Getting Back to Normal Read Online Free PDF

operative word. Tammy starts out ordering less, but usually ends up eating more than I do.
    “Maybe you could look at living at MG as some kind of adventure,” she says when we’re at our table. “Pretend you’re a millionairess with acres and acres of land.”
    Tammy’s trying to make me feel better so I say, “Sure, Tam. You’ll come over soon and we’ll go exploring.”
    “Great! Do you think we can go inside Greystone?”
    “Why not? The mansion’s open to visitors all through the year.”
    Tammy lowers her voice. “I mean go inside at night.”
    “Why do you want to do that?”
    Tammy’s upper lip trembles, the way it does when she gets excited. “To see if there are any ghosts, silly. Ghosts haunt lots of old mansions. I saw it on this TV show.”
    I’m dying to tell Tammy about Archie, only I know what would happen if I did. First an ear-piercing shriek, then demands—loud enough for everyone in the pizza parlor to hear—that I tell her then and there every detail about meeting a ghost.
    Instead, I press my lips together to keep from grinning as I ask, “I wonder if any ghosts prefer the great outdoors.”
    “Not usually, Vannie. This man on the show said ghosts stay mostly indoors. And they mostly appear at night.”
    “I bet some of them aren’t even scary.”
    Tammy snorts. “Of course they are. Wouldn’t you be scared if you saw a ghost?”
    “Maybe. Maybe not.”
    “Oh, right,” Tammy says scornfully.
    This sets me whooping with laughter. Tammy looks at me as if I’ve lost it, but soon she’s laughing too. We carry on like a pair of hyenas, pounding the table and bopping up and down in our seats, till people start giving us the eye.
    The movie turns out to be really good. We especially like it because it takes place in Paris.
    “We absolutely must put Paris first on our list,” Tammy says as we leave the theater.
    I agree. We move Paris up to number one on our “Must See Before We’re Thirty” list, ahead of London, Australia, China, and Alaska. Then we head for our favorite department store.
    We spend lots of time at the cosmetic counters. We pick out the shades of lipstick we plan to wear next year when we’re in seventh grade. We sample perfumes and hand creams as we amble down the aisles. Too many, I guess, since we’re sneezing from the fumes by the time we get to the preteen section on the second floor. I check out the racks and find some pants and tops I plan to try on Friday night, when Aunt Mayda takes Robby and me shopping.
    After we stop for ice cream, we’ve still about twenty minutes before we have to meet Daddy at five o’clock. The mega bookstore across the way gives me a great idea. I point to it.
    “Let’s go in there.”
    “Why?”
    “I want to look something up.”
    I hold my breath, worried Tammy will ask me what I want to look up, but she’s glad to have the chance to check out magazine articles about Len Wicket, the cute lead actor in the movie we just saw. I wait till she’s deep in a magazine, then zoom over to the nonfiction section. I pass Nature, Women’s Studies, Health, and Psychology. At New Age and Paranormal I slow down to read each title. Sure enough, there’s the very book I hoped to find!
    “Everything You Want to Know About Ghosts” is chock-full of true ghost stories, with illustrations and photos of transparent figures. The ghosts all have sad or contorted faces. They seem more upset than scary. Interesting, I think, but not much help to me. Archie strikes me as a cheerful ghost. I flip back toward the beginning, and come upon something real important.
    “A ghost,” the book says, “is a spirit that cannot rest. It hovers about the site where it has died for one of many reasons. Perhaps its death was violent, or it wants someone to avenge its murder, or it needs to resolve an issue close to its heart.”
    I nearly drop the book as I remember the last thing Archie said to me before he disappeared. Something about needing my