Princess for a Week Read online

“I guess,” Roddy said. But he no longer cared about the house across the street. All he could think about was the figure Uncle Ring had seen at the gate. Could it have been his dad? Was it possible that a person might travel halfway around the world in his thoughts? Or was the figure something else, and Uncle Ring was just trying to be kind?

  Roddy felt sick. Uncle Ring was the big ghost expert. He could see ghosts, and maybe that’s what he’d just seen. Maybe that was why there hadn’t been any messages from Afghanistan for a while.

  4. Night Two

  “You kids have fun,” Roddy’s mom said. “I’ll take care of the dishes.”

  Roddy headed toward the television set and his favorite video game, but, for once, Princess didn’t follow him. “Linda said I should help you, Mrs. Hall,” she said. “I’m a very good dishwasher.”

  “So what else is new?” Roddy grumbled to himself. Does she have to be the best at everything?

  He and Jacob had spent the afternoon finding out just how good Princess was. No matter how hard they tried to get away from her, she always found them. She could run faster than they could. She could scramble over a fence without half trying. She could catch a softball and throw it back so fast you couldn’t see it coming. When she asked who wanted to wrestle, Jacob went home.

  Thunder rumbled through the living-room screen door. The curtains rose and fell in the breeze. Roddy took out the video game, then put it back. There was something else he wanted to do, now, without Princess trailing after him.

  All afternoon the conversation with Uncle Ring had buzzed like a bee in the back of his head. Talking to Jacob had helped a little. Being mad at Princess had helped, too. But tonight, as he sat across from his mom at the supper table, he’d felt just awful. Would she be smiling if she knew about the tall man in the army uniform? He thought if he could just catch a glimpse of the man himself, he’d know whether it really was his father and whether it was a ghost.

  He opened the screen door and stepped out onto the porch. Down the hill a woman called her dog. Up the hill and across the street a tall willow dipped and danced in the wind. The willow marked the front yard of the haunted house, hiding the dark bulk behind it.

  Quickly, before he could lose his nerve, Roddy walked around the side of his house and across the backyard. The alley looked strange and a little frightening in the half dark, but he was ready for that. If there was a chance—even a little one—he wanted to see the tall man for himself.

  Lightning lit up the sky, and the thunder that followed was very loud. In the flash of light, Roddy thought he saw something move up the alley near Jacob’s backyard. He leaned against the garage, hardly breathing. When the lightning cracked again, he was ready, staring at the spot.

  A garage door swung in the wind. That was all.

  “What are you doing out here?” said a voice behind him, so close that he jumped. Princess looked at him curiously.

  “None of your business,” Roddy snapped. “I’m just looking around.”

  “At what?” Princess stepped backward, not waiting for an answer. “Your mother thinks you’re down in the basement, but I saw you sneak across the yard.”

  “I wasn’t sneaking,” Roddy said. He looked once more up the alley and then headed back to the house. Raindrops peppered his face.

  “If it rains all night, I’m going to be so mad!” Princess exclaimed. “We’ll get soaked when we check out that house.”

  Roddy walked faster. “We’re not checking out that house,” he mumbled. “Just forget it.”

  “Not a chance,” Princess said. “I’m going to find out what’s going on over there, and then I’m going to call the police. And the newspaper,” she added grandly. “They can take my picture if they want to.”

  “They won’t want to,” Roddy said, trying not to remember he’d had the same idea the night before. Catching a criminal had seemed almost possible then, but that was before he had talked to Uncle Ring. There was a mean ghost in that house—the worst kind. Uncle Ring knew things.

  Later, when Roddy picked up the camp lantern and went downstairs to bed, his mom followed him. Rain was coming down hard, rattling closed-up windows and drumming on the glass. His mom fluffed up his pillow and gave him a hug when he lay down on the cot.

  “It’s good of you to let Princess hang out with you,” she said softly. “I feel so sorry for her.”

  “Sorry for her!” Roddy was amazed. “You don’t have to feel sorry for her. She can do anything. Ask her, she’ll tell you.”

