First Summer

We entered the cemetery at dusk.
There were seven of us. Kathy, team leader. Theresa, electronics expert. Her daughter Ailish, photographer. Millie, EMF person. Kara, publicity. And Jen, Wiccan and secretary to the group. And me.
Kathy had been forming a ghost hunting team, the Lock Haven Paranormal Seekers. She'd visited Radio Shack, and picked up equipment---And also picked up Theresa, who managed the place. Theresa had recruited Ailish, who'd brought in Kara. Kathy, looking for historic information, had come to the Heisey Museum, where I work, and picked me up. And during a tour, I'd met and recruited Millie.
In the initial days, we'd also been through a couple of people who had turned out to be flakes, and a psychic who had turned out to be a fraud. But we'd narrowed it down to us.
We walked into Highland Cemetery, to do a walk-through, have me show the important spots, and practice our investigation.
It was the beginning.

It was the morning after a meeting. Ailish and Kara, eighteen and twenty respectively, picked me up before work, and we hiked out to Zindel Park. Ailish had gotten hold of an underwater camera, and planned to climb down into the pit with the Giantess, to get photos.
"You're her mother," I'd said to Theresa at the meeting before. "Can't you do anything about this?"
Theresa had shrugged. "I figure, let her."
The Giantess was from a Henry Shoemaker story about an Indian prince who had a giant sculpture carved in the form of the woman he loved. But this sculpture had a curse put on it, so that it caused death and famine every time it was placed anywhere. The Indians chose to bury it in McElhattan Creek, and there it stayed. The story ended with a spooky little clause about "think what happens the next time it's discovered!"
That had been this summer, and it had been me who discovered it.
"I thought we'd just sort of, you know, stick our hands in the water with the camera," I said. "Is there any way I can talk you out of this?"
"Are you kidding?" said Ailish. "This is the most fun I've had all summer."
"Oh, yes," I said. "And I'd like to thank you, Ailish, for giving me a pretty good sense of how my boss feels all the time. That's really what I needed, more sympathy for Anne."
We walked in, me smoking a Cuban Mistake. No snakes this time---The weather was cooler. I'd brought my whip from home, just in case. I'd shown Ailish the one at work, in my desk drawer. Ailish had been highly amused at the idea of a "work whip". When we got there, we took a prybar, and lifted off the metal trapdoor.
"You sure I can't talk you out of this?"
"Oh, ease up, Lou," said Ailish, and went down the ladder.
She put on her goggles and tried going under, but couldn't see a thing. So, clinging to the ladder, she held the camera under water, and got several photos and a minute of video. She flailed around in the water for a minute, trying to get a better angle, and then emerged, grinning.
"I kicked it in the head," she said. "Maybe I shouldn't do that. Didn't this thing kill a whole lot of people? I am so bad-ass!"
"Well, come on, bad-ass," I said. "Let's dry you off. And then, if you guys got time, let's stop at McDonald's. I owe you a breakfast."

We all agreed on it later. We'd had meetings, a few practice runs, and we were getting to know each other. I'd hung out a lot with Ailish and Kara---With my background, it wasn't surprising I'd end up taking the younger members under my wing. But this was our first actual investigation, a place in another county. And we all agreed on it later: It was the first night we'd come together as a team.
I rode up with Kathy and Jen, with Millie driving. This was good. I'd already gotten to be friends with Kathy, and I'd become close to Kara and Ailish, but I hadn't gotten to know Millie or Jen all that well. So this gave me a chance. I showed off my new GPS to Millie. "We have 48.7 miles to go. You're going 30.6 miles an hour. At this speed, it will take 1.6 hours."
"Does that thing really say that?" said Kathy. "You're kidding. Let me see that. Hey, there's a little guy walking on the screen!"
"Don't show me," said Millie. "I'll want one."
When we got there, Kathy led the team in a sort of protection prayer. As an atheist, I'm more comfortable with the thought of fighting off a ghost then I am in the prayer. So I'd pitched the idea to Kathy about letting me go in unprotected, to see if any hostile spirits were truly in the house. In the name of science. Ailish and Kara both followed my lead on that, and later confessed to me that they weren't so comfortable with the prayer, either.
"You have a hard time being a grown-up, don't you, Lou?" asked Theresa.
"I don't know," I said. "I've never tried."
We split into groups, took different rooms, did the investigation.
"Setting up the video."
"Temperature eighty-three, and steady."
"I'm going to take some negative photos, see if I can catch anything."
"Lou, can I try your listening device?"
We found very little in the daylight. So we broke for dinner, except for Ailish and I, who skipped out and found the closest two geocaches.

