Read Online The Ghostly Hideaway by Doris Hale Sanders - Free Book Online Page A

flowers on her nightstand and
maybe it wasn’t even him doing it. She wished she could wake up and
catch whoever or whatever was leaving them for her. At any rate,
they were beautiful; but she still hadn’t mentioned the flowers to
her family. Somehow, they seemed too personal to share with anyone
else...
    She went downstairs after she got dressed. It sure
was going to be another hot August day. She wondered—.
    “Surprise! Happy Birthday!" Everyone was singing,
‘happy birthday’; even Johnny was there and they had hung the
family room with balloons and streamers and a birthday cake was
arranged on the coffee table with plates, forks, napkins and
everything. Chrissy was truly surprised and extremely pleased. She
truly didn’t expect them to remember much less to plan a surprise.
She was so touched, she had to turn her head and wipe the tears
from her eyes.
    “We didn’t know what to get you for your birthday,
but here are your gifts, Chrissy. Open them." Her mother was
excited for her.
    “Oh, Mom, the beautiful winter jacket is great and I
did need it. Now, what on earth is this big one?" Chrissy began
tearing paper and soon revealed the shiny, cedar hope chest her Dad
had made for her. It would hold a lot of stuff she thought as she
opened it to see inside. A small foldout compartment was fastened
into the lid and as she shoved it up to fold into the lid, she saw
some things had been placed in the bottom of the chest. She pulled
them out and was suddenly crying.
    “Oh, Mom, this is one of the quilts Grandma Langley
made, isn’t it? And this is the only one you had that Grandma
Gertie made; both of them are completely hand sewn. And where did
this one come from? Did I see this among the things in the linen
closet? I’ll bet Aunt Lorraine made this one. And there’s still
another one. Oh, Mom, this is one you made when I was just a little
girl. I must have been about Candy’s age. You can’t imagine just
how proud I am of all of them; and Dad the chest is the most
beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I never expected to have anything
this nice. Thank you so very much." As they were hugging and
kissing, the third floor ghosts slammed the doors—not once but
three times. “I think that says the ghosts approve, too.”
    “We made you a card, Chrissy." The twins needed some
attention, too.
    “Oh, I want to see it; right now! Oh, how wonderful.
You even made the envelope, too, didn’t you? Let’s see inside. Did
you write all this yourselves? I didn’t know you could do this
good! ‘Happy Birthday, Chrissy. We love you so much!’ And it’s
signed, ‘Andy and Candy.’ Thanks a bunch. It means much more since
you did it yourselves.”
    “Well, of course, Mom helped us but she let us do
the writing as she showed us how.”
    “It’s, really special and I’m going to keep it in my
hope chest right here in the little top drawer where I’ll keep all
my special treasures from now on.”
    Candy and Andy were pleased with themselves as
Chrissy hugged and kissed them as she had her folks.
    “Oh! Thank you all for remembering. Thanks for all
the work you did to celebrate and to make my gifts and give me a
special day. Can you believe I’m nineteen years old?”
    “No, I can’t! It seems it's been no more than a
couple of years since I was changing your diapers." Penny was about
to cry, too.
    “Oh, Mom, you don’t have to bring up things like
that! That’s embarrassing!" Chrissy couldn’t quite look at Johnny;
she was too mortified.
    “Well, at least I haven’t brought out the pictures
of you without your diaper on the white chenille bedspread."
Everybody laughed; Chrissy, too, but it didn’t seem quite as funny
to her as it did everybody else. This time she did look sideways at
Johnny. He was laughing, too, and Chrissy turned several shades of
red.
    “May I help you take your beautiful chest up to your
room, Chrissy?" It was apparent that Johnny was feeling somewhat
left out, too.
    “Sure, I’ll