It's Spring Break and a storm is ripping through Dink McDougal's neighborhood. Lightening splits the sky and thunder crashes as the trees shake their branches loose. A disappointed Dink stands at her bedroom window dreaming of the wonderful vacation she's not going on this year as she watches the rain lashing down in torrents that flood the small back alley behind her house. Suddenly, she's jerked from her musings by the sight of a young girl's hauntingly sad face peering out from her neighbor's second floor window.
But, how can that be? Professor Mongos isn't at home, hasn't been home for the last month. The question is, who is it that keeps appearing in the window, and what in the world is Dink McDougal going to do about them?
But, how can that be? Professor Mongos isn't at home, hasn't been home for the last month. The question is, who is it that keeps appearing in the window, and what in the world is Dink McDougal going to do about them?
Excerpt: Dink stood at her bedroom window looking out across her backyard and into Professor Mongos's. "I want to know," she grumbled. "Was it a ghost? And, if it was, whose ghost was it?"
Maryann was downstairs with the moms, helping them clean up after the meeting. Dink had come upstairs so she could spend some time thinking about what she had discovered over at the Mongos house earlier. She couldn't get the picture out of her mind, cornrows and maybe glasses. But, ghosts don't wear glasses. Do you still need glasses once you're a ghost? She'd have to google that in the morning.
The wind was starting to pick back up and she thought she could smell a storm blowing in. A couple of blocks away the trains were squealing their brakes against the rusty metal of the tracks. The humidity in the air always made them especially loud.The sound, along with the wind, made the night feel particularly dark and lonesome. Dink pushed down on her window sash and closed the window; she didn't want to get wet again.
She stared hard at the second floor window she had first seen the face peering out from, trying to will it to appear again. She conjured up one possible scenario after the other, trying to identify just who the ghost girl could have been. "Maybe she was someone who escaped on the Underground Railroad," Dink pondered. "Or, maybe she lived there during the depression, or she was a bootlegger's daughter and she got shot down in a raid!" That last possibility held a particular appeal for Dink and she let herself fill in the details of the scene for a few minutes before shaking her head. She had to admit to herself, at this point, all she could do was guess at who the ghost girl could be.
Maryann was downstairs with the moms, helping them clean up after the meeting. Dink had come upstairs so she could spend some time thinking about what she had discovered over at the Mongos house earlier. She couldn't get the picture out of her mind, cornrows and maybe glasses. But, ghosts don't wear glasses. Do you still need glasses once you're a ghost? She'd have to google that in the morning.
The wind was starting to pick back up and she thought she could smell a storm blowing in. A couple of blocks away the trains were squealing their brakes against the rusty metal of the tracks. The humidity in the air always made them especially loud.The sound, along with the wind, made the night feel particularly dark and lonesome. Dink pushed down on her window sash and closed the window; she didn't want to get wet again.
She stared hard at the second floor window she had first seen the face peering out from, trying to will it to appear again. She conjured up one possible scenario after the other, trying to identify just who the ghost girl could have been. "Maybe she was someone who escaped on the Underground Railroad," Dink pondered. "Or, maybe she lived there during the depression, or she was a bootlegger's daughter and she got shot down in a raid!" That last possibility held a particular appeal for Dink and she let herself fill in the details of the scene for a few minutes before shaking her head. She had to admit to herself, at this point, all she could do was guess at who the ghost girl could be.