by Annie Kelsey
GHOSTS DETECTED: 0
SMILE METER: I
After dinner
Hotel food is definitely not like the food on Mastercook. For lunch, we had boring tomato soup. And for tea we had lasagne with carrots. It was kinda like school dinners. (I took a picture of the carrots to show Julie so she didn’t feel so sad at missing the trip.)
It’s bedtime now and I’m tucked up in the top bunk. The floor is miles below. I’m pretending I’m curled up in a hammock in a rainforest and the ceiling above me is a huge canopy of leaves and the sound of the boys whooping in their rooms downstairs is a troupe of orangutans.
Sophie is underneath me. I asked her if she wanted to see the photos I took at Seaview World, but she just shrugged and said she wanted to read her book. So that’s what she’s doing. I can hear her turning the pages every few minutes. Apart from that she’s totally silent. (My pink pig pyjamas didn’t make her smile, btw. J) I can hear Catie and Jenny giggling next door.
After tea, I dragged Sophie to their room and we listened to the new Tiffany J album and invented some new dance steps (actually, me, Catie and Jenny invented dance steps. Sophie just watched). But then Ms Allen came and said it was time for bed and me and Sophie had to come back to our room. Its lights out in twenty minutes, which gives me just enough time to write about Seaview World.
Seaview World was awesome. When Mr Bacon said they didn’t have dolphins or sharks, I was pretty sad. But then I saw the otters.
OTTERS ARE FAB!
They have a really lovely enclosure with a big pool. There was a mother otter who just floated around on her back with her front paws folded over her chest like she was sunbathing. And baby otters kept climbing on to her belly, then jumping off into the water. And all the time I kept pretending I was an otter mind reader and imagining what they were thinking:
Hey, let’s jump off Mum’s tum!
Eek! This water is cold!
Let’s have a swimming race!
It was brilliant.
But that wasn’t the best bit.
The flamingos were cool. They can stand on one leg for hours, which makes them look like huge bedside lamps!
I tried standing on one leg too, but I could only keep my balance for a second.
But that wasn’t the best bit either.
The best bit was when me and Catie and Jenny and Sophie were allowed to go in with the penguins! I have actually been surrounded by penguins! They didn’t come really close, but they made a circle around us and squawked like they were playing ring o’ roses. I couldn’t stop grinning and Jenny kept squeaking with terror every time a penguin moved closer. Catie wanted to touch one, but the zookeeper who was with us said they might bite. Sophie didn’t look excited at all, like it’s normal to stand around with penguins.
Perhaps it is normal for her!
Perhaps her house of full of weird animals. Her dad might be a mad professor who collects strange and rare creatures. She might live in a big rambly old house with giraffes in the hallways and zebras in the kitchen and penguins in every bathroom.
Perhaps she’s sad because her dad spends more time with his animals than with her. Or she has to share her room with a hippopotamus.
I think that would make me sad.
The zookeeper had a bucket of fish and she started feeding the penguins. The penguins just opened their beaks and swallowed the fish whole. It was amazing. Like watching socks disappear into the hoover. I’m glad I’m not a penguin. Lasagne may be boring, but swallowing a whole fish must be gross.
When we came out of the penguin enclosure, I asked the zookeeper if she’d ever seen a penguin ghost.
Jason and Tom, who were waiting with the others outside, thought my question was really stupid, and Jason laughed so loud that Mr Bacon had to shush him. But I don’t think it was a stupid question. If people can become ghosts, why not penguins? Or meerkats? Or flamingos? Or anything! I bet there must be plenty of ghosts at Seaview World.
I wish we could have stayed there all night. I can just imagine it. Me and Catie could have sneaked away from the group and hidden behind the bins near the cafe. Then, when everyone had gone home, we could have wandered around the enclosures to hunt for animal ghosts. I could have used my phone to record ghostly noises while Catie checked for cold patches of air. We could have crept around the back of the penguin enclosure. We might have seen ghost penguins, huddled around the edge of the pool, all see-through and wispy. A ghost flamingo might have flown over us while ghost meerkats floated through the walls of their enclosure and ghost otters darted everywhere, their cute otter faces all pale and their big otter eyes staring through the dark.
Wow! It would have been really creepy.
Ms Allen is shouting for us to turn the lights out. I’d better put my diary away. I’m so excited I don’t know how I’m going to fall asleep!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
It’s six a.m. and I’m the first one awake. Sophie is still asleep in the bunk underneath me. I can hear her making little snorey noises.
This hotel is definitely haunted.
After lights out, me and Catie tried our knocking code (btw, it worked really well). Then something totally mysterious happened! The lights had been out for fifteen minutes and Catie knocked on the wall. She knocked: H-I P-I-P J-E-N I-S A-S-L-E-E-P and I knocked S-O I-S S-O-P-H-I-E and Catie knocked H-A-S S-H-E S-M-I-L-E-D Y-E-T? and I knocked N-O.
Then there was another knocking noise and I thought it was Catie, but I couldn’t work out what she was saying so I knocked W-H-A-T? and she knocked W-H-A-T? so I knocked W-A-S T-H-A-T Y-O-U K-N-O-C-K-I-N-G? and Catie knocked N-O.
