The Ghost in the Tree House

by Dori Hillestad Butler

  “Okay. I’ll stay here in the house and make sure we don’t all blow into the Outside,” Pops said. “Little John, you’ll go first. I want you to hold tight to Kaz’s hand. Then you’re going to pass through this window and expand into the backyard as far as you can. Kaz, you’ll grab my hand with your other hand, and then you’ll pass through and expand as far as you can. Finally, I’ll expand my arm, Little John, and we’ll see if you can reach the tree house. If your mother is there, she can grab onto your hand, and we’ll pull her back here.”

  “That sounds like a good plan,” Little John said.

  But if anyone let go, or if Pops wasn’t strong enough to keep his body inside the house while holding onto Kaz’s hand outside the house, they would all blow away!

  Kaz remembered how their big brother, Finn, used to stick his arm or leg through the walls of the old schoolhouse because he liked to scare his little brothers. But one day Finn wasn’t strong enough to keep the rest of his body inside the old schoolhouse. The wind pulled him into the Outside, and he blew away.

  Grandmom and Grandpop had tried to rescue him, but they ended up in the Outside, too. Kaz and Claire had found his grandparents at a nursing home near the library a few weeks ago.

  But no one, including Grandmom and Grandpop, knew what had happened to Finn.

  “We can do it. Right, Kaz?” Little John said as he reached for Kaz’s hand.

  Kaz gulped. They had to try. “Right,” he said.

  “Okay, let’s do this,” Pops said. He grabbed Kaz’s other hand.

  Kaz held tight to both hands as Little John passed slowly through the glass window and exp-a-a-a-a-a-nded out . . . out . . . out . . . across Margaret and Henry’s backyard.

  “Hey, it’s raining out here!” Little John called from the Outside. “I’ve never felt raindrops pass through me before.” He giggled.

  Great, Kaz thought. He didn’t know what Little John was giggling about. He remembered the first time he was inside Claire’s water bottle and she turned on the water above him. He didn’t like it when the water passed through his body. He didn’t like it at all.

  “Your turn, Kaz,” Pops said. “Are you ready? You’ve learned to do so many things since we’ve been apart. Wait until your mother sees everything you can do now.”

  Kaz gulped again. He could do this. For his mom.

  He took a deep breath, then followed Little John through the window and out . . . out . . . out . . . across the yard. Rain pounded through his head. His arms. His back. It felt like little bits of him were being dropped all over the yard. But Kaz managed to hold himself together and push his brother farther into the yard.

  Then Pops exp-a-a-a-a-a-nded his arm and pushed Kaz and Little John even farther. But Little John still wasn’t past the backyard climbing structure.

  “Can you guys expand any more?” Little John asked as lightning flashed and thunder rumbled above them.

  “I’ll try,” Pops said.

  Kaz could feel Pops pushing . . . pushing . . . pushing. He str-e-e-e-e-e-tched both arms as far as he could. But it still wasn’t enough.

  “I can’t expand any more,” Kaz said, exhausted from the effort.

  “Neither can I,” Little John said.

  Kaz felt Little John’s grip loosen. “No! Don’t let go!” he yelled as he squeezed his brother’s hand as tight as he could.

  “I’m not!” Little John said. Holding firmly to Kaz’s hand, he tried kicking his legs. But that didn’t get him any closer to the tree house either.

  “MOOOOOOOMMMMM!” Little John yelled like Henry had yelled a little while ago. “ARE YOU IN THE TREE HOUSE?”

  If she was, she didn’t answer.

  “My shoulders hurt,” Little John said the next morning.

  “Mine too,” Kaz said.

  “I’m a little stiff myself,” Pops said as he rubbed his shoulders. “We’re not used to expanding so far.”

  “Or for so long,” Little John added.

  The ghosts hovered above Margaret, Henry, and their parents, who were eating breakfast. The parents seemed very tired this morning.

