“How did you get past the ghost in the closet?” I asked.
“I ran. I was really worried about you.”
“Thanks, Sunny.” I smiled. “But you shouldn’t have. I bet Junchao and Alice are going crazy right now.” That’s when I noticed she was still holding the net. “What are you doing with that net?”
“It’s not a net. It’s actually part of my protozoan culture kit. I thought that if I had to wait for you for a while, I might get some samples. I’ve been trying to identify the different protozoans in Mrs. Song’s pond for months now.”
“What?”
“There are more than fifty thousand different species of protozoa, and I am in the middle of . . .”
“Sunny,” I interrupted. “How can you be collecting stuff when there is a ghost running around?”
She blinked at me for a few seconds. Then she said, “Habits are pretty powerful.”
I rolled my eyes. But then I remembered not to be negative. “Okay, whatever. Put down the culture thingy and let’s get what we came for, the long grass.” I walked around the other side of the pond and plucked out a bunch of the long grass. I made sure to pull them from different clumps so I didn’t mess up Mrs. Song’s garden.
“Let’s go,” I said. I started for the woods. Sunny may have made it past Trudy in her closet, but I wasn’t going to try it.
“Where’s the flashlight?” she asked.
“I lost it.”
“How are we going to get back?” she asked.
“Some smart person told me to walk back into the woods a bit and meet up with Mrs. Song’s path to her pond.” I smiled. “I thought that we’d take the same way back, only this time I don’t plan on getting lost.”
“How?” she asked.
“Because I have a little scientist with me who can probably find her way from here to Africa on foot!” I laughed.
“You can’t get to Africa on foot,” she said. “But I can use science to get us back to our house.”
It was my turn to ask the question. “How?”
“F = G × m1m2/r²,” she said.
“Never mind, I don’t want to know.”
“The law of gravity,” she said. “Come on.”
I followed Sunny down the path toward Mrs. Song’s yard. “I don’t want to go in the front door, Sunny,” I whispered at her back.
“Don’t worry,” she said over her shoulder.
Whenever Sunny told me not to worry, it made me worry more. But I didn’t have any other ideas, so I kept following her.
We came out of the woods and into Mrs. Song’s yard by the tree that had giant heart-shaped leaves and that got little white flowers on it at the end of every school year. Sunny headed straight for the wooden fence between our yard and Mrs. Song’s. Then she walked along it until she came to a group of bushes.
“Now what?” I asked, not really wanting to know.
“Inside the bushes is Mrs. Song’s condenser fan for her air conditioner.”
I blinked at Sunny in the dark, refusing to say “What?”
“I thought we could use the force of gravity to get back into our yard,” she continued.
I put my hands on my hips and tapped my foot.
“We climb up onto the condenser and jump over the fence,” she said.
I stopped toe tapping and thought about it. Where we were standing in Mrs. Song’s part of the yard was almost even with our porch in our yard. In other words, we wouldn’t even have to walk past the scary monster in the shed!
“Not a bad idea,” I told Sunny.
She smiled so big, the moonlight made her teeth glow.
I pushed my way through the thick, wet, pine-needly bushes with Sunny behind me. In the middle of the bushes was a big machine sitting on a thick square of cement. I climbed up on the cement and then put my toes inside the grates on the side of the machine and climbed up on top of it. I could easily see over the fence and into our yard. What I couldn’t see was Alice and Junchao sitting on our porch. But maybe it was just too dark.
I reached down and grabbed Sunny’s cold little hand and dragged her up the side of the machine so she was standing on top of it next to me.
“I’ll jump over first,” I told her. “You stand here and hold on.”
I easily swung my first leg over the fence, and then the other. All of a sudden the drop in front of me looked a lot farther than I thought it would. I was just about to swing my leg back over to think about this idea some more, when a cold little hand shoved me and I fell into the darkness, hitting the damp ground with a thump.
“Ouch! Sunny!” I shouted. “Why did you do that?”
