'Remember what you said about Snowball being a ghost cat?' I asked.
Kristi sighed. I could tell she didn't want to believe a thing I said. 'Yes, but I didn't really mean it,' she muttered.
'Well,' I said, 'you were right.'
That got Kristi's attention, and she actually listened to every word I said about Snowball and Louisa. 'So you see why you shouldn't have told Miss Cooper we found Anna Maria?' I asked at the end of my story. 'I was going to give her back to Louisa and now, thanks to you, I can't.'
'Even if you're telling the truth, which I doubt, that old witch won't let us have Anna Maria.' Krisd leaned over the edge of the platform and watched Miss Cooper get up and go back into her house.
As the door thunked shut behind the old woman, Snowball appeared in the shade on the edge of the garden. When he approached the tree, I turned to Kristi.
'Suppose Snowball takes us both to Louisa. Will you believe me then?'
Krisd stared at the cat as I started climbing down the ladder. By the time I reached the ground, she was right behind me. 'If I go, will you hold my hand?' she asked me.
Although I was still angry, I took her hand. I wanted her to come, to see Louisa herself, to feel really bad about what she'd done.
Together we ran across Miss Cooper's lawn and followed Snowball through the hedge. As before, the sunlight dimmed, and I shivered as I found myself standing once more in the twilight, staring at Louisa's house. It had happened again; I hadn't imagined it. My own world had vanished, and all I could do was hope Snowball would lead us back.
Kristi clung to me, and I could feel her trembling. 'I'm scared,' she whispered. 'Let's go home, Ashley.'
'First we have to see Louisa,' I said firmly.
Kristi glanced over her shoulder at the hedge behind us. Like me, she saw Miss Cooper's house as it had looked before the porch and stairs to our apartment had been built.
'My tree house is gone,' Kristi whimpered. 'There's no tree at all, and it's getting dark. Are you sure my mother's there?'
'I've done this before,' I told her.
'Why is it so dark? I can see the moon.'
'Time is different here,' I said, but I wondered myself why it was darker than it had been yesterday.
'I'm cold.' Kristi's hand sought mine again as Snowball brushed against us. 'Can't we go home now? I don't like this place.'
'You have to meet Louisa.' I gripped her hand tightly to keep her from trying to bolt back through the hedge.
'I'm afraid of ghosts.' Kristi was close to tears.
'Louisa's not a ghost,' I said. 'When we hear her crying at night in our world, she's a ghost, I think. But here in her world we're the ghosts, not Louisa.'
'You're real,' Kristi insisted, 'and so am I. I can feel you and you can feel me. Besides you have to be dead to be a ghost, and we're not dead.'
Snowball meowed then and circled our legs. I picked him up and handed him to Kristi. 'He's real, isn't he?'
'He
'Come on,' I said. 'He wants to take us to Louisa.'
'You won't tell her I gave Anna Maria to Miss Cooper, will you?' Kristi asked, still hanging back.
I shook my head and followed Snowball down the shadowy path. Reluctantly, Kristi stumbled along behind me. I knew she was still scared, but I wasn't sorry for her. If she hadn't been such a tattletale, I'd have Anna Maria in my arms right now. Instead, I was returning to Louisa empty handed, and Carrie was once again in possession of the doll.
Chapter 14
Please Give Her Back
RELUCTANTLY, KRISTI let me lead her down the path to the bench under the dogwood tree. When Louisa saw us coming, she stood up slowly.
'Who have you brought with you?' She peered into the shadows behind me. 'Is it Carrie?'
'No, it's my neighbor, Kristi.' I beckoned to Kristi, but she hung back, her eyes fixed on Louisa as if she expected her to change into something hideous at any moment.
Louisa smiled and extended a small hand, but Kristi wouldn't take it. I knew she was as scared as I'd been the first time I met Louisa.
'You needn't be afraid,' Louisa said to her.
'I'm not.' Kristi frowned and folded her arms tightly across her chest, refusing to come close enough for Louisa to touch her.
Louisa turned to me. 'Did you find Carrie?'
I nodded. What would Louisa think if she could see the mean old woman Carrie had grown into? 'But she wouldn't give me Anna Maria.'
Louisa sighed. 'I didn't think she really would. No matter what Snowball and I do, she won't part with my doll.'
'Do you ever see Carrie?' I asked.
'Sometimes.' Louisa gazed across the hedge at my house. 'There she is right now.' She pointed at my bedroom window. 'I often see her watching me.'
With shivers running up my neck, I turned and saw a girl standing at my window. Her hair was long and dark, but she had her back to the fight, making it impossible for me to see her face. When she realized we'd noticed her, she stepped away from the window and closed the curtains.
It made goose bumps rise all over me to think I was looking at my own bedroom, not as it was now, but as it used to be. How could a house exist in two different times at once? If Carrie was in my room, where was Mom? Anxiously, I turned back to Louisa, but she was rocking her doll carriage and humming.
'Would you like to play tea party again?' she asked me. 'I brought three dolls today, just in case Carrie came, so Kristi can have Beulah.''
Reaching into the carriage, Louisa pulled out a china doll with painted hair and handed her to Kristi. She gave me Elfrieda again and kept Marguerite for herself.
'Silently Kristi watched Louisa pour imaginary tea into three tiny cups. In the few days I'd known her, she'd never been so quiet, and I wondered what she was thinking about.
As we pretended to sip our tea, Kristi finally spoke. 'Why did Carrie take your doll?' Her face was screwed into a terrible scowl. If she had the chance, I was sure she'd beat up Carrie for making Louisa so unhappy.
Louisa glanced up at my bedroom window as if she expected Carrie to reappear. 'Well, you see, Carrie's father never let her have a doll of her own,' she said. 'He thinks toys encourage idleness.' She gave Marguerite a little pat on the head.
'Whenever Carrie came to see me,' Louisa went on, 'I let her play with Anna Maria because she loved her best. A few days ago, I left Anna Maria in the garden while I ate dinner. When I went outside to get her, I saw Carrie running through the hedge with her. I called and called, but she never came back.'
As Louisa's eyes filled with tears, Kristi and I looked at each other. How could Miss Cooper have changed so little? Even now she was as mean and rotten as she'd been when she was a kid.
'We'll get her for you,' I told Louisa. 'I promise.'
Louisa began to cough again, harder this time. 'Maybe you should go inside,' I told her, frightened by the way her body shook. She was so thin and small and fragile.
'Yes,' she said, letting me lead her toward her house. 'I'm not supposed to stay outside, but I wanted to be here if you came back to play.'
As we walked up the path, I saw Aunt Viola hurrying toward us. To my surprise, she brushed past Kristi and me without seeing us and picked up Louisa as if she weighed no more than Anna Maria. 'I thought you were in your
