Toby Ibbotson - Mountwood School for Ghosts

Then the apparition spoke. ‘I’ll have this water boiling in about three minutes, I reckon, Mr Bosse-Lynch.’

That was when Mr Bosse-Lynch screamed.

The Phantom Welder got a proper telling-off when he returned to number twelve. The other ghosts were waiting for him in the living room.

‘We agreed not to terrify our hosts,’ said Iphigenia. ‘What can you have been thinking?’

‘I wasn’t doing much thinking,’ replied the Phantom Welder, who was feeling very guilty now that he had calmed down a bit.

He explained about his past. The others couldn’t help but feel that he should be forgiven for his rash actions, even though when they had thought about it, and counted back on their fingers, they realized that the Bosse-Lynch whom he had terrified must be the son of the one who had killed him.

‘Well, they’re all the same breed, them capitalists,’ he said. ‘But I’ll make it up to you. I’ll get started right away, as soon as they start work in the morning.’

‘But surely you’re too tired for that now. You can’t stay up all day,’ said Kylie.

‘Don’t worry about me. I’ve worked double shifts before.’

There were no more secrets on Markham Street. After the Phantom Welder’s little adventure the whole thing had to be explained to everybody.

Mrs Wilder and Daniel and Charlotte’s parents already knew of the plan, but it came as quite a surprise to Mr Jaros and Karin Hughes and Peter and Jim. Jim Dawson, who was the kindest person you could ever hope to meet, was the one who found it hardest to accept.

‘I simply do not believe in ghosts,’ he said, when Charlotte tried to explain what was going on. ‘I’m a scientist, I’m not allowed to. It’s against the rules.’

‘Have you talked to Mr Bosse-Lynch?’

‘Yes, I have. I think he has a bad conscience about something in his family’s past, and he has been suppressing it; he must have had some kind of mental breakdown.’

‘Would you like to meet them?’

Jim laughed. ‘I certainly would, Charlotte. Bring them round any time.’

A large expensive car bounced up the rough track and drew up in front of the site office in Markham Park. Big Robby got out, slammed the door and took the steps up to the top hut two at a time.

‘What’s going on here?’ he growled as soon as he got through the door.

‘You tell us,’ said the foreman, who was sitting at the little table covered with plans that took up most of the space. ‘There’s a jinx on this place.’

‘Don’t give me that. Incompetence is more like it.’

‘How do you explain two forty-ton excavators suddenly starting to dance with each other, and their drivers just sitting there getting dizzy. It was a like a blasted funfair. How’s that incompetence?’

‘Those machines are so full of computer chips these days, no wonder they go haywire. Get someone on to it.’

‘Done it. Couldn’t find anything wrong. They’re working all right now. And what about one of the caterpillars on a bulldozer stuck fast, like it was welded to the axle? It just drove round and round in circles. And then there’s that.’

He got up and walked over to the window. Big Robby followed his gaze. A huge crane had been erected on the site; far out on the jib a metal plate had been fixed, with ‘Mayhew Construction Ltd’ painted on it. The words could now hardly be made out, because across them were scrawled the words ‘Up Your Bum’.

‘That’s sabotage! Have those words removed.’

‘Can’t be done. They’ve been burned into the metal. Been done with a gas cutter.’

‘What! How could they get up there?’

‘Don’t ask me.’

When Big Robby drove away from Markham Park he was furious. Jinx, eh? He wasn’t buying that. Sabotage pure and simple. He would have to buy in some security; more expense, more time wasted.

The Phantom Welder was in everybody’s good books now, and the others were raring to get in and play their part. They decided to start off that very night.

‘We must build it up slowly,’ explained Iphigenia, who had naturally enough taken on the role of artistic director. ‘We must work up to a climax. Pace is everything.’

So they decided that the advance party would consist of Kylie and the Druid. The others would have a quiet night. The next night it would be the Peabodys’ turn, with the Shortener. On the third night, as a grand finale, they would come in full strength.

There wasn’t much to do for the ones who had been left behind. For a while they simply enjoyed the silence, now that the Druid was out of the house.

Percy quickly got bored. ‘Please can I go and say hello to Daniel? Please!’

‘Perceval, we have told you—’

‘I’ll go with him,’ said Vera. ‘We will be very careful.’

She did so want to make herself useful.

‘Oh, very well.’

Vera took Percy by the hand, and they vanished. They passed invisibly through walls and across rooms until they came to number six.

‘Are you sure this is the right house?’ whispered Vera.

‘Yes, yes, Daniel’s room is at the top.’

‘But I thought they were a nice family. There is something black and ugly here.’

Vera’s wailing might be a disaster, but she was extremely sensitive.

Percy didn’t hear her; he was already bulging out of the wall above Daniel’s bed, ready to tell him all about the Phantom Welder’s bit of fun, and how Kylie and the Druid were going to start the ball rolling.

Vera waited until she heard Percy’s cheery voice, and Daniel’s sleepy tones replying. Then she floated off. He would be all right for a while, and she really did not like the atmosphere. She glided on up the street, coming to a house which felt kind and just right for her. She could wait there for a while, and then take Percy back.

The security guard who had been hired to patrol the perimeter of the construction site took his job seriously. He led a vicious Dobermann with a spiked collar on a thick leather lead. He had lots of things hanging from his belt. A truncheon, a torch, a two-way radio. He hoped that he would catch some hooligan trying to sneak in. That would liven things up a bit. As he paced along the chain-link fence that surrounded the site his dog suddenly stopped, lowered its head and emitted a threatening growl.

‘What’s up, Brute? You see something?’

Then he saw it too. A hooded figure was standing in front of him, inside the fence! He instantly bent down and slipped Brute’s lead.

‘Get ’im, Brute!’ he cried.

Brute snarled and leaped forward, his teeth bared. The figure threw back its hood, revealing a mass of golden hair and two twinkling blue eyes, which smiled at the dog hurtling towards it. Brute’s snarl died in his throat. He dropped to the ground and rolled over on to his back. The mysterious figure bent down and tickled his tummy. Brute squirmed with pleasure, then fell asleep.

The security guard stood there with his mouth half open, staring at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She stood up and gazed at him. Then she spoke.

‘We meet at last.’

‘But… I don’t know you.’

‘Nor I you, and yet I have dreamed of this meeting.’

She started to walk backwards, holding his gaze all the time with her enchanting blue eyes.

The guard held out his hand. ‘Stop, don’t go yet,’ he cried.

‘Where I go, you must follow…’

She moved further away, still facing him, moving effortlessly over the rough ground. The guard stumbled after her. They came to a deserted part of the site, where some traces of the park still remained, a few tired laurels and a patch of grass.

Kylie called in a soft voice, ‘Follow, follow…’ and turned her back on him.