***
For two days I stayed home from school. Mom and Dad thought I had a bad virus and that suited me. They wanted to get our doctor to do a house visit, but luckily they believed me when I said I didn't feel as bad as I looked. How could I explain my bruised body?
The first day I slept until dinnertime and then I ate so much Mom was worried I'd make myself more sick. On the second day my body was even sorer, but my mind was no longer in a fog. As soon as I got up I saw a removals box in my room that hadn't been there before. A note in Dad's handwriting stuck on top of the box said: Found this with our boxes. Inside it was my Ghostbuster Box.
I had no choice but to believe Grandpa George when he said ghosts were only low-vibration energy and you could easily get rid of them. Before he left for Ireland, he'd given me a box of things to help me get rid of ghosts and keep them out of any building. In the box was a small brown glass bottle of space-clearing essence; a plastic bag of sea salt; a large envelope filled with sage; and a tin box of energized quince seeds.
Once I'd been with Grandpa George when he got rid of a ghost from the home of an elderly lady who lived in his street. He talked to the ghost about reincarnation, about being with the spirits of the people who had already crossed over, about how he was causing the elderly lady to have one illness after another because he was taking her energy ... and then, without any argument, the ghost walked into the Light that Grandpa George had created without looking back. Easy as, I'd thought. Then Grandpa George got me to put a few drops of space-clearing essence in every room of her house and to put sea salt, which had a unique vibration, next to the foundations on the outside of the house. That was to make sure another ghost didn't move in. Grandpa George never hinted that the situation could be trickier.
Grandpa George had never needed to use the sage or the quince seeds when I was with him, but he told me what to do with them.
I slipped the space-clearing essence into my pocket and put the box in the bottom of my closet with a blanket over the top. Then on my cell, I noticed Leon had sent me a text.
Where r u? Chucking a sickie so u can play Xbox?
Greenie just got his 479th friend. We've gotta catch up.
If only I could tell my friends about hanging out with Isabel and being nearly drowned by a killer ghost. I laughed to myself. They'd never believe me.
After reading the message again, it hit me that Greenie was way ahead of us. Getting 500 Facebook friends wasn't as easy as I'd thought. I went onto Facebook again and sent messages to a couple of guys in my basketball team to find out if I could ask their friends to be my friends.
Suddenly my door opened by itself and my whole body jumped in my chair. Eddie!
'Adam, what a terrible thing to have happened. How are you feeling?' he asked.
A bunch of questions swirled around my head all at once. How had he found out so soon what had happened to me? Why did he open the door to come in? Why was Caesar with him? Caesar sat right next to where he stood and looked at me as if everything was how it should be.
I didn't answer him. Instead, I said accusingly, 'You've drugged Caesar!'
'Absolutely not.' Eddie gave me a big smile. 'Caesar is an excellent dog. Easy to train once you have the right rewards.' He held up a bag of liver treats. Then he got Caesar to stand, sit and drop, just to show off. 'I'm his friend now - a friend with food.' He laughed as if he was the cleverest ghost ever.
My cricket bat was leaning against the wall, but hitting him with it wouldn't do anything. And how could Caesar be so disloyal? But I knew the answer; he'd do anything for food.
Calmly, I said, 'Edward Lawrence, you do realize that by interfering with my dog you have broken Rule Three of The Rules Governing Earthbound Spirits?'
He would've choked if he'd had a throat. Once he recovered, he said, 'Your grandfather told you about the Rules?'
'The Council won't be thrilled about you interfering with my dog or barging into my room.'
Eddie took a few moments to work out what he'd say to that. 'Under the circumstances, Adam, I don't think the Council will be concerned that I've used my initiative to train the dog that roams through my property. At present the Council is authorizing a unit of Warrior Spirits to remove you and your family from my home.'
When I didn't react, he uttered, 'You do understand the seriousness of Warrior Spirits evicting you? No one in their right mind would consider taking on one Warrior Spirit, let alone a whole unit.'
A shiver went through my body, but I said, 'It'd take more than them to scare me.'
He stared at me as though I was a complete lunatic. 'You saw two of them last night. No sane member of the Living or Earthbound Spirit would say, It'd take more than them to scare me.'
I wasn't going to tell him that I hadn't seen them. What could be that scary? I thought of the Death Eaters in the Harry Potter movies? I could handle them. But of course Emily couldn't. She couldn't even handle the dark. 'Edward Lawrence, you have no idea what I can handle.'
He rolled his eyes in such a way that I reckon he knew I was just acting tough. He took out a glossy magazine he must have had rolled up under his arm and handed it to me. 'Adam, you need to forget about Facebook for the time being and find a new house. There are several homes in this magazine that would suit your family. I have circled them.'
I almost shouted, 'Spying on my Facebook page is also a breach of the Third Rule.'
He laughed. 'Personally, I don't care for Facebook and those silly messages members of the Living send each other. However, I did notice you have 433 friends. Will you be inviting them all to your next birthday party?'
'It's a bet - who'll be the first one to get 500 friends,' I snapped. 'Now mind your own business!' I took the small brown glass bottle out of my pocket, unscrewed the lid and threw some liquid at him. His energy shrunk straight away and I couldn't help gasping.
He cried out, 'What was that?'
'Space-clearing essence.' I jumped out of my chair. 'And that's just one of my clever tricks.'
'Adam, I'm sure the Warrior Spirits will also be impressed with your clever tricks.' Then he disappeared.
