My Best Friend Is Invisible Read Online Free PDF Page A

another
reason.” She slid off the bed and started collecting her math books from the
floor.
    “I came over to see if we’re going to the haunted house Saturday night or
not.”
    “We don’t have to go to the haunted house,” I cried. “We can do our report
right here. Right in my room. We can do our report on Brent. Brent—The
Invisible Kid!”
    “Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.” Roxanne started to lift her big pile of books from the
floor. “The Invisible Kid. Right.”
    My shoulders sagged.
    “Listen, Sammy. We have to start our project. It’s going to be the best
report in the whole class. No—it will be the best report anyone ever did in
the history of the whole school.”
    “Can’t we talk about this tomorrow, Roxanne? I’m really not in the mood right
now.”
    I was tired—and hungry. I hadn’t eaten anything since lunchtime. And I
wanted to try to talk to Brent again.
    “No! We cannot talk about this tomorrow!” I could see that Roxanne was
beginning to lose her patience. “We have to start planning now. I want to go to
Hedge House Saturday night.”
    “What’s Hedge House?” I asked.
    Roxanne sighed loudly. “Hedge House is the haunted house. The one near
the college. That’s what it’s called. I’ve been reading all about it.”
    Roxanne shuffled through her pile of books. “Here it is! Here’s the book
about Hedge House. Do you want to hear some of it?”
    Do I have a choice? I asked myself. I leaned back in my chair and tried to
pay attention.
    Roxanne stood in the middle of the room and began to read.
    “There have been many stories about the horrors of Hedge House,” she started.
“But the true horror began when the Stilson family moved into town. They moved
into Hedge House. No one had lived there in years—because everyone knew the house was haunted.
    “Tall, dark hedges grew around the house, enclosing it, sealing it off from
curious eyes.
    “Every year, the hedges grew taller and darker, until they turned the color
of night and shaded the highest windows.
    “The local people knew why the hedges grew that way. ‘It’s the will of the
ghost’, they’d say. ‘To keep the house chilly and dark—as cold and icy as the
spirit itself.’
    “Everyone knew that—everyone but the Stilson family.
    “From the day the Stilsons moved in, the Hedge House ghost visited
ten-year-old Jeffrey Stilson’s bedroom. The ghost visited every night.
    “‘Jef-frey,’ the ghost moaned. ‘Jef-frey—I’ve been waiting for
you.’
    “Each night, Jeffrey woke up shaking, frightened. He stared hard into the
darkness of his room, searching for the man behind the voice. But no one was
ever there.
    “He told his parents about the nightly visits. Told them again and again.
    “But they didn’t believe him.
    “‘Jef-frey, I’ve been waiting for you,’ the ghost’s voice returned one very
chilly evening. ‘I need you.’
    “‘What do you want?’ Jeffrey cried out. ‘Tell me what you want—’
    “At the sound of Jeffrey’s voice, the ghost appeared.
    “It was the ghost of a young man. From a time long ago. Jeffrey could tell,
from the clothes it wore—short, baggy black pants that ended below the knees.
Black socks pulled up high to meet the pants cuffs. And black boots with shiny
silver buckles.
    “Jeffrey stared at the ghost.
    “He stared in horror at its black shirt. At the right sleeve that hung
loosely at the ghost’s side. The sleeve with no arm inside.
    “‘Come with me, Jeffrey,’ the ghost moaned. ‘Come with me—to
learn the secret of this awful house.’”
    Roxanne closed the book and placed it down on the bed.
    “What’s the secret?” I demanded. “What’s the secret of Hedge House?”
    “I don’t know. I haven’t gotten to that part yet,” Roxanne said. “But I can
tell you this. I know some people who’ve been inside Hedge House. And they say
all kinds of spooky things happen there.”
    “Like what?” I asked.
    “Well, they say the doors open and