Ann Martin - Kristy And The Haunted Mansion

Finally, the BSC has two associate members. They don't usually come to meetings, but they're ready to help out whenever we're swamped with too much work. One of them is a girl named Shannon Kilbourne, who lives

in my new neighborhood, and the other is Logan Bruno, who happens to be Mary Anne's boyfriend!

There. Now you know everything there is to know about the BSC. And now I can finish telling you about what happened after the game that day. That fateful day, as Mallory might say, if she were writing one of her stories.

Chapter 3.

At the ball field, the rain began to fall harder, and the clouds were growing darker by the minute. The air was heavy, and the sky was turning a funny greenish color. My friends ran for their parents' cars, yelling good-bye as they dashed through the rain. Nicky Pike pulled on my arm. "Kristy," he said, "I'm going to ride home with my parents, okay?"

"Sure, Nicky," I replied. "That van was pretty crowded, wasn't it?"

He nodded.

"Got your glove?" I asked.

He held it up. "Okay, then," I said. "See you soon. Congratulations on a great game!" I gave him a high five, and he ran off toward the Pike station wagon.

Soon only Bart and Charlie and I, plus the rest of the Krashers, were left on the field.

"Let's get our stuff together," I said. "Looks like it's going to start pouring any minute now." Charlie left to pull the van around so that we could load it up, and Bart and I started to gather the equipment. The kids ran around pretending to help, but I noticed that most of them were playing, instead. Karen was trying to catch raindrops on her tongue. David Michael, Buddy, and Jerry were running and sliding on the wet grass. Jackie was practicing his batting stance, and Chris and Patty and Joey were playing "monkey in the middle" with one of our softballs.

Bart and I looked at each other, shrugged, and started to load up the van. "Okay," I said, when we were finished. "Let's get going!" Nobody paid attention. The rain was falling more heavily. Bart cupped his hands around his mouth. "Last one in the van is a rotten egg!" he yelled. That got them going. The kids piled into the van, jostling each other and calling out dibs on the window seats. Bart and I climbed in last, and as soon as we'd taken a quick head count, Charlie started the van and we were on our way.

Just as we reached the main intersection in Redfield, the storm let loose. I heard a tremendous clap of thunder and saw the sky flash with lightning. Rain poured down, making it hard to see through the windshield. Charlie peered ahead, then slowed down, watching for road signs.

In the back of the van, Patty burst into tears. "I'm scared of thunder!" she wailed. I reached my hand over the seat to grab hers.

"It's okay," I said. "We're safe in the van. Safe and dry, in our cozy little van." I ,was trying to sound soothing, but it wasn't easy. I happen to be a little scared of thunder myself. Well, not thunder, but lightning. I'm old enough to know that thunder can't hurt you, but lightning can. This fear of mine is a deep, dark secret. Everybody thinks I'm fearless, but the truth is that I never feel totally at ease during a thunderstorm. I'm always reading these articles about people being struck by lightning and having their zippers welded shut and stuff, and the idea just scares the daylights out of me. But, because I'm scared of lightning, I've also learned a lot about it. I know how to stay safe during a storm (don't go under a tall tree, for example, since lightning is attracted to the tallest point in a landscape), and it just so happens that one of the safest places you can be is in a car. Because of the rubber tires, I think. So anyway, I felt pretty confident in telling Patty that we were safe. The rain poured down harder, and the thunder boomed even louder. I saw lightning flash to the ground up ahead, and I winced. Some of the other kids were beginning to whimper a little now, and I felt Karen's hand sneak into mine. She was sitting on one side of me, and Bart was on the other. I turned to him. "Some storm, huh?" I said, trying to sound casual.

He nodded, but he seemed distracted. He was looking ahead, through the windshield. "Charlie," he said, suddenly. "Weren't we supposed to turn right at that light?"

"I don't think so," said Charlie. "Our turn is near a big fence with vines climbing over it. Isn't it? I've been watching for it."

"I saw that fence," said Jackie, who was sitting in the front seat next to Charlie. "It was way back that way." He pointed in the opposite direction. "Are you sure?" asked Charlie.

"Pretty sure," said Jackie.

"Well, I'm just going to keep going for a mile or so," said Charlie. "Maybe there's another turn we can take."

By this time, we'd left the town of Redfield and were driving along a road with fewer houses. Big trees arched over the road, their branches tossing in the wind. We were practically crawling along, since Charlie could hardly see to drive. The windshield wipers just could not keep up with the rain that was washing down over the van. Charlie was hunched over the wheel with his face close to the windshield. "I think we can turn up here," he said. He sounded kind of tense, the way he does before his team has a big football game.

By this time, there was an odd silence in the van, broken only by Patty's sniffles and the sound of gasps every time a bolt of lightning lit up the world outside the van. The kids needed to be distracted from the storm. "Hey, how about if we all sing?" I suggested, trying to sound enthusiastic. "Let's do 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,' okay?" I launched right into it. "Take me out to the ballgame." But nobody joined in. I looked around at the scared little faces. "Don't like that song?" I asked. "Okay, how about another? Jackie, you choose."

"I can't think of any songs," said Jackie quietly. He was gazing out the window.

I gave up, and decided just to sit quietly.

"Hey, Charlie," said Bart. "Maybe we should go back to that little general store we passed awhile ago. They might have a phone, or maybe we could ask for directions."

"Good idea," said Charlie. He slowed down and turned the van around. "How far back was it?" he asked.

"Not too far, I think," said Bart. "It was near that big barn."

By this time we were really in the country.

The woods were deep along the sides of the road, and I hadn't seen another car pass us in quite awhile. I hadn't seen many houses, either. At least the rain had let up a little, enough so we could see out the windows.

"Take a right here!" said Bart, when we came to a crossroads. "I'm pretty sure the store was down this road."

"Okay," said Charlie. "But I don't remember —”

The rest of his sentence was drowned out by a loud clap of thunder. Karen put her hands over her ears, and Patty wailed. Charlie just drove on.

We crossed a little bridge that I didn't remember seeing before, and everybody stared out the windows at the swollen stream that ran beneath it. The water ran up over the creek's banks, wild and wavy and full of foam. I saw a couple of good-sized branches being carried along and realized that the water was moving very fast.

"Wow," said Chris. "Look at that!"

"Forget the stream," said Jackie. "Check out that house!"

"Oooh," said three or four of the kids. I peered out the window to see what they were looking at. A huge, imposing brick house stood high on a hillside. A long drive led to it, winding through clumps of tall trees. There

were no flowers in the yard, no clothesline, no birdbath. I thought I saw a few lights on in the house, but somehow it still looked empty and abandoned. I felt a chill run down my spine. There was something creepy about the place.

"Whoa!" said Charlie, breaking into my thoughts. The van came to a sudden stop. "Oh, man, now what are we going to do?" he asked. I looked through the windshield and saw what he was talking about. Another stream and another bridge were in front of us. But this stream was out of control, and the bridge was almost completely washed away!