My Haunted House (7 page)

W
anda wasn't as bad as she looked.

She showed me how to do blue orange juice fizz, and soon I had turned the tea
and
Uncle Drac's coffee blue as well and they were fizzing all over the place. But then Wanda said that she thought she ought to go. I said she could stay a bit longer and show me her mice doing handstands if she wanted, so we watched her mice do the Amazing Mouse
Pyramid, which was pretty good. Then we heard an enormous smash from upstairs, and we rushed up to see what was happening.

It was really funny. Wanda's dad, Barry, was swinging from the curtains trying to grab Big Bat, while Uncle Drac held a large net. Aunt Tabby's best vase was smashed on the floor. Oops.

“Hey, Big Bat!” Uncle Drac was yelling. “Come here, Big Bat, there's a good bat!”

Big Bat flew off, and Barry fell into the net.

Wanda and I laughed so much that we fell onto the floor, but Barry and Uncle Drac looked cross, so I took Wanda upstairs to see all my bedrooms. Wanda thought they were great, as she only had one bedroom at her home and that was really, really tiny.

After that, as Barry was still helping Uncle Drac catch Big Bat and Brenda was still looking at the boiler with Aunt Tabby, Wanda helped me put Sir Horace back together again. We cleaned off all the Jell-O and flour and polished him with some of Aunt Tabby's boiler polish.
And
we got his left foot back on properly.

Once he was all back together, Sir Horace got up and stretched.
“Gosh, that's done my back good,”
he said, and he squeaked off and propped himself up in a corner of the hall.

“He could do with some oil,” said Wanda. “I've got some stuff for my bike that would work really well.”

“Can you ride a bike?” I asked her. I have always wanted to have a bike, but Aunt Tabby says they are dangerous.

“Of course I can,” said Wanda. “I could teach you if you like.”

I thought Wanda was turning out to be quite interesting, all things considered.

Which is why, when Wanda's mom, Brenda, said, “Come on, Wanda, we really must go home now,” I said, “Can Wanda stay the night, Aunt Tabby? Can she? Please please please please
please
?”

So Wanda stayed the night. And so did Brenda and Barry. Brenda wanted to get the boiler working properly, and Barry was still helping Uncle Drac catch Big Bat.

They stayed the next night as well. And the next,
and
the next, and the next. And then, this morning, Aunt Tabby said that it was foolish for them to go home at all, unless they wanted to, and Brenda, Barry, and
Wanda said no, they didn't really want to.

So I don't mind at all now that Aunt Tabby decided to sell the house, because it is much more fun with Wanda here,
and
I found two ghosts—so now I know that I really do live in a haunted house, just like I always wanted.

Cover art © 2006 by Jimmy Pickering

Cover design by Amy Ryan