The Adventures of Anna of Waverly Manor by Jack Sorenson
Anna answered, "It was laughter from that little girl."
"Why?"
"It's a way of feeling good, or she found something was funny."
"This child laughs and giggles all the time. Is she simple-minded?"
"No," Anna replied. "Just happy in her own world. She is living her life to the fullest."
Tomfoolery and Boo raised their eyebrows and opened their eyes wider.
"Happy humans, good grief," Tomfoolery grinned.
"I'll have them out in a week," Anna said with her wand in hand.
The little girl bounced her rubber ball off her bedroom walls, shaking dust loose from the attic rafters.
What's your plan, Anna?" Tomfoolery asked eagerly.
"Hmm, I want to see a bit more before I make my final plan. There are three this time, which might prove to be difficult."
"Oh, goodie." Tomfoolery sneered through the knothole. "We're going for the countdown to a new witching hour." He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
Boo looked to Anna and then to Tomfoolery and said, "Really, Anna, so soon? We haven't had a chance to see what they have in their icebox."
Tomfoolery grumbled, "You always worry about your belly. Must you fret?"
Boo defended himself. "It's been over a year since I last ate. The icebox has been empty since the Milfoils left."
The father to the family set down his suitcase. He was a tall, thin man with brown hair and a beard. His wife, an eye-catching blonde, had a body meant for beauty and grace. And then their little daughter had playful, loving eyes that glowed and a face that livened up the old place. Anna saw right off that she was of no harm.
The father spoke to the mother. "Honey, what do you think? Is it home for the next few years? I'll make enough money with this new job to send little Jackie to a good school."
The wife replied, "I feel it has potential. We can fix it up, and it will be a nice place for the three of us. I can hardly wait to see the kitchen."
The child said, "Mommy, can we make cookies tonight?"
Anna's eyes followed them and Boo hovered closer and said, "Someone say cookies?"
The father scratched his beard, looked around and muttered, "What a creepy old place. Of all the places for the company to send me to…good grief."
Anna stood. "Creepy, huh?" She stomped her boot heel on the attic floor and it rained down dust and old cobwebs onto the father below. "I'll show you how creepy things can be," she said, winking at Boo and Tomfoolery. "Tonight starts the witching hour."
"Oh boy," Boo said. "Fresh souls to play with on a dark spooky night." He fell backward into Tomfoolery.
"Hey!" Anna shouted. "Watch where you're falling! We have to be quiet now that there are humans downstairs. Wait until it gets dark before we monkey about."
Boo said, "Sorry."
Tomfoolery yelled, "Another fine mess you got me into! Can you get off me?"
CHAPTER 7
Anna was fun loving and sweet for a girl of sixteen. Boo and Tomfoolery knew she could be wild and reckless at times, but her temperament wasn't meant to harm anyone she haunted or spelled. For a young witch, she disliked many of the normal addictions of the living, which possibly stemmed from her own life when she was alive.
For anyone who inhabited the manor, they were all free game to Anna to haunt, spell and spook. Anna liked to use her magic to annoy her human occupants, and this time was no exception.
Anna jumped on her broom and flew around the attic, thinking to herself, We have had the manor for a year or more. It will be hard to get use to the living once again. "You can run, but you can't hide!"
She sped past Boo for the fourth time on her broomstick.
Boo asked Tomfoolery, “Who’s hiding?”
"No one, silly. Anna is thinking. She's got a new plan, I bet!"
"I hope it's nothing too drastic," Boo said. "I'm hungry!"
Anna said, "Boo, you and that bellyache of yours for the living's food never stops."
When night finally came, she asked the boys to come over and she waved her wand around them three times, which conjured spooky voices from both of them. The sounds of wicked laughter grew up around the floorboards of the manor.
"Hey, that was great, Anna," Tomfoolery said. "I had no idea I could reach notes at that level."
"Human inhabitants hiding under their sheets yet?" Anna asked.
