Philip and the Haunted House (9781619500020) by John Paulits

Chapter One
     
    The rumble of a heavy truck caused
Philip to turn in his bed and open his eyes. He felt his heart
pounding. He had been trapped in some dark, awful house. He
immediately recognized his own bedroom and sighed in relief. Only a
dream! The sound of the truck stopped briefly and started up
again. Turning a corner ,
thought Philip. As he listened, the truck noise ended suddenly,
instead of fading little by little. Philip guessed the truck had
stopped somewhere in his neighborhood.
    He sat up in bed, turned, put his feet
on the floor, and stretched. A long Saturday loomed ahead of him.
No school. What a great feeling! Philip thought of his dream again.
Yesterday, his teacher Mr. Ware read the class the part of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer where
Tom and Huck look for treasure in the haunted house. While they’re
looking, they hear someone coming and run upstairs to hide. One of
the two men who enter the haunted house turns out to be Injun Joe,
who wants to kill Tom for identifying him as Doc Robinson’s
murderer at Muff Potter’s trial. Injun Joe gets suspicious, takes
out his knife, and starts to climb the stairs. Tom and Huck lie
frozen in fear on the floor, peeking through a chink in the wood as
Injun Joe, step by step, gets nearer and nearer. Then, CRASH! The
old, rotten stairway collapses and tumbles Injun Joe to the
floor.
    When Mr. Ware read it, he’d shouted the word
“crash” as loud as he could. Everyone, including Philip, jumped out
of their chairs. For once he’d been paying close attention, and the
teacher rewarded him by almost giving him a heart attack. Philip
blamed Mr. Ware for his frightful dream.
    How could Tom and Huck even want to go inside a haunted house,
Philip wondered, even if they thought they’d find some buried
treasure? Buried treasure. Philip thought he might go into a haunted house to get rich, but
not for fun. No way. He decided he’d go back to daydreaming in
school next week and stop listening to the teacher’s heart-attack
reading lessons.
    Philip dressed and went downstairs. His
father lay on the sofa reading the newspaper.
    “ Well, look who’s awake,” his father
said, sitting up. “Your mother went to the supermarket. Becky’s
still sleeping.” Becky was Philip’s baby sister. “Emery called
twice already.”
    “ What time is it, Dad?”
    “ A little after ten.”
    He had slept a long time. Maybe if he’d gotten up earlier he
wouldn’t have had the dream about the haunted house. Stupid reading lesson .
    “ Give Emery a call, and I’ll get your
cereal.”
    Philip called Emery, who said he’d be right
over.
    As Philip dropped his cereal bowl into the
sink, Emery walked into the kitchen.
    “ Are you sick?” said Emery.
    “ No, I’m not sick. Why?”
    “ You slept so long. I only sleep long
if I’m sick. My two baby sisters cry so much I can’t sleep late
anyway.”
    “ No, I’m not sick. I had this weird
dream, though.” Philip led Emery into the living room.
    “ You, too, eh?”
    “ Me, too? You had a dream?” Philip
asked in alarm. Maybe something’s
going around , he
thought.
    “ No, I mean putting the dishes in the
sink.”
    “ Oh. Yeah, something new.”
    “ My mother, too. She must have talked
to your mother. They do these things together sometimes. What did
you dream about?”
    “ The haunted house Mr. Ware read about
yesterday.”
    “ Oh, yeah. When the stairs crashed, and
he made everybody jump. Cool!”
    “ I didn’t jump,” Philip
lied.
    “ Well, everybody else did. Haunted
houses are spooky.”
    “ Only around Halloween,” Philip said
boldly.
    “ All the time,”
Emery replied with a sharp nod.
    Philip felt he’d established his bravery, so
he dropped the topic.
    “ Weird, though,” said Emery.
    “ What’s weird?”
    “ A big truck pulled up around the
corner, and they’re taking everything out of the junky, empty
house.”
    “ The one with all the grass growing
around it?”
    “ Yeah. It’s still got a