The Pike River Phantom by Betty Ren Wright Page B

tried to force Pike River to accept her as its queen. She must have known how hard it would be, but she’d tried, anyway.
    â€œThere’s going to be trouble on the Fourth of July,” Rachel continued. “I just know it. Whether I’m the queen or someone else is. And nobody’s going to believe us if we try to warn them.”
    â€œDid you ever hear of a ghost that got younger?” Charlie asked. “That’s the strangest part of the whole business. The first time I saw her she was as old as Grandma Lou. Next Saturday is the Fourth, and by then she could be just the age she was when—”
    â€œWhen she tried to pull Grandma off the float.” Rachel completed the sentence in a whisper. “Oh, boy!”
    They started walking again, moving slowly through the buzzing dark. “We should tell someone,” Charlie said again, but he knew Rachel was right. Who would believe them?
    Grandma Lou had cocoa waiting when they reached the house. “We were about to send out a search party,” she joked. “Now you just drink this down, and you’ll sleep peacefully as babies all night.”
    Charlie doubted it would work, and it didn’t. He was awake for what seemed like hours, turning and twisting. He thought about Mrs. Koch and the mouse, and about his father snoring gently beside him. Mostly he thought about Katya Torin. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her, looking down at them from the top of the stairs with hate-filled eyes. Who could sleep with a memory like that?
    He didn’t realize how restless he was till his father woke suddenly and switched on the bedside lamp. “For pete’s sake, Charlie,” he muttered, “what’s the matter with you? Too much bratwurst and baked beans?”
    â€œI’m okay. Just can’t get to sleep.”
    John rolled over and squinted at him. “I don’t suppose you want to tell your old man what the problem is.” He waited. “Or is your old man the problem again?”
    â€œI said I’m okay,” Charlie muttered. “I’m sorry if I woke you up.”
    â€œNo big deal.” His father shrugged and turned off the light. “That was nice, wasn’t it?” he said softly. “What Mrs. Koch said tonight.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œAbout being glad you and I came to Pike River,” John said. “About hoping we’d stay for a long time.”
    Charlie took a deep breath. “Oh, that.”
    â€œYeah, that. What did you think I meant?” When Charlie didn’t answer, he rolled over on his side, and in a few minutes he was snoring again.
    Eventually Charlie slept, too, only to dream about the Fourth of July parade. He was standing on the curb in brilliant sunshine. Bands marched toward him. Floats, masses of red, white, and blue, loomed above him, and flags danced in the breeze. He was happy. After all, what could possibly go wrong at a Fourth of July parade?
    Then he turned the other way and saw that as they passed him, the bands, the floats, and the flag-bearers were engulfed in boiling gray fog and disappeared completely.

CHAPTER 14
    â€œCharlie! Get up and put some clothes on, dear. You have a visitor.”
    Grandma Lou sounded falsely cheerful and a little impatient. She’d sounded that way all week. Charlie supposed it was because she was so anxious to find out if Rachel would be chosen Sunbonnet Queen. More anxious than Rachel, he thought as he scrambled across the tangle of sheets his father had left. Since Mrs. Koch’s revelations last Saturday night, Rachel hadn’t even mentioned the contest.
    â€œCharlie! Are you coming?”
    â€œRight away.” He pulled on cutoff jeans and a T-shirt and went down the hall to the kitchen. A man stood at the kitchen sink looking out over the patio. He wore jeans and a blue work shirt, and there was something familiar about his nearly-shoulder-length brown