Philip and the Haunted House (9781619500020) Read Online Free

What
robbery?”
    “ The pizza store across the street from
school. The two robbers took a lot of money.”
    “ How do you know?”
    “ My dad heard it on the radio. I even
heard the sirens last night.”
    “ Oh, yeah. Me, too. Is that what they
were for? I heard them when I went to bed.”
    “ That was only like nine o’clock. You
went to bed so early?”
    “ All the lawn mowing.”
    “ Yeah, I went to bed at nine-thirty,”
Emery confessed. “What’ll we do today? Hey, did your dad get the
pictures back yet?”
    “ No, not till Monday, he
said.”
    “ Oh. So what’ll we do
today?”
    “ I was thinking about the haunted
house. Let’s pack another lunch and put it on the porch. Then we
make believe we’re going away, but really hide across the street.
Maybe we can see what happens to it.”
    “ You want to see the ghost?”
    “ Ghost! Don’t be dumb. It can’t be a
ghost. My lunches disappeared during the day. Ghosts only come out
at night, right?”
    “ Maybe it’s a daytime
ghost.”
    “ A daytime ghost? What’s a daytime
ghost?”
    “ You know. If you die at night, you’re
a nighttime ghost. If you die during the day, you’re a daytime
ghost.”
    “ Is that true? You sure?”
    Emery shrugged. “All the ghosts can’t be
flying around at night. They’d bump into one another. Some must
have to fly around in the daytime so it’s not so crowded.”
    “ How many ghosts do you think there
are, anyway?”
    “ Lots.”
    “ It couldn’t be a ghost though, could
it?” Philip reasoned. “Ghosts don’t eat, right?”
    “ This one ate our
sandwiches.”
    Philip pondered the possibility. “Anyway,
let’s put the sandwich on the porch, then hide and see what
happens.”
    “ How far away will we hide?”
    “ Far enough to be safe.”
    “ Where’s that? Alaska?”
    “ No, not Alaska. Across the
street.”
    “ You sure across the street is
safe?”
    “ It should be. We were closer than that
when the second lunches got stolen, and the ghost didn’t do
anything to us.”
    “ Hey, you said it wasn’t a ghost.”
    “ All right, no ghost. We’ll be safe
from whatever took them.”
    “ Whatever took
them! What kind of whatever you mean?”
    “ How do I know what kind of whatever? A
whatever’s just a whatever. Something took them, right?”
    “ Oh, great. I’d rather it was a ghost
than a whatever that took them.”
    “ We’ll be far away and
safe.”
    “ We better be.”
    “ Don’t worry.”
    “ Pack the lunch and come by for me.
I’ll be waiting. And worrying.”
    Ten minutes later the two boys walked down
Pratt Street toward the haunted house.
    “ It’s kind of hard to tell the house is
haunted after we cut the grass,” Emery said.
    “ Shhh,” whispered Philip. They’d
reached the beginning of the cement walkway. “Here.” He handed the
brown bag to Emery.
    “ Here, what? What do you mean ‘here?’ I
don’t want it. You take it.”
    “ I’ll be your lookout. If I yell, you
start running.”
    “ How about I be your lookout and if I yell, you start running?”
    “ I yell better than you,” Philip
claimed.
    “ Oh, no. I yell pretty good, too. Want
to hear?”
    “ No, no, shhhh!” Philip sighed in
exasperation. “All right. We’ll both go.”
    “ If we both go, who’s going to yell so
we can both start running?”
    “ We’ll both yell, and we’ll both start
running.”
    “ Which way shall we run?”
    “ Away, away! We’ll run away! Now, come
on.” Shoulder-to-shoulder the two boys took tiny steps up the
walkway. They looked left, right, and everywhere, ready to yell and
ready to run. They saw nothing to yell about, though, and when they
got near the porch Philip underhanded the lunch to the same spot as
yesterday’s lunch.
    “ Good throw,” said Emery. “Let’s go.”
They backed down the walkway until they reached the
sidewalk.
    “ Now what?” Emery whispered.
    “ Just act normal.”
    “ Walking backwards isn’t
normal.”
    “ So let’s turn