The Hide-and-Seek Ghost

by Dori Hillestad Butler

“I am?” Kaz looked down at himself. There was a slight bluish glow to his skin. Unfortunately, he had no idea what he was doing to make it happen.

  “Wow, Kaz!” Claire said, impressed.

  “Excuse me? Can I help you?” the lady at the counter asked.

  Claire quickly shoved her water bottle behind her back. “I’d uh . . . like to visit some people who live here,” she said.

  “Awww,” Kaz groaned, turning his arm all around. “The glow is gone already.”

  As soon as Kaz let go of Cosmo, the dog charged through Claire’s water bottle—and into Petey’s cage!

  “Cosmo! No! BAD DOG!” Kaz yelled. He swam after his dog. While Cosmo chased Petey, Kaz chased Cosmo. Up, down, and all around the cage.

  “BAD DOG! BAD DOG!” Petey squawked.

  Mom, Pops, and Little John swam into the cage and tried to help Kaz catch Cosmo. But Petey flew right through them. “BAD DOG!” he squawked again.

  “My goodness!” The lady at the counter rose to her feet. She couldn’t see all the ghosts in the birdcage. She could only see Petey. “I don’t know what’s wrong with that bird.”

  Claire pressed her lips together. She knew what was wrong, but there was nothing she could do to help.

  “Got him!” Little John shouted as he grabbed Cosmo around the middle and swam back through the cage. Kaz and his parents followed Little John and Cosmo over to a far corner of the room—as far from Petey as they could get.

  Petey shook his feathers, then uttered one more “BAD DOG!”

  Once the bird was calm, the lady at the counter sat back down. “Sorry about that,” she said to Claire. “Now, was there someone in particular you wanted to visit?”

  “Uh.” Claire thought for a second, then said, “Yes! I’d like to visit Victor Helsing!” Victor had done some repair work at the library a long time ago—long before Claire was even born. Claire, Kaz, and Little John had gone to see him when they wanted to learn more about the secret room. That was when they’d found out that Grandmom and Grandpop had made Valley View their new haunt.

  “I’m sure Victor would love some company,” the lady said. “He’s in room 105.” She wrote it on a scrap of paper and slid the paper across the counter.

  Claire grabbed it. “Thanks,” she said as she headed down the hall. Kaz and his family wafted behind her.

  Claire stopped in the doorway of room 105. “This is Victor’s room,” she told the ghosts. “Come find me when you’re done, or I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

  “Okay,” Kaz said. He turned to his family. “Come on. Grandmom and Grandpop are probably in the activity room.”

  The ghosts continued down the hall toward a large, open room. Two solid ladies and two solid men were playing a card game at a table in the middle of the room. Grandmom, Grandpop, and four other ghost ladies hovered around them.

  “Hi, Grandmom! Hi, Grandpop!” Little John zoomed ahead of Kaz. “Look who we brought to visit you!”

  All the ghost people and the solid people turned.

  “Oh my!” Grandmom exclaimed.

  “I didn’t think we’d ever see you folks again,” Grandpop said. He and Grandmom swam over and hugged Mom and Pops.

  “And you brought Cosmo, too. Good to see you, old boy!” Grandpop said, giving the ghost dog a pat on the head.

  Cosmo licked Grandpop’s hand. Then he turned and licked Grandmom’s cheek.

  A solid lady with blue hair adjusted her glasses. “How nice that you’re all together again!”

  Pops tilted his head. “Can you see us?” he asked the solid ladies.

  “Of course,” one of them replied.

  “Most of the solid people here can see us,” Little John said.

  “Really?” Mom asked.

  “Don’t worry, dear,” Grandmom said. “Everyone here is very friendly.”

  “B-but they’re solid!” Mom cried.

  “Yes,” Grandpop said, patting Mom’s arm. “Believe it or not, most solids are really very lovely people once you get to know them.”

  Mom and Pops both raised their eyebrows. They hadn’t spent much time with solid people. Not like Kaz and Little John. And Grandmom and Grandpop.

