Megan Stine_Jeffery & the Third-Grade Ghost 02 (6 page)

Ricky Reyes cut him off. “Come on, Jeffrey,” he said. “Quit stalling and get in the house.”

“Okay, okay, I’m going,” Jeffrey said. “Come on, Ben.”

“After you,” said Ben.

The wind whistled through the trees and rattled the McGyver gate. Jeffrey felt a chill on the back of his neck. He pulled his magician’s cape more tightly around him.

Jeffrey and Ben looked at each other.

“After you,” Ben repeated.

Jeffrey walked to the house and opened the gate. He and Ben stepped into the front yard. So far so good. They moved toward the porch.

“What are you so nervous about?” Jeffrey asked as they took cautious steps. “I thought you were the guy who said that scientists don’t believe in ghosts.”

“At one time scientists thought the world was flat, too,” answered Ben.

They reached the porch. Jeffrey turned and waved to their friends. They had all moved back and were now standing safely on the other side of the street. Ricky Reyes just stood there with his arms crossed, waiting. Jeffrey knocked on the door, secretly hoping that Max would open it. Then Max would hand him the dagger, and they could leave.

But no one answered the door.

“Why are you knocking?” Ben asked. “The house is empty.”

“Can you think of a better way to kill some time?” Jeffrey replied.

Ben couldn’t, so he knocked on the door, too. “Should we try the doorbell next?” he asked.

Jeffrey put his hand on the doorknob. But he didn’t even have to turn it. The door started to open by itself! Jeffrey peeked inside. It was dark in the house, but it felt like a different kind of dark to him. It was the kind of dark that says,
I’m in here and I’m waiting for you
.

Finally, Jeffrey clenched his fists and pushed the door open wide. Then he led the way into the McGyver house.

Ben followed Jeffrey through the front door into a hallway. It was cold and musty inside, and their sneakers squeaked on the wood floors. They were looking for stairs to take them up to the bedroom with the dagger.

“This isn’t so bad,” whispered Ben.

“Yeah,” Jeffrey whispered back.

They were doing all right. And they were doing it without Max. What had happened to him? Was he afraid of the ghosts in the McGyver house?

They walked slowly because they couldn’t see ahead of them. Each boy kept one hand on the wall so that he wouldn’t crash into anything.

Just as they turned a corner into what used to be a dining room, they stopped, frozen in their tracks.

Two hideous, glowing green faces—uglier than anything Jeffrey and Ben had ever seen before—floated in midair. Back and forth across the room they flew!

The faces were laughing and snarling and making terrible angry, hungry noises. Suddenly, tiny lights started flickering in the room.

Ben and Jeffrey didn’t wait to see what happened next.

“Code Twenty!” Jeffrey shouted. Then they ran for the front door and out of the McGyver house so fast, they didn’t even leave footprints in the dust.

Jeffrey and Ben ran out of the McGyver house without looking back. And they didn’t stop running until they had reached the group of kids waiting across the street. They wouldn’t have stopped even then, but they had given their bags of trick-or-treat candy to Kenny and Melissa to hold.

“What happened?” Melissa asked as the others gathered around Jeffrey and Ben. “What was in there?”

“I don’t know,” Jeffrey said, breathing fast. “There was something.”

“Two somethings,” Ben said, cleaning the sweat off his glasses.

Ghosts
. The word spread through the crowd in nervous whispers.

“What did you see?” asked Ricky Reyes.

“We saw two hideous green faces that wanted to kill us,” said Jeffrey with a gulp.

“They were just floating on air,” Ben said. He
sounded calmer—and curious. “I’ve never read about anything like it.”

“We saw some lights flashing from out here,” Melissa said.

“That was them!” Jeffrey said. “Really. We’re not making it up. Two ghosts drooled over us for a while and then lights started flashing.”

“Did you see the dagger?” asked Ricky.

Jeffrey snapped his fingers. “I knew there was something I forgot to ask them,” he said sarcastically. “Are you crazy, Ricky? We were running for our lives!”

“I don’t know,” Ricky Reyes said.

“You don’t believe me?” asked Jeffrey.

“Jeffrey,” Ricky said, “I’m not sure I’d believe you if you told me I was wearing a karate costume.” Ricky
was
wearing a karate costume, so Jeffrey didn’t know what to say.

A minute later, Max showed up. He was wearing an old-fashioned flannel plaid shirt buttoned at the collar and his same old blue jeans. But he was carrying a small cloth bag with handles. The bag had a pumpkin on it and said Treat or Treat.

“Boo!” Max said. “Like, did I scare you, Daddy-o?”

“Leave me alone,” Jeffrey said to Max.

But no one could see Max. So Ricky Reyes
thought Jeffrey was talking to him. “Hey, if that’s the way you feel, fine,” he said. “You went into the house, but you didn’t get the dagger. So we’ll just leave it at that, okay?”

Jeffrey ignored Ricky and scooted out of the crowd. He and Max walked over to a tree. “Where have
you
been?” Jeffrey asked the ghost.

Max squinted one eye at Jeffrey. “I’m a ghost and
this
is Halloween. Get it? I had things to do. I had responsibilities. But I kept in touch.”

“Yeah, you kept taking Ben’s candy and putting it in my bag. And then you turned the sprinklers on us at the Shermans’ house,” Jeffrey said.

