The Starving Ghost: An Up2U Mystery Adventure - Up2U Adventures Set 3
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in it, a glass of juice, and a note telling her to go
to the barn when she was done.
The bowl of porridge turned out to be
delicious. It was sweet and creamy and smooth,
almost like warm cinnamon pudding. Shay ate
hungrily then wandered out of the house.
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This was Shay’s first good look at the farm.
The main building was a sturdy two-story house
made from gray stones of different shapes and
sizes. The doors and windows were painted bright
red. A short stone fence surrounded the building
on all four sides. The house stood on top of a low,
grassy hill. More hills dipped and rose behind the
house. Each hill was dotted with groups of sheep.
Shay found Uncle Sean working inside the
barn. He was using a large, metal rake to scoop
piles of hay into a wheelbarrow. Every time he
moved a pile of hay, Shay smelled a new wave
of mold and manure. She wrinkled her nose and
resisted the urge to cover her face with her sleeve.
“Shay!” Sean’s face lit up when he saw her.
She wondered if he thought she wouldn’t come.
“Ready for some work?”
“Sure,” she said, sounding not sure at all. Shay
tried to smile in return, but it came out like a
crooked grimace.
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“Let’s start you with something a little easier,”
he said.
“Farm chores for beginners?” Shay asked.
“You got it,” he said. His eyes darted around
the barn. They finally landed on a large rectangle
of leather with handles on either end. “Wood!”
he said, and got the carrier for Shay. “Why don’t
you gather the wood I chopped yesterday. It’s just
on the other side of that hill, near the woods.”
Shay was relieved that she wasn’t going to
be doing anything with the soiled hay in the
wheelbarrow. She took the wood carrier and
walked off in the direction Sean had indicated.
She found the wood after about ten minutes
of walking. She was in the clearing at the edge
of a small forest. Near the edge of the woods,
there were many roughly cut logs strewn around
a tree trunk and an ax. Uncle Sean had obviously
chopped the wood and left the logs wherever
they fell.
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Shay had never gathered wood before. “But how hard could it be?” she said aloud. She bent
to pick up her first log.
“Pretty hard,” said a girl’s voice, “if you don’t
know how to use a carrier.”
Shay snapped to attention. A few feet behind
her stood a girl about her own age. The girl had
long, blond hair that was tied into a braid. She
wore a dirty, white cotton dress. The plain dress
seemed old-fashioned, like something from a
costume trunk.
But, Shay thought, maybe that’s what people in the village wore.
The girl was very thin. And though she smiled
at Shay, the smile didn’t quite reach her sad green
eyes. If Shay didn’t know better, she’d say the girl
looked like—but no, that was impossible.
“Have you piled wood before?” The girl had
a thick Irish accent. Her vowel sounds stretched
long and she rolled the “r” in “before.”
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“No, but there’s a first time for everything,”
Shay said. Uncle Sean’s positive attitude was
growing on her. “I’m Shay. I’m staying here with
Uncle Sean for the summer.”
Shay didn’t know who this girl was, but she
knew that she’d have a better time this summer
if she could make a friend. She waited for the girl
to say her name. The girl just continued to smile
a little sadly.
Finally, Shay asked, “Who are you?”
The girl shook her head slightly as though she
was snapping herself out of a trance. “Me?” she
asked. “I’m Bridget. I’m . . .” She looked off into
the distance behind Shay. She shook her head
slightly and put a bigger smile on her face before
meeting Shay’s eyes. “I’m just Bridget.”
“Hi,” said Shay. She was feeling nervous, and
when she got nervous she talked. “Do you know
how to pile this properly? It’s my first ever farm
chore.” She started to move logs onto the carrier.
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“My little sister’s with our aunt in California,”
Shay continued. “I’ll bet the only chore she’s
doing is filling up her lemonade glass.”
Shay had piled four logs on the carrier. She
tried to lift it by the handles. She couldn’t add
any more without dropping the ones she already
had. “Hey, Bridget, do you think you could put
this last one on top?”
Shay kicked a log at Bridget and sent it rolling
down the hill toward her.
“No, I don’t think I . . .” Bridget began. But it
was too late.
The log rolled right through Bridget’s feet!
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Chapter
4
4GD#NSS@FD
Shay shrieked and dropped the logs she was
carrying. All three logs followed the first one.
They rolled right through Bridget’s feet. Shay
started to back away quickly up the hill.
“Wait!” shouted Bridget.
Shay stopped. Bridget took a few steps toward
her until the two girls were standing eye to eye.
