'Tis the Season by Judith Arnold Read Free Book Online Page A

hoist her or something.
    â€œYou’ve spoiled everything,” he said, even though he knew that would set her off. He was just so mad.
    â€œI did not!” She charged up the path, pushing past him. “If there’s a ghost, I wanna see it, and you can’t stop me.”
    She was right about that—he couldn’t stop her. If he sent her back to the house, she’d wind up ringing the doorbell, and then Dad would know and come after him and he’d be in big trouble. He had no choice but to let her accompany him. It made him even angrier that she’d twisted things around to get her way. He knew a couple of swear words—the fifth graders used them all the time on the bus, and he’d heard his dad use the s-word a few times when he thought Billy wasn’t around. He whispered it under his breath and caught up to Gracie. If hewas going to wind up in trouble anyhow, he might as well swear.
    The woods weren’t too thick. They spread behind the houses on the side of the street where his house was, down a little dip and then up a rise to the clearing where the stone house stood. He supposed the house was on another street, but there were no other houses near it, so Billy guessed it was set back from the road by a long driveway. He’d tried to find the street on his bicycle once, but he’d come to a major road and there’d been too much traffic, so he’d turned around and biked home. But even if the stone house was hard to reach by the roads, it really wasn’t that far away if you just hiked through the woods.
    He and Gracie reached the clearing and paused by the forest’s edge, in the shadows. The house looked dark. It looked spooky, too, the porch overhang casting a black shadow, the roof steep. Gracie slipped her hand into his and he didn’t pull away. He would never admit he needed to hold her hand as much as she needed to hold his, but it helped to know he wasn’t alone, even if she was just a kid.
    â€œCome on,” he whispered. “And don’t make a sound.” He tugged her toward the house. She wasn’t so brave anymore; he practically had to drag her around to the side of the house. But she didn’t talk or whine or complain. Her slippers hardly made any noise on the grass.
    Nearing the side window, he positioned her against the wall, not too close to the window. “I’ll look first,” he whispered. “You stay out of sight.”
    She nodded. Her eyes appeared ready to pop again.
    Shrugging to make his shoulders feel bigger, he let go of her hand and crept up to the window, hunching slightlyso he wouldn’t be visible. When he reached the window, he straightened slowly until he could peek inside. What he saw made him gasp.
    Candles. Four of them, maybe five, flickering on a table where there used to be just a big white sheet. More candles were visible through the doorway in another room, creating little dancing shadows on the floor. And music! He could barely hear it through the thick glass, but it sounded weird and tinkly.
    He sank back down below the edge of the window and ran over to Gracie. “Did you see the spirit?” she asked.
    He shook his head. “But there’re candles all over the place.”
    â€œCandles?”
    â€œYeah. And they’re lit.”
    â€œLike on a birthday cake?”
    â€œNo, like in candlesticks. On tables and stuff.”
    â€œI wanna see!”
    â€œShh.” He glanced toward the window, thinking. If he didn’t believe in ghosts—which he didn’t—then the candles must have been lit by a person. Which meant someone was inside the house. Which meant that if the person inside saw them spying through the window, that person could do something bad, like chase them or call the police, or maybe even pull a gun on them and shoot them. Billy just didn’t know.
    Gracie started revving up. “I wanna see,” she said in the whiniest whisper