It was almost dark when we went back for more investigating. As we walked back, wearing our brand-new uniforms, someone called from a porch,"How come you guys are all dressed alike?"
"We're twins," I said.
Kathy, being the responsible team leader, stopped to explain that we were paranormal invesitgators, and hand them a business card. Then we went back to the investigation.
Negative photos. Infrared cameras. EVPs. EMFs. How did I ever end up in this business? We did some recording, and sat and talked in the dark---Ailish was still intensely pleased with kicking a cursed statue in the face.
Kara and I decided to go sit in the attic. We sat in the dark together, taking films and talking.
"I don't know, Kara, when you described this attic, I pictured bare beams and insulation," I said. "This is really pleasant. Indiana Jones never has pillows and quilts."
"You know, you don't have to be up here," she said. "I can do this alone. I'm tough."
"I don't doubt it," I said. "I am not casting aspersions on your toughness or your courage. I fully believe you are capable of anything, probably even kicking a cursed sculpture. Maybe I'm your friend and wanted to spend time with you, ever think of that?"
Kara smiled. And we talked. About anything---Movies, books, our favorite TV shows. Things we'd done, people we knew. I brought up a Jason Lee movie that was made from a book by Dave Barry. "You ever hear of Dave Barry?"
"Oh, yeah, I love Dave Barry."
"My god, Kara, I've married girls for less than that."
I asked what five movies she'd want if she were stranded on an island. It was from a newspaper column I'd read, years ago. She considered it, and said,"Can I ask what your five movies would be?"
"Oh sure. Casablanca...."
"I love Casablanca!"
"Me too, but nobody wants to watch it with me, because I mouth along with all the lines."
"Yeah, I do that, too!"
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail...."
"....'Tis but a scratch!"
"Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, because I love the whole series, but I'm limited to one each. And I sometimes flop between Spider-Man and the Princess Bride."
The radio went off. Kathy, downstairs. "Lou, we're going to pack up in a few minutes."
"On our way."
Kara and I grabbed our stuff. I slid all my equipment into the pockets of my black vest. "Hey, Kara," I said. "You did good tonight. I'm proud to have you as a friend."
"Thanks," she said. "Me, too."
When we all compared notes downstairs, Kathy had a photo with a strange face in the fireplace, and one from Theresa with an odd black shape in it. Kathy said the closing protection prayer, with me, Ailish, and Kara waiting in the next room. (Perhaps considering I'd dealt with curses and evil spirits all week, this was pushing our luck.) We packed our stuff, and went out to the vehicles to head home. I turned on the GPS.
"Be careful going home," Kara called across the parking lot.
"Promise," I called back.

A couple weeks ago, Ailish had dropped into my office with a newly discovered Henry Shoemaker story. It detailed a Civil War deserter who hid out in a local mountain, and found a cave that turned out to be haunted by the ghosts of Indian warriors, who had chased him out because of his cowardice. Using the maps in my office and the details in the story, we'd figured out what mountain it was, and roughly where the cave should be.
And we were there.
A rock underneath me gave out, and I started to slide down the mountain. I whipped around and grabbed a fallen tree root with my left hand, not dropping the camera. I dangled for a moment, then reached up and set down the camera on the tree trunk, and climbed up.
"Are you allright?" caled Ailish.
"Oh sure." I wiggled the tree root. "I'm lucky that held."
I took my photo, and then we started climbing back up. Pausing at the top to rest, I lit a cigar. Ailish stared at me.
"You almost killed yourself falling down the mountain, I'm out of breath, and now you're smoking a cigar?" she asked incredulously. "That's so cool, like a movie character!"
"Victory cigar," I said. "We found our cave."

