“Quiet!” I whispered as he pulled on his leash, yanking my arm around. I made a mental note that if I got out of this alive, the first thing I would do was call a dog trainer, because I was not happy with Mr. Cheese’s behavior one bit.
He was now pulling me around the side of the house. The groans and shrieks were getting louder. My heart was beating out of my chest. Mr. Cheese was sniffing around on the ground now, urgently trying to locate something. What was it? Finally, he found what he was looking for. At first, I couldn’t tell what it was. But then my eyes adjusted to the dark, and it became clear as day.
It was a cheese puff.
What in the …
A few feet away, my eyes landed on a skateboard … with a lightning bolt on it. And then …
Mapefrl lunged out at me from the side of the house and shouted “Boo!”
I screamed, and fell backward into the grass.
Mapefrl fell to the ground, clutching his sides with laughter. Mr. Cheese was sniffing around him like crazy. I’d like to think he was as furious as I was, but truthfully I think he was just wondering if there were more cheese puffs.
“What are you doing, Luke?” I said, my anger rising with every millisecond.
“Playing a prank,” he said, still laughing. “And it worked! You totally thought there was a ghost!”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
“Did not!” I paused. “Fine. I did.” Then my curiosity got the best of me. “How did you do all of those creepy things?”
Luke showed me his spooky-sounds machine, a gag gift he’d gotten from the dollar store last Halloween. Then he showed me how he’d used his flashlight to make it look like the lights were flickering. I was sort of impressed. But I had one more question.
“Why did you do this?”
“When you told me there wasn’t really a ghost, I knew you would get bored again soon. So I thought I’d keep the excitement going a little longer.”
So, he did this … for me? That was actually kind of nice. Really nice, actually. Not that I needed to tell him that.
“I am so mad at you,” I said to him, crossing my arms to prove my point.
“Aw, come on. You didn’t think it was funny at all?”
“No! Okay, maybe a little funny,” I said.
“You know what’s really funny?” Luke said. “Mr. Cheese likes cheese puffs.”
I started laughing. So did Luke. It wasn’t the funniest joke in the world, but for some reason it seemed hilarious. Soon we were laughing so hard our sides hurt.
Then from the other side of the fence, I heard Aunt Jenna muttering, “Where did that girl go now? Ooh, when she gets back here, I’m going to let her ha—”
I looked at Luke. “Gotta go!” When I ran back to the yard with Mr. Cheese, Aunt Jenna was standing with her hands on her hips, her toe tapping the ground. She threw a laser glare at me that was amazingly similar to Mom’s. Okay, maybe Aunt Jenna wasn’t cheerful all the time.
“Hazy Bloom, where did you wander off to, for goodness’ sake? I was worried sick!”
“Aunt Jenna, I can explain—” I said, but I was coming up blank. “See, um—”
“It was my fault.” Luke poked his head over the fence. “I was playing a trick on her. I got her to come over here.”
“Is that true, Hazy?”
I paused. Then I said, “No. It was my decision to go,” I told her. “I’m sorry, Aunt Jenna. I shouldn’t have left.” I said. “But, I felt like … I had to.” I lowered my voice. “To prevent doom. You know … as a superhero?”
So here’s the thing. When I said that, Aunt Jenna could have looked at me like I was crazy. But she didn’t. Instead, her angry expression disappeared and she gave me the tiniest little smile. Then she took my hand.
“Let’s have some s’mores.”
I smiled back. Then I stopped. I turned around. “Luke, do you want a s’more?”
“Uh, sure,” he said with a shrug.
It’s not that I wanted to hang out with him or anything. I just figured since he went through so much work to play his trick, he might be hungry.
Back at the campsite, we ate s’mores, sang more songs, and laughed and laughed. Luke even taught us a new game called Campfire Concentration, which was a total blast.
But we all agreed on one thing.
No ghost stories.
23
The next day, Thursday, Aunt Jenna, Milo, The Baby, and I went to see an afternoon performance of The Wizard of Oz. I don’t know how, but Elizabeth managed to make a dancing winged monkey the most fascinating character in the play. She was fantastic. (And her British accent worked a lot better than I thought it would!)
