Why I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts (4 page)

“You'll believe too,” Mike warned. His face grew pale under his freckles. He glanced around and lowered his voice. “Sooner or later, you'll believe too.”

“Well, uh, thanks for the warning,” Oliver mumbled at last. He wasn't sure what to say. Ghost stories didn't scare him. But he was the new kid. He didn't want to get off to a bad start.

“No problem.” Mike nodded. “Just thought you should know.”

Oliver and Mike turned onto Fear Street and headed in opposite directions. Mike's family lived in a house that was also the Shadyside Museum of History's Mysteries. Mike said it was full of stuff like mummies and suits of armor. Oliver thought it sounded cool.

Oliver glanced down the block to his new house. It looked pretty good, considering how broken-down some of the others were.

The big old house was gray with white window frames. A wide porch wrapped around two sides. Lots of lacy pieces of wood edged the roof, and there was a balcony on the top of the house. You reached it through a set of glass doors.

Oliver squinted. If he did it just right, the house looked a little like the one in
The Munsters.
Just the kind of house a kid could explore for hours. Dig up good secrets.

Oliver caught a glimpse of Shawn's pale hair shining on the porch. Shawn was waiting for him again. Good!

The kids Oliver had met in school were friendly enough, Oliver supposed. But he and Shawn had
already discovered they liked the same comics and movies and games. And Shawn was funny.

So what if he had ghosts on the brain. All the kids at school did too!

Oliver shrugged off his backpack and pulled out his Frisbee. He always carried it with him. It was pretty chewed up from all the times Spooky had fetched it. But it still flew okay.

“Hey, Shawn!” Oliver yelled, darting toward the house. “Think fast!” He tossed the Frisbee.

Shawn glanced up. He jumped to his feet and reached for the Frisbee. It soared just over his fingertips.

“Oops!” Shawn shrugged and smiled. He raced to the side of the house to get the Frisbee out of the bushes. Then Oliver heard him yell.

Oliver dashed over. Shawn was staring up at one of the attic windows.

“What?” Oliver asked, joining him. “What's the matter?”

“I saw someone up there. In the attic window.” Shawn pointed.

“Who?” Oliver stared at the windows. They looked dark and empty.

“In the left window. A face. Watching us!”

Oliver shaded his eyes with his hand, trying to see better. “There's no one there now,” he said.

“I saw someone,” Shawn insisted.

“So? It was probably just snoopy Nell.” Oliver
glanced sideways at Shawn. What's the big deal? he wondered.

“What if it wasn't?” Shawn stooped and picked up the Frisbee. He handed it to Oliver. Oliver noticed Shawn's hand trembling. “What if it's something worse than Nell?”

Oliver shook his head. Obviously, Shawn didn't have an annoying younger sister.

“What could be worse than Nell, the biggest brat in the universe?” he asked. “She snoops. She eavesdrops. She tags along. She bosses. She eats my desserts, and she steals my coolest stuff. She's the worst!”

“What if it were a ghost?” Shawn asked.

Man, did Shawn have a one-track mind. “What
is
it with you and ghosts?” Oliver demanded.

Shawn chewed on his lower lip. “Look, I have to ask you something, and this time I'm serious. Do you believe in ghosts, even a little bit?”

Oliver frowned. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because—” Shawn began.

“Hey, Oliver!” someone yelled.

Oliver turned to see Nell strolling up the sidewalk.

“Don't you think school is way easier here?” she shouted. “Aren't you glad we moved here?”

“I would be glad if we moved somewhere else and left you behind,” Oliver muttered so only Shawn could hear.

But Shawn wasn't listening. “Uh, Oliver?” he murmured. His pale blue eyes were wide. He sounded scared.

“What's wrong?” Oliver asked.

“If Nell's out here,” Shawn whispered, “then who was that in the window?”

O
liver stared up at the window. He still didn't see anything. He glanced at Shawn. “Are you
sure
you saw something?” he asked.

“I'm sure!” Shawn insisted.

“Maybe it was just the curtain blowing around,” Oliver suggested.

“It was a face,” Shawn sputtered.

“I guess it could have been my dad,” Oliver offered. “He's working in his home office today. I guess he might have gone up to the attic for something.”

“No!” Shawn shook his head violently. “It was a girl's face. I'm telling you!”

Oliver tried to think of something to say to calm Shawn down. “The curtain could have looked like a girl's face. People mistake things for other things all the time.”

“But—”

“Hey!” Nell interrupted, stopping in front of Oliver. “You're supposed to fix me an after-school snack, Oliver!”

Oliver flipped the Frisbee and caught it. Nell was right. Fixing her something to eat was his after-school chore.

“I'm hungry! Feed me!” She tried to chomp Oliver's arm.

He yanked his arm away. She could be so annoying! Especially in front of his friends.

“Feed me
now!”
Nell opened and shut her mouth, making smacking noises with her lips.

“Quit it!” Oliver ordered. He bonked Nell on the head with the Frisbee.

“I'll quit it. But only if you make me cinnamon toast and spread the butter all the way to the edges and put lots of sugar on it. Or I'll tell Mom about—”

“Shut up,” Oliver snapped. He rolled his eyes. “Sorry, Shawn,” he apologized. Then he bonked Nell again with the Frisbee. “Come on inside and I'll make you your stupid toast.”

