Ann Martin - Dawn On The Coast

Chapter 9.

Well, some things never change. When you baby-sit for Karen Brewer, there's bound to be ghosts involved, or witches with magic spells, or some such spookiness. Jessi had taken a job at the Brewers' for Saturday afternoon. Kristy was going shopping with her mother, and Sam, Charlie, and Watson were out who knows where. That left the younger ones — David Michael, Karen, and Andrew — in need of a sitter, so Jessi filled the job.

Kristy's mom walked Jessi around the house, giving her all the usual information — showing her where the emergency numbers were, the snacks, etc. Of course, Kristy followed right behind. Sometimes you'd think Kristy was the Baby-sitting Police, not just the president of our club.

"Aren't you going to ask about the first-aid kit?" she prompted Jessi.

"Uh, yeah," Jessi stumbled.

"It's right in the medicine cabinet," Kristy's mom said, smiling.

Mrs. Brewer could hardly get Kristy away from Jessi and out the door.

"Shannon and Boo-Boo have been fed," Kristy called from the doorway, "and the plants have been watered, and the dishwasher's run through."

"And the lawn has been mowed/' Kristy's mom teased, "and the house has been painted, and the telephone bill's been paid."

Kristy blushed furiously.

"Okay, 'bye," she called to Jessi.

Jessi picked up Andrew and together they waved good-bye.

"Well," Jessi said, when the door had closed. "Now it's just the four of us."

"Oh, no," Karen said firmly. "Five. Ben Brewer."

"Right," Jessi smiled.

"Come on," Karen said, grabbing Jessi's hand. "Time to play Let7s All Come In."

"Oh, no," groaned David Michael.

Let's All Come In is a favorite game of Karen's, if you can call it a game. She gets everyone to pretend that they're different characters in a hotel lobby, checking in. What it really is, is an excuse to play dress-up. Karen dresses up in a long black dress and a hat, and the boys wear sailor caps. I think David Michael has played this game one time too many.

"Andrew and I were in the middle of building a Lego city," he said. "Weren't we, Andrew?"

"Yup," Andrew agreed.

"Looks like it's just you and me," Karen said to Jessi.

"You, me, and Ben Brewer," Jessi smiled.

Jessi got the boys settled back in David Michael's bedroom, where there really was a Lego city in progress.

"I'm the architect," David Michael said importantly, "and Andrew is the construction boss. Right, Andrew?"

"Right," Andrew smiled. Construction boss sounded pretty good to him.

Karen took Jessi to her room and began to root through the trunk she kept her dress-up clothes in.

"Hmm," she said, looking Jessi up and down. "Do you want to be a cocktail waitress or do you want to be coming from the society ball?"

"Society ball, of course," Jessi replied.

"I don't think I have anything here to fit you," Karen said slowly. "You know what that means?"

"What?" asked Jessi.

"That means" — there was an ominous tone in Karen's voice — "we have to go to the other clothes trunk. And it's on the third floor."

If this had been a movie, right at that moment scary music would have sounded. The third floor was, after all, where Karen believed Ben Brewer lived. As it was, the only sound was

the nervous tapping of Karen's little foot. She twisted her fingers and bit her lip.

"I don't know," she said.

"We don't have to play Let's All Come In," said Jessi.

Well, that decided it for Karen.

"Oh, yes we do," she said with great conviction. "We can't let a ghost rule our lives."

Karen took Jessi's hand and squeezed it firmly but bravely.

"Come on," she said.

For her, I think, being scared is half the fun.

Karen led Jessi up the narrow staircase that leads to the third floor of the Brewer mansion. The third floor is seldom used. The house is so big that the first and second floors can comfortably house the whole family, large as it is. The third floor is really only used for storage. It's like one big attic, even though it's sectioned into rooms.

As they neared the top of the stairway, Karen began to creep.

"Aughhh!" she screamed suddenly.

"What is it?" Jessi asked.

Karen's eyes, big as saucers, focused on the top of the bannister. She didn't say anything, she just pointed.

There, in the dust that covered the wood

bannister, someone had etched the words 'Turn Back!"

"Maybe we should," said Jessi. She didn't believe in the ghost, and yet . . .

"There's no turning back now," Karen said dramatically. She pressed ahead.

Karen crept down the hall to the room where the other trunk was stored. The door was closed, but not completely. It was open a small crack. Karen pushed the door slowly. CRASH! A can clattered on the floor in front of them and water splattered from the can all over their shoes and legs.

Of course, Karen screamed again. At this point, though, Jessi began to be skeptical. The door had obviously been booby-trapped. Why would a ghost booby-trap a door with a can full of water? It seemed to Jessi that the tricks a ghost would play would be, somehow, more ghostly. This seemed more like a practical joke. And if she had to name a practical joker in the house, she was pretty sure she knew who that might be.

Karen swung the door open wide and stomped loudly into the room.

"Ben Brewer!" she called out. "We're coming in. You can't stop us. We've made up our minds."

Karen marched over to the large dusty trunk,

unlatched it, and opened its lid. The smell of mothballs flooded the room. Karen lifted up a dark blue crushed velvet dress that lay across the top of the pile.

"How about this dre — " she started to say, but her eye caught a note that had been tucked underneath the gown. The note was written in a thick, dark red ink.

"Blood-red," Karen whispered.

She picked up the note and read it.

"Death to all who enter here," it said.

Karen stood frozen, fixed in one spot. Her face paled.

"I think we better go back downstairs," she said to Jessi. Her voice was small and shaking. She dropped the note. It fluttered to the floor. She walked out of the room, gliding, like a sleepwalker or a zombie.

Jessi picked up the note and looked it over. The paper had been torn off a notepad. On the other side was a printed logo.

"SHS," it said.

SHS. Stoneybrook High School.

Jessi folded the note and put it in her pocket. She followed Karen back downstairs.

When Kristy and her mom got home, Karen ran down to the front hallway, frantic to tell them all the latest evidence.

"It proves," she said, "that Ben Brewer is

living right up there on the third floor. How do we know he won't come down?" she asked. "How do we know he doesn't want to take over the second floor, too?"

As it happened, Sam and Charlie pulled in the driveway right after Kristy and their mom. When Sam came in, Karen was going on about the ghost.

"The note was written in blood," she said, then shuddered."I wonder whose."

Sam smirked and nudged Charlie. Mrs. Brewer shot a look at Sam. He shrugged innocently.

"I wonder how another child would fit into all this," Mrs. Brewer wondered aloud.

"Another child?" Kristy asked. "What do you mean?" Mrs. Brewer shrugged distractedly. Kristy shook her head and followed her mom into the kitchen with Karen trailing behind. Jessi pulled the note out of her pocket and handed it to Sam.

"Lose something?" Jessi asked.

Sam grinned sheepishly and shoved the note quickly into his pocket.

Kristy came out of the kitchen.

"Of course this ghost incident will have to be written up in the club notebook," she said. "You realize that all the other club members

should be aware of anything this important." Jessi told me later she just smiled and nodded. Ben Brewer was living in the mansion, all right. It was Sam Brewer who'd made sure of that.