Instead of answering me, she fell on top of me, knocking off my hanger hat. “Sunny!”
“We’re really Team Smasha now,” she said, giggling right into my face. “Get it, Masha?” she said. “Smash-a.” The warm breath from her giggles just about smothered me. But I couldn’t help myself, and I started giggling too.
I felt around for my hanger hat and stuck it back on. It was missing most of its pencils now, but I couldn’t worry about that. I still had a fistful of grass, and we needed to focus on getting this knot tied and then putting this grass into the ground. I could see most of the yard around me now. Morning was on its way.
We didn’t have much time left.
A Ghostly Showdown
I ran for the porch, my eyes searching for Alice and Junchao. I couldn’t see them. I kept thinking, Ten more steps and they’ll come into view. It was getting lighter but it was still night. They could be sitting in the moon shadow of the house.
I knew that I shouldn’t have left them.
I knew that Trudy would get them if I did.
And now she had.
What had she done with them?
Maybe they were locked up in the closet? Maybe she took them to the light? How was I going to explain this to Junchao’s and Alice’s moms?
I swerved around the wheelbarrow and up the steps of the porch.
And there they were . . . sound asleep together like two little kittens right next to the front door—two little kittens with hangers on their heads and covered in fake jewels.
I heard Sunny’s footsteps on the porch stairs behind me. I turned and gave her the “shh” sign with my finger to my lips.
We stood next to each other on the porch watching Junchao and Alice sleep.
“Are you going to wake them?” Sunny whispered.
I wanted to. I needed Alice to get me to that front hall closet. And I needed Junchao to be more afraid than I was so I could pretend I wasn’t as afraid as all that.
But I knew that I couldn’t.
They looked so happy asleep. There were no ghosts in their dreams. I didn’t want to wake them up so that they would have to join me in the place where there was a ghost. Although they did look kind of chilly.
“Come on,” I said. I opened the kitchen door, and we crept inside. I went over to the big cabinet by the refrigerator. Sunny followed. I opened up the cabinet and pulled out all of my mother’s tablecloths. I handed some to Sunny. She understood what I was doing.
We snuck quietly back out the door and covered Junchao and Alice with tablecloth after tablecloth until they looked like a big pile of picnics . . . warm picnics. Junchao gave a little sigh, and I saw Alice smile in her sleep. I pointed at Sunny and then myself and mouthed, “Bathroom.”
The two of us tippy-toed back into the bathroom and closed the door. Then we both slumped to the floor on the pink fuzzy bathroom rug.
Sunny let out a huge yawn. I couldn’t stop myself from yawning too.
“We have to finish this,” I said. But all I really wanted to do was sleep, sleep, sleep.
“We have two steps left.”
Sunny’s eyes were half closed, and she peered at me through her eyelashes. “We have to go to where we think the ghost resides and tie a knot in the grass.”
“The front hall closet.” I sighed.
“And then we have to take the
grass with the knot in it and bury it in the backyard to put the ghost back in its grave.”
I closed my eyes. “But first, the front hall closet.”
A bird tweeted.
I opened my eyes and stood up and looked out the bathroom window. The first red rays of the sun were poking over the horizon. It was now . . . or live with Trudy Day forever.
I turned toward the door.
“More powder?” Sunny asked.
“No,” I said.
I took off my hanger hat. And then I took off all my jewelry. I placed all of it in a pile on the sink counter next to our toothbrushes.
“What are you doing?” Sunny said. “You need that stuff to stay safe.”
“I’ve been scared all night long. I’m done being scared,” I said.
Sunny shook her little head and then took off her hat and jewelry and put it on top of mine.
I picked the grass up off the bathroom rug and nodded at my little sister. She nodded back. We opened the bathroom door and walked out. And then we walked down the hall. And then we walked out into the living room. And then we walked past the chair. And then we walked past the piano. And then we ran back past the piano, stopping by the chair to breathe.
“I thought you weren’t going to be scared?” whispered Sunny.
