The Ghost with the Green Thumb by Maggie M. Larche

Author:Maggie M. Larche
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: grandmother, garden stories, grandmother granddaughter, ghost stories for girls, girls 8 and up
Publisher: Maggie M. Larche

***

The next day, I surfaced from the deep end of the pool and pushed my hair back.

“Cannonball!” yelled Billy as he splashed into the water beside me.

“Ah!” I cried. I tried to duck but was too late to avoid the splash of water. I wiped the spray from my eyes and spit out a mouthful of water. “Give me more warning next time!”

Billy laughed. “No way.” He swam over to the side of the pool and motioned for me to follow.

Billy and I had met that morning to go swimming at the community pool. The weather had kicked up from warm and humid to absolutely sweltering. The water was about the only comfortable place in town.

I swam over to Billy’s perch.

“Ok,” he said, as we both held on to the ladder, “your grandpa thought the garden was run down.” He whistled. “He must have high standards.”

“It was like we saw two different gardens, Billy. It was so strange. I saw flowers. He saw weeds. I saw beautiful ivy. He saw dead branches.”

“You saw steak. He saw rotted meat.”

“You are disgusting. But, yeah, that’s the general idea.”

“Beats me, Beth. I’ve never heard anything like it before.” He looked at me seriously. “Do you think your grandpa could be going senile?”

“Don’t say that. That would be terrible.”

“Then maybe we’re senile.” Billy pushed off into the water and floated on his back. “In fact, that’s probably it, because I really don’t think there was anything in that tree hollow when I looked in it, and then you go and pull music out. We could be losing our minds.” He spoke up to the sky with water covering his ears, so I knew he wouldn’t hear my response.

“And I’m seeing ghosts.” I groaned. “I am crazy.”

Billy flipped over and treaded water. “What’s that?”

“Nothing.”

“What’d your grandpa say when you told him where the music came from?”

I hesitated. “I didn’t exactly tell him.”

“Why not?”

“Billy, he was so upset when I took him to the garden. I couldn’t bear to bring up something else that might set him off.”

“I get it,” he said.

“So, how was your family dinner?”

“Great,” he said. “I really like it when Dad’s home. And he had a great idea.”

“What’s that?”

“You know how I’m into construction and stuff.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Dad said he was thinking about building a workshop for us in the backyard, just to kind of goof around in and try to build things. Together.”

“That’s great,” I said. “What a good idea.”

“I know.” Billy swam back to the side. “And, best of all, none of my other brothers are into it, so it’ll be just me and my dad for once.”

“Cool,” I said.

“Yeah, we’ve just got to find the space. Our yard is a little crammed already. But we’ll fit it in. I hope we can start when he gets back from his next trip.”

“Next trip? He’s going again already?”

“Yeah, but it should be a short one. Hopefully we can get building soon!”

“I hope so,” I said.

Billy looked up at the sky. “What do you want to do now? Looks like it’s about lunch time.

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