Hazy Bloom and the Mystery Next Door Read online

  By bedtime, I was feeling hopeful—and also extremely tired. Working on our Ghost Plan had exhausted me, and within minutes I was drifting off to sleep … until I started to feel the prickles and goose bumps. Not now, I pleaded. No visions. But it was too late. A vision appeared of green goo, and all of a sudden I was wide awake again.

  17

  I was peering anxiously out my window, waiting for Elizabeth. She was late, and that was very unlike her.

  It was the night of our mission, our Ghost Kit was packed, and I was dressed and ready. We had decided to wear white T-shirts and pants so the ghost might mistake us for another ghost if we encountered the spirit. Also, we thought it would look kinda cute if we matched.

  I scrunched my face against the window, hoping Elizabeth would magically appear. No luck. For a fleeting moment of panic, I wondered if the ghost had gotten her on her way over here. Then I remembered her mom was driving her over and I breathed a sigh of relief. Still, all of this nervous energy was making me jumpy, so while I waited for Elizabeth (who was now thirty-four minutes late), I decided to do some stretches. I wasn’t sure what kind of flexibility I’d need to fight a ghost, but it couldn’t hurt to warm up my muscles.

  I was doing lunges up and down the hallway when Aunt Jenna appeared.

  “That’s an … interesting activity,” she commented as I lunged my way past her.

  “Why, thank you,” I replied.

  Aunt Jenna said she’d be putting The Baby down for bed soon and she needed his pajamas from the laundry room. Could I get them?

  I didn’t want to give away that I was kind of involved with a top-secret Ghost Mission, so I said sure. I raced into the laundry room, grabbed the first pair of baby PJs I could find, ran back, and dumped them on her lap.

  “There you go!”

  “Thank you—oh, and also his sippy cup?”

  I raced to the kitchen to grab his sippy cup. Then she asked me get the baby wipes, lotion, and a diaper. I gritted my teeth. When was Elizabeth going to get here?

  Finally, I heard a knock. I grabbed the Ghost Kit and headed to the front door. Then I realized I had grabbed the diaper bag by mistake. I switched it out, thankful that I noticed before it was too late. I wasn’t sure how I’d fight a ghost with diaper cream.

  I ran to the door and opened it to find Elizabeth standing there. Her face was painted light blue, there were brown lines all around her mouth, and she had a black nose.

  “Hi there!” she said cheerfully.

  “There’s something on your face,” I pointed out, in case she didn’t know.

  “It’s my winged-monkey makeup!” she said. “We’re trying it out for the play. And the funniest thing happened, because the wicked witch was supposed to fly away on her broomstick, but her cape got caught on her cell phone charger, and—”

  “Elizabeth!”

  “Oh. Sorry.” She faced me, all business. “So, are we ready for the Ghost Mission?”

  “Ready. Oh, and Elizabeth?”

  “Yes?”

  “Be on the lookout for green goo,” I said.

  Elizabeth nodded like that was the most natural thing in the world to hear. This is why I love my best friend: she instantly understood that I was talking about a tomorrow vision. And her winged-monkey makeup looked pretty cool, too.

  We carefully checked to make sure no one was looking. Then, like a pair of super-secret superheroes on a super-stealth mission to destroy a ghost, we slipped out the door.

  18

  We had taken our secret route through my backyard, over the fence, and were now standing at the Thibodeauxs’ back door.

  “Now what?” I asked her.

  “Well, according to our plan,” Elizabeth said, “we go inside.”

  “Inside the house?”

  “Well, that is why we’re here, Hazy Bloom!”

  She was right. I gripped my Ghost Kit and took a deep breath, trying to muster the courage. You can do this, Hazy Bloom. You are brave. You are strong. You are the wind beneath my wings. I think that last one was from a song my dad liked to sing and had something to do with the beach, but still, it did the trick. I was feeling inspired. Slowly, I reached for the doorknob.