Tomfoolery made his first round down the hallways, rattling his chains. Anna cast her wand again to produce bats on the ceiling, hoping to drive the residents out. Steve and Amanda shivered and shook in their bed. All they wanted to do was close their eyes tight and dream that they were somewhere else.
The night crept on slowly for them. Something yanked their bed covers back to reveal shivering bodies. Even the grandfather clock quit ticking for the night. The resident mice locked up their mouse holes with keys hidden under their little pillows. The owl that hooted sat in the tree and watched the horror begin with his big, round, yellow eyes.
Boo flew around the halls and Tomfoolery floated throughout the rafters, knocking at the walls and banging and rattling his chains. Boo got his horn next and when he blew into it, the sound seemed to shake the whole house like it overflowed with thousands of ghosts. Then he went to the basement and shook the pipes, making everyone think the old manor was being knocked down board-by-board.
Anna, Tomfoolery and Boo found out that Jackie was a special child who lived in her own world and had a greater imagination than theirs. That night, in her bare feet and nightgown, she made her way up to the attic with her teddy bear named Russell to see where the sounds came from.
CHAPTER 8
Brave little Jackie held Russell close and came to a small pinhole of light in the attic. She stood up on her tiptoes and peered into a room no one knew about. The room looked dusty, filled with old boxes and trunks and furniture nobody wanted. In a moment, though, a noise made her look in the corner.
A witch!
She blinked and looked again.
The witch wore a black dress with a lacy ruffled white blouse, striped orange and black stockings, black boots with a pointed toe, and a dark cloak. An oversized hat helped keep her thick red hair out of her face. But nothing could hide her brilliant green eyes.
Two ghosts stood beside the witch — one, tall and thin, and another, short and dumpy, wearing a tailored vest. To Jackie's amazement, they straddled the broomstick behind the witch and took off out the oval window. Running to another window, Jackie could see their silhouette against the moon.
From then on, Jackie enjoyed spying on the two ghosts and the little witch girl. Late at night when the moon came across the yard big, beautiful and round, Jackie would smile at the old man in the moon and his magic, sparkling eyes. She knew precisely when the attic residents would take off to the night sky on another joyous broomstick ride. Watching the three get ready for their nightly ride was something she marveled over. Jackie would lie in bed and wait for the old grandfather clock to strike midnight. Tick...tock — Bong! the clock would sound twelve times. She would grab her sleepy bedtime buddy, Russell, and head upstairs, tiptoeing to the knothole night after night.
Jackie would whisper to Russell, "Shhh. We must step quietly so the ghosts will not hear us." Russell would only stare back with his brown button eyes.
After they disappeared in the night sky, Jackie gasped at the many new things she saw. "Wahoo-wee!" She'd go back to bed, tuck Russell in beside her, and wonder where they went and what magic they did.
Jackie was smart enough not to say a word to her parents about the magical place in the attic. When each morning arrived, Jackie came downstairs to eat her breakfast without a word about what went on the night before. She enjoyed watching Anna, Tomfoolery and Boo leave the attic by broomstick and wondered if she would be able to go on a ride. This was her deepest hope and prayer as she giggled to herself while she imagined being on that broom.
* * *
One night, close to midnight, Anna knew it w
as time to fly. Each and every time was a joyous adventure as they rode on Anna's broomstick.
Anna dusted off her witch’s hat and placed a new owl feather in the band, first flopping it back on top of her head and then letting it fall past her eyes. She would blow on it and, like a puff of air, the feather would push its way back into the hat again. Anna told Tomfoolery and Boo that the owl feather helped with magical spells and made the broomstick come alive and fly.
Tomfoolery shook and rattled his chains and Boo cleaned and shined his earth shattering brass horn that made the living's hair stand on end when he blew it on the back of Anna's broomstick. Anna knew to wait until everyone in the manor was fast asleep, checking through all the floorboards first. Jackie played along and kept her eyes shut until she saw the witch's shadow move across her ceiling, peeking with one eye half opened.
