Ann Martin - Kristy And The Haunted Mansion

"Kristy —" Watson said. His voice sounded strange. Then I heard him gulp, and he spoke again. "We'll be waiting for you," he said, trying to sound calm.

I felt tears come to my eyes. I knew there were tears in Watson's eyes, too. "Will you call the other parents?" I asked.

"You bet I will," said Watson. "It'll be my pleasure."

After we hung up, I ran back to the van. Charlie was already in the driver's seat. "Let's go!" I said. "They're waiting for us!" I was beaming, even though I could still feel a lump in my throat.

"Wait!" said Jerry. "I want to call my mom."

"Me, too," said Joey.

Suddenly a clamor arose from the back seats. Every kid wanted to make a phone call. I understood, but I knew we'd never get going if we had to wait for the kids to tell their parents what was going on. "My stepfather is going to call your parents," I said. "He promised. And the sooner we get going, the sooner we'll be home."

The kids seemed to understand. Charlie started up the van, and we were on our way home. We sang again, just like we had the morning before. (The game against the Raiders seemed like a week ago!") We sang the "Tomorrow" song from "Annie." We sang "Happy Days Are Here Again." We sang every happy, upbeat song I could think of. It felt so great to know that we'd be home soon. Less than an hour later, we were back in Stoneybrook. I can't tell you how good it was to drive by the familiar buildings. I was even happy to see my dentist's office. The kids were pointing out landmarks and acting as if they'd been away for months. "There's the library,"

19fl

said Karen, grabbing my hand. "Remember when you took me there and I got out the book about Frog and Toad?"

"Do I remember?" I asked. "I should hope so. It was only two days ago!"

Everybody laughed. Karen pouted for a second, but then she laughed, too. "Hey," she said, in the middle of a giggle. "Look! We're almost at Daddy's house."

Two minutes later, Charlie pulled into our driveway and honked the horn. Watson came striding out of the house to greet us, with my mom and Sam right behind him. And behind them was a huge crowd of people. I saw Karen's mother, and Buddy's parents, and Mrs. Rodowsky. I saw a whole bunch of Krushers: Margo and Claire Pike, Patsy and Jake Kuhn, and Hannie Papadakis. I saw a lot of adults I didn't know: they must have been Basher parents. Everybody was yelling and grinning and waving their arms around.

Watson and my mom caught me and David Michael and Charlie and Karen in a huge hug. My mom was sniffling, but she was smiling through her tears. "I knew you were all right," she said. "I just had a feeling." She knelt down to hug Karen again. Watson was shaking Charlie's hand, congratulating him on getting us home safely. Sam was pounding Charlie on the back. I looked around at the crowd.

"Kristy!" I heard someone call. "Over here!"

I looked toward the apple tree, and there they were: every other member of the BSC. Mary Anne was waving madly, and Mallory and Jessi were jumping up and down. Claudia, Dawn, and Stacey were holding up a huge banner. WELLCOME HOME, KRASHERZ! it said. I knew Claudia must have been responsible for that, since she can't spell to save her life. But, misspelled words and all, the banner was beautiful. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks as I ran to join my friends.

"We didn't want to get in the way of the family reunions," said Mary Anne. "But boy, are we glad to see you." She threw her arms around me. Then everybody else crowded in, and soon we were tangled up in a group hug. That's a BSC tradition, you know.

For the next half hour, everybody wandered around in our yard, hugging and laughing and crying and trading stories. Then, the yard began to clear out as parents took their kids home. I hugged the kids good-bye. I also hugged Bart, and he sneaked in a little kiss. Then I told my friends I'd see them later — we'd decided to have a special meeting of the BSC that afternoon — and went inside to take a shower and have something to eat.

Boy, was I happy to be home. To be in my

own house, with my own stuff. To open the refrigerator and see eight different things that I might want to eat. To lie down on my cozy, comfortable bed, and then to jump up again (I wasn't feeling at all tired, even though I'd barely slept the night before) and take a long, hot shower. Boy.

That afternoon, in Claud's room, I told the other BSC members about our stay in the famous haunted house on Sawyer Road. Just as I'd predicted, Dawn was green with envy. I tried to explain that there was no mystery left, but maybe I wasn't very convincing. That was partly because I wasn't totally convinced. Something was nagging at me — something about the story that hadn't been explained. But since I couldn't figure out what it was, I put it out of my head.

The others told me about their night, and about how worried they'd been. Then Claudia proposed that we have a real slumber party the following Friday night, to celebrate my return. We thought it was a great idea, and Stacey even agreed to take money out of the treasury for a pizza bash.

That night, as I lay in bed, all I could think of was that line from The Wizard of Oz: "There's no place like home. There's no place like home!" For the first time, I really understood what that meant.

Chapter 14.

"Okay, you guys," I said. "Listen, I think I've got it." Nobody paid any attention. They were all talking at once, and each of them was talking about something different. "Hey, come on!" I said, a little louder. "We have to get this settled." Still no response. The talking and giggling seemed even louder than before.

"Do you guys want pizza or not?" I finally yelled.

That got them. All of a sudden, I had everyone's undivided attention. It was Friday night, and every member of the BSC was at my house for a slumber party. I was about to order pizzas, but I needed to find out what everybody wanted on them. It isn't easy to order pizza for the seven of us; we all have strong feelings about our toppings! I'd spent the last half an hour trying to figure out how to order two large pizzas that would make everyone happy.

"Okay, here goes," I said. "One of the pizzas will have half with sausage — that's for Claudia and me — and half with onions, for Jessi and Dawn. That pizza will also have mushrooms all over it. The other pizza will have half extra cheese and pepperoni, for Mary Anne and Mal, and half plain, for Stacey and anybody else who isn't happy with what they got." I looked around the room. "How does that sound?" I asked. I crossed my fingers, hoping that everyone would agree with what I'd figured out.

"Uh, Kristy?" asked Claudia. "I think you forgot something." "Oh, no!" I said. "What?" "The topping we all love the most," said Claud. "Anchovies!" She rolled over on the bed, laughing hysterically. Everybody else cracked up too, including me. Actually I like anchovies, but everybody else hates them.

"Who really eats those things, anyway?" asked Stacey. "I mean, they are totally gross!" "You know who eats them?" I said. "Sam, that's who!"

Stacey shrieked. She and my brother Sam have had this on-again, off-again romance for awhile. I can't imagine what she sees in him, personally. "Ew, ew, ew!" Stacey was saying. "He really likes them?"

I nodded. I had the feeling that Stacey was re-thinking her relationship with Sam. "He

loves them," I added, just to rub it in. Then I headed for the kitchen, to phone in our pizza order.

When I returned to my room, I discovered that the others had started to tell ghost stories. The story of my night at the Sawyer house had spread, and ghosts had been a major topic of discussion that week, both in our meetings and at school. The other topic was how brave I, Kristy Thomas, was!

The first I'd heard about it was when Cokie Mason approached me in the hall late Tuesday morning. "Kristy," she said breathlessly, "I hate to admit it, but you are really awesome!"