  It was locked. And I have to say, I was kind of relieved, for real live.

  “Oh, well … we tried. How ’bout we go home and have some pudding?” I said, turning to leave.

  “Wait, Hazy. Look!” Elizabeth pointed her flashlight around the side of the house. There was a twisty walkway of flat rocks leading to a sliding door there. I aimed my flashlight to where she was pointing. Splattered on the rocks was a bunch of green stuff. Green goo. I shivered.

  “Is that what you saw in your vision?” Elizabeth asked, her voice shaky.

  I nodded. “Do you think it’s ghost guts?”

  “Ew!” Then she said, “Maybe.”

  I noticed the sliding door on the side of the house was cracked open a little. We looked at each other and nodded. We went in.

  It was dark inside the house, so I turned on my flashlight and beamed it across the room. “Hello?” I called, as if the ghost would simply come over, shake my hand, and welcome me to the house it was haunting. We tiptoed around to the foyer, near the front door, using my flashlight to guide us. Nothing.

  Elizabeth looked frustrated. “Where is it? Where is the ghost?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied. Then it occurred to me that the ghost might have made itself invisible and was possibly right here, next to me. I shuddered, trying to decide if I should mention this terrifying thought to Elizabeth. But I never got a chance.

  Because that’s when we heard footsteps at the side of the house.

  I grabbed my foam sword, prepared to spring into action. Out the front windows, I could see the porch lights flickering like crazy. We heard the horrible rattling again. The footsteps were getting closer.

  Elizabeth scrunched her eyes shut, as if the ghost wouldn’t get her if she wasn’t looking at it directly. Meanwhile, I just stood there, frozen in fear. This is it, I thought. I’m about to be eaten by a ghost. I braced myself for doom.

  And then, a perfectly ordinary man wearing overalls and holding two paint cans showed up in the sliding-glass doorway.

  19

  I actually wasn’t the first one to scream. Neither was Elizabeth. It was the man in the overalls.

  He hollered, probably because he didn’t expect to see two girls—one waving around a foam sword and the other in winged-monkey makeup—standing in a house he’d thought was empty. Whatever the reason, it scared him enough that he dropped a paint can on the floor, splattering green paint in all directions, including all over us. I instantly called back my vision. And I realized it wasn’t green ghost goo or ghost guts that I had seen. It was green paint, which meant I had figured out my vision (hooray!). It also was kind of not the point right now.

  The man squinted at us, and I fully expected him to scream at us to get out and possibly call the police or, worse, our parents. But he said this instead: “Elizabeth?”

  Elizabeth opened her eyes wide. “Mr. Delaney?”

  “Um … what, now?” I said, because none of this was making sense, for real live.

  Elizabeth laughed in surprise, then turned to me. “Hazy, this is Mr. Delaney. He’s friends with my mom. He helps out around our house sometimes, when things need to be repaired. He also makes really good oatmeal raisin cookies.”

  “It’s my great-nana’s special recipe,” the man said with a smile.

  As happy as I was that Elizabeth had run into a family friend who enjoyed baking, I did not see how this was helpful to our Ghost Mission. I tugged on Elizabeth’s arm to signal it was time to get going. But Elizabeth had turned back to Mr. Delaney.

  “What are you doing here? The Thibodeauxs are out of town.”

  “That’s precisely why I am here. Mr. and Mrs. Thibodeaux asked me to do some fixin’ up around the house while they were away for the summer.”

  Elizabeth peered out th
e window. “But where’s your car?”

  “I live a couple of blocks away. It’s easy enough for me to walk over here. I’ve been coming on the weekends and at night after I get home from my day job. And the Thibodeauxs had all the supplies I needed in their garage. First order of business was the ventilator up in the attic—it’s been making a terrible racket.”

  Ventilator? The awful rattling sounds.

  “And then I fixed a short in the front room’s electrical system. But it is still on the fritz.”

  Flickering lights.