“I thought so too,” I said. “Just give me a second.”
I took in a long, slow breath, held it, and then . . . CLOMP. CLOMP. CLOMP.
My eyes found Sunny’s. “That’s weird,” I said. “I swear those are the same footsteps that we kept hearing all night long, and they seem to be coming from the exact same place every time.”
“Well,” Sunny said. “It’s the same ghost.”
Wooo. Wooo. Wooooo.
“And that sounds like the same howling sound. And it always seems to be coming from someplace up high at the end of the hallway.”
“That’s great,” Sunny said. “That means the ghost is in the hall and not the closet. And we can get to the closet to tie the knot.”
“Doesn’t the ghost have to be in the closet for this to work?” I asked.
“No!” Sunny whispered into my face. “We just have to go to where the ghost resides and tie a knot in the grass. The ghost doesn’t have to be home to do it!”
I hugged my little sister tight. I decided right then and there that I was never again going to get mad at Sunny for being smart. Never!
Together, we leaped from behind the chair and ran to the front hall closet. I got on my knees. “Is this close enough?”
“I think you have to be inside.”
I threw my head back and gave a silent scream. And then I opened the closet door and stepped in next to my mother’s rain boots and fumbled to tie the fastest knot I have ever tied in my entire life. Then I fell out of the closet on top of Sunny.
“Let’s get out of here!”
We opened the front door and stumbled over each other trying to get out of the house as fast as we could. We let the storm door close on its own and ran as if the ghost were right at our heels all the way down to the mailbox.
“Where to?” I screamed into Sunny’s face.
“The sandbox,” Sunny shouted back.
We needed to get this knot into the earth as soon as possible.
We ran around the front of the house and through the side gate and into the backyard; the cool morning air made tears in my eyes and my hair whipped about my cheek. I didn’t stop running until I hit the sandbox. Sunny was right behind me. She picked up her shovel and started digging in the dirt outside the sandbox.
“Why not in the box?”
“It said to bury it in the dirt, not in sand. Sand is mostly tiny little bits of eroded rock, while dirt is mostly organic matter. Plus, the soil around the box has a lower concentration of clay, making it less compact—”
“Just dig,” I said.
She dug.
And as soon as I thought it would fit, I shoved the grass into the hole and pushed all the dirt over it. And then the two of us stood up and stomped the dirt into place. As soon as we finished, we fell over into the grass and lay panting.
We’d done it.
Sunny Sweet Is Too Scary
Masha! Sunny! Hurry!”
I sat up, my head spinning. Where was I?
“Masha.” Junchao’s nose was two inches from my own. “I think a car just pulled into your driveway. We need to get Alice back inside before anyone finds out we slept outside on the back porch.”
Now I knew where I was . . . in the grass by the sandbox. Sunny and I had fallen asleep.
“I’ll run around the house and slow down whoever it is,” said Sunny. “I’ll tell them that I’m an early riser and like to be outside to watch the sun crossing the horizon, along with its accompanying atmospheric effects.”
“You mean the sunrise?” asked Junchao.
“Who cares what she means, just go, Sunny!”
Junchao and I raced over to Alice on the porch. She had thrown off all the tablecloths, her eyes were wild, and her hair was sticking up all around her hanger hat. “I think my mom’s here!” she cried.
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “Take off all your ghost protection.”
Both of them ripped off their hats and jewels. Then Junchao got on one side of Alice and I got on the other and we lifted her off the porch and put her next to her crutches.
“Everything is okay. Sunny is slowing her down.”
I held the kitchen door open. Alice walked to it. But before she let Junchao and me lift her up the little step and into the kitchen, she turned to me. “Trudy?”
“Gone.” I smiled.
The three of us hugged. “We’re so sorry we fell asleep,” Alice said.
“Yes, Masha. I don’t even remember doing it.”
“No worries, guys . . . unless your mother catches us out here. And then we have lots of worries.”