  All of a sudden, Margaret bolted from her chair. “I left my jacket in the tree house yesterday,” she said.

  Little John gasped. “She’s going to the tree house,” he said.

  “We have to go with her,” Kaz said.

  But how could they do that? Margaret didn’t have a water bottle or anything the ghosts could travel in. And she was out the door before the ghosts knew what to do.

  They watched helplessly from the window as she ran across her backyard. She scrambled up the rope ladder, fumbled with the lock, and went inside the tree house.

  She wasn’t in there for long. Three seconds at most. She locked the tree house back up, scrambled down the ladder, and then raced across the yard with her blue jacket dangling from her arm.

  She banged the back door open. “Guess what?” she said breathlessly. “The ghost is back!”

  I told you!” Henry said. “I told you I saw a ghost in the tree house last night. And I told you I heard a ghost in our house!”

  “There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Henry’s dad said as he turned a page in his newspaper.

  “No one ever believes me,” Henry grumbled.

  “I believe you,” Margaret said. “I’ve seen a ghost in the tree house, too. I didn’t see it last night, but I believe you saw it. It tracked in mud and messed up the pillows. That’s how I know it was there last night.”

  Henry shifted in his seat a little.

  “Wait. Ghosts don’t track in mud,” Kaz said. “We don’t walk on the ground, so our feet don’t ever get muddy.”

  But Kaz and Little John and Pops had all seen the ghost glowing in the tree house during the night, too.

  “Maybe you girls tracked in the mud yourselves when you were in there yesterday afternoon,” Margaret’s mom suggested.

  “We didn’t,” Margaret said. “I know we didn’t because the ground was dry yesterday afternoon. It didn’t rain until last night.”

  “Maybe someone went in after it started raining?” Dad suggested.

  “How would they have gotten in? The door is locked!” Margaret said.

  “Ghosts can walk through walls,” Henry said.

  “Maybe you didn’t lock the door. Or maybe someone figured out the combination,” Mom said.

  “No one knows the combination except people in this family and Kenya and Olivia,” Margaret said.

  Henry bit his lip.

  “Okay, kids. Time to get ready for school,” Dad said.

  They all got up from the table and went to gather their things.

  When no one else was looking, Kaz saw Henry kick a pair of shoes under the bench by the back door. Then Henry sat down and put on a different pair of shoes.

  Kaz peered under the bench. He saw that the shoes Henry had kicked under there had mud on them.

  But that didn’t make any sense. Henry was in his bedroom when they all saw the ghost in the tree house last night.

  Kaz, Little John, and Pops spent the rest of the morning near the kitchen window, watching the tree house.

  But if the ghost was still out there, she wasn’t showing herself.

  “Margaret said she’d let Claire know if the ghost came back,” Kaz said. “Maybe Claire will come home with Margaret after school, and she’ll take us back to the tree house.”

  “Oh, I hope so,” Little John said.

  Pops sniffed. “We can solve this problem on our own,” he said.

  But as morning turned to afternoon, neither Pops nor Kaz nor Little John had figured out a way to get to the tree house. They didn’t even know whether the ghost was still out there. They hadn’t seen any more glowing.

  A few hours later, Margaret and Henry came home with their mom. First they had a s
nack in the kitchen. Then Margaret and Henry turned on the computer and started a game that had something to do with zapping bugs.

  “This is how solid children spend their time?” Pops said as he stared at the screen.

  “It looks fun!” Little John said.

  “It looks . . . dull,” Pops said. Yet he couldn’t seem to tear himself away.

  All of a sudden, the doorbell rang. Was it Claire?

  “I’ll get it,” Margaret said. She raced to the door. Kaz floated behind her.

  It wasn’t Claire. It was Kenya and Olivia.

  Kaz groaned. Maybe Claire was still coming. He swam to the window and looked up and down the street. He didn’t see Claire, but he saw those same older boys sitting on the grass next door. They had a gray metal case in front of them and a bucket of small objects. But Kaz couldn’t tell what any of that stuff was.

