Haunted Tales Read Free

has anxiety because you keep teasing him,” she
replied.
    “Toughen the boy up,” Stanley said with a grin. “Good for
him.”
    Shaking her head, Rosie walked back into the kitchen. “You
know, Stanley,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about what you said. And I think
that perhaps we ought to start eating better.   You know, more salads and fruit. Fewer baked
goods.”
    “What?” Stanley asked, dropping the curtain and hurrying
back to the kitchen. “What are you talking about woman?”
    She turned from the sink and grinned at him. “Gotcha!”
    “You nearly scared the life out of me,” he said with a
smile, walking across the room and enfolding her in his arms. “I sure didn’t
marry you because you were a good cook, but I ain’t complaining about it.”
    She laid her head on his shoulder. “Oh, Stanley,” she said.
“I’m the luckiest woman in the world.”
    He smiled down at her. “Well, that makes perfect sense,” he
said softly. “Seeing as I’m the luckiest man.”
    “Well, luckiest man,” she said, stepping back. “How are we
going to get Mary to her own baby shower without letting her know anything is
wrong?”
    “You just leave that to me,” he said.
    “You’ve got a plan?” she asked hopefully.
    “Well, no,” he admitted with a wink. “But don’t you worry; I
got a whole week to figure this out.”

Chapter Three

 
    Clarissa hurried down the bus aisle and slipped into the
seat next to her best friend, Maggie Brennan.   She sat quietly until everyone else at their bus stop had taken their
seats and the bus driver had closed the door and started moving down the
street. Then she turned to her friend and quietly whispered, “I need you to
help me with a surprise.”
    Maggie smiled and nodded. “I love surprises,” she said.
“What kind of surprise?”
    “On Halloween we’re having a ghost story telling party,”
Clarissa said.
    “I know,” Maggie replied, her eyes sparkling with delight.
“My family gets to come, too.”
    “Oh, cool!” Clarissa replied. “Then you know.”
    “Know what?”
    “That everyone is supposed to tell a ghost story,” Clarissa
said.
    Maggie shook her head. “No,” she said, her eyes widening in
interest. “I didn’t know that at all.”
    Clarissa nodded eagerly. “Yes. Everyone is supposed to tell
one,” she explained.
    “Do they have to be spooky?”
    Shrugging, Clarissa thought about the question for a moment.
“I don’t know. But I don’t think so. Not all of Mary’s stories are spooky
ones.”
    “Whew,” Maggie said, leaning back in the seat. “That’s a
relief. I have lots of ghost stories, but none of them are spooky.”
    “But that’s the thing,” Clarissa said.
    “What?” Maggie asked.
    “You have lots of ghost stories. Mary has lots of ghost stories, and even my dad
has ghost stories,” she explained. “But I don’t have any ghost stories. At all.”
    “Oh,” Maggie replied. “And you want to have one, right?”
    Clarissa nodded again. “Right,” she said. “I need a ghost
story.”
    “Okay,” Maggie said with a smile. “I’ll tell you one of my
stories, and then you can pretend that it’s yours.”
    Shaking her head, Clarissa faced her friend. “No, that won’t
work,” she explained. “It has to be my story, or it won’t be as good.”
    “But you can’t see ghosts,” Maggie reasoned.
    “Remember when you taught me how to jump double-dutch?”
Clarissa asked.
    Maggie nodded.
    “Well, you taught me how to do that,” Clarissa reasoned.
“So, you can teach me how to see ghosts.”
    Maggie thought about it for a moment. “I don’t think it’s
that easy.”
    “Well, double-dutch wasn’t easy at all, and you still taught
me.”
    “But I don’t know how I learned,” Maggie said. “I just did
it one day.”
    Clarissa folded her arms over her chest and sat back in her
seat, thinking about what Maggie had just said. The bus rumbled farther down
the route and pulled to the side of the