When Anna, Tomfoolery and Boo felt it was safe, they opened the attic's oval, stained-glass window, making sure the hinges didn't squeak. They stepped out to the ledge and readied themselves for takeoff. Anna waited for the owl sitting across the way to signal with three hoots that all was clear in the neighborhood.
Jackie heard the owl and knew they were on another adventure. She wondered about the three occupants, who they might be and why they were here. Then she sat up in bed with an idea bouncing around her mind. What if...what if she met them? The idea both thrilled and scared her. She didn't normally like meeting people. But, these weren't really people...they were ghosts. Giving Russell a tight hug, she made up her mind. As soon as she could, she would talk to them!
CHAPTER 9
Early one Saturday morning, Anna woke up to find an attic bat upside down over her bed, staring at her. She sighed, rolled over and tried to get back to sleep. While she lay there, she thought back on the past two weeks and smiled to herself. With just a little more work, the father would be scared enough to pack up and leave. That thought made her want to get up and see what the family was doing.
It rained heavily the night before and her two friends were feeling a little cooped up. Keeping everyone quiet during the daylight hours was hard work, even after making dozens of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Boo and Tomfoolery to keep them still.
Anna looked at the wall mirror that day when she passed it. "Oh my! What a fright my hair has become after the rain. The humidity is dreadful for my wavy long locks." The damp air made her red hair frizzy under her big, black, pointy hat and sprawl out in many different directions. Boo laughed, seeing Anna worried about her red hair. When she scowled at him and pointed her spell-casting finger, he decided to go downstairs and check on the McCaulou's refrigerator. He was still hungry.
A ride on my broom tonight will straighten that mess right out, Anna thought. When Boo returned, he and Tomfoolery hovered over the stained glass window and watched the outside world go by. Dark gray clouds filled the sky as far as they could see. Bare tree branches dripped. The house eaves dripped. They preferred cloudy days, but they hated dripping raindrops! Time was so slow it almost seemed to come to a stop.
Anna said, "Look to the clouds, boys. They are swimming past us, getting farther and farther away. Soon it will be clear, then we'll have our fun. Maybe down the road we'll do some haunting in that small white cottage where that young family lives. Would that be fun? If they run, we can chase them on the broomstick into the forest and have some real fun playing hide-and-seek witchery style."
They shrugged and didn't answer, looking bored as they watched Jackie outside with her mother, playing in her yellow rain slicker on her slide and jungle gym.
"Are you all right?" Anna asked. She took out her wand, walked over to the table and cast a spell. "How about this, guys?" A huge pizza, the size of the table, appeared. Tomfoolery hovered by to take a look.
"No, huh?" She sounded disappointed.
He just shook his head and went back to the window.
"What about this?" Anna tapped the tip of her yellow and orange wand three times onto the wooden table and the pizza became a checker board.
Boo hovered by, took a look, moved one checker piece and flew away.
"Tough crowd today, boys. What's the matter?"
Tomfoolery and Boo went back to the window and watched Jackie and her mother having fun on the slide and the double swing.
"Do you want to sneak out there tonight and play on the swing like the little girl does?" Anna asked.
"Can Jackie come, too?" Tomfoolery said.
"It would be too late for Jackie to come out and play. Besides, she doesn't know we exist."
Boo didn't want to tell Anna that he already met the little girl last week when he went down to the icebox for his daily raid. He had lifted the ice cream out of the freezer and while it hovered in the air, he took a spoon from the kitchen counter. When he turned around, he heard a tiny voice too sweet and darling to be scared.
Jackie looked up to Boo with her big blue eyes and said, "May I have some ice cream too, please?" with her hand reached out.
"You shouldn't have ice cream before dinner," Boo told her.
Jackie argued with Boo, but he said he was the adult in the room and therefore in charge.
"But I'm hunnnggrryyy!" she wailed and focused those sweet blue eyes on him.
"Oh, all right. Get yourself a spoon and a bowl and sit at the table."