  “But my biggest job has been painting the walls. It’s why I’ve got these drippy paint cans from the garage. And the ladder.”

  The ladder was propped up against the wall. Behind it, a white sheet was draped over the window—that must have been the “ghost” I saw. It was a sheet to protect the window from the paint. And speaking of paint …

  “We can help you clean this up,” I said sheepishly, pointing to the green splotches on the bare floor. “After all, you dropped the paint because of us.”

  “Luckily, I’m all finished in here and that can was nearly empty, or we’d have a real situation on our hands. But this is no big deal.”

  Mr. Delaney gave us some old towels and a bucket of warm water to clean up the paint. I felt a huge sense of relief as I realized all of the things I’d thought were the ghost were actually from Mr. Delaney fixing up the house. And even under all that winged-monkey makeup, I could tell Elizabeth was relieved, too.

  “I guess we solved the ghost mystery,” she whispered to me.

  “Yep. We … are … good,” I said, waving my foam sword in the air, and we giggled.

  But we weren’t completely out of the woods. As Mr. Delaney opened the door to walk us back to my house, he suddenly looked at us.

  “Now it’s time for me to ask a question. What were you girls doing here in the first place?”

  20

  “You were so scared,” I said to Elizabeth.

  “Was not! You were more scared than me. Petrifillized!”

  “That’s not a word. And also, not true.”

  Elizabeth and I were eating pudding at my kitchen table. On the way home, we told Mr. Delaney about all of the weird stuff happening at the house that made us think there was a ghost. He shook his head and laughed, saying we have great imaginations and we should never lose that. He also told us that he was done with his work, so we didn’t have to worry about any noises, flickering lights, or anything else from a ghost or otherwise. I was glad to hear that. Especially since I’d decided to give my binoculars to The Baby. Perhaps he can use them to search for more squirrels.

  “I guess we should wash this off,” Elizabeth said, gesturing to her ankle where some green paint had splattered.

  I looked over my shoulder. I hadn’t seen Aunt Jenna since we’d gotten back. I assumed she was watching TV in the guest bedroom. But it was definitely a good idea to get cleaned up before she came out and saw the shape we were in.

  Elizabeth and I went into the guest bathroom off the hallway, rolled up our pants, and stuck our feet in the tub.

  Then I remembered. “Oh no. We never have any soap in here.”

  “I have some!” Aunt Jenna appeared in the doorway, smiling. In her hand was a bottle of liquid soap and two washcloths. “I bought a brand-new bottle yesterday. Just in case you might need it.” Her smile widened. Then she handed me the stuff and headed out the door. She didn’t ask where we had been or why we had green paint all over our legs. She just gave me the soap and washcloths and left. As if she knew we would need them.

  Now, you try telling me Aunt Jenna doesn’t have tomorrow power.

  * * *

  The next morning, Mapefrl was working on a new skateboard trick while I chattered nonstop about the events of the night before.

  “And then he opened the door and we were like ‘Whoa!’ and he was like ‘Huh?’ and we were like ‘You’re not a ghost!’” I acted out each part of the story for dramatic effect, although to be honest I wasn’t sure why I was telling Mapefrl any of this. I guess I’d kind of gotten used to him being around. Who knows, maybe we would actually end up becoming friends. Then he ruined the moment by talking.

  “I can’t believe you thought there was actually a GHOST,” he said, cracking up. “That’s hilarious. Hilarious!”

  I think I’d have to settle for “almost friends but still pretty much my annoying classmate” for now.

  21

  “Let’s have a campout!” Aunt Jenna said. “In the backyard. Tonight!”

  It was Wednesday, and Mom and Dad were coming home tomorrow. Aunt Jenna had decided she wanted to do something fun for our last official night together.

  “Can we pitch a tent?” I asked.

  “Of course!”

  “And make s’mores?” said Milo.

  “Wouldn’t be a campout without them.”

  “Doo doo!” The Baby chimed in, obviously excited about the idea as well.

