The Gloomy Ghost (5 page)

Yip chased after me. “No, you'd better stay out,” I said. I was afraid he'd scare Darling.

Yip ran back into the yard. I went inside the house.

“Here, kitty,” I called, walking into Angelina's room.

Darling stared at me. The dark part of her eyes got bigger, like when I play with her with a string. Then she jumped down from the windowsill and walked across the carpet.

“Good girl. Come on.” I hoped she'd come. Sometimes cats just do what they want. Actually, I think they do what they want all the time—and once in a while what they want is what you want, so you think they're doing it for you.

But she followed me out to the hall. I went along the hallway, leading her toward the stairs. We went past my room, where Sebastian and Angelina and Norman were sitting.

Darling looked over and went, “Mrewwww.”

“Do you want to go out?” Angelina asked.

“Merrowwwll,” Darling said.

“Come on,” I called to her. I had to get her to the back door. It wouldn't work if Darling led Angelina to the front. I went down the stairs. Darling followed. I got her to follow me through the kitchen.

“Here you go,” Angelina said. She opened the door and let Darling out.

“Look in the yard!”
I shouted.

Angelina was still looking down at Darling. She started to close the door.

“
LOOK
!”
I shouted again.

She wasn't looking. It had all been wasted. She'd never see me out there. The door was almost closed. I checked my watch. It was 6:03. Even I could figure out that kind of math. I only had ten minutes left.

I could scream and shout, but it wouldn't do any good. Angelina would never hear me or see me. There was only one other thing I could try. It was a mean, rotten thing to do, but it was my only chance.

 

Eleven

THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME

“Yip,” I called. “Get the cat, Yip.”

I felt really bad. I liked Darling. But if she could see me, then she could see Yip.

And she sure could see him. He started to bark and run across the yard toward her. But he wasn't growling—he was wagging his tail. It looked like he wanted to play.

Darling sure didn't want to play. She looked back at Yip, hissed, then went dashing toward the edge of the yard by the big oak tree.

“Darling!” Angelina shouted. There was no way she wouldn't hear the yowling. She opened the door again and stepped onto the porch.

She started to chase after her cat. She'd gotten only halfway down the steps when she saw me. I mean, she saw my body lying there. She froze for a second. Then she screamed,
“Mom!”
and went racing across the lawn.

Mom and Dad were out the door in just a couple of seconds. Dad didn't even use the steps—he just leaped from the porch to the yard. There was a lot of screaming and shouting. But then Mom ran back into the kitchen and called the emergency number.

I was so happy, I didn't notice anything wrong at first. They'd found me. I was going to be okay.

I jumped up. But I didn't come down. I was starting to float away. “Hey!” I shouted when I realized my feet weren't on the ground.

I looked at my watch. It was 6:11. I counted out loud, “Eleven, twelve, thirteen.” I had three minutes. No, it was eleven right now, so I only had two minutes. But I think I was already starting to become a real and forever ghost because the time was getting close.

I didn't want to be a ghost forever.

The ambulance came. People with white shirts and pants were running all over.

They put a mask on my face, just like on television. Then they put a needle in my arm. I really hated to watch that. But it did something good to me. I came back down. I wasn't floating anymore. I guess they were keeping me alive.

“Yip,” I said, grabbing the dog and giving him a hug. “I'll be okay. They'll make me better.”

They put my body on a stretcher and took me to the ambulance. I went with them and got inside. I'd never been in an ambulance. Yip jumped out of my arms and went chasing after Darling again.

Before I could follow him, the ambulance started to drive off. I wanted to get him, but I had a funny feeling I should stay with my body. I looked back and saw everyone following in Dad's car. They raced along right behind the ambulance.

We were really racing, too, with the lights and the siren and everything. It was pretty exciting. I couldn't wait to tell Becky all about it. I wish I could take the ambulance to show-and-tell at school, but I don't think they'll let me do that.

At the hospital, more people rushed out to meet the ambulance and they got me inside really quickly. There were doctors and nurses all around me and they were doing all kinds of stuff with needles and tubes and wires. The doctors were shouting lots of things with real big words that sounded just the way Norman talks. I couldn't understand any of it.

I didn't want to watch. It felt really funny seeing them doing all that stuff to me. I figured I'd just walk around for a while. They'd make me better even if I didn't stand there and watch. I wondered what it would feel like to go back into my body. Maybe it would be like going to sleep again. Then I'd wake up and everything would be fine. I hoped that's what it would be like. I guess I'd find out soon enough.

Then I thought of something really scary. What if they fixed me, and my body woke up and was all better, but my ghost stayed outside?

No. I didn't want to think about that. No way. That was almost as bad as thinking about breaking the you-know-what.

I walked out of the little room where they were taking care of me. I realized something else. It didn't smell like a hospital. There wasn't any smell at all. I tried to remember whether I'd smelled anything at all since I became a ghost. I didn't think so. Even when I'd hugged Yip, there hadn't been any puppy smell.

The hallway was crowded. There were a lot of people in the hospital.

Then I realized it wasn't just people. As I looked around, I saw that there weren't just doctors and nurses and patients in the hospital. There were also ghosts. Lots of ghosts.

 

Twelve

HOSPITAL HOSPITALITY

There was a man pacing up and down the hallway. I knew he was a ghost because all the doctors and nurses walked right through him.

