TJ and the Haunted House

Hazel Hutchins

Description

TJ does not believe in ghosts, so when he agrees to create a haunted house in his own home as a fundraiser, he does not anticipate problems...

...at least not until it turns out that a ghost may inhabit the spare room in his century-old house. The ghost, real or imagined, leads TJ to some fascinating family history. TJ finds a way to bring that history alive for his family. The kittens, offspring of two of the cats from the first book, lead the way.

In this sequel to TJ and the Cats, TJ and his best friend Seymour are back, joined by a classmate Amanda.

Sujets

• Juvenilee Fiction
• Animals
• Cats
• Halloween

Informations

• Publié par: Orca Book Publishers
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554697618
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

TJ and the Haunted House
Hazel Hutchins
Copyright 2003 Hazel Hutchins
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
Hutchins, H.J. (Hazel J.)
TJ and the haunted house / Hazel Hutchins.
An Orca Young Reader
Electronic Monograph Issued also in print format. ISBN 9781554697618 (pdf) -- ISBN 9781554697618 (epub)
1. Haunted houses-Juvenile fiction. I. Title.
PS8565.U826T32 2003 jC813 .54 C2002-911438-1
PZ7.H96162Tj 2003
Library of Congress Control Number: 2002115989
Summary: TJ worries that he has taken on more than he can handle when he agrees to turn his home into a haunted house to raise money for a school trip.
Free teachers guide available.
Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support of its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council.
Cover design by Christine Toller Cover interior illustrations by Kyrsten Brooker
In Canada: Orca Book Publishers PO Box 5626, Station B Victoria, BC Canada V8R 6S4
In the United States: Orca Book Publishers PO Box 468 Custer, WA USA 98240-0468
www.orcabook.com 05 04 03 5 4 3 2 1
To family and friends. HH
Chapter 1
My name is TJ Barnes and I don t believe in ghosts - but my friend Seymour does.
Two weeks before Halloween, Seymour began acting strange. He asked if I could hear mysterious breathing when we were talking on the phone. He began taking sneak peeks into mirrors to glimpse something no one else could see. Finally, way too early in the morning, our doorbell rang. When I stumbled to the door, there was Seymour.
Hey, he said and walked past me into the living room.
Seymour, I groaned, I m not even awake yet.
Sorry, but the world s greatest idea can t wait any longer, said Seymour. Are your parents here?
I shook my head. My parents took over the local hardware store last year. They work really hard at trying to make it a success, including going in early and staying late.
Perfect, said Seymour. They won t have messed up the evidence.
He was acting even stranger than usual. He was walking up to objects in our living room and just well peering at them. The remote control, The World Atlas , the lamp on the end table - he peered at them from above and then from below and then sideways.
What on earth are you doing? I asked.
Seymour looked at me meaningfully. He has short curly hair and crooked eyebrows, and his meaningful look was kind of lopsided. Or maybe it just seemed lopsided because half of my brain was still asleep.
It s moved, he said.
What s moved?
The atlas. Last night it was over on the bookshelf. This morning it s by the TV. Don t you wonder how it got here?
I know how it got here, I said. There was a great TV show about diamond mines after you left. I was looking at maps of the north.
Oh, said Seymour.
But Seymour is never stopped that easily.
That lamp - you didn t move that lamp did you?
No, I said. Seymour
Last night it was turned just slightly this way. He reached out and touched it very carefully with his fingertips. Am I right or am I right?
I don t know, I said. I don t care. I m not even awake! What are you
Seymour was halfway up the stairs, stepping on and off the fifth step.S quea Squeak He looked around him as if the air itself was talking.
Aha! Strange noises, moving objects. The place he paused for emphasis, the place is haunted.
I was disgusted. Totally disgusted.
Seymour! That step has always squeaked.
Then the house has always been haunted - why didn t you tell me? said Seymour.
This is ridiculous. I climbed past him up the stairs. I m going to go back to bed. Wake me up at ten minutes after eight as usual.
Seven minutes after eight, said Seymour, following me. I always ring the doorbell at seven after eight. Any later than that and we ll be late for school; not that I really care if we re late.
He was peering at things again, the walls, the ceiling, down the hall. My best friend drives me nuts.
You have to admit, this house has enough nooks, crannies and side rooms to be haunted, said Seymour. How old is it, anyway?
It s not haunted, I said.
But how old is it? asked Seymour.