The LHPS team met at the McElhattan McDonald's at six. Not for dinner, but to go investigate the Giantess statue. I rode over with Kara, and we met Kathy and her father, Karen, Theresa and Ailish, Jen, and Millie. I had my whip, and I'd worn my best Indiana Jones hat because I knew it would amuse Ailish and Kara.
After some food, we proceeded over to Zindel Park. Carrying all our equipment, we walked in. I'd been worried about smoking around Kathy's father, who was there to supply the underwater camera. But when I asked if anyone would mind if I smoked a cigar, he asked if I had an extra for him. I gave him a Cuban Mistake.
We walked in to Zindel Rock Garden together, and got our stuff---While we got set up, Ailish hid her own geocache, and I took the reading. She's been dying to place a cache there since the first day I took her. Kathy and her father hooked up the camera, and everyone gathered it around while they lowered it into the water.
Which was more murky than before. And a dead spider floating on the top didn't comfort some of the girls any. So we pulled the camera back up through the grate, and Ailish, Theresa, and I pried the trap door up again. There were two huge spiders, which sent Jen and Ailish running, and I suddenly found Kara velcroed to me. Which was pleasant. I knocked the spiders away with my whip.
We lowered the camera down through the trap door. Turned it, spun it, got a few glimpses, which were intriguing. Everyone gathered around, but we didn't have much control of the camera. We pulled it back up---This was like looking for the Loch Ness Monster.
"Can we tie the camera to something?" suggested Kathy. "To get better control over it?"
"Anybody got string? Duct tape?" suggested Theresa. Everyone dug through their packs and bags.
Twenty minutes of digging and messing with the camera:
"Can we strap it to this stick?"
"Nobody has string?"
"See if my hair band will hold it!" Kathy.
Kathy and Ailish tried to strap it on the with hair band, which didn't work.
"Here!" I held up my first aid kit. "I have some cable ties."
"We can use my tripod," suggested Ailish. This went better.
"If I use two zip ties, I can get it on," said Theresa.
Theresa and Ailish finally got the camera strapped on. Ailish lay down on the concrete, and lowered it in through the trap door---I give her credit, she wasn't letting the spiders stop her. Everyone gathered around the screen, and Ailish moved the camera at our direction, to focus on the Giantess. And everyone got a clear look at the thing for the first time.
"Ooooooh!" Everyone, all at once.
"You see why the Kids and I were so excited over this?" I asked.
"Yeah," breathed Jen. I have to give Jen credit, though she was afraid of the spiders, she hadn't run, either. All of us wanted to see this thing pretty badly.
"It's humanoid," said Kara. "Look, there's a head."
"Can someone take over for me, so I can see?" Ailish asked. I went over and took the tripod, and she went to the screen.
"Tell me when I'm close," I said.
"Ailish, he's got longer arms than you," said Theresa. "He can get closer in."
Ailish, mostly, directed me. I got very close to it with the camera, and everyone tried to get their own still photos of the screen. When we had enough evidence, I pulled the camera back up.
As we packed our stuff away, Kathy said,"Guys, you did really well tonight. I saw some very good teamwork."
"Thanks, guys," I said. "Usually, when I make a discovery like this, I gotta do this stuff alone."
But I'm not alone any more, am I? I don't have to do it alone. I'm part of a team.

We gathered in the Mackeyville area a few days later. Millie had proposed an investigation of Cedar Hill Cemetery. Ailish and I were interested in finding the Chisholm family, who had been murdered in Mississippi by the KKK around 1877. Also, a geocache.
We met for ice cream, headed out to the cemetery. The first meeting we'd had, at the hospital, was stilted and uncomfortable, all of us judging one another. But by now, we'd gotten to be a team. More than a team----We'd become friends.
We entered the cemetery at dusk.

C.O.P.E.

The nature trail was a long and winding path, trailing through the forest behind the high school. Kline and I walked down to the bridge over the creek that afternoon. Technically we were cutting class, but it was late in the year, our grades were in, and it had been a while since anyone had cared where we were during the school day.
"You going to graduation tonight?" Kline asked me.
"Like I'm not gonna be at my own high school graduation," I said.
"With you, you never know."
I laughed, leaning against the bridge railing. "Actually I did try everything to get out of it. I'd rather stay home, but my mom won't let me. She gave me a big speech about how my grandparents were coming for this, and they didn't even get to graduate themselves, what with dropping out of school to feed their families and all."
"Yeah, it sucks ass," Kline agreed. "You skipped out on the prom, too."
"Well, there was a blackout in my neighborhood that night. Someone had to investigate for aliens."
"Find any?"
"No, just a drug dealer. It was unlikely that I was going to get to be prom king anyway."
"What're you wearing tonight?"
I looked down at my Bulldogs T-shirt and jeans. "This, I guess."
"Esther's gonna throw a fit."
"Yeah, well, in another month I won't have to deal with Esther anymore, either," I said. "She'll be off at Harvard or wherever, and I'll never see her again."
"And where are you going next? What do you have planned? You never talk about college."
"To be honest, I never thought I'd make it this far," I said. "For the last year and a half, I been out having adventures. I figured I'd get myself killed way before now. I didn't think I'd live long enough to graduate. World's longest suicide attempt."
"Well, you better start planning ahead," he said. "Cause graduation's tonight, and next year will come."
I shrugged.
"There's still summer camp."

