Free The House Has Eyes by Joan Lowery Nixon Page A

his own backpack and ran after them. Brian would tell Sam that the Everhart mansion had been rented, and Sam might have more to say about the ghost lights. Sean didn’t want to miss a word.
    “You’re kidding,” Sam was saying to Brian as Sean joined them. “Somebody really is going to live in that ugly old place?”
    “Tell me what you told Brian about the ghost lights,” Sean said.
    “Your dad said I shouldn’t tell you any more scary stories.”
    “It’s not a scary story if the lights are happening. It’s like … like something you’d read in a newspaper.”
    Sam thought a moment. “You’re right,” he said. Then he leaned down toward Sean and made his voice low and spooky. “On dark winter nights people have seen the cold, white, flickering lights and …”
    “What people?”
    “What difference does it make, what people?”
    “It makes a lot of difference. If the mayor said he saw the lights, okay. But if Debbie Jean Parker said she saw them, I wouldn’t believe her for a minute.”
    “Take my word for it. I didn’t get the story from Debbie Jean Parker. Now, do you want to hear about the lights or not?”
    “I want to hear.”
    “Then stop interrupting and listen. The lights travel from room to room. Sometimes they vanish, then reappear.”
    “You could do that with a flashlight,” Brian said.
    “Sure you could, if you were a human being,” Sam answered. “But remember, for years and years no one has lived in that house. Up until now, no one has dared to. Who’d want to live with ghosts?”

2

    S EAN COULDN’T WAIT TO tell his friend Matt Fischer about the ghost lights, and soon a group of kids from their fourth-grade class had gathered around to listen to the story.
    “How do you know it’s ghosts making the lights?” Matt asked.
    “Yeah,” Jabez Amadi said. “It might be burglars.”
    “On and off for two years? In an empty house?” Sean asked. “It couldn’t be burglars.” As Debbie Jean climbed over a desk and pushed into the front of the group, Sean winced. “Sean Quinn, did you just say that the old Everhart mansion is haunted?” she asked.
    “That’s what Sam Miyako told us,” Sean insisted.
    “Did Sam see the lights?”
    Sean hesitated. “I don’t think so. But he talked to some people who did.”
    “Who?”
    “He didn’t tell me.”
    Debbie Jean laughed. “I think all that stuff about ghost lights is just one of Sam’s scary stories. People have moved into the house. If it was haunted, they’d have moved right out again.”
    “Why don’t you ask me if the house is haunted?” Charles Collier spoke loudly from one side of the group.
    Sean’s face grew warm with embarrassment. “Uh, Charles,” he said. “I forgot that it was you and your family who moved into the Everhart mansion. I didn’t mean to …”
    Charles was smaller than most of the kids in the class, but as he frowned at Sean and took another step closer, Matt and Jabez quickly got out of his way.
    “Hey, listen,” Sean said. “I’m sorry if I made you mad.”
    “I’m not mad at you,” Charles answered. “I’m mad at having to live with the ghosts.”
    Sean knew his mouth had fallen open, but he couldn’t think of a thing to say.
    “You’re right about the ghost lights,” Charles told him. “You and that Sam, whoever he is. The Everhart mansion is haunted.”
    “Wow!” Matt said. “Why did your parents rent a house with ghosts in it?”
    Sean could see the unhappiness in Charles’s eyes as he said, “They needed a place to stay for just a short time while they’re working on a project for the Redoaks Museum. My parents don’t believe in ghosts. When I told them what I saw, they just said I had an overactive imagination. It doesn’t matter, I guess, because Mom and Dad are hardly ever home anyway. And, when they are home, the ghosts don’t come around.”
    Debbie Jean squeezed next to Charles. “How can you stand it, living with ghosts? Aren’t you scared out of