I tiptoed down the hall to Sally’s room.
“No, silly,” I heard Sally say. “You can come home with me.”
There was a short silence, then Sally said, “Yes, you can so come. I want you to come.”
I poked my head around the door. Sally was sitting on the side of her bed holding Winky, her stuffed bunny, and talking to her invisible friend, Bobby.
“Hi, Sally,” I said brightly. “You okay this morning?”
Sally turned and smiled at me. “Bobby is such a silly,” she said, hopping down off the bed. “He thinks we’re going to go away and leave him.”
I brushed her hair back from her face, feeling uneasy. “Let’s go have breakfast,” I said.
Dad was sitting at the table when we went into the kitchen.
He ruffled Sally’s hair and stood up, a stiff look on his face. “Jason, why don’t you grab a muffin and walk outside with me while your mother gives Sally her breakfast.”
Uh-oh. Trouble City. But I hadn’t done anything!
As we walked out to the spot under the cherry tree, I ticked off the possibilities in my head. Had the witch smashed up the garage? Or slashed Dad’s tires?
But Dad didn’t look like he was mad when he looked at me and cleared his throat. “I went down to the realtors this morning,” he began.
Great!
“Your mother thought maybe we should move, considering what happened here while we were gone. Well, it turns out there isn’t another place available for fifty miles around. It is the height of the summer, after all.”
The corn muffin turned to lead in my stomach.
“But while I was at the realtors,” Dad went on gravely, “I heard something that explains what happened here the other night.”
My head shot up. Did he finally believe me? Could it really be?
“Seems there was another place vandalized just a couple blocks away. It was a vacant cottage and whoever it was really tore the place apart—kicked and stove in the walls, knocked holes in the roof, smashed up the little furniture that was there. A real mess.” Dad shook his head.
I knew what was coming.
“I talked to the police chief and he thinks the same gang is responsible for what happened here. Our place has been empty for years and with it being dark and no car in the driveway they must have thought it was still vacant. Then you kids surprised them and Katie got hurt. I suppose we were lucky it wasn’t worse.”
I felt like a black cloud just opened over my head. And it was never going to go away. “But, Dad—”
“The chief doesn’t think they’ll be back. He figures you scared them almost as much as they scared you. But he’ll be sending a cruiser by regularly, especially at night. I don’t know that it’s any better than ghosts, son, but I thought it might set your mind at rest.”
I knew it was no use arguing. I pretended to be convinced by this story about the vandals and by the time Steve called for me, Mom and Dad were feeling more relaxed.
Steve and I decided to go mess around at the lake.
“We’ll take Sally along with us, Mom,” I said.
Mom smiled as if she was lucky to have a son like me. “That would be great, Jason,” she said. “Your dad and I still have a lot of work to do on the Hartsville project.”
My mom and dad are architects, designing a town complex for Hartsville. The sooner they were done, the sooner we could leave the house on Cherry Street and go back home.
While we walked down to the lake, I filled Steve in on what had happened with my parents while Sally ran on ahead with her plastic pail and shovel.
“We’re never going to get out of that house,” I said dejectedly, kicking a stone into the smooth surface of the lake. “The ghosts are going to win.”
“We’ll think of something,” said Steve. “Here comes Lucy. Maybe she’ll have an idea.”
He waved and Lucy came running down, black ponytail flying. She ran past us and leaped into the lake, splashing water in all directions. Steve and I were soaked.
A minute later we were all splashing each other and laughing and I almost forgot about my troubles.
We took turns keeping an eye on Sally. She couldn’t really swim but she thought she could and she kept wanting to go out too deep and play with the big kids.
The lake was really warm that day and we didn’t get out of the water until we were starved.
As we got dried off I knew there was only one thing to do. I described to Steve and Lucy the message Bobby had written in my mirror.
“The witch is down there,” I said. “We found that out the hard way, and Bobby wants us to check out that old trunk, that’s why he showed it to me in the mirror. The basement is where we’ll find the secret to everything! That’s why the old witch doesn’t want us down there.”
Steve and Lucy avoided my eyes.
“This time I’m going to get that trunk no matter what,” I said. “Who wants to come with me?”
Lucy and Steve looked at each other, then at me.
“I gotta go,” said Lucy, throwing her towel over her shoulder and scampering up the little beach. “See you guys later.”
I turned to Steve.
He darted away from me. “Hey, Sally,” he called. “Want a piggyback ride?”
Sighing deeply, I started after them.
I’d just have to do it myself.
20
“Find the witch. Find the witch,” I repeated, trying to psych myself up.
I went upstairs for my flashlight and a baseball bat. This time I was on my own and I wanted the bat for protection.
I checked around and discovered that Sally was taking her nap and Mom and Dad were working in their office. So no one would interrupt me.
That was good,
