Read Online The Green Ghost by Marion Dane Bauer - Free Book Online Page B

door, and her hands flew to cover her mouth. She seemed to want to stop more sounds from coming out.
    Dad kept turning the wheel. And the car paid no attention at all.
    They slid and spun. First they spun untilthey were facing backward. Then they spun until they faced front again. Front didn’t look much different from back.
    In the headlights the snow kept coming at them. It sped toward them like millions of white bullets.
    The car made another turn, but partway through it went bump again. And bump! And BUMP!
    Now the car was sliding down a small, steep hill. And suddenly everything stopped.
    Everything except the snow. It kept flying. And the wind kept moaning.
    All else was silent.
    For a moment, they sat perfectly still. There was nothing to see except flying snow.
    Then Kaye’s parents turned to look ather. They turned at the same time. Their heads could have been pulled by the same string.
    “Are you all right?” they asked in one voice.
    When Kaye opened her mouth to answer, no sound came out. She nodded instead.
    Mom looked at Dad. “Where are we?” she asked.
    “Out in the country,” he answered. “In the middle of blasted nowhere.”
    And then, strange as it might seem, they both laughed.

Chapter 3

The Light
    “I t’s not so bad,” Dad said. “We’ll get out of here. Just hold tight.” He put the car in reverse and pressed the gas pedal.
    The wheels spun. The car settled more deeply into the ditch.
    He tried again, more gently this time. The car didn’t move.
    He tried rocking, forward, back, forward, back. Nothing. They weren’t going anywhere.
    Mom was quiet. But her hands were clenched into fists.
    Kaye looked down. Her hands were fists, too.
    “Well,” Dad said at last. “I’d better get out and have a look.”
    When he opened his door, the wind roared more loudly. When he stepped out, the storm swallowed him.
    Kaye’s teeth began to chatter. She wasn’t cold exactly. At least she didn’t think she was. She was just-Dad jerked the door open and tumbled back in. He had snow everywhere. He even had snow in his eyebrows!
    “We’re well and truly stuck,” he said. “We won’t get out of here without a tow.”
    “What will we do?” Mom asked.
    Kaye waited. What
would
they do?
    Mom was waiting, too. Dad didn’t answer.
    And that was when Kaye saw it. A small, pale face appeared at her window. No … it wasn’t a face. It was just a light. A lighted face?
    That didn’t make sense.
    But there it was again. A pale face floated outside her window.
    “Look!” Kaye said.
    Her parents both turned to look.
    “What?” Dad asked.
    “Can’t you see?” Kaye asked. “It’s a …” At the last instant she decided not to say “face.” What face would be out here in the storm? “It’s a light,” she said instead.
    “I can’t see any light,” her dad said.
    “I can’t, either,” her mom said.
    The light bobbed outside her windowagain. It seemed to be calling to her.
    “There!” Kaye put her hand against the window. If the glass hadn’t been in the way, she could have touched it. “It’s right there!”
    And before her parents could say again that there was no light, she pushed the door open. When she had it open just a bit, the wind yanked it wide. She tumbled out. For an instant, the driving snow blinded her.
    When she could make out the light again, it was farther away.
    It might have been the moon, except it was much too close for the moon.
    It might have been a face, except it was too bright for any face.
    Kaye moved toward it.
    “Kaye!” her mother cried. “Get back in the car!”
    “Now!” her father ordered.

    The light—or the face, whatever it was—called to her. Not with a voice. The only “voice” she could hear was the wind’s. Still, the light called as clearly as if it had said, “Come!”
    “But I see a light!” Kaye tossed the words back over her shoulder.
    “What light?” her father demanded. He was out of the car now.
    “It’s there,” she