روح همسایه فصل 05

The Ghost Next Door - Chapter 5

Panting loudly, Hannah crossed the street without stopping to look for traffic. Her sneakers pounded against the sidewalk as she ran.

One more block to go.

Is he following?

The shadows shifted and bent as she ran under the trees. Shadows on top of shadows, sliding over each other, gray on black, blue on gray.

“Hannah… Hannah…” The dry whisper.

Dry as death.

Calling to her from the shifting shadows.

He knows my name, she thought, gulping for breath, forcing her legs to keep moving.

And then she stopped.

And spun around.

“Who are you?” she shouted breathlessly. “What do you want?” But he had vanished.

There was silence now. Except for Hannah’s hard breathing.

Hannah stared into the tangle of late afternoon shadows. Her eyes darted over the shrubs and hedges of the yards on her block. She searched the spaces between the houses, the darkness behind an open garage door, the slanting gray square beside a small shed.

Gone. Vanished.

No sign of the black-enshrouded figure that had whispered her name.

“Whoa—!” she uttered out loud.

It was an optical illusion, she decided, her eyes still warily studying the front lawns.

No way.

She argued with herself. An optical illusion doesn’t call your name.

There’s nothing there, Hannah, she assured herself. Her breathing returned to normal. Nothing there.

You’re making up more ghost stories. You’re scaring yourself again.

You’re bored and lonely, and so you’re letting your imagination run away with you.

Feeling only a little better, Hannah jogged the rest of the way home.

Later, at dinner, she decided not to mention the shadow figure to her parents. They would never believe it anyway.

Instead, Hannah told them about the new family who had moved next door.

“Huh? Someone moved into the Dodsons’ house?” Mr. Fairchild set down his fork and knife and stared across the table at Hannah from behind his square-framed horn-rimmed glasses.

“There’s a boy my age,” Hannah reported. “His name is Danny. He has bright orange hair and freckles.” “That’s nice,” Mrs. Fairchild replied distractedly, motioning for the twins to stop shoving each other and eat their dinners.

Hannah wasn’t even sure her mother had heard her.

“How did they move in without us seeing them?” Hannah asked her father. “Did you see a moving truck or anything?” “Huh-uh,” Mr. Fairchild muttered, picking up his silverware and returning to his roast chicken.

“Well, don’t you think it’s weird?” Hannah demanded.

But before either parent could reply, Herb’s chair toppled over backwards. His head hit the linoleum, and he began to howl.

Her mom and dad leapt off their chairs and bent to help him.

“I didn’t push him!” Bill screamed shrilly. “Really. I didn’t!” Frustrated that her parents weren’t interested in her big news, Hannah carried her plate to the kitchen. Then she wandered into her bedroom.

Making her way to her desk, she pushed aside the curtains and peered out the window.

Danny, are you in there? she wondered, staring at the curtains that covered his dark window. What are you doing right now?

The summer days seemed to float by. Hannah could barely remember how she passed the time. If only some of my friends were around, she thought wistfully.

If only one of my friends was around!

If only one of my friends would write.

Such a lonely summer…

She looked for Danny, but he never seemed to be around. When she finally saw him in his back yard one late afternoon, she hurried over to talk to him. “Hi!” she cried enthusiastically.

He was tossing a tennis ball against the back of the house and catching it. The ball made a loud thock each time it hit the redwood wall.

“Hi!” Hannah called again, jogging across the grass.

Danny turned, startled. “Oh. Hi. How’s it going?” He turned back to the house and tossed the ball.

He was wearing a blue T-shirt over baggy black-and-yellow-striped shorts. Hannah stepped up beside him.

Thock. The ball hit the wall just below the gutter and bounced into Danny’s hand.

“I haven’t seen you around,” Hannah said awkwardly.

“Uh-huh,” was his brief reply.

Thock.

“I saw you behind the post office,” she blurted out.

“Huh?” He spun the ball in his hand, but didn’t throw it.

