Five Days of the Ghost Read Online Free PDF Page A

he was so easy to see ? I mean, it was as if there was a light shining on him.”
    John reached out and took the oar handles again. He had stopped counting. He began to row.
    â€œAll of those things have scientific explanations, of course. We just have to think about them some more.”
    John had stopped counting too soon. I guessed he hadn’t noticed after all. When the man had climbed down from the gravestone and taken two steps toward us, he would have had to step in the fresh earth of the new grave.
    But there had been no footprints.

Saturday Morning
    I woke up about five minutes after I went to bed. At least that’s what it felt like. But when I crawled to the bottom of the bed and yanked back on the curtains I was drowned in bright yellow sunlight.
    Morning. I blinked a few times and checked my clock radio. Seven thirty. Then I groaned. I knew I would never get to sleep again. Not after the dream I had. But I crawled back under the blanket anyway.
    It was one of those dreams that was creepy and crazy at the same time. I saw myself wake up in the middle of the night. I was wearing one of those long flowing nightgowns that all the women in the Dracula movies wear. My room was washed in silver moonlight. I glided over to the window and stared out across the lake for a moment. Chiefs’ Island shone silver, as if it was lit up. There was a power seeping from the island, like thick black smoke, that held me in a spell.
    I slowly picked up the little leather bag from the windowsill, not wanting to, but forced to do it by … something. I cupped it in my palm and gently pulled at the drawstrings.
    I took out a rubber ball—red, white and blue—and bounced it a couple of times. It made no sound. I tossed it in the air and it disappeared. I slipped my fingers into the neck of the little bag again and lifted out a big white plastic toy airplane. I let go of it and it flew off. Then I took a pocket watch out of the bag, dragging it by the heavy gold chain. The watch had no hands. Even in the dream I wondered how all those things fit into that little bag.
    Holding the watch by the chain, I swung it like a pendulum, chanting, “It’s time. It’s time.” But it wasn’t my voice. Time for what, I thought.
    And that’s when I woke up.
    I got out of bed for the second time that morning, took off my pajamas, and pulled on my new bathing suit. The only thing that was going to get the cobwebs out of my head was a quick swim. Mom and Dad let us swim alone in the morning as long as we didn’t go in above our waists. So far I had never broken the rule, even though I had been tempted a couple of times.
    I went down the back stairs and into the kitchen, which is under my room. There’s a big window and when we’re eating or just having a cup of tea we can look out across the wide lawn, past the weeping willow and the boathouse over the green water. This morning I didn’t look.
    â€œMorning, Karen.”
    My mom was sitting at the table, sipping tea. In front of her was a small china plate with one piece of dry toast on it.
    â€œDid you sleep all right last night? You look like you were up all night playing tennis.” She smiled and took a bite of the toast and dabbed the crumbs from her lips with a cotton napkin.
    I rubbed my eyes, trying to squeeze the puffiness away.
    â€œYeah, I’m okay.”
    I poured myself some tea and sat down. Like my mother, I drink it clear. I sipped noisily and waited for her to frown. She did. I smiled at her and she smiled back. It was a game we played. My mother hated it when you made noises when you ate.
    She was wearing a loose white blouse with a thin gold chain around her neck. She had on pearl earrings with gold barrettes holding her long blonde hair away from her face. My mother wore very little makeup. She looked smashing. That was one of her words. Smashing. I wished for the millionth time in my life that I had inherited her