Unless Davy, Mr. Willoughby, Bartholomew Buckingham, and every other ghost I bump into at that place tells me I can’t!
“You promise?”
“Yeah.” Zack had never lied to Judy before. It didn’t feel great. So he changed the subject.
“What’s in the envelope?”
“Ah! My homework assignment.” She opened the envelope clasp. “The Donnelly brothers belonged to a youth group called the Sons of Daniel Boone, started by Daniel Carter Beard in 1905. The sons were organized into forts.”
A lightbulb went on over Zack’s head (or it would’ve if he were a cartoon): “That’s why they said the school was their fort!”
“Exactly. And the officers of the fort took on the names of famous frontiersmen, like Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed …”
“And Kit Carson!”
Judy nodded. “The sons did all sorts of activities. They’d have treasure hunts, study nature, go camping.…”
Judy’s voice trailed off.
“What?”
“Well, Zack, for some strange reason, the Donnelly brothers decided to build an indoor campfire in that back corridor where you saw them.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. If I were you, I’d steer clear of Seth and Joseph Donnelly. I think they’re, you know, troublemakers.”
“Davy kind of said the same thing. He told me they still liked to play with fire.”
Zack, on the other hand, never wanted to mess with it again!
35
Wade the Zombie stared at the ghostly boy standing in front of him, the first human soul he had encountered since the beast had sprung out of the darkness and bit him.
“Who are you?” the ghost boy asked.
“Ah boo blot blow, blasder,” Wade grunted in reply.
“Huh?”
“I do not know, master,” Wade grunted more clearly.
That made the ghost boy smile.
“Did you just call me master?”
“Yes, master.”
A second ghost boy drifted into the room. Instinctively, Wade jumped forward to put his body between this new boy and his master.
“Must protect master!”
The new boy laughed. “What did that drool bucket just say?”
“He said he had to protect me because I’m his master.”
“Seth? What’s going on here, little brother?”
“Well, Joseph, I found this feller stumbling around down here in the dark.”
“You think he’s a …?”
“Sure looks like one.”
“Mush problect blasder,” Wade grumbled.
“Sure sounds like one, too!”
The boys turned to face him again.
The older one spoke: “Not for nothin’, pal, but were you recently bitten by a zombie?”
Wade turned to the younger one.
“You may answer,” said the master.
“Yes, master. Yes. I was bitten.”
“And you escaped before he could crack open your skull and scoop out your brains?”
“Yes.”
The two boys both looked very pleased with his answers, the younger one more than the older.
“Hot diggity dog, Joe, he’s callin’ me master!”
“That means he’s your zombie slave, Seth!” said the older boy. “We can make him do all the stuff we can’t do no more! We can finally get this show on the road!”
The ghost boys moved closer.
“Hop on your left foot!” snapped the younger one, the boy called Seth.
Wade hopped.
“Pick up some firewood and drop it on your toe.”
Wade did that, too. It did not hurt.
“Say, Zombie Man,” asked the older boy, “do you know how to operate a furnace?”
“Yes.”
“You packin’ any matches?”
The zombie reached into his pants. Showed the ghost boys the box of wooden matches the man he used to be always carried in his pants pockets to light his smokes and pick his teeth.
“Hot diggity dog!” said Seth.
Then he and his brother started singing.
Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the burning of the school …
36
That night, Eddie and Madame Marie snuck into the cemetery behind the school.
They had driven straight from Lily Dale, New York, to North Chester, Connecticut. Eddie led the way through the iron graveyard gates. Madame Marie carried a worn leather briefcase. In it were all the tools she would need to conduct a séance.
“Where are the physical remains of the spirit you wish to contact?” she asked Eddie as she adjusted her turban.
“Over yonder, ma’am.”
They hiked downhill toward the Pattakonck River, which flowed through the darkness like a velvet ribbon. Madame Marie swung her flashlight beam back and forth across the rows of weathered headstones. It hit upon one, the largest marker in the cemetery.
