Read Online Adelaide Confused by Penny Greenhorn - Free Book Online

milky pillar, compressing itself into the shape of a
man.
    We stood staring at one
another until he stepped closer. Startled, not to mention scared
shitless, I jerked back, tumbling off the sidewalk into the parking
lot.
    He wafted toward me
silently, and as he passed in front of the mounted lights they
obscured his image like a hologram blinking out. He loomed over me,
and I could do nothing, not even breathe.
    He seemed to solidify,
turning that sickly gray, a cadaver’s complexion. He leaned over
me, his face pressed so close I sunk back to avoid him, his glassy
eyes filling my vision. “Go away,” I whispered.
    I felt a burst of emotion,
mostly it was a mix of amazement and surprise, but I felt the
subtly of relief and a growing eagerness, no,
anxiousness.
    He straightened so fast I hadn’t even seen
him move. But I did see him raise his arm as he prepared to hit
me.

Chapter 10
     
    I screamed, flinching when
the phonebook flew from my arms. I opened my eyes to find the ghost
had moved away, now kneeling hunched over the book and flipping
pages.
    “ That’s what you’re all
excited about, a phonebook?”
    He turned, scowling at me,
his face fading as he became transparent. I realized he could hear
me, I just couldn’t hear him. Not his voice, not even the whisper
of his clothing or the scuffing of his boots.
    With renewed anxiety he
began to flip pages. Only he couldn’t now because he’d lost his
solid form. Frantically he continued to try again and again, his
hand blurring it moved so quickly. The ghost’s anxiety was replaced
by torment, a feeling I particularly despised.
    He turned to me, looking
helpless as his face began to expand, turning a pearly white. And
then his form surged outward, raining down into a puddle of slowly
swirling mist.
    “Uh...”
    A door opened and closed
across the parking lot. Pattie hustled toward me, asking, “Are you
alright, dear? I heard a scream.”
    I looked for the cloudy
mist, but it was gone, no longer hovering over the asphalt. “I’m
fine, I just fell is all.” Slowly I got to my feet.
    “ Oh,” Pattie said, feeling
slightly confused, “my scarf.” She bent down, picking up the ugly
thing.
    “ I was returning it to
you.” I reluctantly took up the phonebook. “This too, the one in
your room is outdated.”
    “Oh, thank you.”
    But I was already running
back to the office, pausing to yell over my shoulder, “Have a good
night!” I couldn’t reach the phone fast enough. Once inside, I
began searching for the Parlor’s number. I dialed, hoping they were
open.
    “ You’ve reached the Parlor,
where—”
    “ Nancy, it’s Adelaide,” I
cut in. “Adelaide Graves, you remember?”
    “Of course, is everything alright?”
    “ No! I just got
poltergeisted!”
    “ What happened?” I could
hear her concern, but was unable to feel it through the
phone.
    “ I just saw fog turn itself
into a man-shaped ghost thing. I thought he was going to hit me,
but he was only interested in getting the phonebook. It was so
strange, he kept changing. I watched him turn from fog into an
opaque gray man. I think he even went solid, I mean, I know he did,
because he hit the book from my hands. And then he turned into this
faintly colored hologram looking thing before turning back into a
puddle. What’s this all about? Does he have some sort of ghost
disease that makes him... broken?”
    “ I’m sorry I don’t have any
definitive answers, all I have are Percy’s theories.”
    “Well?”
    “ Percy thought that when a
ghost crossed over the veil they had a very one-sided experience.
They could see things, hear things, but they could never be a part
of this world, not really.”
    “ I’ve figured that much, go
on.”
    “ It seems to require an
effort on their part to appear in their living form, and even then
it’s just a projection from their memory. Percy thought whatever
kept a ghost from forming properly might be the same thing that
kept them from