The Secret of Smith’s Hill
Chapter 6: Is This House Haunted?
The story so far: Kelly heard a tapping sound in the night. The twins followed it–and have just found Cory’s alphabet blocks arranged in three rows on the living room floor.
For once, Kelly felt as shaken as James looked when they stared down at the neat rows of blocks. But aloud she said, “Maybe it was a mouse or a squirrel. You know, living in the walls. After all, it’s a very old house. Maybe whatever it is ran through the walls to the living room, where it got out and smashed Cory’s tower.”
“Oh, right,” James said sarcastically. “We have a mouse that knows how to count out three taps, pause, and then count three more taps–a mouse that can arrange blocks in rows.”
“A raccoon then,” Kelly said huffily. “After all, we’re in the country. And they have hands.”
“Yeah, but I bet they can’t count, any more than mice can,” James retorted. “But people can count, Kelly. And I still think... what?”
Kelly, who had been staring at the rows of blocks, had gripped James’s arm. “Look!” she exclaimed. “Look.” She pointed to the top row. It said: LEEAPSHEPLEM
“So?” said James. “Yeah, but look at the other rows,” Kelly said.
The second row said:
ZJKLQBCAF And the third said: AOUYI
“The other rows don’t make any sense,” Kelly said slowly. “Leeapsheplem makes sense?” “No. But you can say it. It looks sort of like someone was trying to make sense.”
“Someone,” James said. “See? You think it’s a person, too.”
“I’m not sure.” Kelly sat down on the floor. “But...well...I guess I agree. A lot of weird stuff’s sure been going on. The crashes. The broken dishes. The stone. The horseshoe. The truck. Now the tapping and blocks. It could be some kind of code,” she mused. “Not Morse, but .... ”
“Dad would say there’s a logical explanation. And the most logical one I can think of is someone broke in, made tapping sounds, and rearranged the blocks. And punctured the cement truck’s tires, too. “
“Yeah, but I bet no one from the old neighborhood could get here. And why would someone from here do all that?”
“To scare us and get rid of us,” James replied. “Like back in Boston when that guy from the Phantoms beat up the new kid who wouldn’t join the gang, and stole the kid’s bike.” He shuddered.
“But no one’s asked us to join a gang here. We haven’t even met any other kids! Besides, what about the stone and the horseshoe? And Sphinx and Clementine being so spooked?”
James shrugged. “Probably they smelled a stranger.”
“Don’t you see?” Kelly said impatiently. “Animals are afraid of anything supernatural.”
James stared at her. “You mean like ghosts?” he said very slowly.
Kelly felt herself shiver. “I mean like ghosts.”
“You mean like maybe this house is haunted?”
“Yes. It’s the only thing I can think of that could explain–you know, everything.”
“Kelly,” James said, “I like that idea a lot better than the idea that someone’s trying to scare us off. But most people–most intelligent people–would say there’s no such thing as ghosts.”
Kelly stood up and began pacing. “The thing we have to do is figure out how everything’s connected. We need to write everything down–”
“You need,” came Mom’s voice from the stairs, “to go to bed. What on earth are you doing up?” She looked at the blocks on the floor. “Oh, no! You didn’t knock down Cory’s tower, did you?”
“No.” Kelly hastily piled blocks on top of each other again. “No, we–we heard a noise and came down and found the tower like this. So, um, we thought we should fix it so Cory won’t be upset in the morning.”
Mom smiled. “Good idea,” she said, and headed back to the stairs. Then, as Kelly put the last block on the rebuilt tower, she turned. “What noise?” she asked.
At that very moment there was a tremendous crash from the kitchen. To be continued Wednesday April 25 Next Time: A Clue?