“Ma’am?” said Eddie. “That isn’t the spirit we wish to contact.”
“This Captain Pettimore must have been a Mason. See that carving at the top of his stone?”
Madame Marie pointed at the image of an eye inside a triangle surrounded by sunbeams. It reminded Eddie of the floating eyeball over the pyramid on the back of a one-dollar bill.
“Masons call that the Eye of Providence. It serves as a constant reminder that a Mason’s deeds are always being observed by the Grand Architect of the Universe!”
“Fascinating,” said Eddie, who figured he might as well see if the medium could discern anything else about the plundering Yankee gold thief. “What else can you tell me after studying that stone?”
Madame Marie focused her flashlight beam on the tall slab of marble.
CAPTAIN HORACE PHINEAS PETTIMORE
1825–1900
ALL THAT I HAVE
I LEAVE FOR HE
WHO COMES AFTER ME
“Only that it is a lovely piece of chisel work—I love the delicate, lacy framing above and below the epitaph—and that Captain Pettimore must have been a very generous soul, leaving all that he had to those who came after him. Quite impressive.”
Yes, ma’am, Eddie thought, it’s easy to give money away when it isn’t your own.
“Now,” warbled Madame Marie, “where is the soul you wish me to contact?”
“This way, ma’am.”
Crickets chirped. Frogs croaked. They hiked downhill.
“Our man is buried way down there,” said Eddie, pointing toward a clump of short stones near the riverbank. “They put him in with the paupers—poor folks buried free of charge.”
They came to the smallest of the small headstones.
Madame Marie read the words chiseled into the tiny slab:
JOHN LEE COOPER
1835–1873
CSA
HOORAY, MY BRAVE BOYS,
LET’S REJOICE AT HIS FALL.
FOR IF HE HAD LIVED
HE WOULD HAVE BURIED US ALL.
MR. COOPER WAS A SNOOPER.
“My heavens,” said Madame Marie. “Rather disrespectful, don’t you think?”
“Yes, ma’am. But in 1873 I suppose the wounds of the Civil War had not yet fully healed. Mr. Cooper had, as you see, fought for the CSA.”
“The CSA?”
“The Confederate States of America. He made the unfortunate mistake of dying too far north.”
37
Madame Marie closed her eyes and clutched the edges of the miniature headstone.
“Speak through me, Mr. Cooper. Speak through me!”
She had already laid out her séance tools: candles, sketch pad, sharpened pencils, and her “spirit slates,” two chalkboards bound together that, when opened, would reveal messages written by those on the far side of the grave.
“I am here to be your voice,” said Madame Marie, releasing her grip on the stone and sinking deeper into her trance. Gazing off at some unseen middle distance, she sat cr
oss-legged on the grass, placed the sketch pad in her lap.
Eddie handed her a pencil.
She gripped it in her fist without even looking at it and let it hover in circles over the first sheet of paper. “Let your words flow through me, Mr. Cooper! Speak through me now!”
Her pencil touched the paper. Seemingly powered by an unseen force, it scratched out rings of overlapping circles.
And then Madame Marie’s hand automatically wrote a single word:
CHILD
“Find a child,” she said in a faint, wispy voice that wasn’t her own.
The pencil spun out more circles.
“Young enough to communicate with spirits.”
The pencil scraped across the pad.
YOUNG
“Like Seth Donnelly.”
SETH
“A ghost seer.”
SEER
“For I cannot speak to you directly. But through the child you will find the gold.”
GOLD
The pencil point snapped.
Madame Marie’s eyes flew open. She gasped.
“Oh, my. What happened?”
“Nothing, ma’am. Although I believe you may have overexerted yourself. You passed out.”
“I am so sorry.” Eddie held out his hand and helped Madame Marie stand. “I felt certain I had made contact. I felt the tingling.…”
She glanced down at the sketch pad and saw the words she boldly scribbled.
