Ghost at the Drive-In Movie by Gertrude Chandler Warner Read Free Book Online

on both their sides,” said Violet. “He wants to buy the theater from Uncle Flick. And he needs to get along with Mr. Duke next door.”
    “Well, maybe he didn’t really mean what he said,” Jessie said. “Maybe he says things that he thinks other people want to hear. He seems very good at that.”
    “But he’s not good at watching movies!” Benny said suddenly. The other children turned and looked at him. What on Earth did he mean?
    Benny pointed to the movie screen. It showed the scene in Pirate Spy when the captain found the buried treasure chest. The captain grinned as he dug it out of the sand.
    “Remember when I told Dan Brinker that this was my favorite scene?” Benny asked. “Then he said he liked it too. He said he liked when the captain opened up the chest and found the gold! But that’s not what really happened in the movie. Look!”
    The children watched the movie as the captain opened the treasure chest. His smile vanished. The chest was empty!
    “That’s right!” Henry exclaimed. “We all thought there would be gold in the chest—but there wasn’t! Dan must have forgotten about that part of the movie.”
    “But it’s a really important part of the movie,” said Jessie. “It changes the whole story. And Dan Brinker has seen the movie more than once—just like us!”
    “Maybe he didn’t really watch it closely,” said Violet. “Maybe he was busy doing something else.”
    Jessie wrote that down in her notebook, too. Then she looked at the list again. “Now we know what everyone wants, but we still don’t know what’s going on! Or what this has to do with the ghost!”
    “Maybe it’ll all make sense later,” said Henry. “And as for the ghost, I think we should go look for it tonight.”

CHAPTER 7
To Catch a Ghost
    It was late when the second movie ended and the last of the cars had left the drive-in theater. Uncle Flick had returned to the house, and all seemed quiet outside.
    Watch stood at the door to the porch. He wanted to go for one last walk before bedtime.
    “We’ll take him,” Jessie told Grandfather. The children put on their shoes and found their flashlights. Jessie picked up Watch’s leash. Then they walked across the lawn of the Fletcher house toward the theater. Everything was dark—except for the neon sign that read DUKE’S DOGS. It shone brightly in the distance.
    “Look, Mr. Duke’s sign is fixed!” said Violet. “We were so busy tonight we didn’t even notice.”
    The children and Watch walked towards the sign to get a closer look. When they had gotten as close as they could, they were behind the movie screen. They were close enough to the road to hear cars going by. Though it was night, the Aldens didn’t need their flashlights, because the pink and orange glow of the big neon sign was so bright. It lit up the back of the screen.
    “Wow,” said Jessie. “The other day I thought that someone was hiding something back here. But it’s too bright to hide anything! You can see almost everything from the road.”
    “But wait,” Violet said. “What if that’s why the sign was broken last night?”
    Henry thought about this. “That’s possible. All along we’ve thought someone broke the sign to make Mr. Duke angry. But maybe somebody wanted it to be dark back here.”
    “But why?” Jessie said. “There’s nothing here.” She looked on the ground by the screen. Nothing.
    Violet wasn’t looking at the ground. She was looking up and she saw something along the top of the screen. Had that always been there? she wondered. It was high up and hard to see. She wanted to look closer. But then Benny made her forget what she was doing.
    “Ghost!” he said, in a very loud whisper. “Ghost!” Watch started barking, too.
    The children turned and saw the ghostly figure. It walked along a fence in the theater lot. The children hurried out to see it better. But while Jessie, Violet, and Benny raced towards the ghost, Henry did not. He turned and ran