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Authors: Jennifer Allison
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sat on the floor next to the mirror. “Now you sit across from me here and place your fingers on the mirror like this. The most important thing is to take the seance seriously, and to concentrate.”
Tiara sat down, carefully placing her empty wineglass on the floor.
“Now we both close our eyes and focus.”
The girls waited for a moment, listening to the silence of the house.
“We sense a troubled spirit here in this house,” said Gilda. “Oh, spirit, if you are here with us, please make your presence known.”
Gilda’s heart beat faster as she sensed the surface of the mirror vibrating beneath her fingers. Then, without warning, a shrill shriek exploded into a brittle cascade of shattering glass.
Gilda opened her eyes to find Tiara staring with a strangely enthralled expression at blood dripping from a gash on her finger. Both the mirror and Tiara’s wineglass were broken.
TO: GILDA JOYCE
FROM: GILDA JOYCE
RE: PROGRESS REPORT–THE GHOST IN
MERMAID LAKE
INVESTIGATION STATUS:
Clear evidence of a violent poltergeist in Tiara’s house. Tiara believes that she’s haunted by Dolores Lambert because sheshouted Dolores’s name on the bridge over Mermaid Lake. (By this logic, I should also be expecting a visit from Dolores’s ghost!)
There’s just one problem with the evidence: when we conducted the séance, I didn’t actually see Tiara’s glass pick itself off the floor and hurl itself at the mirror, so I suppose it’s possible that Tiara threw it, then just acted surprised. But what about the tomatoes splattered all over the painting of her mom? Tiara wouldn’t have had time to do that herself unless she did it in the morning, before she went to school. And wouldn’t someone in the house have noticed by the time she got home?
Wearing her pajamas, Gilda turned from her typewriter to her
Master Psychic’s Handbook
. She flipped through the dog-eared pages until she found a chapter on “Poltergeists”:
One of the defining characteristics of a poltergeist is psychokinesis—the spontaneous movement of objects. The interesting thing about poltergeists is that their mischievous, annoying, loud, and sometimes even dangerous activities so often occur around a particular individual in a household. For some reason, girls around the age of thirteen or fourteen are particularly vulnerable to such occurrences. It is unclear whether this is because the “immature” ghost gravitates to a similarly volatile or immature subject, or because something in the young person’s psyche—possibly some repressed rage or unstable emotion—is triggering explosive and unpredictable energy disturbances that cause objects to spontaneously move.
QUESTIONS TO SLEEP ON:
Is there something “volatile” about Tiara that’s attracting Dolores Lambert’s ghost?
TO DO:
Keep an eye on Tiara.
More research needed to understand ghost motives: must learn more about Dolores Lambert.
PANTY JOKE PROGRESS:
Mr. Panté gave me two detentions today. The first one was for my “failure to return to the school building at the end of class.”
“It won’t happen again, Mr. Panty,” I said, pretending to accidentally mispronounce his name. Tiara was standing right there, and I thought I might as well try to get a laugh out of the situation.
I guess he had heard that joke before (the “slip-of-the-tongue” panty joke), because he wrote another detention slipwithout a moment of hesitation. I had an urge to see how many detentions he would give me if I kept saying “panty,” but luckily I came to my senses and dropped it.
Good thing the weekend is here, because I have a lot to think about and research. T.G.I.F.!
9
The Ghost in the Rain
Dear Dad,
I had planned to spend my Saturday reading Shakespeare’s Hamlet and researching poltergeists, but along comes Brad Squib with this “big surprise for the whole family.”
Gather ‘round, everyone! Slaughter the cattle and break open the champagne, because Brad Squib has saved
Tiara sat down, carefully placing her empty wineglass on the floor.
“Now we both close our eyes and focus.”
The girls waited for a moment, listening to the silence of the house.
“We sense a troubled spirit here in this house,” said Gilda. “Oh, spirit, if you are here with us, please make your presence known.”
Gilda’s heart beat faster as she sensed the surface of the mirror vibrating beneath her fingers. Then, without warning, a shrill shriek exploded into a brittle cascade of shattering glass.
Gilda opened her eyes to find Tiara staring with a strangely enthralled expression at blood dripping from a gash on her finger. Both the mirror and Tiara’s wineglass were broken.
TO: GILDA JOYCE
FROM: GILDA JOYCE
RE: PROGRESS REPORT–THE GHOST IN
MERMAID LAKE
INVESTIGATION STATUS:
Clear evidence of a violent poltergeist in Tiara’s house. Tiara believes that she’s haunted by Dolores Lambert because sheshouted Dolores’s name on the bridge over Mermaid Lake. (By this logic, I should also be expecting a visit from Dolores’s ghost!)
There’s just one problem with the evidence: when we conducted the séance, I didn’t actually see Tiara’s glass pick itself off the floor and hurl itself at the mirror, so I suppose it’s possible that Tiara threw it, then just acted surprised. But what about the tomatoes splattered all over the painting of her mom? Tiara wouldn’t have had time to do that herself unless she did it in the morning, before she went to school. And wouldn’t someone in the house have noticed by the time she got home?
Wearing her pajamas, Gilda turned from her typewriter to her
Master Psychic’s Handbook
. She flipped through the dog-eared pages until she found a chapter on “Poltergeists”:
One of the defining characteristics of a poltergeist is psychokinesis—the spontaneous movement of objects. The interesting thing about poltergeists is that their mischievous, annoying, loud, and sometimes even dangerous activities so often occur around a particular individual in a household. For some reason, girls around the age of thirteen or fourteen are particularly vulnerable to such occurrences. It is unclear whether this is because the “immature” ghost gravitates to a similarly volatile or immature subject, or because something in the young person’s psyche—possibly some repressed rage or unstable emotion—is triggering explosive and unpredictable energy disturbances that cause objects to spontaneously move.
QUESTIONS TO SLEEP ON:
Is there something “volatile” about Tiara that’s attracting Dolores Lambert’s ghost?
TO DO:
Keep an eye on Tiara.
More research needed to understand ghost motives: must learn more about Dolores Lambert.
PANTY JOKE PROGRESS:
Mr. Panté gave me two detentions today. The first one was for my “failure to return to the school building at the end of class.”
“It won’t happen again, Mr. Panty,” I said, pretending to accidentally mispronounce his name. Tiara was standing right there, and I thought I might as well try to get a laugh out of the situation.
I guess he had heard that joke before (the “slip-of-the-tongue” panty joke), because he wrote another detention slipwithout a moment of hesitation. I had an urge to see how many detentions he would give me if I kept saying “panty,” but luckily I came to my senses and dropped it.
Good thing the weekend is here, because I have a lot to think about and research. T.G.I.F.!
9
The Ghost in the Rain
Dear Dad,
I had planned to spend my Saturday reading Shakespeare’s Hamlet and researching poltergeists, but along comes Brad Squib with this “big surprise for the whole family.”
Gather ‘round, everyone! Slaughter the cattle and break open the champagne, because Brad Squib has saved
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