Page 25 of Ghost in the Night

“Enough,” Ms. Trina says. “I don’t want to hear no more of this ghost mumbo jumbo. Now get before I tell your momma what you been up to.”

That’s all Robby needs to hear. He spins around and practically runs out the front door.

I stay with Myah, watching her face turn red, her eyesglassing over before she storms out the house. I grab the photo and follow.

On the sidewalk, Myah paces back and forth. “I knew no one was gonna wanna listen,” she says with a huff.

I glance back at the party. “Yo, I know this stuff is kinda creepy. But Ms. Trina didn’t even want to hear anything you had to say. Just blew you off  like you’re some kid.”

“She IS some kid,” Robby corrects me.

My hands roll into fists. That’s the real problem. Kids know a lot more than adults think. So what if Ms. Trina doesn’t believe in ghosts? She could have listened, looked at the photo. I’ve been on enough ghost tours to know there’s some facts to these stories. Ghost tours pass through that square every night. Maybe they …

Oh. Ohhhhhhhh!

The idea is sticky, risky, but it might just work.

“Hang on!” I tell Myah and Robby. “It’s not over yet! We gotta show them. Don’t tell them.”

I wave my photo in the air.

Myah and Robby stare at me blank faced.

“Is that some New York slang or something?” Myah asks.

“My grandma used to say that to me. You gotta show people what you’re about, don’t just tell them.”

“What does that mean?” Robby asks, growing frustrated.

“It means, we’re gonna find out what happened to Tim Truman!”

“And how are we going to do that?”

I study the picture of the house. It’s spooky looking, like it belongs on the cover of some horror novel in the library.

“We’re gonna prove that the house is really haunted by going in there,Ghost Huntersstyle.”

Myah looks at me silently while I go on to explain.

“I’ve learned a lot about ghost hunting the last six months. They say if something happens once, it’s a coincidence. But twice is a pattern and three times is fact. If we get more evidence than just this picture, ghost hunters will take us seriously. The more people that know that place is haunted, the more word will spread, then everybody will HAVE to listen to us.”

Myah nods, holding her necklace. “And I know how toprove it too. If we can reach Mr. Truman’s spirit, we can find out what happened to him. He can tell us what happened to Jabari! We could save him!”

I turn to Robby. “You down?”

He sighs and shakes his head at the ground. “This is not how I planned to spend my summer.”

I butter him up to seal the deal. “Yo, we’re gonna need your tech skills. For equipment and stuff.”

He brightens at this opportunity. “Oh! Well, in that case. Okay.”

“But you can’t tell your mom.” I don’t know her like that, but Lena doesn’t seem to be down with the ghost stuff anyway. We gotta do this without adults.

Robby rolls his eyes. “I know. I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“Okay,” Myah says. “We got our ownGhostbusterscrew.”

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