  “I’m guessing she’s a pretty lonely little girl,” his mom said. “She adores her father, but he’s in Europe on business for months at a time. She’s in boarding school all year, except for holidays. I know Linda is a good person, but she’s more comfortable with dogs than with kids. It’s really nice for Princess to be part of our family for a few days. She’s never had a brother or a sister to play with.”

  The words bounced around in Roddy’s head after his mom had gone back upstairs and turned out the light. She was all wrong about Princess. That kid didn’t need anyone to feel sorry for her. And she didn’t want a brother to play with, she just wanted someone to boss around.

  He snuggled deeper under the covers and closed his eyes. At once his thoughts went back to the figure Uncle Ring had seen in the alley—the “long drink of water” in the army uniform. If what Uncle Ring said was true, then his dad could be here in the basement right now, making sure everything was all right. “Not my father’s ghost”—he told himself hurriedly—“not that.” Uncle Ring knew the difference.

  Thunder shook the house, followed by a sharp tap-tap close by. Roddy’s eyes flew open. Another flash of lightning, and he saw Princess crouched at the window.

  He groaned. No one, not even Princess, could be dumb enough to go prowling around in this storm. He closed his eyes again, scrunching them tight.

  Tap-tap. Okay, so she really was that dumb. He turned his back to the window and waited.

  She tapped twice more, and then, when at last he sneaked a look at the window, it was empty. Good, he thought. She’d given up and gone back to bed. But even as he thought it, he knew it wasn’t true. That girl was as stubborn as a donkey. And since he knew she was out there, and he knew where she was going, it would be all his fault if she got into trouble.

  She was waiting near the front of the house, pressed against the wet siding.

  “Well, finally!” she said, not even sounding surprised that he’d come. “I have a flashlight, so we can look in the windows.”

  Roddy squinted into the dark. “Hey, that’s my flashlight!” he exclaimed. “Who said you could poke around in my stuff?”

  Princess started across the street, ignoring the rain. “I didn’t poke around in your stuff, goofy. Your mother emptied out a dresser drawer so I could have room for my things.”

  Roddy walked faster to keep up with the girl’s long strides. His sneakers squished through the little rivers racing down Hilltop Drive.

  “Listen,” he said. “You can’t sneak around that house. You could be arrested or shot or—something. It might be dangerous.”

  “I know,” she agreed, surprising him. “That’s why we have to do it. We have to catch the bad guys.”

  Roddy grabbed her shirt and pulled her to a stop. “That’s not what I mean,” he said. “It could be a whole lot worse than bad guys.”

  “Bad guys with guns,” Princess said. “What’s worse than that?”

  Roddy gulped. “I’ll tell you what’s worse,” he said desperately. “That house is haunted! It’s the truth. I know for sure!”

  Princess glanced at the dark house. It looked bigger than it did in the daytime. Scarier, too, Roddy thought, but then, everything looked scary in a storm.

  “You are such a wimp,” she said. “I can’t even believe you said such a wimpy thing.”

  Just then, headlights appeared at the top of the hill. The car drifted slowly toward them. As it neared, a spotlight came on and swept back and forth
across the street.

  Roddy remembered a deer he had seen one night when he was with his dad in their car. The deer had just stood there in the light, not daring to move. He knew how that deer had felt.

  “Now you’ve done it,” Princess growled as the car rolled to a stop. “Hanging around out here talking, for Pete’s sake! You and your stupid ghosts!”

  But her voice quivered just a little, Roddy noticed, and she moved closer to him as the car door opened and a policeman stepped out into the rain.

  5. Day Three

  In the wet, roaring darkness, the policeman looked eight feet tall. He stared down at Roddy and Princess as if they were creatures from outer space.

  “Now what’s all this?” he demanded. “Do your folks know you’re out here? It’s after midnight and the sky is falling, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  Roddy wished he could melt and float away down the hill. They were in big trouble now, with no way out.

  “It’s my cat,” Princess said, and all of a sudden her voice was whimpery and sweet. “My poor kitty. He’s out here somewhere, all by himself. We have to find him.”

