22 - Ghost Beach (6 page)

“He’s really dangerous,” Louisa revealed. “I think he wants to kill us all.”
Her eyes locked on mine. “Even you. You and Terri.”

I shuddered. “Why? Terri and I didn’t do anything to him.”

“It doesn’t matter. Nobody’s safe,” Sam said softly, glancing nervously out
the window. “You saw the skeleton in the woods, right? That’s what the ghost
will do to you if he catches you.”

I shuddered again. I was really scared now.

“There’s a way to get rid of the ghost,” Louisa said, breaking into my
troubled thoughts. She was nervously clasping and unclasping her hands in her
lap. “But we need your help,” she continued. “We can’t do it without you and
Terri.”

I swallowed hard. “What can Terri and I do?” I asked.

Before she could answer, we heard creaking above our heads. Voices.

Had we awakened Agatha and Brad?

Louisa and her two brothers hurried to the window and lowered themselves to
the ground. “Meet us at the beach—tomorrow morning,” Sam instructed.

I stood at the window and watched them disappear into the woods.

The room fell quiet again. The curtains fluttered gently. I stared out into
the gently swaying pine trees.

How can Terri and I help to get rid of an ancient ghost? I wondered.

What can
we
do?

I woke up the next morning to the sound of rain. I jumped out of bed and ran
to the window. The rain swirled in a gusting wind. In the garden, narrow
rivulets of water had formed between the vegetable rows and trickled off into
the yard. A thick fog had settled on the trees.

“Do you believe this weather?” Terri asked, coming into my room.

I spun away from the window. “Terri—listen. I have something to tell you.”
I told her about my late-night talk with the three Sadlers.

When I finished, Terri stared out the window. “So what do we do now? How can
we meet them on the beach if it’s raining this hard?”

“We can’t,” I said. “We have to wait till it stops.”

“I hate suspense!” Terri moaned. She hurried back to her room to get dressed.

I pulled on my old faded jeans, torn at both knees, and a gray sweatshirt, and hurried to join everyone for breakfast.
Agatha cooked us oatmeal with big lumps of brown sugar and butter on top.

After breakfast Brad built a big cozy fire and Terri worked on her wildflower
collection on the floor in front of the fireplace.

While Terri glued dried flower samples onto sheets of cardboard, I sat around
and waited for the rain to stop. Stupid rain.

The sun didn’t come out until after lunch. As soon as we could get away,
Terri and I hurried to the beach.

We waited there for nearly an hour. I practiced skipping stones, and Terri
scrounged around for shells. No sign of Sam, Nat, and Louisa.

“Now what?” I asked, kicking at a small rock. The whole day had been a big
waste.

“I brought my gravestone-rubbing stuff,” Terri replied. “Let’s go over to the
cemetery.”

We made our way to the small graveyard, climbed over the old stone wall, and
took a good look around. The graves were so old. Many of the gravestones had
been knocked over, or broken, or covered with weeds.

The forest had started taking over. A couple of big trees had sprouted on top
of graves, and one giant tree had crashed across the wall, knocking over several
tombstones.

“I’m going to look for something interesting by that big fallen tree,” Terri
announced.

Terri ran ahead, and I poked along at my own speed. The last time we were
here, we stuck to the edge of the cemetery. Now I made my way into the middle.

I started reading the names on the tombstones. The first one I stopped at
read: Here lies the body of Martin Sadler.

That’s strange, I thought. Another Sadler. I remembered that Sam had told us
Sadler was a common name around here. Maybe this was the Sadler family section
or something.

The gravestone next to Martin Sadler belonged to Mary Sadler, his wife. Then
a couple of Sadler kids, Sarah and Miles.

I moved to the next row and continued reading the inscriptions. Another
Sadler. This one was named Peter. Beside Peter lay Miriam Sadler.

Whoa! I thought, starting to get the creeps. Didn’t anyone else ever die
around here?

I moved to another section. All Sadlers, too. Hiram, Margaret, Constance,
Charity…

Was this a whole cemetery of Sadlers?

Terri’s scream cut through the air. “Jerry! Come here!”

I found her near the fallen pine tree. Her face was twisted in confusion.
“Look!” she instructed, pointing to a cluster of gravestones at her feet.