I ran up to him and said, “Hi. Can you hear me?” I didn't really need to talk to anyone, since I was being fixed up and wouldn't be a ghost much longer, but I guess I just wanted to talk, anyhow.

The man glanced down at me, then shook his head and looked away. “My car. My poor car,” he said. “It's wrecked. They'll never be able to fix it. The whole thing is wrecked.”

“It's just a car,” I said. But it didn't look like he'd heard me. I walked down the hall a little more. There were three older kids—two boys and a girl. They looked like they were in high school. Sometimes high school kids scare me, because they're so big. But I figured it was okay to talk to them here in the hospital.

“Hi,” I said.

“It's your fault!” the girl was shouting at one of the boys.

“I'm Rory,” I told them.

“Hey,” the boy shouted back at the girl, “don't blame me! I didn't drink that much.”

I tried a little more to talk to them, but they were so busy shouting at each other and blaming each other that it was no use.

There was a woman down the hall from them. She didn't want to talk to me, either. Neither did the next two men I saw. They were all busy with their own problems. And I guess they were all just used to ignoring kids. I'm not going to be like that when I grow up. When I'm an adult, I'm going to listen to every little kid who ever talks to me.

It didn't matter if they ignored me. As soon as the doctors fixed me, I'd be able to talk to Becky and Tony and all my other friends. I might even be glad to see that bully, Pit Mellon, even though he stole one of my action figures last week. He pushes everyone around because he's bigger and stronger. It wasn't fair. No, I changed my mind—I wouldn't be glad to see Pit.

I'd been wandering around for a long time. I checked my watch. It was 7:53. I decided to go back and see if the doctors were almost finished fixing me. I figured it would probably be a good idea for me to be near my body when that happened. I went back down the hall. Even though I knew it was no use, I said hi to all the other ghosts. That's just the way I am. I like saying hi to people. They didn't pay any attention to me. Boy, was I getting used to that.

When I got back to the place where I was, I wasn't there. I mean, I was gone. The room was empty. I looked around to make sure it was the right place. It was. I remembered the poster on the wall, and the big machine in the corner with all the knobs and buttons.

Don't get scared,
I told myself. I had to be somewhere. I knew they must have moved me. I'd seen that on television. They bring people to the emergency room, then they move them so other people can get helped.

I ran down the hall, looking in all the rooms. I wasn't in any of them. I went up the stairs and started looking there. But the next floor was just X-ray machines and stuff like that.

So I went up another floor. Right away, I saw Sebastian and Angelina. They were sitting in this place that had a bunch of chairs. There was a table with magazines on it, too. I guess it was a waiting room. There was a big door behind them. When I walked up to the door, I could see Mom and Dad inside. I went through.

I saw myself in a bed. I looked away. There were still lots of needles and tubes in me.

A doctor was talking to Mom and Dad. “We're running tests,” the doctor said.

“How is he?” Mom asked.

“We're trying our best, but we have no idea what caused this.” the doctor said. “We're running every test we can think of. Unless we find out very soon…” He stopped talking and shook his head.

“Berries!”
I shouted at them. “I ate poison berries! You just have to look. They're right on the bush where you found me.”

“How long?” Dad asked.

“Twelve hours,” the doctor said.

“All you have to do is look,” I said.

Now Dad shook his head. “I knew he was too young for that bike. It's all my fault. He must have hit his head when he fell. I told him to wear his helmet.”

“I wasn't on my bike,” I said. Then I remembered how I had pushed myself away from the bushes and out into the middle of the yard—right next to the bike.

They'd never figure out about the berries. Not unless I found some way to tell them.

 

Thirteen

GETTING THROUGH IS HARD TO DO

There had to be some way to let them know about the berries. But they couldn't see me or hear me. And I couldn't touch anything. My hands went through everything. No. That wasn't true. I realized there was one thing I could touch—sort of. I could move myself. Maybe I could make my hands move. It would be like playing that game where you make people guess words just by using your hands.

I went over to my body. I really didn't like looking at me, on the hospital bed. My face was so pale, it looked like my real body was the ghost. But I had to do something. I put my hand through the bed under my body's hand. Then I started to push. It was almost like I was playing with a Rory puppet. That idea made me laugh.

Even better—it was working. My whole arm started to move up from the bed.

That's when everything went crazy all at once.
BEEEEEEP
!
An alarm started screeching and things started ringing and flashing and the doctor bent over me and the nurses came running in and Mom and Dad started shouting questions.

I jumped away from my body.

The alarms stopped.

“Some kind of stress,” the doctor said. “Something was putting an extra burden on his system.”

“What?” Dad asked.

“I wish I knew,” the doctor said. “I've seen it happen before, especially in unconscious patients, but we've never been able to explain it. Just be thankful it stopped so quickly. Sometimes, it doesn't stop at all. And then, we're in serious trouble.”

I stepped back some more, just to be safe. I guess I couldn't take any chances trying to move myself again. But what else could I do? At least I had more time. Before, I just had two hours. And I'd saved myself. This time, I had twelve hours. I checked my watch. It was 8:05. At night. That was easy to figure out. Twelve hours would be 8:05 again, but in the morning.

I jumped as I felt someone tugging on my arm.

“Hey, come on. Answer me.”

I looked down. There was a little kid next to me—one of those real little ones who aren't even in kindergarten yet. I think he might have been talking for a while. I'd heard something, but I hadn't paid any attention to it. I had my own problems.