  “Your cat?” the policeman repeated. A tiny waterfall poured from the brim of his hat. “You’re out in this storm looking for your cat! Where do you kids live, anyway?”

  “Right there.” Roddy pointed. “I mean, I live there—she’s just visiting.”

  “With my little kitty,” Princess said sadly. “Only he got away. And he’s my dearest, dearest friend.” She sounded ready to cry.

  “Well, you aren’t going to find him tonight,” the policeman said. “Cats are smart—he’s hiding in a nice dry place, and he’s going to stay there until it stops raining. So that’s what you two better do, right now! Go home! I’ll come with you.”

  “No!” Roddy squawked. “You can’t!”

  “You can’t!” Princess repeated in her teary voice.

  “Is that so!” The policeman bent down, and a regular Niagara Falls poured off the visor. “Your folks ought to know what you’ve been up to.”

  Princess talked very fast. “You can’t because you’ll scare his mother to death. His dad is overseas fighting and she’s awful worried all the time. That’s why we didn’t tell about my cat, see? We didn’t want to make her feel worse.”

  The policeman rolled his eyes. Then he grabbed their shoulders and turned them around. “Okay, that’s enough,” he said. “Just go! And don’t come back outside or I’ll take you both down to the station. Got that?”

  Roddy ran. “Got it,” he heard Princess say. And then she added unbelievably, “If you see a black and white kitty, he’s mine. His name is Roddy and he’s scared of everything.”

  Jacob was waiting behind the garage when Roddy slipped out the next morning. He gave a sigh of relief when he saw that Roddy was alone.

  “She’s making chocolate chip cookies with my mom,” Roddy said sourly. “She wants to learn how so she can make them for her father when he comes home from his big important business trip next weekend.”

  They started up the hill, and Roddy told Jacob what had happened the night before. “So besides everything else, she’s a liar,” he finished up. “The biggest liar I’ve ever met! And my mom thinks she’s perfect. I can tell.”

  “She thinks she’s perfect, too,” Jacob said. “That makes two of them.”

  Roddy sighed. Between the storm and the close call with the policeman, he’d hardly slept the rest of the night. He wished he could believe that Princess would give up investigating the haunted house now, but he knew she wouldn’t. She’d as good as said so at breakfast that morning.

  “I tried to make chocolate chip cookies at home,” she’d told Roddy’s mom. “But they burned. Linda said there might be something wrong with our oven.”

  “Well, you can try it again today,” Roddy’s mom said, giving her a little hug. “You mustn’t give up.”

  “Oh, I won’t,” Princess said, and then she’d turned to look straight at Roddy. “I never, ever give up.”

  “She wasn’t talking about cookies when she said that,” Roddy told Jacob. “She’s just weird!”

  “You betcha,” Jacob said. “Plain crazy! And if you keep tagging after her at night, you’re crazy, too.”

  They found Uncle Ring on Jacob’s front porch swing. His eyes were closed, but they flew open when the boys came up the steps.

  “Well, now,” he said cheerfully, “too bad you fellas didn’t come by a few minutes ago. You missed someone worth seeing.”

  Roddy felt that same little jump in his heart. “Was it the soldier?”

  “It was Mrs. Mortimer,” Uncle Ring said. “Fresh as a daisy, like she never had a sick day in her life. She waved to me.”

  “Mrs. Mortimer used to live next door to us,” Jacob whispered. “She died last summer.”

  “What a treat to see her again!” Uncle Ring said. “She was a good old soul.”

  Roddy sat down hard on the top step. He felt a little dizzy. “About that house across the street,” he said shakily. “You said there’s a mean ghost in there. Why is he mean, do you think?”

  “Because he wants to keep people away, I expect,” Uncle Ring said. “Same as he did when he was alive. They say he has a ton of money hidden away in there.”

  “But you told us other people have lived there since the mean guy died,” Roddy said. “The money’s probably gone by now.”

  “Never heard of anyone finding a treasure.” Uncle Ring yawned. “No, it’s still in there someplace, and so is he—forty years or more. I can feel waves of meanness pourin’ out of that place this very minute. Pure meanness!”

