Gap Year in Ghost Town by Michael Pryor

Author:Michael Pryor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2017-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

For secret stuff, the only place to go was the secret room.

When I got there, though, I had to check twice that I was in the right place. Bec had been at work.

Dad has always been what I call semi-neat. He doesn’t like mess, but his definition of mess and most people’s might be different. He doesn’t like dirt, or grime, or anything like that, and he draws a line at stacking work stuff on the actual floor (except in emergencies), but that’s about it.

Bec, though, is serious about neatness. The secret room had been transformed. One table was totally clear, another had two neat stacks of books and papers. No coffee cups anywhere. And a spanking new computer was blinking and humming on a new table all of its own. Now, that was a sign of change, something like Robin Hood using a laser sight.

With Rani’s help, I moved furniture to the side of the room, against the bookshelves. We were extra careful with the new computer because cables. It looked as if Bec had been doing some networking, among other things. When she did, she preferred hard wires rather than wi-fi for no good reason I could work out.

She’d been doing some sweeping, too, or had got Dad to do it, more likely. The hardwood floor was almost sparkling. ‘I could eat my dinner off that,’ I marvelled, standing back with my hands on my hips.

‘Imagine that,’ Rani said. ‘Multipurpose flooring – you can stand on it, dance on it, and use it instead of crockery. What’ll they think of next?’

She took up a position by the door, removed her coat, and leaned her sword up against the wall. ‘You’re sure about this?’ she asked.

‘Certainty is the refuge of small minds,’ I said. ‘Oscar Wilde.’

‘No it wasn’t. You just made it up and attributed it to him.’

‘Why should I be any different from ninety per cent of the internet? If Ozzie had said half the stuff the net claims he did, he wouldn’t have had time to do all the naughty things he got up to.’

I settled, cross-legged, in the middle of the room. I took my pendant off and lay it on the floor in front of me.

‘Okay, right. Do I look medium enough to you? And try to resist the obvious pun.’

Rani pursed her lips, denied an opportunity. ‘You’ll do.’

‘Thanks. I love to have such a vote of confidence.’

‘I don’t want you getting smug.’

‘No danger of that,’ I muttered. I knew that I was going right out there on a branch that I wasn’t really sure was there in the first place, which is a bad way of both climbing trees and handling ghosts.

I touched the pendant with a finger. It was vibrating very slightly. I closed my eyes. ‘Hello? Anyone out there?’

For an uncertain amount of time, I cast about, trying to feel for ghosts. I wanted to find some sort of ghost network, some plane that they inhabited, but as much as I

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