Ghost House by Carol Colbert Read Free Book Online

Suzanne
looked at her mom in obvious confusion. Suzanne then realized that
they had never had a pet before, so Suzanne would not automatically
know that dogs were washed either outside or in the laundry tub in
the basement.
    “You are so stupid, Suzanne!” Riley said.
“You are stupid!” Suzanne shot back. Sarah took Suzanne into the
bathroom and told her to take off her wet clothes and told her to
throw them down the chute. Both girls looked at their mother. “The
coal chute?” Riley asked her.
    Sarah showed the girls the little square door
at the end of the hallway in the wall. She opened it and told them
that was a laundry chute. She explained that you put your clothes
in it and they fall into a basket in the basement. That made it
easier on wash day, because you didn’t have to carry the dirty
clothes down the stairs.
    “Wow!” Riley said. “They keep coming up with
new stuff all the time!” “Actually,” their mother said, “I doubt
they make those chutes anymore, the houses mostly had them a long
time ago. I haven’t seen one in a very long time. Our house in
Tennessee didn’t have one.”
    Riley said that she did not remember seeing a
basket in the basement that the clothes would fall into. “You are
correct, Riley, thanks for reminding me!” “Another thing for the
list!” Suzanne said.
    Sarah cleaned up her daughter and the
bathroom and took the wet throw rug and towels and went down the
stairs to do a load of laundry. Cooper was down there sitting on
Riley’s bed, Freddie at his feet. He ran and jumped up against
Sarah’s leg. Sarah noticed how Cooper smelled. Oh no, Suzanne
used my expensive hair conditioner on him.
    Sarah was just putting the liquid washing
detergent into the washer when she heard loud music coming from
upstairs and the sound of several shoes against the hard wood
floor, like people dancing. I see now why apartments always have
carpeting . I never realized how loud shoes sound walking on
hard wood floors from a lower level. She heard laughing
and talking.
    “Riley, turn down the TV.” Sarah called up
the stairs, but the noise continued. Sarah washed her hands in the
laundry tub and went back upstairs. As soon as she got to the top
of the stairs, the noise stopped altogether.
    “You didn’t have to turn the TV all the way
off, Riley, just down.” Sarah said walking into the living room.
There was no one there, the television was not on. She went into
her and Jim’s bedroom, the only other place there was a TV, but
their room was also unoccupied.
    Sarah was looking in Suzanne’s bedroom when
she heard the back screen door slam. She walked into the kitchen
and saw Riley and Suzanne taking cookies out of the cookie jar.
Suzanne started to hand one to Cooper.
    “No, Suzanne, those have chocolate in them.
Chocolate can make dogs very sick. Give Cooper one of his treats.”
“O.K. mom” “Were you girls outside for a while?” Sarah asked them.
“Riley was looking for some boy over the fence.” Suzanne tattle
tailed. “I was not!” Riley said.
    Sarah walked over to the front door and
opened it. No one there. Strange. “Did you girls have the TV
on before you went outside?” “No, nothing on TV during the day but
soap operas.” Riley said.
    That night at dinner, Jim told his family
that the next day was bring your daughter to work day.
    “What is that, daddy?” Suzanne asked. “It is
a day that I can bring you girls and show you where daddy works and
what I do for a living.” Their dad said. “What you do to live?”
Suzanne asked.
    “Daddy means what he does that his company
pays him for so he can take care of us and buy food to eat.” Sarah
said. “Are they going to pay me too?” Suzanne asked. “No, dummy!”
Riley said. “We just go and watch daddy work.” “Oh.” Suzanne said,
all the enthusiasm out of her voice now. “Can Cooper go too?” “No
honey just you and Riley. It will be fun and we can go out to lunch
and I even get to leave earlier