Jackie gave him a big smile and did as she was told. Boo and Jackie sat at the breakfast table and enjoyed their ice cream together, but Boo could tell something was wrong.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
She tried to respond with the spoon in her mouth, but only mumbled.
"You would speak clearer if you took the spoon out of your mouth," he said.
"I'm not allowed to go in the haunted attic, am I? I've been up there and I can see all of you having so much fun."
Boo winced. "Are you by yourself when you see us?"
"Yes, of course. Well, me and Russell."
"Russell? Who's he?"
"My teddy bear."
Boo was relieved. "I'll have to ask Anna first."
"Who's that?" Jackie asked.
"She's the witch that lives with us. She's our friend."
"The witch I’ve seen? With long red hair?"
"Yes," Boo answered, careful not to say too much to Jackie. Anna would be upset if she knew he told Jackie about their hidey hole in the attic.
"Best to put that out of your mind. Anna will be mad if you go in there without her permission. It's scary in there!"
"Oh, all right." Jackie swung her feet back and forth from the chair and took another bite of bubblegum ice cream. "Well, play out here with me then."
"What do you want to do?" Boo asked.
"I don't know. You're a ghost, right?"
"Yup!"
"Can you do any magic tricks?"
"Nope, but Anna can."
"Really?" Jackie said, "I'd like to meet her."
"Well maybe one day," Boo said, cleaning up the bowls and spoons, placing them back where he found them so no one know he and Jackie ate together.
"That would be neat!"
Boo took Jackie back to the living room and placed her in front of the T.V.
"Bye for now," he said and floated up the stairs.
* * *
But now, at the rainy window, he stayed silent, wondering about Jackie and how long he could keep their secret from Anna.
CHAPTER 10
Late one Friday night, Jackie and Boo sat in the kitchen, sneaking ice cream before Jackie went to bed...the second time. Her parents had already tucked her in once. But Boo gave the secret signal and she hurried down the stairs to meet him.
"What flavor?" he asked, holding up two types, Rocky Road and cherry vanilla.
"Mmm, I think cherry vanilla." Jackie pointed to the box in his right hand.
Boo dished up the creamy treat, then sat beside her and dug into his. After taking the first big bite, he looked across the table.
"What's the matter?" he mumbled through a full mouth. "Not hungry?"
Jackie pushed the ice cream around with her spoon, her mouth in a pout.
"I had a bad day. That's all," she explained.
"What happened?" He took another big bite.
"Somebody made fun of me at school. They called me stupid. I hate being called that!"
"You're not stupid!" Boo plunked his spoon into the bowl. "You're the smartest person I know. They're the ones who are stupid."
Her mouth relaxed and she took a small bite, making sure it had a cherry in it.
"They think I'm stupid because I don't talk to anyone. But I don't like talking to people. I don't like them touching me, either." She shuddered.
"Don't you like talking to me?" Boo started to get up and leave.
"No. I love talking to you. You're different. Just like I'm different. I don't have to worry that you'll call me names and whisper behind my back."
"Oh. Okay then." He picked his spoon up again and a thought crossed his mind. "Is that why you don't have any friends come over?"
"Yeah, I guess. There are some nice kids in my class, but I'd rather just watch them play."
"Aren't you lonely?"
"I used to be, until we moved here. Now I sneak up to the attic and watch you and your friends fly out the window on a broomstick."
Boo drew back, looking worried. "You...you know about the broomstick rides?"
"Yep." She giggled. "One day, I hope I get to ride on one. I imagine what it must be like, flying so high you could touch the moon."
"It is a lot of fun," he admitted. "But you shouldn't come up to the attic all alone, especially at night. Those stairs are tricky and you could fall."
"Oh. But I've been fine so far."
"So far," he warned.
They ate in silence for a moment, their spoons scraping the bottom of the bowls.
Jackie tilted her head while she let ice cream melt in her mouth, then said, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why are you here? I mean you're a ghost, but who were you...before?"
Boo grew serious, his face pursed in thought. "I don't remember very much."