We hoisted Alice up the step and into the kitchen. Alice started for the living room and I ran ahead of her to lay out our sleeping bags on the living room floor. Junchao was right behind me. I got mine and Alice’s out. Junchao unrolled hers.
The front door began to open. We could hear Alice’s mom talking to Sunny. “That is so interesting, Sunny. So we see the sunrise before the sun actually rises.”
“Yes,” said Sunny. “It’s called atmospheric refraction.”
We threw all the pillows onto the floor just as Alice came into the living room. I hopped into my sleeping bag. Junchao plopped down into hers. And Alice was just about to when her mother walked through the door.
Alice froze.
Junchao and I blinked up from the floor.
Alice’s mom smiled a huge smile. “Just getting up, lazy heads?” she said.
Sunny giggled.
Then Junchao gave her loud “HO-HO-HO.”
Alice and I looked at each other and started to laugh too.
“Well, I’ll help you gather your things. Your father and brother are in the car. It’s going to be a beautiful day and we have a lot to do, so I hope you’re not going to be too tired,” she said.
Alice turned to Junchao and me so her mother couldn’t see her face and frowned.
She was going to be too tired today.
We all were.
Ghost hunting was hard work.
Mrs. Song came into the living room, wearing her sunflower pajamas, and said hello to Alice’s mother.
“Why so dirty?” Mrs. Song asked me.
I looked down. My pajamas were a mess.
“We did mud masks,” Alice blurted. “See how smooth our skin is?” She blinked at her mom.
“Gorgeous,” her mom said, touching Alice’s cheek. “And I see you also powdered yourselves up.”
“It was a beauty tip,” Alice said.
“Yeah,” said Junchao. “How to look stunningly pale.”
“Well, it sounds like you girls had a wonderful night.” Alice’s mother helped me roll up sleeping bags, gather pillows, and pack clothes wh
ile Alice and Junchao headed down the hall to get dressed.
We were just about done straightening up when Junchao’s mom walked in. I couldn’t believe that my first sleepover was over.
Everyone headed to the front door, where Alice’s wheelchair was waiting. “This was a nice success,” Alice’s mom said. “I don’t know why I ever worried. We’ll have to host the next sleepover, honey.”
“REALLY?” screamed Alice, throwing her arms around her mother’s waist.
“Really,” repeated her mom.
“And then Junchao after that,” said Junchao’s mother.
The three of us smiled at one another. And then I hugged my friends good-bye.
“That was the greatest sleepover!” Alice said into my ear.
Junchao laughed. “Ho-ho-ho.”
“Xing Yun San You forever,” I said.
My friends were the best!
Mrs. Song closed the door behind everyone. “Yóutiáo?” she said.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Sunny and I screamed, jumping up and down.
Yóutiáo were these delicious donut-like sticks that Mrs. Song made every once in a while for special occasions. And Mrs. Song let Sunny and me pour sugar all over them, even though she says that they don’t eat them like that in China.
My stomach growled.
“Give me twenty minutes.” She laughed, and then she walked into the kitchen.
I took a huge . . . long . . . breath and fell onto the couch. Sunny crawled up next to me.
“Good work,” I said.
“Good work to you too.”
She leaned her head on my shoulder. I put my head back against the couch and closed my eyes.
CLOMP. CLOMP. CLOMP.
Sunny and I sat up. Then she leaped from the couch. But before she could run out of the room, there came the now way too familiar . . .
Wooo. Wooo. Woooo.
I looked at Sunny. She looked back at me. And then I knew—Sunny Sweet was the ghost all along.
“SUNNY!” I shouted, jumping off the couch . . . not even caring that my feet were right next to the place where the little men could grab me and pull me under because . . . there were no little men . . . and there was no older sister in Alice’s attic that came down and played with her hair . . . and if you chewed gum at night you were just chewing gum . . . and those feet I saw in the shed under the door were most likely a bunch of rakes . . . and there was no Trudy Day in the front hall closet!
Sunny Sweet Is So Not Scary Page 9