The Green Ghost (6 page)

“When I was a girl,” she said, “Lillian visited me every year, right around Christmas.
She’d make a joke about the ugly juniper Papa always cut for the house. And then she and I would walk out together to see this tree.”

She tipped her head back to see the tree’s tip. “We’d bring strings of cranberries and popcorn to decorate it. We’d put suet and peanut butter on it for the birds. Every year she came … until I was about thirteen. I suppose I thought myself quite grown up that year. Too old to believe in …”

She shook her head. “She never came again,” she said. “I quit visiting the tree. I thought she was the one who’d left me.”

“No,” Kaye said softly. “She said to tell you she’s here.”

Elsa cried again. Only this time she was laughing, too.

“Oh my,” she said at last. “I think it’s
time for breakfast. My coffee cake must be ready to come out of the oven.”

And they all started back down the hill, following the footprints once more. There were multiple prints now, jumbled and crisscrossed.

The group walked in a peaceful silence. Kaye knew her parents would have questions later. That was all right. She would answer them as best she could.

But as they stepped out of the trees into the bright sunshine, she had an idea. It was a perfectly wonderful idea.

“Elsa,” she said, “will you come with us to my gran’s?” Then she added, before Elsa had a chance to answer, “She’ll have a huge …” Before she could say “tree,” she stopped herself. She didn’t know what kind of tree Gran would have this year. Maybe it
would be tiny. Maybe it would even be one of those artificial ones.

But what did it matter?

She started again. “You’d like my gran,” she said. “I know you would. And her Christmas is always huge. There’d be plenty of room for all of us.”

Kaye glanced at her parents as she spoke.
Was it all right?
She knew she should have asked them first.

To her relief, they were both nodding. “That’s a wonderful idea!” her mother said. “You must come!”

“Yes,” agreed Kaye’s father.

“I’d love to,” Elsa said, still crying, still smiling. “Yes, I’d love to.”

And Kaye twirled, clapping her hands.

When she had to stop for breath, she looked back toward the woods.

There, at the edge of the trees, stood a girl. She wore a green cape, as green as a pine tree, with a silvery green velvet lining.

She waved to Kaye.

And though she was too far away to see for sure, Kaye could have sworn that Lillian was crying and smiling, too.

Marion Dane Bauer is the author of more than sixty books for children, including the Newbery Honor-winning
On My Honor
. She has also won the Kerlan Award for her collected work. Marion’s first Stepping Stone book,
The Blue Ghost
, was named to the Texas Bluebonnet Award 2007-2008 Master List. Marion teaches writing and is on the faculty of the Vermont College Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program.

Marion has nine grandchildren and lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

The light moved closer. It grew larger as it approached.

It had a shape now … or almost a shape. It seemed to form a person, a woman. One second Liz could see her clearly. She could make out the long, old-fashioned dress. She could see the woman’s hair was pulled back in a bun. Then the figure wavered like smoke in a puff of wind.

Jenna pushed the blanket back again. She swung her feet out of the bed. But she stopped before she stood up. She just stopped and sat there, thinking.

The doll was in her closet, too. Miss Tate’s doll. The one she was going to give to Quinn. It was all wrapped up, taped up, even decorated with a red bow. But it was in there.

And suddenly Jenna didn’t want to open the closet door.

Emily was about to turn back when she glimpsed something white. What was it? Even staring hard, she couldn’t tell. White seemed an unlikely color to be part of a tree or bush. She made her way toward it.

She didn’t know what to expect. Certainly not what she found.

A house stood in a small clearing. It was a real house, but small. Maybe it was a child’s playhouse. A girl her size could walk right into it. A grown-up would have to duck to get in through the door. The walls were painted white. The roof, the door, and the shutters at the windows were a rich royal blue.