Thad, the Ghost, and Me by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Author:Margaret Peterson Haddix
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Only about five minutes have passed, but everything has changed. Thad and Harvey and I are no longer in the basement, just a coal chute away from safety. Now we’re back on the first floor of the house, crouching in the shadows. It’s getting darker and darker. We’re pressed against a wall behind the room where the crowd of juvenile delinquents is clustered around a candle. I keep hearing random phrases like, “hold your hand in the fire” and “carve your own tattoo, like we did” and “swear allegiance to the gang.” But my hearing goes in and out too much for me to make sense of any of it.

Thad and I are both clutching lengths of plumbing pipe. We have our jeans pockets and sweatshirt pockets stuffed with the best ammunition we could find in a pinch.

Harvey stands in the passageway between our room and the gang’s. The gang’s voices suddenly get louder, and someone screams, “Didn’t you think we’d find out?”

I’m not sure what they’re arguing about because I’m too busy watching Harvey. He waves his arms and screams, “Now! Now! Do it now! Before they kill someone!”

Thad and I both spring up and whip the lengths of plumbing pipe around the corner. Thad puts a chunk of petrified bread in one end of his pipe and I put a toy soldier in the end of my pipe. And then, in the split second that I pause to aim, two things hit me.

One: Did Harvey say, “kill someone”?

Two: Is that Anthony Gorgonzola, the scariest-looking kid in eighth grade, in the center of the gang? Pinned down—like the rest of the gang is even meaner than him?

I want to stop everything. I want to run away. I want to throw up.

But Thad has already shot his petrified bread at the gang, and I can’t leave him without backup. I close my eyes and blow as hard as I can into the end of the plumber’s pipe.

Ping!

The toy soldier I aimed hits a wall right over the gang’s heads. Without pausing to think, I’m reloading, shooting again. And so’s Thad.

Ping! Ping! Ping!

Neither of us can aim very well, but he manages to clip one gang member’s ear, and I hit one in the back. And we have surprised them. In the split-second flashes of looking up before I reload and fire again, I see the gang jumping up, screaming, “Bullets! We’re under attack!” and “We’re surrounded!”

Maybe these guys were brave enough to give themselves tattoos. But they’re terrified of a few lengths of plumbing pipe, some bread crumbs, and a handful of toy soldiers.

In the flickering light from the candle, I see the gang take off running out of the house. I hear the front door slam behind them again and again: Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Only, they’re in such a hurry to get away that someone drops the candle.

“The carpet!” Harvey cries, floating over the hungrily licking flame. “It’s on fire!”

Thad and I rush forward, stamping out the flame. Thad

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.