Max almost looked sorry. “I was just trying to put the trick back in the trick or treat. Dig? This is the one day it’s cool to be, like, you know,
nonliving.”

There it was again. That look on Max’s face, reminding Jeffrey that Max was just trying to make the best out of a bad situation. And it always made Jeffrey feel sorry about yelling at Max.

“Yeah, okay, I dig. Sorry,” Jeffrey said with a smile. “But, listen, there are other ghosts around. Ben and I just saw two of them in the McGyver house. They chased us out before we could get the dagger.”

“This I gotta see with my own eyeballs,” said
Max. And he flew toward the McGyver house.

“Hey, wait!” Jeffrey called.

“Later, man,” Max said.

Jeffrey watched the ghost disappear through the wall of the old house. Melissa, Kenny, and Ben came up to him.

“What should we do? Go home now?” Ben asked.

“I can’t believe you guys saw real ghosts,” Kenny said.

“Jeffrey still can’t believe it,” Melissa said. “Look. He can’t take his eyes off the McGyver house.”

Just then, two figures with green faces burst out of the McGyver house. They were running even faster than Jeffrey and Ben had run. “Help! The house is haunted!” they screamed. “There’s a ghost in there!” They jumped over the McGyver fence and started to run down the street.

“Hey! Wait!” Ricky Reyes yelled. He ran over and tackled one of the boys. The other one got away. “It’s my brother!” Ricky shouted.

“Get off me, you little jerk!” shouted Michael Reyes.

Michael was Ricky’s older brother. He was in high school. His face was covered with green face paint.

“What were you doing in there?” Ricky demanded.

“Just having some fun.” Michael stood up and brushed himself off. “I heard you talking about your big bet with Jeffrey. About going into the McGyver house for the dagger. And I know how you little creeps are so afraid of haunted houses. So Wally Tishler and I thought we’d give you something to be scared of. We put on green glow-in-the-dark makeup and brought some Christmas lights with us. Then we waited for Jeffrey in the dining room. You should have seen his face.”

“You should have seen
your
face coming out of there,” Ricky told his brother.

“Yeah, but there really was a ghost in there this time,” Michael said.

“Yeah, sure,” Jeffrey said, trying not to laugh. “You guys probably just scared each other.”

“No.” Michael Reyes shook his head. “We were standing in there and then something tied our shoelaces together and pushed us.”

“Tied your shoelaces together?” echoed Ben doubtfully. “That doesn’t sound like a standard ghost.”

No, Jeffrey thought, but it
did
sound exactly like Max.
“I’m
going to check it out,” he said, grinning.

“Jeffrey, don’t go back in there,” said Ricky Reyes. He sounded a little nervous. “My brother doesn’t lie. If he says there’s a ghost in there, there is.”

“I can handle it,” Jeffrey told him.

“Don’t do it,” Melissa said. Even
she
was scared.

“Relax, wimps,” Jeffrey said. “I can handle it.”

With that, Jeffrey walked bravely back into the McGyver house and closed the door behind him.

“Yo, Max!” Jeffrey called. Max was sitting on the stairway, still holding his trick-or-treat bag. “You did a great job! Those kids were high-school kids,” Jeffrey said. “It’s not every day third-graders get to make high-school kids look like jerks.”

“Nobody messes with Max—or Max’s friends,” said the ghost. “Like, that’s rule number one.”

“Thanks,” Jeffrey replied, sitting down on the steps next to the ghost. “What have you got in your trick-or-treat bag?”

“Beats me, Daddy-o,” Max said, pulling out a plastic bag. He read the label. “ ‘Trail Mix’—what is that? Dirt and stones? And what’s a granola bar? It looks like something you build a house with.”

“Not exactly,” Jeffrey said. “Granola bars are pretty good. They’re a lot like candy. But grown-ups
think they’re healthy so we get to eat as many as we want.”

“Coolsville,” said the ghost.

But there was still one thing left to do before this Halloween was over. “Max, is there really a dagger upstairs?” Jeffrey asked.

“Go dig it for yourself, Jeffrey,” said the ghost.

Jeffrey climbed the dark stairs and walked into the bedroom. The moon cast a silver light through the shadeless window. In the bright moonlight, Jeffrey saw Max’s dagger stuck in the floor between two floorboards. He pulled it out of the floor with a jerk and held it in his hands.

“Max, close but no cigar,” Jeffrey said with a laugh.

“Man, sometimes I just don’t dig what you’re saying at all,” Max said. He leaned in the doorway chewing on his granola bar.

“I mean,” Jeffrey said, holding it up to the light, “this isn’t a dagger.”

“You’re putting me on,” said Max. But he didn’t sound the least bit surprised.

“It’s a letter opener, Max,” said Jeffrey. “And there’s no blood on it. Just rust. And you knew it all the time, didn’t you?”

Max looked away from Jeffrey, but his voice
sounded as tough as ever. “Hey, man, if you’re gonna go ape over little details, then I just won’t tell you about the cool stuff I find anymore.” Then he added, “You want some trail mix, Daddy-o?”

“Yeah, later,” Jeffrey said in a friendly voice. “I’ve got something to do first. My friends are waiting for me.”

“Okay. I’ll fall by your pad around bedtime,” Max said. “Maybe we can look at some more of your dad’s comic books.”