My heart started jumping around in my chest. Ghosts are always knocking on Most Spooky. So I started waving my hands through the air to feel if it had turned cold, but it hadn’t.
ME: D-I-D Y-O-U H-E-A-R T-H-A-T?
CATIE: Y-E-S!
ME: W-A-S I-T A G-H-O-S-T?
CATIE: I D-O-N-T K-N-O-W.
Then I stopped knocking and so did Catie. I was listening for more ghost knocking. But I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew there was daylight coming through the curtains and my phone said it was six a.m.
I cannot wait until breakfast to tell everyone that me and Catie heard a ghost.
GHOSTS DETECTED: 1!!!!!
SMILE METER: K
On the coach
No one believed me! I told everyone on my table about hearing the knocking - Jenny, Amanda, Sophie, Freya and Ms Allen. But they thought I must have dreamt it. Catie told them that she heard it too and Catie is a totally reliable witness. If we were on CopShop, Mike Hatchett would have believed us because he always knows when someone’s telling the truth. So I used the lie detector test Great-Granddad Morgan taught me. I licked my cereal spoon and dangled it from my nose. A
I explained to everyone that if I was lying, the spoon would drop off. Then I said, “I heard a ghost” and the spoon DIDN’T DROP OFF. Complete and total proof! But Ms Allen said it was an old hotel and it was probably just the water pipes banging. Apparently that happens in old buildings.
But it didn’t sound anything like pipes banging!!
The whole time I was telling my story about the ghosts, Tom and Jason (who were sitting at the next table with Mr Bacon) kept giggling. Catie said they looked like they were plotting something. But I think they were laughing at my ghost story. I don’t know why they think ghosts are funny! They are clearly not in tune with the spirit world like I am. I’ve only been here one night and I’ve already had my first ghostly encounter!
I’m SO going to see a ghost at Carisbrooke Castle. We’re on our way now. Sophie’s sitting beside me playing phone games again. Catie and Jenny are looking at the worksheets Mr Bacon gave us. I keep looking out of the window.
Any moment, Carisbrooke Castle is going to appear around a corner. King Charles lived there for months. I bet his spirit is trapped in some dank old dungeon that smells like Dad’s old socks in the laundry basket.
He’ll probably be pleased when I discover him. Being a ghost must be lonely.
OMG!!!
What if he hasn’t got a head? The Roundheads cut it off! What if I see a headless ghost?? That would be so cool! He might be holding it under his arm. Imagine having to spend for ever carrying your head around. I wonder if ghost heads are heavy? Perhaps I can lend him my rucksack. It would be far easier to carry it in there.
I’ve charged my phone so I’ve got plenty of power to record any sightings. And I’m keeping my hands in my pockets to make sure they’re super-warm so I can feel spooky cold air really easily. I’m wearing my fluffy blue jumper of course. The fluff is smooth at the moment (I didn’t brush my hair this morning to make sure I didn’t get any static on it) so it’s ready to detect ghostly energy.
I see it!!!! The castle! On a hill in the distance. It’s all old and grey and turrety.
I just asked Sophie if she’d help me look for King Charles’s ghost but she said she didn’t believe in ghosts. So I asked her about the ghost in our room last night, and she just said it was the pipes like Ms Allen said.
Poor Sophie. I have to make her smile soon. Her imagination must be dying. She’s starting to think like a grown-up! I just wish it wasn’t so hard. I tried at breakfast time. When she left the table to fetch some orange juice, I moved her toast and sausages and eggs into a smiley face on her plate. But when she sat down again, she didn’t even notice! She just stabbed the sausage mouth with her fork and dipped it in the egg eye. Poor breakfast face. J
Oooh, we’re in the castle car park. It’s time to put my diary away and start the biggest ghost hunt of my life!
GHOSTS DETECTED: 1
(NO MATTER WHAT MS ALLEN SAYS)
SMILE METER: K
On the coach
Carisbrooke Castle was amazing! Catie and Jenny are sitting behind me playing with the snow globes they bought at the gift shop. Sophie’s sitting next to me. And she’s actually NOT looking sad!
The castle was really big and it took ages to walk around. We had a tour guide who told us that there had been LOTS of ghost sightings at the castle. There’s a myth that a woman drowned in the well hundreds of years ago and sometimes her face appears in the well water. Me and Catie looked down, but it was so deep we couldn’t see anything except shadows. And my jumper didn’t prickle. But the well did make lots of spooky, echoey noises when we shouted “Are you there, drowned lady?” down it.
Then the guide told us about another myth - the Grey Lady, a ghost with a long cloak and four dogs, is supposed to walk around the castle at night. I wish I was the Grey Lady. It would be so cool to have four dogs to walk - especially if one of them was a labradoodle.
I love labradoodles!
I asked if anyone had ever seen King Charles’s ghost, but the guide said no.
And I said, “Not yet.”
I swear, my jumper started to tingle as I said it.
While we were looking around, Sophie put her hand up and asked if she could go to the loo.
Mr Bacon asked me to go with her so we didn’t get lost. So we crossed the courtyard together and went into the hall on the other side. Then we followed the toilet signs along a corridor, and when we found the loos, Sophie went in.
