The Haunted Read Online Free PDF Page A

junk from their old house. He glanced toward the corner where the dirty man had been standing in his dream. An exercise bike was pressed against the wall.
    “This is killer!” Robbie was walking up the narrow open space in the center of the cellar. “You should ask your parents if you can make this into your room!”
    James shook his head. “Not enough light. Besides, I like to have a window.”
    “You could put extra lights in here. And you’d have tons of privacy. And if a tornado hit, you’d be totally safe.”
    “Come on. How often does New Mexico have tornadoes?”
    “Sometimes.”
    “In Jardine? Never.”
    “But this is so great! And it’s underground!”
    While the basement wasn’t what his mind had made it out to be, James still didn’t want to stay here any longer than he had to, so he said, “You want to see great, check out my
real
bedroom. It’s upstairs. You can see the street from my window.”
    Robbie grinned. “That’s cool, too.”
    “We can spy on people.” James led the way back up the steps to the kitchen, and the two of them hurried past the parents, still talking in the living room, and headed up to the second floor. James pushed his door open wide and stood proudly to the side as his friend entered the bedroom.
    “Wow,” Robbie said, taking in the posters on the wall, the built-in television cabinet, the beanbag chair on the large expanse of floor between the bed and the desk.
    “Look over here.” James went over to the window, pointing down. On the sidewalk in front of the house, an elderly couple was walking slowly, arm in arm. On the street beyond, two men in racing gear bicycled past, going the opposite direction.
    “This is awesome.”
    “And they can’t see us that good because the tree branches kind of block us. Even if they
were
looking in our direction—which they aren’t.” James grinned. “This is my room. This is where I live.”
    “You are so lucky.”
    “And when I get my Wii, the only time I’ll leave my room is for meals.”
    “Will I be able to come over?”
    James fell into the beanbag chair in a way that he thought was impressively smooth. “Sure.”
    Robbie leaned against the windowsill. “So, are you really coming back to Fillmore this year?”
    “Yep. Thank goodness.”
    “Was Pierce really that bad?”
    “I told you—it’s a horrible school. I had no friends there. None. The kids are all—I don’t know—losers. I’m just glad to be out of there.”
    “Well, I’m glad you’re coming back.”
    There was a shout from downstairs. Robbie’s parents were leaving. The two of them hurried down. Robbie reddened with embarrassment when his mom gave him a hug, and he promised her he would behave. He took his suitcase and rolled-up sleeping bag from his dad, who playfully punched his shoulder and said, “We’ll pick you up in the morning, sport. Have fun.”
    “Robbie can spend the day tomorrow if he wants,”James’s mother said. “We can bring him home in the afternoon or evening.”
    “That’d be fine, if he wants to. That sound good to you, buddy?”
    Robbie nodded happily.
    “All right, then.” His dad smiled down at him. “Come home when you want to.” He looked over at James’s parents. “Whenever you get tired of him. We should be home all day.”
    “Six o’clock at the latest,” Robbie’s mom said.
    Good-byes were said, and after his parents left, Robbie toted his suitcase up to James’s room, where the two of them hung out and played computer games for the next hour.
    For dinner, they had pizza, James and Robbie going with James’s dad to pick it up, and afterward they watched
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
, a movie they’d both seen a million times but that they both still thought was hilarious. Megan pretty much hid in her room for the entire evening, and that was another great thing about tonight—James hardly had to see her. BBC America was having a
Doctor Who
marathon, and they watched that until eleven, when