  “So, what are we going to do about this ghost?” Olivia asked.

  “Maybe we should call that Claire girl again,” Margaret said.

  Yes! Kaz thought, turning toward the girls. Call Claire! Call her right now.

  “It’s not a ghost,” Kenya said.

  “Then what is it?” Margaret asked. “I’m not the only one who’s seen it. My brother saw it last night. And this morning there was mud on the rug in our tree house. But the door was still locked. How did someone get in through a locked door? It has to be a ghost.”

  Kenya shrugged. “Or someone who knows the combination to the lock.”

  “Who knows the combination besides us?” Margaret asked.

  Kenya strolled over to the window. Kaz darted out of her way.

  “Maybe one of them,” Kenya said, pointing at the boys next door. Margaret and Olivia went to see who she was taking about.

  “I didn’t tell them the combination,” Margaret said.

  “Neither did I,” Olivia said. She pressed closer to the window. “What are those boys doing, anyway?”

  “They’re making treasure boxes,” Henry said without looking up from his game. “That’s what they do in their club. They make treasure boxes and hide them in the woods. Then they use a special app on their phones to find treasure boxes that other people hid.”

  “Let’s go talk to them,” Kenya said. “We’ll see if any of them know the combination to our lock.”

  Margaret snorted. “How do you know they’ll tell us the truth?”

  “I’m pretty good at knowing when people are telling the truth and when they’re not,” Kenya said. “Let’s go!”

  “Wait!” Henry pressed a button on the keyboard, and the game froze. He hopped down from his chair. “Can I go, too?” he asked.

  Pops swam closer to the computer screen. “What happened?” he asked. “Why did the game stop?”

  “Henry paused it,” Kaz explained.

  “But there are more bugs to zap,” Pops said.

  Little John giggled. “I thought you said it was a dull game.”

  “It . . . is,” Pops said. “I just think that solid boy should finish what he starts.”

  “They aren’t going to let you join their club, Henry,” Margaret said as she tied her shoe.

  “They might,” Henry said, “if I help Sam find the treasure.”

  Margaret sighed. “Fine. You can come. But if they aren’t nice to you, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Mom?” she called. “We’re going next door. Henry’s coming, too.”

  “Okay,” their mom called back.

  “Can we go with them?” Little John asked.

  “I’d like to,” Kaz replied. But he didn’t see how they could. Again, none of the girls was carrying anything the ghosts could travel in.

  Margaret opened the front door, and the ghosts plunged backward so they wouldn’t be pulled into the Outside. As soon as the door closed, they swam to the window.

  There was a whole crowd of kids next door now: Margaret, Kenya, Olivia, Henry, his friend Sam, and the three older boys.

  Kaz wished he could hear what all those kids were saying.

  Henry and Sam didn’t stay with the older kids for long. All of a sudden, they ran across the street and disappeared inside Sam’s house.

  Pops gasped. “Look at that.” He pointed at the house. “Do you see who’s in the window?”

  Kaz didn’t see anyone in the window at first. But he was looking at the wrong window.

  “The upstairs window,” Pops said. A big smile spread across his face.

  “Ohhhhh,” Little John said.

  “It’s Mom!” Kaz exclaimed. He waved at her, and she waved back.

  Mom glowed on and off several times. On and off. On and off. On and off.

  Pops laughed. Then he started glowing on and off. On and off. On and off. So did Little John. Kaz felt left out because he couldn’t glow.

  But as Kaz watched his parents and his brother, he realized his parents were glowing differently than Little John was. Some of their glows were long. Some of them were short. It was almost like they were talking to each other.

  “Are you and Mom talking to each other in a secret code?” Kaz asked.

  “We are,” Pops grinned. “It’s Morse code. We used to do this when we were young ghosts, and your mother’s haunt was across the street from mine.”