  For the next half hour, the family shared stories about everything they’d seen and done in the months they’d been apart. Time passed so quickly that they were surprised when Claire walked into the activity room. “Are you ghosts ready to go?” she asked.

  “So soon?” Grandmom asked.

  “You just got here,” Grandpop said. “Why don’t you stay awhile?”

  “Yes. Stay,” Grandmom said. “Valley View is a fine haunt. And we’re family! Family should be together.”

  “Yes, family should be together,” Mom agreed. She folded her arms. “So why are you two living here when your grandsons are living in the library?”

  Uh-oh. Kaz was afraid Mom would bring that up. Were Grandmom and Grandpop in trouble?

  “Don’t be angry, dear,” Grandmom said. “Kaz and Little John wanted to be with people their age. And we wanted to be with people our age.”

  Grandpop nodded. “They said they had a responsible adult ghost looking after them in the library.”

  “A responsible adult ghost?” Mom’s voice rose. “Do you know who—”

  “I hate to interrupt,” Claire said, stepping in between Mom and Grandpop. “But it’s almost dinnertime. I have to go home. Who’s coming with me?”

  “We are,” Kaz said, grabbing his dog. He turned to his grandparents. “Why don’t you come, too? Just for a visit.”

  “Yes, I think you should come to the library,” Mom said.

  “You’ve never visited us,” Little John said. “But we’ve visited you several times.”

  “The boy’s right,” Grandmom said to Grandpop.

  “Okay,” Grandpop said. “We’ll come.”

  “Hooray!” Kaz and Little John raised their fists in the air.

  “You have to shrink,” Little John told his grandparents as he shrank down . . . down . . . down and swam into Claire’s water bottle. Mom and Pops shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and joined Little John inside the bottle.

  “Uh-oh. Is there room for all of us?” Kaz asked, peering in at the other ghosts. The trip over had been pretty crowded. It would be even more crowded with two more ghosts in the bottle.

  “Check the recycling bin.” One of the solid men pointed at a large blue container in the corner of the room. “There might be something in there that would hold all of you.”

  Claire walked over to the bin. She came back with a large jar. “How’s this?” she asked.

  “Much better,” Kaz said. He and his grandparents shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and swam into the jar. It smelled like pickles. Mom, Pops, and Little John swam out of Claire’s water bottle and into the jar, too.

  “Come here, Cosmo!” Kaz said as he clapped his hands together. “Shrink, boy! Shrink!”

  Cosmo shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and joined his family inside the jar. Then Claire took them all to the library.

  Who do we have here?” Beckett asked when Claire walked into the library craft room with a jarful of ghosts.

  Kaz and his family passed through the jar and expanded. Grandmom and Grandpop gazed up at the paper birds that dangled from the ceiling.

  “Beckett, these are our grandparents,” Kaz said. “Grandmom, Grandpop, this is Beckett.”

  Beckett froze when Kaz said grandparents.

  “Hello,” Grandmom said, turning to Beckett with a friendly smile.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Grandpop said, offering his hand.

  Beckett took it. “It’s, uh, nice to see you again,” he said, not quite looking Grandpop in the eye.

  “Again?” Grandpop seemed confused. “Have we met before?”

&nbs
p; Mom wafted over. “Dad, this is Beckett,” she said. “You know, from our haunt in the country.”

  Haunt in the country?

  Grandmom’s smile disappeared.

  “What haunt in the country?” Little John asked.

  Grandpop yanked his hand from Beckett’s. He turned angry eyes to Kaz and Little John. “This is the ghost who was looking after you?”

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Grandmom expanded in front of them.

  Kaz and Little John glanced at each other. “Tell you what?” Kaz asked. He and Little John had told their grandparents all about Beckett.

  “We didn’t know this was the Beckett you were talking about,” Grandmom said.

  “We can’t stay here,” Grandpop told Claire. “I demand that you take us back to Valley View at once.”

  “No, no,” Beckett said, raising the palm of his hand. “I’ll go.”