I lowered my glance to two large stones. Thomas Sadler, died February 18,
1641, and Priscilla Sadler, wife of Thomas. Died March 5, 1641.

“Yeah, I know,” I told Terri. “The whole cemetery is filled with Sadlers.
Creepy, huh?”

“No. No. Check out the kids’ graves,” Terri said impatiently.

I saw three small, identical stones lined up beside the parents. The three
stones stood up straight. They were clean and easy to read. As if someone had
taken care of them.

I hunched down to read the names. “Sam Sadler, son of Thomas and Priscilla.”

I straightened back up. “So?”

“Read the next one,” Terri instructed.

I lowered myself again. “Louisa Sadler.”

“Uh-oh,” I murmured. “I bet I can guess the last name.”

“I bet you can, too,” Terri replied in a trembling whisper.

My eyes moved to the last marker. “Here lies Nat Sadler, who died in his
fifth year of life.”

I stared at the three stones until they blurred before my eyes.

Three stones. Three kids.

Sam, Louisa, and Nat.

All dead in the early 1600s.

“I don’t get it,” I murmured. I felt dizzy as I climbed to my feet. “I just
don’t get it.”

“We have to ask Brad and Agatha about this,” Terri said. “This is just too
weird!”

We ran back to the cottage. I kept seeing those three stones as we ran.

Sam, Louisa, and Nat.

We found Brad and Agatha out back, under the trees in their matching rocking
chairs.

Agatha laughed as we came running up to them breathlessly. “You kids run
everywhere, don’t you? Wish I had your pep.”

“We were in the cemetery,” I blurted out. “We have to ask you about
something.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh? Were you working on gravestone rubbings?”

“We didn’t get that far,” Terri told her. “We were reading the stones. They
were all Sadlers. All of them.”

Agatha’s chair rocked back and forth steadily. She nodded, but didn’t say
anything.

“You know those kids we met on the beach?” I broke in. “Well, we found
tombstones for Sam, Louisa, and Nat Sadler. They died in 1640-something. But
those are the same names as the kids we met!”

Agatha and Brad rocked in unison. Back and forth. Back and forth. Agatha
smiled up at me. “Well, what’s your question, Jerry?”

“How come there are so many Sadlers in that graveyard?” I asked. “And how
come those stones have our friends’ names on them?”

“Good questions,” Brad muttered quietly.

Agatha smiled. “It’s nice to see you’re both so observant. Sit down. It’s
sort of a long story.”

Terri and I dropped down onto the grass. “Tell us,” I urged impatiently.

Agatha took a deep breath and began. “Well, in the winter of 1641, a large
group of Sadlers, practically the whole family, sailed from England and settled
here. They were Pilgrims who came to start a new life.”

She glanced at Brad, who continued to rock, staring out at the shimmering trees. “It was one of the worst winters in
history,” Agatha continued. “And, sadly, tragically, the Sadlers were unprepared
for the cold. They died, one by one, and were buried in the little cemetery. By
1642, there were almost none left.”

Brad tsk-tsked and shook his head.

Agatha, rocking in a steady rhythm, continued. “Your friends Sam, Nat, and
Louisa are your distant cousins. Like Brad and me. They were named for their
ancestors, the children buried in the cemetery. We were named for our ancestors,
too. You’ll find gravestones for an Agatha and Bradford Sadler in the cemetery,
too.”

“We will?” Terri cried.

Agatha nodded solemnly. “That’s right. But your cousin and I aren’t quite
ready for the bone-yard, yet. Are we, Brad?”

Brad shook his head. “No, ma’am!” he replied, grinning.

Terri and I laughed.

Relieved laughter.

I was so glad there was a good explanation for what we had seen. I suddenly
felt tempted to tell Brad and Agatha about the ghost in the cave.

But Terri started talking about wildflowers, and I settled onto the grass and
kept my thoughts to myself.

* * *

We finally ran into Sam, Louisa, and Nat on the beach the next morning.

“Where were you guys?” I asked. “We waited for you here all afternoon.”

“Hey, give us a break,” Sam protested. “It was raining. We weren’t allowed
outside.”

“We were at the little graveyard yesterday,” Terri told them. “We saw three
old gravestones with your names on them.”