After the show, I filled Elizabeth in about the entire crazy experience the night before.
“LUKE? Are you serious?”
“Yes!” I laughed, watching her take it all in.
Elizabeth was amazed. And then she told me something else. “You are the bravest person I know.”
“I am?”
“Uh-huh. You were going to take on that ghost all by yourself!”
I hadn’t thought about it that way. But you know what? She was right! Even though I was scared, I was ready and willing to confront a ghost, and that was pretty brave. Next I would have to work on my fear of mice. And smiley-face balloons.
After the show, we all went over to the school so The Baby could play at the playground and eat some sand. Elizabeth came, and I took her to see the school garden. I hadn’t been in almost a week, and, to tell you the truth, I kind of missed it.
When we got there I found the section of arugula I had planted. To my amazement, my arugula plants had grown taller. I guess that’s the power of cow poo.
“She’s beautiful!” I cooed at the tallest of my plants, and Elizabeth cracked up.
Mrs. Agnes, who was there to put in another bed of herbs, rushed over to say how impressed she was by my gardening skills. And I’d come on the right day. A local reporter was here to do a story on the garden, and he’d like to take a picture of me. How about that? I ended up getting my picture in the newspaper after all!
That evening, Aunt Jenna was making bibimbap again (at my request), while I put together a salad with some baby kale and baby arugula that Mrs. Agnes said I could take.
While we were eating, I heard the front door open. It was Mom and Dad—they were home!
“Bonsoir!” my dad said as I leaped into his arms.
“Dijon!” I answered, and gave him a big hug.
Mom peppered us all with kisses and asked how our week was.
Milo told her all about his week, and The Baby told his baby version of the same thing.
“What about you, Hazel Basil? How was your week?” Mom asked me as I snuggled into her arms, happy to smell her familiar smell again.
I thought about telling them about the mouse, the ghost, the school garden, Mapefrl, Elizabeth’s play, the campout, Mr. Delaney, and me singing “The Hokey Pokey” to a group of toddlers. But there was plenty of time to fill them in. Maybe tomorrow.
“It was awesome,” I answered. Because you know what? It actually was.
About the Author
Jennifer Hamburg is an Emmy-winning children’s television writer who has worked on hit shows such as Doc McStuffins, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, and Super Why! She is currently at work on another Hazy Bloom adventure, and lives with her family in Houston, Texas. You can sign up for email updates here.
About the Illustrator
Jenn Harney is an illustrator and toy designer whose work has been featured in Highlights for Children magazine. Jenn lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband, her daughter, a dog named Steve, and a fish with nine lives. She is the author of the Hazy Bloom series, including Hazy Bloom and The Tomorrow Power and Hazy Bloom and The Pet Project. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
About the Author and Illustrator
Copyright
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Text copyright © 2019 Jennifer Hamburg
Pictures copyright © 2019 by Jenn Harney
All rights reserved
First hardcover edition, 2019
eBook edition, February 2019
mackids.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Hamburg, Jennifer, author.|Harney, Jenn, illustrator.
Title: Hazy Bloom and the mystery next door / Jennifer Hamburg; pictures by Jenn Harney.
Description: First edition.|New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2019.|Summary: “When Hazy Bloom gets a tomorrow vision of a ghost flying around in the empty house next door, her boring summer vacation suddenly takes a mysterious, thrilling, and hilariously Hazy-like turn”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018011234|ISBN 978-0-374-30501-7 (hardcover) / ISBN 978-0-374-30502-4 (ebook)
Subjects:|CYAC: Extrasensory perception—Fiction.|Haunted houses—Fiction.|Family life—Fiction.|Humorous stories.
Classification: LCC PZ7.H1756 Ham 2019|DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018011234
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945 ext. 5442 or by e-mail at [email protected].
eISBN 9780374305024
Hazy Bloom and the Mystery Next Door Page 6