Everyone threw their stupid mortarboards in the air, cheering. Our school, terrified of a lawsuit, had made everyone sign waivers and herded any willing students away from the crowd to throw their mortarboards. I pulled off the stupid robe, dark blue, and dragged it behind me as I walked, wearing the white shirt and tie my mother had forced me to dress in. I'd protested to no avail, my mother stressing the need for formal ceremony and telling me I'd be glad I did in the future. (Decades later, as I approached fifty, I'd still be pissed off about it.)
"Hey, kid. How you doing?"
I looked up. Miss Paula was there.
She hugged me. "I'm proud of you, Lou."
At least someone had said it. I said,"Thanks, Miss Paula."
"I told you. Just Paula now. Calling me 'miss' makes me feel old."
"Okay. Thanks. Hey. You were a really good teacher."
"Thank you, Lou. I appreciate that. If you need help with the next step, whatever that is, you know where to find me. Let me know."
I nodded.
"I will."

I sat next to Mark in the van on the way up to Massachusetts. Mark and I mostly wound up sitting together as we made the trip to Camp Treasure Valley, usually making plots that had very little to do with actually camping.
"I'm working on Orienteering merit badge this year," said Mark. "What're you in on?"
"Got most of the badges I'll need," I said. "I finish the paperwork and I should be an Eagle by October. I'm signed up for Project C.O.P.E."
"What's C.O.P.E.?"
"Challenging Outdoor Physical Endeavors. It's a kind of climbing course with all sorts of problem-solving and stuff. Should be pretty good training for me, actually."
"Oh cool. Hey! Forgot to tell you something!"
"What's that?"
"Remember the other night at the meeting? No, wait, you weren't there, you were out looking for ghosts on the highway. We held the elections for Order of the Arrow."
Order of the Arrow was an exclusive group of Boy Scouts who had gone above and beyond, and were recognized by their teammates. I said,"Oh, right, I forgot about that."
"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I did the math, and I think you're in. I'm pretty sure we elected you to join OA."
"Ah, come on, Mark. Is this the kind of news I need right now?"
"What're you talking about? This is good news!"
"No, it's not. I don't want to be in OA."
"What? Seriously? Everyone wants to be in OA!"
"Not everyone. Not me."
"Rusty wants to be in OA, except he never will, cause he's a jerk."
"I don't want to join these special clubs, man. I just want to do my thing and have everyone leave me alone."
"But you're always out there, helping out and doing good stuff, man. Everyone knows it. It's why we all voted for you."
"I don't do that stuff for rewards, Mark. I just, you know, do it."
"Well, you deserve a reward."
"I'm kind of embarrassed anyone knows about it in the first place."
"What, like nobody's going to hear about the adventuring ghost-hunter?"
"Well, this week I'm gonna be busy with Project C.O.P.E. So I won't be accepting any awards."

I dangled on a net about eighteen feet above the ground. Around me, people were climbing on the ropes course, up in the air and connected by safety harnesses. Down on the ground, the coaches were calling out advice to us.
I unclipped one carabiner from the netting and moved it upward. I had my Swiss Army knife in my pocket, which I wasn't supposed to. They were cautious about jewelry and items falling off and hitting people. But there was no way I was leaving my knife behind.
I climbed, working my way up the netting. The next step was a cable, running from one tree to another, about twenty feet away. I reached up for it.
Something came disconnected, and the whole net flipped over. It dumped me, and I plummeted a couple of feet until my harness caught. This left me dangling twenty feet above the ground, swinging by my safety harness.
"Lou!" called Holly, one of the coaches. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah....." I was breathing heavily. "I'm okay. I'm coming down."
I began to climb down the netting. She said,"Wait! You have to complete the course!"
"Are you crazy?!" I reached the ground and unclipped myself from the harness. "I almost got dumped up there. If I die, I want it to be for a reason. I'm done."