Both were thin. Both were tall. Both had long
hair. If it weren’t for Bridget’s old-fashioned
clothes, someone looking at them would have
thought they were just two friends meeting on
the farm.
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“Are you a ghost?” Shay asked.
Bridget looked down at her body. It wasn’t
see-through. It didn’t shimmer. It looked solid.
“I’m not alive,” Bridget replied slowly. She
tried to pick up one of the fallen logs. Her fingers
swept right through the wood. “I guess I am a
ghost.”
“What happened to you?” Shay had been
ready for an adventure this summer. But she
hadn’t expected to meet a ghost.
Bridget shuffled uncomfortably. “I don’t know.
I don’t remember what happened.” She looked
wistfully at the land around them. “I know that I
lived here,” she said.
Shay looked around the rolling hills too. There
were no houses anywhere. “Where?” she asked,
confused.
“Follow me! Come on!” Bridget started
running down the opposite side of the hill. Her
braid flew behind her.
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Shay slowed to a stop in front of a broken
down cottage. It was made from stones just like
Sean’s house was. But these stones were covered
in brown mold. Most of the roof was missing.
Thick grass grew tall inside the house.
Bridget waited outside of a doorway leading
inside the abandoned cottage. Shay caught her
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breath. Then Shay asked, “So this is where
you used to live? With who?”
Bridget looked sadly at Shay. “I don’t
remember anything.” Then, Bridget’s face lit up
unexpectedly. “But maybe you know!”
Shay laughed uncomfortably. It was strange;
just now, Bridget seemed like a normal girl. Shay
found that she truly wanted to help her. She
answered slowly, “Maybe I can help you find out.”
Bridget jumped up and down and clapped her
hands. “Really?”
“Sure!” said Shay. She looked expectantly at
Bridget. “So, should we go in?”
Shay stepped inside the cottage. Shay could
see the whole cottage. It was simple, just two
rooms. There was a large main room, and behind
it was a second room with a loft above. The floors
were made of tightly-packed dirt.
“Where did you sleep?” Shay asked. She
turned, but Bridget wasn’t behind her. She leaned
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her head out of a window. But Bridget didn’t seem to be anywhere.
Then she heard it. The sound of a child giggling.
The hairs on the back of Shay’s neck stood up.
A strong wind blew through the cottage. She
whipped her head around.
There it was again. A giggle. She was sure it
was real. It was coming from the back room.
“Bridget?” she called as she walked to the back
of the cottage. Maybe there was a second door
Bridget used?
“Shay!” Shay felt so relieved to hear her friend’s
voice. She looked around, but she couldn’t see
Bridget.
There it was, another giggle. And the sound of
footsteps overhead.
Bridget must be somewhere above her. Shay
stopped and looked up at the lofted floor. A
ladder leaned against the wood floor above her.
Shay tested the first rung of the ladder. It seemed
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sturdy enough. So she began to climb the ladder slowly, one rung at a time.
She was almost to the top of the ladder. She
reached her hand up to grab the lofted ceiling.
Then, the rotting wood in the ladder collapsed.
The rungs broke in half. Shay screamed, and the
world went black.
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Chapter
5
&@LHKX0GNSNR
“Shay? Shay?”
Uncle Sean was patting her cheek and saying
her name. Shay opened her eyes.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Uncle Sean said. He
slumped back on his heels and put his hands on
his face. “When you didn’t come back, I came
looking for you. I saw you walk into the cottage.
Next thing I know, there’s an almighty crash.
And here you are on the floor.”
Shay sat up. She blacked out for just a moment.
Luckily the loft was short, and Shay only fell a
few feet.
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“First I lose you at the airport.” Sean shook his head. “And now this. I’ll bet you wished you had
never come to Ireland.”
Shay stood up. To her own surprise, she said,
“You know, Uncle Sean, I’m glad I’m here.” There
was a mystery to be solved. Shay couldn’t think
of a bigger adventure than that.
Bridget was nowhere to be found. Working
slowly, Shay and Sean gathered her logs together.
After lunch, Shay was feeling good enough to get
back to work. That day, she learned how to feed
the sheep and freshen hay. While they worked,
Shay asked Uncle Sean what he knew about the
ghost haunting his fields.
“Sean, do you believe in ghosts?”
“That’s a silly question,” he said, not meeting
her eyes. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Shay said. “This is such an
old farmhouse.” She trailed off, hoping that Sean
would fill the silence with Bridget’s story.
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Uncle Sean turned for the first time and looked her square in the eyes. “Ghosts are only
real in stories, Shay.”
