Addie.”

  “Addie?” Aurora said. “That’s Mrs. A.’s name.”

  “Sure. But this wasn’t that Addie. Lots of Andersons are named Addie. Anyway, she used to sneak out to meet this boyfriend sometimes.”

  “In the barn?” Kate asked. “Did she meet him here in the barn?”

  Bettina nodded sharply. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Only one day her parents found out about the boyfriend and they told the sheriff. And …” Bettina paused and made her eyes get wide and scary-looking. “And they came and shot him. Right here in this barn.”

  Kate and Aurora stared at Bettina and then at each other. Kate nodded slowly, biting her lip. “Where?” she asked. “I mean, where in the barn? Like, was it maybe in one of the stalls?” She gave Aurora a “this is important” kind of look. “Maybe in that big stall right near the ladder?”

  Bettina nodded. “And then Addie came and found him there dead and—and—she died too. She died right there beside him.”

  Kate looked at Bettina through narrowed eyes. “Of what? What did she die of? You don’t mean she died of a broken heart, do you?”

  “What’s the matter?” Bettina asked. “You don’t believe people die of broken hearts? I believe it. I almost did once, myself. But maybe it was something more than that. Maybe she found her boyfriend’s gun—right there in his holster—and he was dead so she shot herself. Yeah, I think that was it. She shot herself.”

  Bettina stared at Kate and Aurora and they stared back. “Wow,” Kate said. She looked at Aurora. “I guess that would explain it, all right. I mean about that stall.”

  Aurora nodded. “Yes,” she said. “That would explain it.”

  “Explain what?” Bettina asked sharply. “Did you see a ghost in that stall?”

  Aurora shook her head uncertainly.

  “No,” Kate said. “Not exactly.”

  “Hmmm.” Bettina looked thoughtful. “Well, I guess that’s because the ghosts …” She paused. “Actually there are two ghosts. Addie and her boyfriend are both ghosts. Anyway, they only appear to certain people at certain times.”

  “Like at night?” Kate asked.

  “Yes, at night. On certain nights.” Bettina paused, biting her lip. “Like on—Halloween. Yeah, that’s it. They just come on Halloween.”

  “Wow!” Kate said. “Halloween. That’s just a few days away.”

  Aurora didn’t say anything.

  Chapter 4

  KATE WAS ABOUT TO ask another really important question about the famous Anderson barn ghosts, when Bettina suddenly looked at her watch and jumped to her feet. “Hey,” she said, “I have to go.”

  “Oh no,” Kate said, “not yet. Couldn’t you stay just a little longer?”

  But Bettina was already striding across the loft, her huge boots clomping on the floor. “No, I can’t,” she said. “I’m leaving for the airport in about half an hour.”

  Kate followed her. “The airport? Where are you going?”

  “Home,” B
ettina said as she started down the ladder. “Back home to New York.”

  Suddenly Kate was angry. She knew that getting angry was just about her worst bad habit but sometimes she just couldn’t help it. It just wasn’t fair to get them all interested and excited and then take off for someplace as far away as New York. “You can’t do that. We have a lot more questions we need to ask you,” she said.

  “Like what?” Bettina asked over her shoulder just before her shiny head disappeared into the dark depths of the stables.

  “Like about who’s seen the ghosts, and what they …” Kate quit shouting and turned back to Aurora. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go with her. If we walk back to the Andersons’ with her, maybe she’ll answer a few more questions.”

  Aurora followed Kate down the ladder and a minute later the barn door creaked open and slammed shut. The sound of voices died away and a deep silence returned to the old, deserted barn. But not for long.

  Only a minute or two after Kate’s voice and the tromp of Bettina’s boots faded away in the distance, other strange sounds were heard in the old barn. Pigeons perching on the rafters heard them and cocked their heads to listen, and mice that had begun to creep out of their holes scurried back in. The sounds seemed to be coming from one of the hay chutes that led down to the stables below.

  First there was a frantic scraping and clawing, followed by an “Oh, oh!,” a couple of thuds, a crash, and then a loud “Ouch.” The crash came from a big old wheelbarrow that sat below one of the hay chutes. An extralarge wheelbarrow that had once been used to carry the hay around to all the stalls after it had been thrown down the chute. And the “Oh, oh” and the “Ouch” had come from Ari Pappas, who had just fallen out of one of the best observation posts he’d ever had.

  Ari, who was Aurora’s eight-year-old brother, was practicing to be the kind of reporter who follows famous people around and writes stories about all their secrets. But since he hadn’t met many famous people yet he had to practice on whoever happened to be handy. Like, for instance, his sister Aurora and her best friend. Of course Kate and Aurora weren’t famous, but what they did have was secrets. Lots of them. And lately one of their most interesting secrets had been happening in the Andersons’ old barn.