I was sitting in front of my tent when Mark got there. He sat down next to me.
"Want a soda?" he asked.
"Sure/"
He handed me a Sprite, and cracked open a Moxie himself. I had no idea either where his family got the Moxie, or how he managed to drink the stuff. He had to have brought a supply from home---Without a doubt, you'd never find it in the camp's trading post.
"Heard you tooka tumble."
"Yeah, the ropes course flipped over today. I was doing pretty good the last couple days, working on teamwork and problem-solving skills from the ground. But then I wound up almost falling off the thing, and I got scared."
"Sure, I'da been scared, too. But forget that---You're in OA!"
"I'm not joining OA. I told you."
"Man, how can you turn down OA?
"Watch me."
"Okay, then. How about helping me with my compass course? I gotta follow a trail of five markers and get to the final one for the Orienteering merit badge. I have to copy the symbol down from the marker. Gonna require a hike across camp. You wanna come?"
"Sure. I'm in."

Mark and I walked along the trail, over the mountain. We were on the other side of the lake, about two miles away from camp. I was beginning to think early evening may not have been the best time to do this.
Mark looked at his compass. "The last marker should be right up there."
"Let's find it and get going," I said. "It'd be best if we could make it home before dark. I don't want to be stumbling around unfamilar trails overnight."
Mark gave me a look. "Didn't you sleep in a tornado last year?"
"I don't have to learn everything the hard way."
We'd found the other four markers pretty easily. Each one was a dark red, painted wood, and had a symbol on it---Numbers, letters, shapes. We'd copied them down into my notebook---Mark had forgotten to bring one----And if we found this last one, he got the merit badge.
We walked to the end of the trail. He looked at his map and compass. The trail looped around at an overlook, a high rocky point far over the lake.
"Should be right here," Mark said.
We started looking around. Most of them had been hung on tree branches at about eye level, so we began there. We circled, looking around the trail, and came back to each other. Nothing.
I looked over the edge. I could see it down there---A red marker, still semi-dangling from the branch that had broken and fallen over the cliff.
"Well, shit," said Mark.
"Thing broke and went off the edge," I said.
"I guess we'll just have to go back to camp and report it."
"No, wait." I took off my pack, and walked to the edge. "I'm going down there. I'm gonna get it."
"Lou, this is exactly the sort of thing you almost fell off during Project C.O.P.E. today. And this time there's no safety harnesses."
"Gotta do it," I said, and swung my feet over the edge. "I have to prove to myself that I can. Be right back."
Carefully, I worked my way down the rocks, free-climbing toward the marker. Carefully, a foot at a time. The rocks were uneven enough that I had plenty of handholds. But if I fell here, at best it was a long ambulance ride home.
One of the rocks came loose, and I slipped, one foot dangling into the air. I held on tight with my hands, and brought my foot back in to place it in a different spot. This one held, and I continued down.
And finally, I was just above the fallen branch. I reached down and caught the marker, bringing it up and tucking it into my jacket pocket. Then I climbed back up to where Mark waited.
"Did it," I said. I pulled out the marker, the letter U painted in white. "I did it. I can do it."
"You allright, Lou?" Mark asked.
I smiled. "I'm better than allright, Mark."

I stood in my fort back home, organizing things. Shuffling a few things around. Kline was standing outside the door, blasting away at bottles with a BB gun. "So summer camp was fun, then."
"It was," I said. "Learned some stuff. Had some new experiences."
"And since you lived through it, what do you figure your plans are when fall rolls around?"
"I've already applied to Lehigh County Community College," I said. "I'm thinking I'll go into education. I liked working with the Orphans last year."
"Cool," he said. "I'm thinking about going into the Army."
I reached into my jacket, and brought out the red marker. I hung it up on one wall of my fort. Kline looked in behind me.
"Isn't that...."
"The marker from camp? Yeah."
"Were you allowed to bring that home?"
"Nope."
Kline grinned. "And yet, here it is."
"I figure I earned it," I said.