  The branches of the willow in front of the haunted house swayed ever so slightly. Roddy stared down at the sidewalk. An ant was dragging a crumb that was bigger than it was.

  “Well, now,” Uncle Ring said suddenly. He leaned forward on the swing. “Look there, will you. If she ain’t a sight for sore eyes!”

  Roddy froze. He kept his eyes on the ant. “Is it Mrs. Mortimer?” he asked Jacob under his breath.

  “Worse,” Jacob whispered back. “It’s her—Princess.”

  The ant crawled into the grass and vanished.

  Reluctantly, Roddy looked up and saw Princess across the street and down a ways. Her long braid gleamed in the sunlight as she ambled back and forth, studying the haunted house.

  “Never saw that one around here before,” Uncle Ring said. “Jacob, she looks a lot like your mama did when she was a little girl. That shiny hair and all. What’s she eatin’, I wonder?”

  “It’s an absolutely perfect chocolate chip cookie,” Roddy said bitterly. “Take my word for it.”

  “She must have just moved in down the block,” Uncle Ring said. “I bet she’s lonesome, poor kid. You fellas will have to look after her. Show her around. You hear, Jacob?”

  “Yeah.” Jacob slid off the steps, and Roddy followed. They waved good-bye to Uncle Ring and zoomed around the side of the house, bumping into each other as they ran.

  “It doesn’t make any difference,” Jacob said as soon as they were safely in the alley. “Uncle Ring saying that, I mean. She’s staying at your house. She’s your problem.”

  Roddy grinned. He felt better than he had since Princess arrived. “Sure it makes a difference,” he said. “He’s your uncle Ring, and he knows stuff. If she gets in trouble now, it’ll be your fault as much as mine. He said look after her, so you have to do it.”

  “Do not,” Jacob said weakly.

  “Do, too.” Roddy took a deep breath. Maybe it wouldn’t be quite so scary tonight, he thought, with Jacob along.

  6. Night Three

  “We’re going to hide under those bushes along the driveway,” Princess whispered. “There’s a whole row of them. I checked it out this afternoon. If the robber comes back tonight, we’ll get a good look at him.”

  Boss, boss, boss, Roddy thought. “What if he goes up the alley and parks in the garage?”

  “We’ll still see
him when he comes to the house. But he can’t park in there. I looked through the garage window this afternoon. The place is full of junk—an old tractor, firewood, stuff like that. He has to park in the little driveway that goes to the side door.”

  She darted across the dark street, and Roddy and Jacob followed more slowly.

  “This is so dumb,” Jacob muttered, just loud enough to be heard. “My uncle said we should stay away from this place.”

  Princess glared over her shoulder. “I hope you didn’t tell your uncle anything,” she said sharply. “We’re on a secret investigation, Jacob. You’re lucky I’m letting you come along.”

  “Yeah,” Jacob said. “Lucky me.”

  “Just do what she says,” Roddy whispered. “It’s easier.”

  He had been almost glad when Princess rapped on the basement window tonight. Going on a secret investigation was better than lying awake, thinking about Mrs. Mortimer and the tall man in the army uniform. Mrs. Mortimer was dead. The tall man was not. Uncle Ring said so, but how could he be so sure?

  Jacob had been waiting for them in the shadows next to his house. “Just do everything I say,” Princess had said, and ignored Jacob’s groan.

  “Okay,” she said, “now here’s where we go undercover.” She dropped to her knees and vanished under a lilac bush close to the drive. “Follow me,” her voice came out of the dark. “Don’t make any noise.”

  Roddy felt a little thrill of excitement. Leaves, still damp from the rain of the night before, tickled the back of his neck as he crawled. He started to sneeze but didn’t. Undercover, he thought. That sounded important.

  “Why can’t we just walk?” Jacob complained. “There’s nobody here now.”

  “Shhh.” Princess kept crawling, then stopped so suddenly that Roddy’s nose bumped her shoe. He rocked back and touched a finger to his upper lip, feeling for blood. Injured in the line of duty, he thought, but there wasn’t any.

  “Go a little bit farther,” Jacob whispered. “I’m sitting in a puddle.”