I couldn't believe it. That was so easy. I reckoned I'd have time to try sea salt before Mom and Emily got home.
Caesar followed me outside and watched as I poured a pile of salt against one corner of the house. Hopefully, Mom and Dad wouldn't look down when they were outside. I went down to the middle of the house to pour the next pile, but when I glanced back at Caesar he was wagging his tail and his mouth was covered in white crystals.
I ran up to him and pushed him away from the salt. 'Caesar, you pig!'
'Adam, the bricks of my home don't need to be fed.'
Looking up, I saw Eddie casually leaning against the house and giving me a sarcastic smile as though he'd got revenge.
He brushed some imaginary fluff off his blazer before he said, 'So you don't waste your precious time when you could be getting more friends on Facebook, there is something you should know about the vibration of sea salt.' He smiled down on me like I was five years old. 'Sea salt around the house will be effective in stopping uninvited Earthbound Spirits taking up residence. However, my energy is so aligned with the energy of my home that it won't have any affect on me.'
The particular green of his aura meant he was telling the truth. I gritted my teeth and stormed back into the house. If I could've, I would've walked straight through him, but he moved just in time. As hard as I could, I banged the back door.
'You should pack up your possessions,' he called out. 'The Warrior Spirits won't pack for you!' Then he laughed.
7
That night, after Mom checked my temperature to make sure I was feeling better, she asked me to look after Emily for an hour or so because they had an information night at school.
In a tone that sounded like I didn't really want to, I said, 'Yeah, that's okay.' But really it was brilliant, 'cause I could put the quince seeds over all the doorways and windows tonight.
r /> We all sat down for an early dinner. When Eddie sat down across from me, I gasped.
'What's wrong?' asked Mom.
'Nothing,' I muttered and shoveled a forkful of lasagna into my mouth. Then I realized that Mom and Dad were talking about things around the house that they wanted to change or fix. Mom didn't like the floral curtains in their bedroom.
'They are faded,' remarked Eddie. Then he nodded enthusiastically when Dad remarked that the sound of the doorbell was irritating.
Dad added, 'I'll get a new one next weekend.'
'I like it,' I said.
Dad gave me an unimpressed look. 'When you buy your own house, you can choose the doorbell.'
Eddie gave me a sarcastic smile.
Then, unbelievably, Mom said, 'I'll have to get a plumber to fix the knocking pipe in the laundry.'
Eddie clapped and I gave him a filthy look.
Emily, who couldn't care less about doorbells or pipes, launched into her favorite topic. 'Our backyard is so big and Caesar needs a friend. When am I getting my puppy?'
'When you're older,' replied Mom. That was her standard answer. She'd freak out if she knew about Isabel's plan to give Toto to Emily.
'How old?'
Dad piped in with Mom's usual reply, 'When you're old enough to feed her, train her, take her for a walk every day, brush her and wash her.'
'The smell of one dog is disgusting,' said Eddie. 'How could any member of the Living consider having two of them?'
Emily kicked the chair and grumbled, 'That's not fair. Adam's got Caesar. Grandpa George wants me to have my own dog.'
Mom jumped up out of her chair. 'That reminds me ... a postcard came from Grandpa George.'
'Sweet,' I said before I took in a big breath.
Eddie straightened and looked alert. He wouldn't miss a thing.
She held up the postcard so we could all see it and said, 'This is the village where he bought a house. He's having a great time getting back in touch with his old friends again.'
Eddie leaned forward and studied the postcard. He frowned and asked me, 'What country is that?'
I didn't answer him. 'Pretty,' I said to Mom as I sunk down in my chair.
Emily almost jumped out of her chair. 'Can we go to Ireland to visit him?'
I saw Eddie's eyes widen, as he seemed to comprehend that my Grandpa George, the expert at dealing with ghosts, didn't live nearby. In fact, he lived so far away he couldn't deal with Eddie at all, let alone help me with a bunch of Warrior Spirits.
Emily took the postcard and pretended to read, 'I bet Emily has her own dog now. I bet she's the best dog-owner ever.' She looked at each one of us and giggled.
We all laughed and even Eddie put his hand over his mouth as though the rest of my family might hear him laugh.
Then he turned his attention to me and said, 'Well, well, Adam, it sounds as though I don't have to be concerned about your grandfather walking through my front door at any moment. Or is he super-human and able to deal with Earthbound Spirits long distance?'
I gave him another evil look, because what else could I do? Now he knew that I was completely on my own. I didn't even have Isabel for moral support.
Fortunately, Dad turned to me and put me out of my misery. 'Do you think you'll feel well enough to go to school tomorrow?'
'Maybe.'
Mom said, 'Leon's Mom told me you had a creative writing assignment. Have you started it?'
I have to think about it first.' I wished my friends' Moms would tape up their mouths before they went near school. I'd already been in trouble a heap of times this year for not doing homework. Mom wasn't going to let me get away with any excuses for the rest of the year.
'I'm looking forward to reading it.' She stood and held out her hand to Emily. 'Come on, Em, have a bath now because Dad and I have to go out shortly.'
Dad whispered to me, 'You'll be right to do Emily's night-time routine?'
'Yeah.' An icy chill shot up my spine. I'd be home alone with Emily. What if the Warrior Spirits were waiting on a signal from Eddie? What if they unleashed the full force of their powers tonight? What if Emily became so terrified that she went crazy and never recovered?