Capitol Theft

I glared at my editor. She glared at me.
"You butchered my article on the Vo-Tech, Kelly."
"I had to. Mrs. Ellis didn't like the way you wrote it."
"Mrs. Ellis can suck rocks."
Kelly threw her hands up in the air. "Terrific, Lou. You want to tell her that, or should I?" She picked up the school newspaper, and read from my article. "You wrote that each student in the farming program had to care for a sheep, and if it lives, they pass the grade. I don't think that's true."
"It was satire."
'I don't think you know what that means."
"You're being pretty mean for someone who wanted me to be your campaign manager when you ran for class president last year."
"We lost."
"Kelly, shit."
"Mrs. Ellis doesn't like the way you try to be a smart-ass. She just wants the straight facts She doesn't think you trying to be funny is worth running."
"Tell that to Dave Barry. The Morning Call runs him every day."
Kelly sighed. She folded up the paper. "You're in German III, right?"
"German II," I said. "I got held back a year because I gave the teacher an uncooked Easter egg."
"Are you going on that trip to Washington DC with the German class and the exchange students?"
"Yeah, assuming Reagan doesn't blow us all up by then."
"I want you to cover that. Seriously. I'll bring my camera and get some photos, and you write the article. Promise me you won't act stupid in front of the exchange students."
"I promise I won't get caught."
"Do you want the article, or not?"
I nodded.
"Yeah. I do."

Class trips would be a lot cooler without all the classmates.
The bus was pretty evenly split between the German exchange students and my American classmates. The German teacher in my school was very active, and planned all sorts of things like this. The Spanish teacher, by contrast, mostly talked about her days in Vietnam. So we were on a bus trip to Washington with a bunch of Germans, which may have been the most diverse experience of my life up to that point.
The trip so far had been rushed. We'd spent most of it on the bus, running behind schedule evidently, because we'd mainly been driving past things. We'd drive past a monument, and the guide would gesture at it, but we couldn't stop because we were in a big hurry to go drive past someplace else. The guide was a German named Zukov, and he seemed to be perpetually running behind schedule. Months later, I would see a TV show that had a character named Zukov as a KGB agent, and it would explain so much.
I clicked a photo of the Lincoln Memorial with my Polaroid. I wished Kline was here.
"Looking for ghosts, screwball?" asked one of the kids in an adjacent seat.
"You never know, Tim," I said. "A lot of Washington is said to be haunted."
"Man, don't tell anyone our fathers work in the same place," Tim said. "That's about all we have in common. You're so weird."
"You know," added Esther,"If you put this much effort into your school work----"
"If school work didn't suck, I might."
The German teacher stood up in front of the bus. "We'll be stopping for dinner," she said. "We're going to have an hour to eat, and then we'll be going to the motel."
"You gonna look for ghosts in the motel, screwy?" asked Tim.
Asshole. "And aliens," I said. "Washington has aliens hid all over the place."

Dinner was a buffet, and it was packed. You'd think a restaurant would plan to seat like sixty kids. Someone immediately spilled water all over the tablecloth, so several of us were sitting there eating off a wet table. All in all, I couldn't get out of there fast enough.
We got back on the bus. I filed back to my seat. It took me a minute to locate the seat---I was looking for my bag, the big blue one I'd carried on. But it wasn't there. It had disappeared.
I looked at Rod, the kid who had been sitting next to me. "You see my bag?"
"No, man," he said. "It was there when we went into the restaurant."
Kelly appeared in the aisle beside Rod as the bus started off. "Switch with me," she said. Rod shrugged and moved off, and she sat down next to me. "I'm gonna need you to get some photos when we unload at the motel. My camera's out of film, and I won't be able to buy more till tomorrow."
"Might be a problem there, Kelly," I said. "My camera was in my bag, and it's gone."
She frowned. "Someone took it?"
" I think so."
"You gotta tell the Frau."
"I think I kinda want to look into it myself," I said. "I don't want anyone looking in my bag but me."
"Why? What's in your bag?"
"Um. Well. My camera and notebook, a first aid kit, two knives, my whip, lockpicks, a couple of smoke bombs, and a flashlight."
"You just carry all this stuff around with you?"
"Who do you come to when you need a band-aid?"
"You," she admitted. "What're you gonna do?"
"Try to get it back myself," I said. "My dad gave me the bag for this trip; I think he got it from work. I don't think I want the Frau finding out I brought a whip along to Washington."
"You and Kline have been hanging out too long," she said. "We're reporters. You want me to ask a few questions, see if I can help?"
"Yeah. We both will."