* * *

“That's
your big idea?” Robbie asked Dora in the attic. “Appear in the window? What's so scary about
that?”

“That wasn't a scare, that was an accident!” Dora snapped. “I was watching for Oliver to come home so I could do my next scare. I didn't mean Shawn to see me. I guess I slipped.”

“You have to be more careful,” Robbie warned. He enjoyed having a chance to nag her for a change. The way she usually nagged him. “You have to build your scare, not waste your time and talents on dumb not scary things that don't work.”

“Look who's talking! Mr. Moan-athon! Mr. I'm-So-Scary!”

“Shut up!” Robbie yelled. Sometimes Dora made him so mad, he wanted to push her through a wall!

But if he shoved her, and she wasn't solid enough to be shoved, they'd get mixed up again, and that hurt.

“This scare of yours better be amazing,” Robbie challenged her. “Or I'll spend the next ten years reminding you how you showed yourself to Shawn when you didn't mean to.”

“That's all right,” Dora said. “I have a lot more memories I can use on you. Like when the dog popped up out of the laundry. What a scream!”

Robbie hung his head.

She was right! He was a sad excuse for a ghost sometimes.

* * *

Robbie watched Oliver slip a shiny disk into the CD-ROM drive of his computer. Shawn and Oliver sat on swivel chairs in front of Oliver's desk.

“I just got this game, Wild World Off-Road Super Rally,” Oliver told Shawn. “This one is supposed to be really great!”

Robbie, hovering behind Oliver and Shawn, stared at the computer screen.

He knew Dora was going to do her scare soon. She had told him she would do it during a computer game. Robbie wondered what kind of scare it would be.

He concentrated on the screen. Maybe if he watched very carefully, he could figure out what Dora did and how she did it. Then maybe she wouldn't tease him so much.

Music came from the computer's speakers as the screen went dark. Drums beat. Flutes played. Gradually a scene came up.

Deep, dark jungle.

Robbie shivered. He was getting creeped out already!

A stream ran across the left corner of the screen. The water rushed and bubbled. A black panther crept along a wide branch. It growled, showing white teeth and a red tongue. Then a safari car drove in from the right, and the music cheered up.

Words popped onto the screen one at a time in fat red letters shaded with orange and brown.

A crowd of voices chanted the words as they appeared:

OFF

ROAD

RALLY!

“Yes!” Oliver cried, gripping the joystick. He clicked to start the game.

The view switched to inside the safari car. The screen showed the top of the steering wheel, the dashboard with its dials, and just a little of the car's front hood. The car sped along a rocky dirt road. Robbie could see jungle through the windshield.

Long branches dipped down from trees on either side. Robbie saw a big green snake curled around one. He tried not to shudder. He thought snakes were almost as creepy as spiders.

Oliver pushed the joystick forward. The car bumped over the rocky terrain, with happy music bouncing along. Banana tree branches thwacked the roof of the car, with sound effects.

“Cool!” Shawn exclaimed.

“So when is it going to start to get tough?” Oliver wondered.

A girl suddenly appeared on the track in front of the car.

“What?” Oliver yelped, jerking back on the joystick.

The car slowed and stopped.

Wow! Robbie wondered what would have happened if Oliver crashed the fake car into the fake girl.

What kind of game
was
this, anyway?

Wait a second. Wasn't that—?

Dora!

This was it!

This was Dora's scare!

R
obbie hugged his elbows and hunched his shoulders. What would she do? How had she gotten inside the computer?

He wished he knew how to do stuff like that.

Dora's yellow dress billowed in the breeze. She looked almost alive.

She stood motionless for a moment, then strolled right up to the windshield.

“What? I don't think this game is supposed to work like this,” Oliver muttered.

Shawn slid his chair a foot away from the computer.

Dora leaned forward until her face filled up most of the monitor. The car's dashboard disappeared.

She smiled. Slowly.

Knowing Dora, Robbie flinched. He prepared himself to be scared. He knew to expect the worst.

Skin melted off Dora's face, sizzling away, leaving a skull behind.

“Yow!” Shawn cried, backing up some more.

Dora's skull grinned. Then, somehow, she made the grin grow wider. Even without flesh.

“Hello, Oliver,” the skull said, and clacked its teeth together. “How do you like
this
game?”

It opened its mouth and flame roared out!

Shawn screamed.

So did Robbie.

Robbie clapped his hands over his mouth. Too late though. Dora heard him for sure!

Oliver stared at the skull as it laughed and smacked its teeth together. Then he jumped out of his chair.

He tore out of the room. “Dad! Dad!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Robbie felt terrible. The game was over—and Dora had won.

He watched Oliver run down the hall. Shawn must have ducked out, because he was nowhere in sight. Robbie hadn't seen him leave. But then, Robbie hadn't noticed much while Dora scared him silly.

Dora popped out of the computer and floated around the room, her flesh back on her grinning face. “I win!” Dora announced. “I am the Queen of Fright!”

“Come on,” Robbie muttered. Misery made him feel a little sick, but he had to see this through. He headed into the hall after Oliver. “We need to find out what Oliver is going to do.”

“Do?” Dora repeated. “As if we don't already know!” She was so happy, she floated on air instead of walking along the ground.