"What do you remember?"
"My family was at a lake for a picnic or a party or...something. Anyway, I was supposed to wait for my big sister to take me to the water."
"Why?"
"It's a way of feeling good, or she found something was funny."
"This child laughs and giggles all the time. Is she simple-minded?"
"No," Anna replied. "Just happy in her own world. She is living her life to the fullest."
Tomfoolery and Boo raised their eyebrows and opened their eyes wider.
"Happy humans, good grief," Tomfoolery grinned.
"I'll have them out in a week," Anna said with her wand in hand.
The little girl bounced her rubber ball off her bedroom walls, shaking dust loose from the attic rafters.
What's your plan, Anna?" Tomfoolery asked eagerly.
"Hmm, I want to see a bit more before I make my final plan. There are three this time, which might prove to be difficult."
"Oh, goodie." Tomfoolery sneered through the knothole. "We're going for the countdown to a new witching hour." He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
Boo looked to Anna and then to Tomfoolery and said, "Really, Anna, so soon? We haven't had a chance to see what they have in their icebox."
Tomfoolery grumbled, "You always worry about your belly. Must you fret?"
Boo defended himself. "It's been over a year since I last ate. The icebox has been empty since the Milfoils left."
The father to the family set down his suitcase. He was a tall, thin man with brown hair and a beard. His wife, an eye-catching blonde, had a body meant for beauty and grace. And then their little daughter had playful, loving eyes that glowed and a face that livened up the old place. Anna saw right off that she was of no harm.
The father spoke to the mother. "Honey, what do you think? Is it home for the next few years? I'll make enough money with this new job to send little Jackie to a good school."
The wife replied, "I feel it has potential. We can fix it up, and it will be a nice place for the three of us. I can hardly wait to see the kitchen."
The child said, "Mommy, can we make cookies tonight?"
Anna's eyes followed them and Boo hovered closer and said, "Someone say cookies?"
The father scratched his beard, looked around and muttered, "What a creepy old place. Of all the places for the company to send me to…good grief."
Anna stood. "Creepy, huh?" She stomped her boot heel on the attic floor and it rained down dust and old cobwebs onto the father below. "I'll show you how creepy things can be," she said, winking at Boo and Tomfoolery. "Tonight starts the witching hour."
"Oh boy," Boo said. "Fresh souls to play with on a dark spooky night." He fell backward into Tomfoolery.
"Hey!" Anna shouted. "Watch where you're falling! We have to be quiet now that there are humans downstairs. Wait until it gets dark before we monkey about."
Boo said, "Sorry."
Tomfoolery yelled, "Another fine mess you got me into! Can you get off me?"
CHAPTER 7
Anna was fun loving and sweet for a girl of sixteen. Boo and Tomfoolery knew she could be wild and reckless at times, but her temperament wasn't meant to harm anyone she haunted or spelled. For a young witch, she disliked many of the normal addictions of the living, which possibly stemmed from her own life when she was alive.
For anyone who inhabited the manor, they were all free game to Anna to haunt, spell and spook. Anna liked to use her magic to annoy her human occupants, and this time was no exception.
Anna jumped on her broom and flew around the attic, thinking to herself, We have had the manor for a year or more. It will be hard to get use to the living once again. "You can run, but you can't hide!"
She sped past Boo for the fourth time on her broomstick.
Boo asked Tomfoolery, “Who’s hiding?”
"No one, silly. Anna is thinking. She's got a new plan, I bet!"
"I hope it's nothing too drastic," Boo said. "I'm hungry!"
Anna said, "Boo, you and that bellyache of yours for the living's food never stops."
When night finally came, she asked the boys to come over and she waved her wand around them three times, which conjured spooky voices from both of them. The sounds of wicked laughter grew up around the floorboards of the manor.
"Hey, that was great, Anna," Tomfoolery said. "I had no idea I could reach notes at that level."
"Human inhabitants hiding under their sheets yet?" Anna asked.