It used to be my great-grandparents house, I said.
Then your gran would know how old it is, said Seymour. We ll ask her when we go for the kittens today.
The moment he said those words, my whole world changed. A wonderful feeling spread through me from head to toe. The kittens! I d been so mad at Seymour that I d actually forgotten.
I d been waiting for ages. Today was the day I was going to bring home Alaska and T-Rex.
Two months, that s how old kittens should be when they leave their mother. Seymour and I knew that because we d done a report on cats last spring when I d taken care of Gran s four adult cats. Those cats had almost driven me crazy, but I d ended up liking them. Now I was going to take care of kittens of my very own.
Do you want to see the food and water dishes I got for them? I asked.
I take care of the pet supplies at the hardware store and I d earned everything for the kittens myself.
I saw them, said Seymour. Five times.
Did you see their new bed? I asked.
I saw the bed six times, said Seymour. He sighed. But I could see it a couple more times. Maybe it s got a new piece of lint on it or
Seymour stopped dead in the hallway outside the spare room. He looked at me in that funny, cross-eyed way he gets when he s thinking hard about something.
Now what? I asked. I was almost willing to talk to him because I really had shown him the kitten bed at least six times already.
Nothing, said Seymour, but he still stood there and he still looked cross-eyed. It was my turn to sigh.
Go on. Tell me.
There s a cold spot here.
No big deal, I told him. It s always cold right there. Even on a hot summer day or in the middle of winter when the furnace is blasting away, it s always cold by that door. It s just the spare room. There s some sort of draft or something.
I don t feel a draft, said Seymour. It s just cold. Do you ever hear strange noises in this room? Knocking? Music?
Ghost noises, right? I asked.
Seymour nodded.
No, I said. No noises. The house isn t haunted, Seymour. Why do you want it to be haunted?
Seymour smiled and followed me into my bedroom.
If it were haunted, our class could sell tickets to it on Halloween. And if we could sell tickets, we could make money. And if we could make money, we wouldn t have to sell stupid magazine subscriptions to go on our camping trip!
At last things were beginning to make sense. Every year the kids in our grade go camping. Everyone looks for-ward to it, but we have to raise money by selling magazine subscriptions. I hate selling magazine subscriptions.
I looked at Seymour. I knew I had a decision to make and it wasn t an easy one. There s a reason I don t believe in ghosts. Ghosts scare me.
Seymour, I said, listen to me very carefully. This house isn t haunted. I don t want to live in a haunted house. It is not haunted.
Okay, said Seymour. I m listening.
But I said.
But said Seymour.
It could be haunted I said.
Exactly said Seymour.
If we turned it into a haunted house just for Halloween, I said.
Hurrah! said Seymour. Let s go see if the kitten bed has magically changed color overnight.
Chapter 2
Peeled grapes, called Amanda, waving her hand in the air. I ll be in charge of the peeled grapes.
Seymour and I had told the teacher our haunted house idea first thing that morning. Ms. K. waited until just be-fore lunch to discuss it with the rest of the class. She knows how easily our class gets off track. Ms. K. has taught us two years in a row.
And spaghetti, I can do that too, called Amanda.
We want a haunted house, not a food fair, complained Seymour.
It s not for eating, said Amanda. You blindfold people and tell them you have eyeballs in a bowl. If they re brave enough they reach into the bowl and feel
Peeled grapes, said Seymour. He looked at Amanda with new appreciation. Yuck!
And the cold spaghetti is worms, said Amanda. If you want, we can put ketchup on the worms to make it look like blood when the blindfold comes off.
Where did you learn this great stuff? asked Seymour.
Amanda just smiled.
There were other ideas - lights that moved, eerie music, spooky deco-rations.
Is everyone agreed? asked Ms. K. If I can get the school s permission, is this something we d like to do as a class?
Everyone s hand was raised.
Thank goodness, said Ms. K. I hate trying to sell magazine subscriptions.
Seymour and I arranged to meet Ms. K. at the hardware store later that afternoon. Before we got the school s permission, we needed my mom and dad to agree to turn our place into a haunted house.
We ll clean up afterwards. We ll vacuum and wash the kitchen floor and tidy everything, even things we don t use, said Seymour.
We ll put the hardware store on the posters as a sponsor, I explained. It will be great advertising.
Mom and Dad had about fifty more questions, of course, but in the end they felt good about the idea.
If it s helping the sch