Ghost Detectors Volume 1 (12 page)

The little dog let go as Malcolm pulled the trigger. The zapper sprayed the specter with a thick spatter of purple ooze. The ooze looked a lot like whipped cream, but it smelled like cotton candy.

The ghost stood frozen in goo. Then he and the goo slowly melted into nothing more than a large wet stain on the carpet.

The little dog sniffed it.
Yip! Yip!

“Yes!” Malcolm cheered.

Dandy sat up, rubbing his forehead. “Is it over?”

“Yeah,” Malcolm answered. “Thanks to this little fellow—” But when he turned back, the little dog had already run off.

Dandy looked at the large wet spot on the carpet. “Did the dog do that?”

Malcolm smiled. “Not exactly. Come on, let's go.” He pointed to the big purple lump now forming just above Dandy's eyes. “You need to put some ice on that.”

Malcolm helped his friend up and they hurried out. Then, he locked the back door and put the key back in its place under the plastic container. Brom and Bowser had joined them
on the porch. Bowser held the rubber ball in his jowls.

“Not now,” Malcolm said. He looked out at the doghouse. Was the brave little white dog curled up in the corner? He didn't have time to check. It was dark now, and he needed to get home.

When they reached the front yard, Malcolm turned to Dandy. “Thanks,” he said.

Dandy looked puzzled. “For what?”

“For helping me out. I would've been too scared to do this alone.”

“Yeah, me too. It's too bad we'll never know who that ghost was,” Dandy said.

They left the Millers' house, ghost-free, and headed home.

M
alcolm walked Dandy to his house and made sure he put an ice pack on his forehead. It was late by the time he got home.

He was met with a surprise as he reached his front porch.

Bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep!

The specter detector was going off like crazy. Malcolm had forgotten to turn it off. As he reached to get it out of his pocket, he had a second surprise.

Yip! Yip! Yip!

The little dog from the Millers' house sat on his porch, excitedly wagging his tail.

“Hey, fella,” Malcolm said, bending down. “How'd you find my house?”

The dog answered with
Yip!

The dog didn't have a collar like Bowser and Brom. And Malcolm hadn't seen an extra bowl or bed back at the Millers'. There was really no sign that the dog belonged to them.

The mutt sat, looking up at Malcolm with large pleading eyes. Malcolm had never owned a dog, thanks to Cocoa and her sneezing fits. But maybe he could sneak this one in and keep it in his lab. At least for a while.

“Okay, you win,” Malcolm said. He reached down to pick up the dog. To his amazement, his hand passed right through it.

Malcolm jumped back. “Whoa! That's spooky.”

Yip! Yip!
The ghostly dog excitedly wagged his tail.

“Spooky,” Malcolm repeated. “Come on, Spooky. Come on, boy.” He opened his front door, and his new dog, Spooky, ran in.

The house was dark and quiet. Exhausted, Malcolm decided to go straight to bed. There'd been way too much excitement tonight.

As they trudged through the kitchen, Spooky began to bark and the ghost detector started bleeping up a storm. Malcolm looked around.
To his amazement, a transparent man stood in the doorway!

Startled, Malcolm jumped. The man was wearing a powder-blue '70s leisure suit and was smiling at him. Malcolm thought about grabbing his ghost zapper, but this apparition didn't appear menacing at all. In fact, he looked kind and proud. Malcolm then saw a bit of family resemblance.

“Grandpa Bertram, is that you?”

Grandpa Bertram nodded. Without a word, he pointed to the kitchen table, then disappeared.

Malcolm looked down to see a small bag filled with jellybeans. He picked them up, careful not to mess up the lovely blue ribbon attached. He quietly crept to Grandma Eunice's room and placed them on her night table.

Then Malcolm happily went off to bed. When he turned off the specter detector, Spooky disappeared. He quickly turned it back on and could see his new pooch. He smiled, knowing for certain that Cocoa wouldn't be having sneezing fits with this pet!

Malcolm said good night to Spooky, shut off his ghost detector, and fell into a dead sleep.

M
alcolm and his best friend, Dandy, sat quietly in Malcolm's basement lab. It was one of those late afternoons, right before dinner, when you wish there were more hours left to hang out. Malcolm was perched on an old desk, while Dandy slumped lazily in a beanbag chair.

“I can't believe it went by so fast,” Malcolm complained. He flipped on his Ecto-Handheld-Automatic-Heat-Sensitive- Laser-Enhanced Specter Detector. It was the gadget he used for hunting ghosts.

With the specter detector on, he could play with his new dog, Spooky. Spooky was a phantom canine that had recently followed Malcolm home. He eagerly wagged his tail at Malcolm.

“I can't believe summer is already over,” Malcolm said, as he put his chin in his hand. “It seems like we just started ghost hunting yesterday.”

“Summer always goes fast,” Dandy reminded him.

“Yeah, but this one went too fast.” His hangdog expression practically touched the floor.

“Look at the bright side,” Dandy said. “We're fifth graders this year.”

That was true. Malcolm did like the idea of being in the highest grade at Waxberry Elementary.

Dandy chewed a fingernail. “I bet fifth grade will be a lot harder than fourth.”

“Yeah,” Malcolm agreed.

“But we'll get to ride in the very back of the bus,” Dandy continued.

“That's the bumpiest part!” Malcolm said.

Dandy suddenly sat forward. “Oh no, I just remembered—fifth graders have the last lunch of the day!”

Malcolm shook his head. “Let's hope there's enough food left.”

Dandy looked like he'd just dropped his last piece of gum on the floor. The only lively creature in the basement was Malcolm's ghostly pet.
Yip! Yip!
Spooky hopped and bounced, jumping at Malcolm to play.

Malcolm scooted off the desk, onto the floor. Spooky tried to grab Malcolm's shirt for tug-of-war, but his teeth went right through the shirt.

Once Spooky learned he couldn't hang on, he decided a game of run-through-Malcolm would be more fun. He dashed in and out, one side then the other.

“Stop, Spooky. That tickles! Sit!”

Spooky sat eagerly, tail wagging.

Malcolm looked at Dandy and sighed. “You know the worst part of going back to school?”

Dandy slid another finger in his mouth and chewed on that nail. “There's something worse than 12:45 lunch?”

“We can only ghost hunt on weekends.”

Malcolm and Dandy had already had two exciting ghost adventures this summer. First, they'd gone into the Freaky McBleaky house and been chased out by the ghost Herbert McBleaky. Malcolm still cringed at the thought of the major wedgie the jokester had given him.

Then, Malcolm waited weeks for his Ecto-Handheld-Automatic-Heat-Sensitive- Laser-Enhanced Ghost Zapper to arrive. When it finally did, he went ghost hunting again. He
zapped a ghost at the Millers' house—and met his late great-grandfather and Spooky!