Tomfoolery made his first round down the hallways, rattling his chains. Anna cast her wand again to produce bats on the ceiling, hoping to drive the residents out. Steve and Amanda shivered and shook in their bed. All they wanted to do was close their eyes tight and dream that they were somewhere else.
The night crept on slowly for them. Something yanked their bed covers back to reveal shivering bodies. Even the grandfather clock quit ticking for the night. The resident mice locked up their mouse holes with keys hidden under their little pillows. The owl that hooted sat in the tree and watched the horror begin with his big, round, yellow eyes.
Boo flew around the halls and Tomfoolery floated throughout the rafters, knocking at the walls and banging and rattling his chains. Boo got his horn next and when he blew into it, the sound seemed to shake the whole house like it overflowed with thousands of ghosts. Then he went to the basement and shook the pipes, making everyone think the old manor was being knocked down board-by-board.
Anna, Tomfoolery and Boo found out that Jackie was a special child who lived in her own world and had a greater imagination than theirs. That night, in her bare feet and nightgown, she made her way up to the attic with her teddy bear named Russell to see where the sounds came from.
CHAPTER 8
Brave little Jackie held Russell close and came to a small pinhole of light in the attic. She stood up on her tiptoes and peered into a room no one knew about. The room looked dusty, filled with old boxes and trunks and furniture nobody wanted. In a moment, though, a noise made her look in the corner.
A witch!
She blinked and looked again.
The witch wore a black dress with a lacy ruffled white blouse, striped orange and black stockings, black boots with a pointed toe, and a dark cloak. An oversized hat helped keep her thick red hair out of her face. But nothing could hide her brilliant green eyes.
Two ghosts stood beside the witch — one, tall and thin, and another, short and dumpy, wearing a tailored vest. To Jackie's amazement, they straddled the broomstick behind the witch and took off out the oval window. Running to another window, Jackie could see their silhouette against the moon.
From then on, Jackie enjoyed spying on the two ghosts and the little witch girl. Late at night when the moon came across the yard big, beautiful and round, Jackie would smile at the old man in the moon and his magic, sparkling eyes. She knew precisely when the attic residents would take off to the night sky on another joyous broomstick ride. Watching the three get ready for their nightly ride was something she marveled over. Jackie would lie in bed and wait for the old grandfather clock to strike midnight. Tick...tock — Bong! the clock would sound twelve times. She would grab her sleepy bedtime buddy, Russell, and head upstairs, tiptoeing to the knothole night after night.
Jackie would whisper to Russell, "Shhh. We must step quietly so the ghosts will not hear us." Russell would only stare back with his brown button eyes.
After they disappeared in the night sky, Jackie gasped at the many new things she saw. "Wahoo-wee!" She'd go back to bed, tuck Russell in beside her, and wonder where they went and what magic they did.
Jackie was smart enough not to say a word to her parents about the magical place in the attic. When each morning arrived, Jackie came downstairs to eat her breakfast without a word about what went on the night before. She enjoyed watching Anna, Tomfoolery and Boo leave the attic by broomstick and wondered if she would be able to go on a ride. This was her deepest hope and prayer as she giggled to herself while she imagined being on that broom.
* * *
One night, close to midnight, Anna knew it w
Anna dusted off her witch’s hat and placed a new owl feather in the band, first flopping it back on top of her head and then letting it fall past her eyes. She would blow on it and, like a puff of air, the feather would push its way back into the hat again. Anna told Tomfoolery and Boo that the owl feather helped with magical spells and made the broomstick come alive and fly.
Tomfoolery shook and rattled his chains and Boo cleaned and shined his earth shattering brass horn that made the living's hair stand on end when he blew it on the back of Anna's broomstick. Anna knew to wait until everyone in the manor was fast asleep, checking through all the floorboards first. Jackie played along and kept her eyes shut until she saw the witch's shadow move across her ceiling, peeking with one eye half opened.