While I was waiting outside, I heard footsteps in the distance. I peered down the corridor, but I couldn’t see anyone. But the footsteps got louder. Then the fluff on my blue jumper started prickling along my arms. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, but before I could find the video setting, a man appeared at the end of the corridor.
I froze!
I could hardly believe my eyes. The man had a pointy black beard, and old-fashioned clothes, and a cloak and long curly hair.
I was staring at King Charles!
I was so scared and excited, my mouth turned dry. I wanted to call out to Sophie but all I could do was stand and stare while the ghost of King Charles walked right past me and disappeared around the corner at the other end of the corridor. I felt the wind from his cloak rush over me. It was so cold it made me shiver.
I didn’t even notice Sophie come out of the loos. I was too busy staring after the ghost, my heart hammering so hard I could hear it in my ears!
Sophie nudged me, then squeaked as my blue jumper gave her an electric shock.
That brought me back to my senses. I was suddenly unfrozen.
“Quick!” I shouted and grabbed her arm. I raced down the corridor, chasing the ghost. I fumbled with my phone so I could snap a picture, but running and finding phone settings isn’t easy, and I was still dragging Sophie after me.
“What is it?” she puffed.
“A ghost!” A door was swinging shut ahead of us as we skidded around the corner. I barged through it in time to see King Charles striding across the courtyard.
I stopped, lifted my camera and took a photo. I just managed to snap him before he disappeared through another door that said “No Entry” on it.
Sophie stopped and pulled me back. “We can’t go in there! We’re not allowed.”
I stared at her, my thoughts whizzing a million miles an hour. What would Marcus Flaunch do? He’d NEVER let a No Entry sign stand between him and the ghost of King Charles. He’d barge right through, waving his ghost-detecting machines. “But we have to!” I squeaked. “That was the ghost of King Charles!”
Sophie actually blinked. She looked excited!
Then she slid past me and opened the door - carefully, like there might be a tiger waiting on the other side.
We both peeked in.
A narrow corridor stretched ahead, then turned a corner. There was no sign of King Charles.
Just as I was about to creep past Sophie and go inside, a shout sounded behind us. I spun round and saw Mr Bacon waving to us across the courtyard. The rest of the class were huddled around him. “Did you get lost?” he called.
Ms Allen was beside him. “You can’t go in there!” she told us. “It says ‘No Entry’.”
My heart dropped like a stone.
I wanted to see where my ghost had gone. My jumper was fluffed out like a frightened cat’s fur.
(I immediately decided to
write to Marcus Flaunch to
tell him to get a fluffy jumper
because they are way better at
detecting ghosts than his old equipment.)
“Come on.” Sophie tugged me towards the class. They were already heading for a building further along the courtyard.
“Why did you take so long?” Catie whispered as we slid in beside her.
I was about to tell her about the ghost, but then Sophie did something so surprising that I forgot to speak.
Sophie WINKED at me. It was a secret, special wink, like we were real friends. I felt instantly happy.
“I’ll tell you later,” I whispered to Catie.
I followed the group, fizzing with excitement, and we went to look in the castle keep. There was a donkey wheel beside another well. Apparently, the well is so deep that it needs a donkey to walk round the wheel (it looks like a huge wooden hamster wheel) just to wind the bucket all the way to the top.
That’s when Jason started teasing me.
He said really loudly, “Hey, Pippa. Ask the castle guide if there are any donkey ghosts here.” And everyone laughed. Then he said that if there were penguin ghosts in Seaview World, and pipe-banging ghosts at the hotel, there must be donkey ghosts here.
I knew I had a real ghost picture on my phone and I had to prove that I can see ghosts.
So I showed him the photo. “Look. It’s the ghost of King Charles!”
Jason stared at it and for the first time EVER he didn’t say anything. He just looked a bit pale.
He hardly said anything all the way to the next building - it was the same building my ghost king had disappeared into. I was REALLY excited. My tummy was doing a double fizz. What if we saw him again? What if he appeared in front of the whole class? It would be the best ghost sighting in the world and prove that
I am a total ghost magnet. Marcus Flaunch would beg me to be on his TV programme…
*gasps*
… I could have my own TV programme! Millions of people would watch me every week discovering ghosts all over the world!
I nudged Sophie as we went through the door. “Tell me if you see him,” I whispered.
“OK,” she whispered back.
Catie leaned closer. “What are you whispering about?”
“You’ll see in a minute,” I told her. I just knew that King Charles would appear again. As we followed the tour guide into a big room, I checked my jumper, but it had stopped prickling. I wiggled my fingers, feeling for cold patches of air. But the air inside was warm.
I was so busy scanning the room for ghostly presences, I hardly heard the tour guide announce that a member of the castle staff would be giving us a talk.
Then I saw my ghost!
He walked through an archway, stood in front of the class and bowed.
It was really happening! My ghost was appearing in front of the whole class.
The tour guide held out his arm and said, “Here is the king. He’s going to tell you what it was like being a prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle in the 1640s.”
I blinked. The tour guide was acting like my ghost was the most ordinary thing in the world. Did King Charles appear every day?