“A few days ago, I saw you in the alley. With those two guys. Mr. Chesney is a real jerk, isn’t he?” Hannah said.

Danny snickered. “When he yells, his whole head turns bright red. Just like a tomato.” “A rotten tomato,” Hannah added.

“What’s his problem, anyway?” Danny asked, tossing the ball. Thock. “My friends and I—we weren’t doing anything. Just hanging out.” “He thinks he’s a big shot,” Hannah replied. “He’s always bragging how he’s a federal employee.” “Yeah.”

“What are you doing this summer?” she asked. “Just hanging around like me?” “Kind of,” he said. Thock. He missed the ball and had to chase it to the garage.

As he walked back toward the house, he gazed at her, as if seeing her for the first time. Hannah suddenly felt self-conscious. She was wearing a yellow top with grape jelly stains on the front, and her rattiest blue cotton shorts.

“Those two guys, Alan and Fred—they’re the guys I usually hang out with,” he told her. “Guys from school.” Thock.

How could he have friends from school? Hannah wondered. Didn’t he just move here?

“Where do you go to school?” she asked, dodging out of the way as he backed up to catch the ball.

“Maple Avenue Middle School,” he replied.

Thock.

“Hey—that’s where I go!” Hannah exclaimed.

How come I’ve never seen him there? she wondered.

“Do you know Alan Miller?” Danny asked, turning to her, shading his eyes with one hand from the late afternoon sun.

Hannah shook her head. “No.”

“Fred Drake?” he asked.

“No,” she replied. “What grade are you in?”

“I’ll be in eighth this year,” he said, turning back to the wall.

Thock.

“Me, too!” Hannah declared. “Do you know Janey Pace?”

“No.”

“How about Josh Goodman?” Hannah asked.

Danny shook his head. “Don’t know him.”

“Weird,” Hannah said, thinking out loud.

Danny threw the tennis ball a little too hard, and it landed on the sloping gray-shingled roof. They both watched it hit, then roll down into the gutter. Danny sighed and, staring up at the gutter, made a disgusted face.

“How can we be in the same grade and not know any of the same kids?” Hannah demanded.

He turned to her, scratching his red hair with one hand. “I don’t know.” “How weird!” Hannah repeated.

Danny stepped into the deep blue shadow of the house. Hannah squinted hard. He seemed to disappear in the wide rectangle of shadow.

That’s impossible! she thought.

I would have seen him at school.

If we’re in the same grade, there’s no way I could have missed him.

Is he lying? Is he making this all up?

He had completely vanished in the shadow. Hannah squinted hard, waiting for her eyes to adjust.

Where is he? Hannah asked herself.

He keeps disappearing.

Like a ghost.

A ghost. The word popped in and out of her mind.

When Danny came back into view, he was pulling an aluminum ladder along the back wall of the house.

“What are you going to do?” Hannah asked, moving closer.

“Get my ball,” he replied, and began climbing the ladder, his white Nikes hanging over the narrow metal rungs.

Hannah moved closer. “Don’t go up there,” she said, suddenly gripped with a cold feeling.

“Huh?” he called down. He was already halfway up the ladder, his head nearly level with the gutter.

“Come down, Danny.” Hannah felt a wave of dread sweep over her. A heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“I’m a good climber,” he said, pulling himself up higher. “I climb everything. My mom says I should be in a circus or something.” Before Hannah could say anything more, he had clambered off the ladder and was standing on the sloping roof, his legs spread apart, his hands stretched high in the air. “See?” Hannah couldn’t shake the premonition, the heavy feeling of dread.

“Danny—please!”

Ignoring her shrill cry, he bent to pick the tennis ball from the gutter.

Hannah held her breath as he reached for the ball.

Suddenly, he lost his balance. His eyes went wide with surprise.

His sneakers slipped on the shingles. His hands shot up as if trying to grab onto something.

Hannah gasped, staring helplessly as Danny toppled headfirst off the roof.