After dinner, Shay headed straight upstairs.
She told Uncle Sean that she was still tired from
the time difference and the long day of farm
work. But she really wanted to look through the
photos in the hallway.
Once upstairs, Shay looked at the pictures
one at a time. About halfway down the hallway,
she spotted what she was looking for. A photo of
Bridget.
Shay recognized her right away. The girl in
the photo had the same sunken eyes and the long
braid. She was even wearing the same dress.
It was the picture that had captured Shay’s
attention her first night. The portrait also
contained four other people: an adult man and
woman, a taller girl, and a boy shorter than
Bridget.
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“She had a family,” Shay said to the empty hallway. Seeing the family—the two parents
side by side—made Shay feel a pain deep in her
stomach that had nothing to do with her dinner.
She grabbed the photo off the wall and
brought it to her bedroom. Shay propped it up
on the dusty dresser.
“Bridget will be so happy to see you tomorrow,”
she said to the framed picture. Then Shay
changed into her pajamas and crawled in bed. She
immediately fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
CRASH!
Once again, Shay jolted awake. She looked
around, for a moment forgetting where she was.
What had woken her up? Shay swung her legs
out of bed. She stood and looked for the source
of the big crash.
She found it just outside of her room. A photo
from the hallway had fallen to the floor. Shay
picked it up. In it, there were four people.
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She rushed to her room and picked up the
photo of Bridget’s family. Shay’s heart sank when
she realized the truth. The second photo was of
Bridget’s family, but without Bridget.
Head hung and heart heavy, Shay moved to
put the frames back on the dresser. What would
she say to Bridget now? She was about to set
the pictures down, but stopped when she saw
something strange. The thick layer of dust on the
dresser had something written in it.
The word was written in clear, bold letters.
HUNGRY.
Chapter
6
(TMFQX
When Shay woke up the next morning, the
first thing she did was check the dresser. There
was nothing but dusty fingerprints on the surface.
“You’re imagining things,” she told herself.
She quickly got dressed for another day of
farm work and headed downstairs. Uncle Sean
sat at the table. But there was no breakfast, no
pot of coffee bubbling on the counter.
“Morning, Shay!” Uncle Sean said. “I was
thinking this morning we could head into town.
I’ll take you to my friend’s pub. We’ll have a real
Irish breakfast.”
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Shay was itching to get back to the cottage.
She wanted to see Bridget. But it
was clear from
Uncle Sean’s manner that he wouldn’t take “no”
for an answer.
“Sounds great!” she said.
After just a few minutes in Uncle Sean’s truck,
Shay found herself in front of yet another stone
building. A simple wood sign outside told Shay
that this was Mulligan’s Pub.
Uncle Sean led her inside to a seat at the
counter. They were immediately greeted by a
woman around her mother’s age. She was wearing
a cream-colored shirt and had brown curly hair
tied back in a blue bandana. When she saw Shay,
she smiled warmly and extended her hand.
“Well, this must be the famous Siobhan
Sullivan I’ve been hearing so much about. Sean’s
been talking of nothing but you coming for
weeks.” The woman winked at Uncle Sean. To
Shay’s surprise, he blushed! “I’m Moira.”
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“Shay,” Shay replied, shaking her hand.
“Well, Shay, what’ll you be having this
morning?” Moira asked.
Uncle Sean answered for them both. “Two
full Irishes, Moira, thanks.”
Moira went back to the kitchen, then came
back to Shay and Sean. She leaned her elbows on
the bar like she was settling in for a long chat. “So
Shay, how are you liking the old Sullivan farm?”
Shay searched for the right words.
“I like it!” she said. “It’s . . . old.”
Both adults laughed. “That it is!” said Moira.
“Moira’s a bit of an expert on the area,” said
Uncle Sean. “You’ve been asking questions. I
thought you two would get along.” Shay turned
to Moira, eyes wide, ears ready.
Moira began her story. “All the land the
Sullivan farm is on now used to belong to many
families,” she said. “They worked together to farm
the land. Then, they shared the crops and profit.”
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“So the old cottage I found . . .” began Shay.
“Yes, another family owned it. But in the
middle of the 1800s, most of the families left
Ireland for one reason or another.”
Moira and Sean glanced at each other at this.
“And when they left on those giant boats,
most could only afford to travel in steerage,”
Moira continued. “They had to leave most of their
things behind. That’s how Sean’s grandmammy
ended up with all those photos.”
“The furniture, too,” Sean added. “I replaced