  “You were here first,” Mom said. “We’ll go.” She motioned for Kaz and Little John to swim back into the jar.

  “What? No!” Kaz and Little John protested.

  “There are six of you. Seven, including the dog,” Beckett said. “And only one of me. I can find a new haunt.” He wafted over to Claire. “Would you mind transporting me to another haunt? Preferably one with some books?”

  Claire shook her head. “I’m not taking anyone anywhere right now!” she said. “It’s dinnertime. And I don’t think my parents will let me go out again after dinner. So, unless you all want to blow around in the wind outside, you’re stuck here until I get home from school tomorrow.”

  The ghosts stared at Claire.

  “Tomorrow then,” Grandpop said firmly. “Tomorrow you’ll take us back to the nursing home as soon as you return from school.”

  “It’s not fair,” Little John moaned later that night while Claire and her family were asleep. “I don’t want to live at Valley View with all the old people.”

  “Neither do I,” Kaz said. “I don’t know why we can’t all live here together. What happened at the haunt in the country? Why are Mom and Grandmom and Grandpop so mad at Beckett?”

  “I don’t know,” Little John said. “I think someone should tell us.”

  Kaz agreed.

  But Pops couldn’t answer any of their questions because he didn’t know. And Mom, Grandmom, and Grandpop gave them the same answer: “It doesn’t concern you.”

  It does too concern us if we have to leave the library, Kaz thought.

  If no one else was going to tell them what happened, Kaz and Little John thought they’d ask Beckett. But they couldn’t find him. They searched upstairs, downstairs, and in the secret room. Beckett was nowhere to be found.

  “Did he leave?” Little John asked as he and Kaz drifted around the secret room.

  “How could he have?” Kaz asked. “Claire’s asleep.”

  “Maybe he didn’t go with Claire,” Little John said. He snatched a ghostly shoe that hovered in midair.

  Kaz and Little John were pretty sure that shoe belonged to their big brother, Finn. Finn had spent a few days at the library before Kaz had arrived. But then for some reason he went back into the Outside and no one had seen him since.

  “Maybe Beckett went into the Outside like Finn and the wind blew him away,” Little John said.

  Kaz shook his head. “Beckett wouldn’t do that,” he said. “He’s got to be hiding somewhere in the library.”

  And that gave Kaz an idea.

  In the morning, Kaz and Little John floated above Claire while she packed her backpack for school.

  “What if Mom and Pops can’t find us when it’s time to go to Valley View?” Kaz asked. “If they can’t find us, they can’t make us go to Valley View.”

  “You want to play hide-and-seek with Mom and Pops?” Little John asked.

  “Sort of,” Kaz said. “But I want to hide someplace where Mom and Grandmom and Grandpop can’t find us. Maybe someplace that’s not in the library.”

  “You mean you want to run away from home?” Claire said.

  “Yes!” Kaz said. Then he thought for a second. “Wait. Maybe that’s not such a great idea.”

  “Yes, it is!” Little John said. “It’s the best, best, BEST idea!”

  “We could get in trouble,” Kaz said.

  “Not if we’re not here,” Little John said. “Claire, will you help us run away from home?”

  “Okay,” Claire said. “I’ll take you to my school! You can hide there. I’ll sneak you out the back door right now. When I get home this afternoon, I’ll tell your family you’re safe, but that you’re not coming back until they say you don’t have to go to Valley View.”

  “Great idea! Let’s go!” Little John said as he shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and swam inside the water bottle that was lying on Claire’s bed.

  Kaz hovered above the bottle while Claire zipped her backpack and lifted it to her shoulder. “Are you coming, Kaz?” she asked as she grabbed her bottle.

  “Well . . . ,” Kaz said. As long as Claire told everyone that he and Little John were safe, maybe it would be okay. “Yes, I’m coming!” He shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and swam inside the bottle.

  Claire headed for the back stairs. “See you this afternoon,” she called to her parents and Grandma Karen as she fast-walked past them.

  “Wait, Claire,” Grandma Karen said. “Why are you taking the back stairs?”