“Gold?” she said. “Oh, my.”
Eddie didn’t need to call his boss.
He knew it was time for Madame Marie to have an accident.
38
The next morning, at school, when Zack opened his locker, Mr. Willoughby was already inside it waiting for him.
“Ah, good morning, Zachary. I trust you slept well last night?”
Not really.
Zack had fallen asleep worrying about how he was going to tell the gym teacher about Chuck Buckingham’s heart condition without sounding like a wacko.
“I heard a bit of troubling news this morning on the zombie front.”
Zack closed the locker door on himself as tight as he could without chopping off his own head. “Such as?”
“Apparently,” said Mr. Willoughby, “there’s a new one.”
“What?”
“A new zombie.”
“There’s two?”
“Precisely.”
“How?”
“We can’t say for certain. Suffice it to say, a young man wandered where he should not have …”
“And got bit by zombie number one.”
“Yes! How did you know that?”
“Davy told me: If you’re bitten by a zombie but somehow escape, you turn into a zombie, too. So what do we do?”
“No immediate action need be taken, but extra precautions will be put into place. You will undoubtedly notice increased guardianship activity.”
“More ghosts?”
Mr. Willoughby nodded grimly.
“Okay. I gotta head to homeroom. Thanks for watching out for me.”
Mr. Willoughby looked pleased when Zack said that. “Thank you, Zachary. Much to my surprise, doing good actually feels good!”
Zack grabbed his books.
Directly across the hall, a panicked fifth-grade girl was frantically opening and closing her locker.
“Where is it?” she muttered as she tore through her stuff. Out came books, a jacket, a bulky purple backpack. “I am so dead! If I don’t find it … I … am … dead!”
She was becoming hysterical—as in crazy, not funny.
“Poor girl,” sighed a soft voice beside Zack. “She can’t find her homework. Again.”
Zack turned. Another ghost. One he’d never met before. A sweet little lady with a hamburger bun of white hair on top of her head. She was wearing a Kiss the Cook apron.
“Alyssa is my granddaughter. I’m her guardian.”
Zack nodded. He was standing in the middle of a crowded corridor. If he started talking to the empty air, everybody in the place would think he either was mental or had a hands-free cell phone.
“Would you mind? The paper she’s looking for is in the side flap of her backpack. On the right, there.”
Zack walked across the hall and tapped the girl (who was now tugging at her hair with both hands and dangerously close to yanking it all out) on the shoulder.
“Hey, did you check the side flap of your backpack? The one on the right, there?”
First the girl stared at Zack like he was crazy.
Then she practically ripped the zipper out of its seams. She found a single sheet of paper and nearly burst into tears of joy.
“Yes! I am so not dead! Thank you!”
“No problem.”
Zack headed up the hall.
“How’d you know where to find it?” the girl called after him.
“Lucky guess,” Zack said with a shrug. He turned to give Alyssa’s grandmother a wink but the ghost was already gone.
39
On the way to homeroom, Zack saw Ms. DuBois and asked her what she’d do if she thought somebody might be too sick to take gym.
“Well, Zack, I believe I would air my suspicions to Ms. Rodgers, the school nurse.”
So between homeroom and math, Zack did.
“I think there might be something wrong with his heart.”
“And what makes you say that?” asked the nurse, who seemed genuinely concerned.
“I saw him running,” said Zack, spinning a quick fib. “He got winded really, really fast. Like in two seconds and he’s not overweight or anything, either.”
“I see,” said Ms. Rodgers, reaching for the stethoscope hanging on the coatrack. “Thank you, Mr. Jennings. I’ll look into it.”
“Maybe Chuck shouldn’t go to gym class today.…”
“I’ll look into it, Mr. Jennings.”
• • •
At lunchtime, Zack’s table in the cafeteria grew a little more crowded.