  Little John stopped glowing. “What’s Morse code?”

  “It’s a code that uses short and long signals to make the letters,” Pops explained. “You’ve heard of SOS, right?” He glowed short-short-short, then long-long-long, then short-short-short. “SOS means help!”

  “Yes. But I didn’t know that was Morse code,” Little John said.

  Kaz and Little John’s parents glowed on and off in short and long bursts for a while.

  Little John wrinkled his nose. “Now what are you saying?” he asked.

  Kaz nudged his brother. “It’s probably private mom and dad stuff.”

  No fair talking in a code we don’t know,” Little John whined. “Plus, I want to talk to Mom, too!”

  “Your mom thinks we should stop talking for a while,” Pops said. “There are a lot of solid children out and about. She’s afraid they’ll notice us.” He hovered in the window and glowed three long glows, then one long, one short, and one more long glow.

  “Long-long-long,” Little John said, “and long-short-long. What does that spell?”

  “It spells OK,” Pops said. “Long-long-long is O. And long-short-long is K. I’ll teach you the whole alphabet, Little John, but not right now. We have to figure out a way to rescue your mom.”

  “If Claire were here, she could help us,” Kaz said.

  “We don’t need help from solids. We are perfectly capable of rescuing your mother ourselves!” Pops said.

  How? Kaz wondered.

  “We need something to travel in,” Pops said. “Something hollow with a lid. Like a bottle or a box.”

  There were several things in the room that could work. A covered coffee cup. A plastic box that had farm animals inside. A toy drum. If the drum was hollow on the inside . . .

  Kaz shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and passed through the side of the drum. It was hollow.

  “Good idea, Kaz,” Pops called from outside the drum. “We can travel in there.”

  Kaz passed through the outside of the toy drum and returned to the living room. “We could . . . if we had someone to carry the drum across the street,” he said. Someone like Claire.

  Pops scratched his head. “What if only one of us goes inside the drum, and the others stay here and roll it across the street?”

  “How do we get it out the door?” Kaz asked.

  “You could transform it,” Little John said. “Then it could roll through the wall!”

  Kaz peered out the window. “Yeah, but then it would just blow away in the wind,” he said, “With one of us in
side.”

  “Oh,” Little John said, hanging his head. “That would be bad.”

  Pops sighed. “Maybe we do need help from a solid.”

  “When Margaret comes back, let’s glow and wail and tell her to call Claire,” Little John said.

  Pops nodded. “Okay,” he said.

  But the ghosts didn’t have to wait for Margaret to come back. And they didn’t have to ask her to call Claire.

  Henry came back before Margaret did. He carried a red case in his arms.

  “What’s that you’ve got there, Henry?” his mom asked when he came in.

  “Some cars,” Henry said. “Sam’s letting me borrow them.” He dropped to his knees and opened the case upside down. “See?”

  It wasn’t just cars that came tumbling out of the case. Kaz and Little John’s mom wafted out, too.

  “Mom!” the ghosts shouted as she expanded to her normal size. They hugged and kissed and danced around.

  “I’m so happy to see you all!” Mom said.

  “Us too!” said Pops. “I knew you were nearby. I found beads from your necklace.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out three ghostly blue beads.

  “We found some beads, too. Didn’t we, Kaz?” Little John said.

  Kaz nodded.

  “I found one at the purple house where Kiley and those other ghosts lived,” Little John said.

  Mom’s face glowed in surprise. “You met those ghosts?”

  “Yes,” Little John replied. “They told me you’d been there. Why did you leave?”

  “I was looking for all of you,” Mom said.

  Pops frowned. “You should’ve stayed in one place. Then we would’ve found you instead of all those beads from your necklace.”

  “I didn’t want to. I wanted to do something,” Mom said. “I was determined to find someone in the family before I ran out of beads.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out what was left of her necklace. There were only five beads left.

  “Well, you found us!” Kaz said.