  Claire stopped. She turned to her grandma and shrugged. “I just feel like it.”

  All of a sudden, Kaz and Little John’s mom, pops, grandmom, and grandpop passed through the floor behind Grandma Karen.

  “Uh-oh,” Kaz said. He shrank a little smaller inside Claire’s bottle.

  Mom expanded to twice her normal size. “Where are you boys going?” she asked over Grandma Karen’s shoulder.

  “We’re running away from home,” Little John said. “And we’re not coming back until you say we can stay at the library. Run, Claire. Run!”

  “Bye!” Claire waved to her family and the ghosts. Hugging the bottle to her chest, she turned and tore down the back stairs.

  “Oh no you don’t. Come back here!” Grandpop plowed through Grandma Karen.

  The grown-up ghosts raced after Claire. But Claire was faster than they were. She leaped over the bottom two steps and ran down a narrow hallway that ran behind the fiction room, all the way to the door at the end of the hall.

  Kaz hardly dared to breathe.

  “Hurry, Claire!” Little John shouted. The other ghosts were gaining on them.

  Claire didn’t slow down until she was out the door and safely in the backyard.

  “Yay! We made it!” Little John cried as Claire slammed the door behind them.

  Mom, Pops, Grandmom, and Grandpop hovered around the tiny window in the back door. Grandpop shook his fist.

  Kaz moaned. “We’re going to be in so much trouble when we come back.”

  Eli waited for Claire under the big oak tree outside their school. “There you are!” he said, falling into step with her. He carried a book under his arm.

  “Here I am,” Claire said.

  Kaz and Little John watched and listened from inside Claire’s water bottle.

  “I’m not grounded anymore,” Eli said. He opened the door and they went in the school. “Can you come over this afternoon and find the ghost at my house?”

  Claire dodged several kids in the hallway. “Your mom and your sister think you’re the ghost,” she said. “They said you don’t want to move, so you’re trying to make people think your house is haunted.”

  “But I’m not!” Eli said.

  Claire spun the dial on her locker and opened the door. Kaz and Little John passed through the water bottle and floated up above Claire and Eli’s heads.

  Eli leaned against the locker next to
Claire’s. “I’ll pay you if you can find the ghost,” he said.

  Claire wiggled out of her jacket and hung it in her locker.

  “Don’t do it, Claire,” Kaz said. He dropped down in front of her. “Please, don’t go over to his house.”

  “Why don’t you want Claire to go to Eli’s house?” Little John asked Kaz.

  “Because I don’t trust him,” Kaz replied. “What if Eli plays a trick on her? We won’t be there to help her. We’re not going home with her after school, remember? We’re staying here until Mom says we don’t have to go to Valley View.”

  “We don’t have to stay here. We could go to Eli’s house with Claire,” Little John said. “If he plays a trick on her, we could play a trick on him. Like this.” Little John grabbed the book right out of Eli’s hands, then let it fall to the floor.

  Claire tried to hide her smile as Eli bent to pick up his book. He didn’t even know why he’d dropped it.

  “We can stay at his house tonight and then come to school with him inside his backpack tomorrow,” Little John said.

  “Well . . . ,” Kaz said. There was no reason they couldn’t do that.

  “Earth to Claire,” Eli said, waving his hand in front of Claire’s face. “Will you come over after school or not?”

  Claire closed her locker. “Okay, I’ll come,” she said. “But this better not be a trick!”

  “It’s not,” Eli said with a grin. “I promise.”

  While Claire went about her school day, Kaz and Little John hung out behind the stage in the school cafetorium. The last time Kaz was back here was when he and Claire had solved the case of the ghost backstage. That was before he’d found any of his family except for Cosmo.

  “I like your idea of us playing a trick on Eli if he plays a trick on Claire,” Kaz told Little John. “But what kind of trick could we play on him?”

  Little John shrugged. “He wants people to think his house is haunted. We could haunt him. We could glow and wail at him. You could transform some of his stuff. Then when anyone else comes into the room, we won’t do anything.”