Ms. DuBois was there, eating carrots and hummus. So were Azalea, Malik, Benny, and Chuck. They were joined by newcomer Alyssa, who just had to eat lunch with Zack. “Because he so totally saved my life this morning!” she said.
“Wow, Zack,” said Malik, “perhaps we are becoming the cool kids!”
Azalea scoffed at that. “Dream on.”
“Have you met any new friends, Azalea?” asked Ms. DuBois.
“Why bother? My dad’s in the army. We’ll be moving at the end of the school year. Maybe sooner. We move all the time.”
“Uh-oh,” said Chuck, slumping down in his seat, apparently trying to disappear.
Two teachers approached the table. Zack recognized Ms. Rodgers, the nurse. She was walking with a guy wearing blue gym shorts and a gray Pettimore Yankees T-shirt. There was a whistle around his neck; Ms. Rodgers had the stethoscope around hers.
Gym Shorts stuck his hands on his hips. Melon-sized muscles bulged on his arms, his legs, even his neck.
“Which one is he?” he asked.
“That’s Charles Buckingham,” said the nurse. “Hello again, Chuck.”
“Uh, hi, Ms. Rodgers,” he said shyly.
“Your mother is calling your family physician,” Ms. Rodgers said in her most soothing nurse voice. “Everything’s going to be fine but we might want to send you home a little early today.”
“Okay.”
“And no gym class. Not for a while.”
Chuck smiled nervously. “Okay.”
“Where’s the other one?” barked the man in the gym shorts. His thighs were as wide as stuffed turkeys.
The nurse pointed at Zack.
“Zack Jennings?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m Coach Mike. Phys ed.” He checked his clipboard. “Looks like I’ve got you later this afternoon.”
Zack gulped. “Yes, sir. Seventh period.”
“Good. You need to put a little meat on those bones, son.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is everything all right, Coach Mike?” asked Ms. DuBois.
“Everything’s fine now, thanks to young Mr. Jennings. The boy has a sixth sense like those dogs that can sniff out diseases. You catch that on the news last night?”
“Sorry, no,” said Ms. DuBois. “But whatever did Zack do?”
“I’ll tell you what he did.” Coach Mike hiked up his gym shorts for emphasis. “He alerted us to his buddy’s irregular heartbeat.”
“It may just be a murmur,” added the nurse. “But it might suggest something more serious. Either way, we should play it safe until we know for sure.”
“So you see, Zack?” said Coach Mike. “You might’ve saved your pal’s life today.”
“He saved mine, too!” said Alyssa. “First thing this morning!”
The gym teacher thrust out his hand. “I just wanted to say well done, Mr. Jennings. Keep up the good work. See you in seventh period. We’re gonna make you some muscles!”
“Thanks,” said Zack. Mr. Willoughby was definitely right: It felt good to do good.
And then, over the spiky top of the gym teacher’s buzz cut, Zack saw the ghost of Bartholomew Buckingham dip into a long, gracious bow.
He had dropped by to say thanks, too.
That made Zack feel even better.
40
The next three weeks flew by.
Almost every day, Zack bumped into a new guardian ghost sent to protect a family member from the potential zombie threat. Some of the ghosts Zack knew, like Kathleen Williams, who he’d met over the summer at the crossroads and again at the Hanging Hill Playhouse. She had been a nightclub and Broadway musical star back in the 1950s. Turned out her great-great-grandniece, Laurel Jumper, was a sixth grader at Pettimore Middle School.
“I heard her singing in the shower this morning,” the ghost gushed. “She has a marvelous voice. Simply marvelous! I only wish she believed in her talent enough to try out for the school choral group! Laurel could be a star on Broadway! A star!”
So Zack found Laurel and made a few subtle suggestions. Laurel auditioned for the school chorus and was, of course, snapped up right away. She even had a solo in the upcoming fall concert.
Laurel Jumper and other kids Zack helped joined his lunch bunch in the cafeteria, which had grown so large he and Malik had had to drag two tables together to make sure everybody had a seat.