When Anna, Tomfoolery and Boo felt it was safe, they opened the attic's oval, stained-glass window, making sure the hinges didn't squeak. They stepped out to the ledge and readied themselves for takeoff. Anna waited for the owl sitting across the way to signal with three hoots that all was clear in the neighborhood.
Jackie heard the owl and knew they were on another adventure. She wondered about the three occupants, who they might be and why they were here. Then she sat up in bed with an idea bouncing around her mind. What if...what if she met them? The idea both thrilled and scared her. She didn't normally like meeting people. But, these weren't really people...they were ghosts. Giving Russell a tight hug, she made up her mind. As soon as she could, she would talk to them!
CHAPTER 9
Early one Saturday morning, Anna woke up to find an attic bat upside down over her bed, staring at her. She sighed, rolled over and tried to get back to sleep. While she lay there, she thought back on the past two weeks and smiled to herself. With just a little more work, the father would be scared enough to pack up and leave. That thought made her want to get up and see what the family was doing.
It rained heavily the night before and her two friends were feeling a little cooped up. Keeping everyone quiet during the daylight hours was hard work, even after making dozens of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Boo and Tomfoolery to keep them still.
Anna looked at the wall mirror that day when she passed it. "Oh my! What a fright my hair has become after the rain. The humidity is dreadful for my wavy long locks." The damp air made her red hair frizzy under her big, black, pointy hat and sprawl out in many different directions. Boo laughed, seeing Anna worried about her red hair. When she scowled at him and pointed her spell-casting finger, he decided to go downstairs and check on the McCaulou's refrigerator. He was still hungry.
A ride on my broom tonight will straighten that mess right out, Anna thought. When Boo returned, he and Tomfoolery hovered over the stained glass window and watched the outside world go by. Dark gray clouds filled the sky as far as they could see. Bare tree branches dripped. The house eaves dripped. They preferred cloudy days, but they hated dripping raindrops! Time was so slow it almost seemed to come to a stop.
Anna said, "Look to the clouds, boys. They are swimming past us, getting farther and farther away. Soon it will be clear, then we'll have our fun. Maybe down the road we'll do some haunting in that small white cottage where that young family lives. Would that be fun? If they run, we can chase them on the broomstick into the forest and have some real fun playing hide-and-seek witchery style."
They shrugged and didn't answer, looking bored as they watched Jackie outside with her mother, playing in her yellow rain slicker on her slide and jungle gym.
"Are you all right?" Anna asked. She took out her wand, walked over to the table and cast a spell. "How about this, guys?" A huge pizza, the size of the table, appeared. Tomfoolery hovered by to take a look.
"No, huh?" She sounded disappointed.
He just shook his head and went back to the window.
"What about this?" Anna tapped the tip of her yellow and orange wand three times onto the wooden table and the pizza became a checker board.
Boo hovered by, took a look, moved one checker piece and flew away.
"Tough crowd today, boys. What's the matter?"
Tomfoolery and Boo went back to the window and watched Jackie and her mother having fun on the slide and the double swing.
"Do you want to sneak out there tonight and play on the swing like the little girl does?" Anna asked.
"Can Jackie come, too?" Tomfoolery said.
"It would be too late for Jackie to come out and play. Besides, she doesn't know we exist."
Boo didn't want to tell Anna that he already met the little girl last week when he went down to the icebox for his daily raid. He had lifted the ice cream out of the freezer and while it hovered in the air, he took a spoon from the kitchen counter. When he turned around, he heard a tiny voice too sweet and darling to be scared.
Jackie looked up to Boo with her big blue eyes and said, "May I have some ice cream too, please?" with her hand reached out.
"You shouldn't have ice cream before dinner," Boo told her.
Jackie argued with Boo, but he said he was the adult in the room and therefore in charge.
"But I'm hunnnggrryyy!" she wailed and focused those sweet blue eyes on him.
"Oh, all right. Get yourself a spoon and a bowl and sit at the table."
Jackie gave him a big smile and did as she was told. Boo and Jackie sat at the breakfast table and enjoyed their ice cream together, but Boo could tell something was wrong.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
She tried to respond with the spoon in her mouth, but only mumbled.
