Free A Gust of Ghosts by Suzanne Harper Page B

ourselves over something that might not happen,” said Mrs. Malone, sounding very worried indeed.
    Poppy didn’t say anything. She had a question she wanted to ask, a question that loomed in her mind, a question that made her stomach clench, but she was too afraid to ask it.
    Will we have to move again?
    She thought about how she had dreamed of a house just like the one they were now living in. She thought about her cozy bedroom, the wide front porch, and the lawn where they could play croquet one day, just as soon as they convinced their parents to buy a croquet set. She thought about how she had been looking forward to making new friends and settling in at a school for longer than a semester.
    She thought about how she finally felt that she had a home.
    And then she realized how wrong she had been about Mr. Farley. He may have looked like a quiet little man with a boring briefcase, but those looks were deceiving. His gray suit and thinning hair and rimless spectacles were exactly what a Nemesis looked like.

Chapter NINE
    â€œW e must have courage!” Mr. Malone said to his family that evening after supper. “Are we going to give up at the first obstacle, fall at the first fence? No! We are going to persevere! We are going to forge ahead! And we are going to keep on until victory is ours!”
    He stood in the middle of the living room, his legs wide apart, his chin raised proudly, his posture straight and stalwart. He looked like a general encouraging his army to make one last assault against the enemy. It would have been a stirring picture if it hadn’t been for his troops, who were, simply put, not buying it.
    â€œI can’t believe we’re going to have to leave Austin already,” said Franny. She was curled up at the end of the couch, clutching a pillow to her stomach. “We just got here.”
    â€œIf we move, can we get a dog?” Rolly said.
    â€œAt least I haven’t unpacked all my boxes,” said Will. He was lying on the rug, staring gloomily at the ceiling.
    His mother gave him a narrow look. “Will, you told me that you had,” she said. “You promised .”
    â€œI knew there wasn’t any point,” he told the ceiling. “I had a feeling that we weren’t going to stay here long.”
    â€œReally?” said Mrs. Malone, momentarily diverted. “Was it a flash of ESP, do you think?”
    â€œClearly it was not,” said Mr. Malone, “since we are not going anywhere .”
    â€œBut if we could run an experiment with Will that demonstrated precognition, perhaps we could present that to Mrs. Farley,” said Mrs. Malone.
    â€œThe only thing I see in our future,” said Will, “is a moving truck.”
    â€œI can see that, too, and I don’t even have ESP,” muttered Franny.
    Mr. Malone stared fiercely around at his family. “I can’t believe I’ve raised children who would give up the fight at the first hint of opposition! The answer to a slight setback isn’t to sit around crying! The answer is to go out and find some evidence that is so astounding, so amazing, so spectacular that Mrs. Farley will have no choice except to let us keep our grant.”
    His glasses had slipped to the end of his nose in the midst of this tirade. He pushed them up again and said grimly, “Those harpsichordists aren’t going to know what hit them.”
    Mrs. Malone looked dubious, but she said, “Your father is right. We can’t just give up. Maybe we should watch the film from the cemetery. There might be something there....”
    Her voice trailed off, as if even her determined cheerfulness could not overcome the dismal facts facing them.
    â€œThat will take weeks,” said Will. “Months! And you heard Mr. Farley. We only have a few days!”
    â€œAnd it’s so boring,” added Franny. “Hours and hours and hours of watching nothing happen.”
    â€œNonsense!