Louisa and Sam exchanged glances. “Those are our ancestors,” Sam said. “We
were named after them.”

“Jerry said you have a plan to get rid of the ghost,” Terri broke in. My
sister always likes to get down to business.

“We do,” Sam said, his expression turning serious. “Come with us.” He began
walking quickly over the pebbly sand toward the cave.

I hurried to catch up. “Whoa! Where are we going? I’m not climbing back
inside that cave again. No way!” I cried.

“Me either,” Terri agreed. “Being chased once by a ghost was enough for me.”

Sam’s hazel eyes locked on mine. “You don’t have to go into the cave again. I
promise.”

He led us to the rocks below the cave. I gazed up, shielding my eyes against
the bright sunlight.

The cave looked a little less frightening in the daytime. The smooth, white stone gleamed. The dark entrance didn’t seem as
deep and forbidding.

Sam pointed up at the mouth. “See all those big rocks piled on top of the
cave?”

I squinted. “What about them?”

“All you have to do is climb up there and push those rocks down. The rocks
will cover the mouth of the cave, and the old ghost will be trapped inside
forever.”

Terri and I stared at the enormous, white rocks. Each one must have weighed
about two hundred pounds. “You’re kidding, right?” I said.

Louisa shook her head. “We’re very serious,” she murmured.

“We cover the cave mouth with rocks?” I repeated, staring up at it. The dark
hole seemed to stare back at me like a giant, black eye. “And that will keep the
ghost inside? What will stop him from floating out? He’s a ghost, remember. He
can float right through the rocks.”

“No, he can’t,” Louisa explained. “The old legends say that the cave is a
sanctuary. That means that if something evil gets trapped inside, it can’t
escape through the ancient rocks. The ghost will be trapped inside forever.”

Terri frowned. “So why didn’t
you
ever go up and push the rocks down?”

“We’re too scared,” Nat blurted out.

“If we mess up, the ghost could come after us,” Sam said. “We live here. He
could find our house—and get revenge.”

“We’ve been waiting for outsiders to come help us,” Louisa added, gazing at
me with pleading eyes. “We’ve been waiting for someone we could trust.”

“But what about us?” I demanded. “If we try to trap the ghost tonight and we
mess up, won’t he come out looking for us?”

“We won’t mess up,” Sam replied solemnly. “We’ll all work together. If the
ghost comes out, Nat, Louisa, and I will distract him. We won’t let him see that
you’re up on top.”

“Will you help us? Please?” Louisa begged. “Our whole lives, the old ghost
has terrified us.”

“You would make everyone around here happy if you agreed to help trap him,”
Sam added.

I hesitated. So many things could go wrong.

What if the rocks wouldn’t budge? What if the ghost floated out and found
Terri and me up there? What if one of us slipped and fell off the top of the
cave?

No, I decided. No way. We can’t do it. It’s just too risky.

I turned to tell them my decision.

“Of course we’ll help you,” I heard Terri say.

We spent the afternoon picking blueberries with Agatha. Then we made
blueberry ice cream using an old-fashioned churn. It tasted better than any ice
cream I’d ever eaten. Agatha said it was because we picked the blueberries
ourselves.

As it got closer to suppertime, I started feeling more and more frightened.
Were we really going to try to trap a ghost tonight?

Dinnertime finally came. I hardly ate a thing. When Agatha stared at me, I
explained I had filled up on ice cream.

After dinner, Terri and I helped Agatha with the dishes. Then Brad insisted
on showing me how to tie sailor knots. By this time, my stomach felt more
knotted up than Brad’s rope!

Finally, Terri and I said we were going to the beach to get some fresh air.
And we hurried out to meet our three friends.

It was a clear, cloudless night. Thousands of stars twinkled overhead. A heavy dew was falling. The full moon made it easy
to see without a flashlight.

Terri and I padded in silence along the path down to the beach. Neither of us
felt like talking. I kept thinking about Mom and Dad’s warning to me before we
left home to keep Terri from getting into trouble.

Well, we’re in trouble now, I thought grimly. Deep trouble. Both of us.

Maybe all five of us.

Sam, Louisa, and Nat stood waiting at the edge of the shore. The moonlight
made the dark water sparkle. I suddenly wished it weren’t so bright out. What we
were about to do needed darkness.