"You would speak clearer if you took the spoon out of your mouth," he said.
"I'm not allowed to go in the haunted attic, am I? I've been up there and I can see all of you having so much fun."
Boo winced. "Are you by yourself when you see us?"
"Yes, of course. Well, me and Russell."
"Russell? Who's he?"
"My teddy bear."
Boo was relieved. "I'll have to ask Anna first."
"Who's that?" Jackie asked.
"She's the witch that lives with us. She's our friend."
"The witch I’ve seen? With long red hair?"
"Yes," Boo answered, careful not to say too much to Jackie. Anna would be upset if she knew he told Jackie about their hidey hole in the attic.
"Best to put that out of your mind. Anna will be mad if you go in there without her permission. It's scary in there!"
"Oh, all right." Jackie swung her feet back and forth from the chair and took another bite of bubblegum ice cream. "Well, play out here with me then."
"What do you want to do?" Boo asked.
"I don't know. You're a ghost, right?"
"Yup!"
"Can you do any magic tricks?"
"Nope, but Anna can."
"Really?" Jackie said, "I'd like to meet her."
"Well maybe one day," Boo said, cleaning up the bowls and spoons, placing them back where he found them so no one know he and Jackie ate together.
"That would be neat!"
Boo took Jackie back to the living room and placed her in front of the T.V.
"Bye for now," he said and floated up the stairs.
* * *
But now, at the rainy window, he stayed silent, wondering about Jackie and how long he could keep their secret from Anna.
CHAPTER 10
Late one Friday night, Jackie and Boo sat in the kitchen, sneaking ice cream before Jackie went to bed...the second time. Her parents had already tucked her in once. But Boo gave the secret signal and she hurried down the stairs to meet him.
"What flavor?" he asked, holding up two types, Rocky Road and cherry vanilla.
"Mmm, I think cherry vanilla." Jackie pointed to the box in his right hand.
Boo dished up the creamy treat, then sat beside her and dug into his. After taking the first big bite, he looked across the table.
Jackie pushed the ice cream around with her spoon, her mouth in a pout.
"I had a bad day. That's all," she explained.
"What happened?" He took another big bite.
"Somebody made fun of me at school. They called me stupid. I hate being called that!"
"You're not stupid!" Boo plunked his spoon into the bowl. "You're the smartest person I know. They're the ones who are stupid."
Her mouth relaxed and she took a small bite, making sure it had a cherry in it.
"They think I'm stupid because I don't talk to anyone. But I don't like talking to people. I don't like them touching me, either." She shuddered.
"Don't you like talking to me?" Boo started to get up and leave.
"No. I love talking to you. You're different. Just like I'm different. I don't have to worry that you'll call me names and whisper behind my back."
"Oh. Okay then." He picked his spoon up again and a thought crossed his mind. "Is that why you don't have any friends come over?"
"Yeah, I guess. There are some nice kids in my class, but I'd rather just watch them play."
"Aren't you lonely?"
"I used to be, until we moved here. Now I sneak up to the attic and watch you and your friends fly out the window on a broomstick."
Boo drew back, looking worried. "You...you know about the broomstick rides?"
"Yep." She giggled. "One day, I hope I get to ride on one. I imagine what it must be like, flying so high you could touch the moon."
"It is a lot of fun," he admitted. "But you shouldn't come up to the attic all alone, especially at night. Those stairs are tricky and you could fall."
"Oh. But I've been fine so far."
"So far," he warned.
They ate in silence for a moment, their spoons scraping the bottom of the bowls.
Jackie tilted her head while she let ice cream melt in her mouth, then said, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why are you here? I mean you're a ghost, but who were you...before?"
Boo grew serious, his face pursed in thought. "I don't remember very much."
"What do you remember?"
"My family was at a lake for a picnic or a party or...something. Anyway, I was supposed to wait for my big sister to take me to the water."