  I couldn’t blame him. Who doesn’t love a campout? Plus, it was a great way to celebrate our last night with Aunt Jenna. Especially now that I didn’t have a ghost to worry about.

  Later that morning, we went to the grocery store to buy s’mores ingredients. Then I spent the afternoon making a BLOOM CAMPGROUNDS sign for our campout, a BREAK A LEG card for Elizabeth’s performance, a WELCOME HOME banner for Mom and Dad, and a HAZY 4 PRESIDENT sign for myself, just in case I’d need it one day. During this time, I found myself peeking out the window to see if Mapefrl was outside on his skateboard. I hadn’t seen him today. In fact, I hadn’t seen him since yesterday morning, now that I thought about it. Not that I cared.

  But he did keep me from being completely bored.

  After dinner, Milo helped Aunt Jenna pitch the tent and bring out sleeping bags and pillows while I arranged graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate squares on a plate. When it got dark, we headed out back to officially begin the campout. Here’s what we did:

  1. Took a nighttime nature hike around the backyard.

  2. Sang campfire songs (even though we didn’t have a campfire), including one The Baby made up that went something like “Doo doo doooooooo, yay! Dooo da da blefhabngoir!”

  3. Used our flashlights to make shadow puppets on the tent walls.

  4. Looked for Milo’s pack of gum that he lost on the nature walk.

  Finally, it was time for the s’mores. Aunt Jenna and I went into the kitchen to make them in the toaster oven. When they were ready, Aunt Jenna poured some milk for us. While she carried out the glasses, I grabbed the plate from the counter, pushed the back door open with my bottom, and then quickly whirled around.

  “Presenting the s’mores!” Unfortunately, I did not see that Mr. Cheese was under me, and I tripped right over him (which is technically Dad’s job). The s’mores went flying off the plate and scattered all over the grass.

  “Oooooh,” The Baby said as if that were some kind of performance I’d put on just for him.

  “Look what you did!” Milo scolded me.

  “Look what you did!” I scolded Mr. Cheese.

  The Baby, meanwhile, had picked up a s’more and started squishing the marshmallow with his fingers, making a gooey mess.

  Aunt Jenna giggled at the ruckus and said she’d make a deal with me. If I picked up the s’mores pieces, she’d go inside and make some new ones. And Milo was put on baby-washing duty. Milo scooped The Baby up, and the three of them went inside while I started to clean up the marshmallows and graham crackers before Mr. Cheese got to them. He was sniffing them curiously already.

  It was really dark now, so I grabbed my flashlight to spot the marshmallow mess. I was on my last one when I heard something very strange. Like groans. And shrieks. I instinctively glanced over our fence at the Thibodeauxs’ house. From our yard we could see the entire top half of their house. The noises were coming from there.

  Then the lights in their house started to flicker.

  My blood ran
cold. What in the world…? There was no way. No way this could be happening. Mr. Delaney had said he was done with his work. The Thibodeauxs were still out of town. My mind started racing. Did Elizabeth and I not solve the mystery next door? Was there really a ghost after all?

  I stood there frozen for a moment, not knowing what to do. Aunt Jenna was still busy remaking dessert. Milo was still inside washing marshmallow mush out of The Baby’s hair. I looked at Mr. Cheese, who honestly seemed up for anything.

  “You’re coming with me, dude. You were with me when this all started. And you’ll be with me when it ends. We’re getting this ghost once and for all.”

  I’m pretty sure Mr. Cheese nodded his approval.

  22

  As Mr. Cheese and I arrived at the Thibodeauxs’ house, the groans and shrieks got louder and the lights were flickering like crazy. Mr. Cheese started barking. I was so scared, I wanted to turn around and run away. But I didn’t. I had faced my fears once already. I could do it again. And this time, I had my dog for backup. I took a deep breath and inched closer to the front door. Then Mr. Cheese started to bark even louder.