"I didn't say ghosts are definitely real," I said. "I just said that considering we have a First Lady who consults with psychics, I think you're being a little harsh."
I was standing outside our motel room door with a couple of the other guys. We'd been through a pillowfight and some crank calls on the motel phone, and now we were standing outside on the walkway, chatting. We couldn't stray far past the door, because some of the German students had tried to sneak out and get alcohol, seeing no reason they couldn't drink like they did at home. So the chaperones had set up guards to keep everyone in the motel.
Esther came running down the walkway to us. "Did you guys see anyone come out of my room?" she asked. "Someone went in while I was out getting a soda, and stole the money I had in my purse!"
"Bet it was one of the Germans!" said one of the other guys. "None of us Northern Lehigh kdis would do something like that."
"You got robbed, too?" I said. "Someone took all my stuff."
"From your room?"
"No, off the bus."
She frowned. "That's weird," she said. "How could anyone just walk off the bus with your bag? You'd think someone would notice."
"You'd think," I agreed. "Just like you'd think someone would notice someone busting into your room."
"It didn't look like they broke the lock or anything," said Esther.
"Really?"
"I'm going to go find Frau Hicks," she said. "I need to report this!"
"Wait," I said. "I have an idea. Let's get Kelly. And which room is Tim in?"

I pounded on the door to Tim's motel room. "Open up! Police!"
He opened the door and stared at me. "What're you doing, weirdo?"
"Only my friends get to call me a weirdo, Tim. Let's have it. Everything."
"What're you talking about?"
Kelly and Esther were standing behind me, Kelly taking occasional notes. "Esther's money and all my stuff. Let's go. Now."
He made a face. "You're nuts. I don't know anything about any money."
"Me, too, but in my case it's just in business math class," I said. "You started by stealing all my stuff, and then you used my lockpicks to get into Esther's room and steal her money."
"Got a statement for the record?" Kelly asked him.
"You're crazy."
"No," I said. "I'm not. I realized that your dad a mine work in the same place. He brought me the bag to use for this trip, one of his old work bags. And so did your dad. You took mine off the bus, and nobody noticed because our bags look the same."
Esther was staring at me. "Now you're good at paying attention?"
"I don't know if you did it on purpose or not, but when you opened it up and found all my stuff, you used my picks to get into Esther's room and steal her money. These motel locks are not the most secure I've ever seen; I could open one with a popsicle stick."
"You can't prove any of this," he said.
"Don't have to," I told him. "Here's how it's gonna go down. You either give everything back, right now, or else I go to the Frau and tell her money was stolen, and ask her to search your room."
"You're not going to let the Frau find your knives and whip," he said.
"How did you know there were knives and a whip in the bag?" asked Kelly.
He went pale. I said,"I'm happy to have her search. See, I don't have weapons in my room. You do."
He scowled at me, then turned and walked into his room. He came back and handed me my bag, then gave Esther a folded wad of money.
"There," he said. "Now leave me alone."
"Quote for the school paper?" I asked.
He slammed the door in my face.
"Thank you, Lou," said Esther.
"You guys get a good night's sleep, now," I said. "Tomorrow morning we gotta drive past the Washington Monument."
Esther shook her head. "If only you could learn German as well as you get in trouble."
I smiled. "Nicht war?"

Black Rock

Lou, age six.....
"....Your great-grandmother bought this farm when she first brought her family to America," my grandmother told me. "When your grandfather grew up, he bought it from her. He was training to be a priest, but he left the seminary to marry me, and worked on this farm."
I sat on the couch, listening to her talk about the past. I was staying overnight at my grandparents' house, and a storm was going on outside. It was like a couple of years ago, when a hurricane had flooded the river and trapped us inside the house for days.
She said,"There were Indians here, long ago. We still find arrowheads around the property, and there's an Indian altar at the top of the mountain, where they used to do their ceremonies."
"I want to go see it," I said.
My grandmother smiled. "Well, not tonight for sure. Maybe your grandfather will walk you out to it sometime. And when you're older, you can go explore."
"I like that!"
"You're going to be an explorer. I can tell already. You're going to grow up to have adventures," she said.

Lou, now.
I took three steps and leaped, just narrowly avoiding getting hit by the oncoming train.
I landed in the grass, rolling. A moment later, my friend C Squared landed next to me. The train thundered past.
"Seriously?" I said. "You heard these tracks were haunted?"
"Sure," he said. "They say some guy got killed on them a long time ago."
I stood up, brushing myself off. "Come on, man. Who's gonna get run over by an oncoming train?"
"Well, we almost did."
"Let's get out of here."
We ran to the nearby Ford Escort, a tiny red car that looked like someone had hit the side with a rake. Kline looked up at us as we jumped in.
"No ghosts?
"Nothing," I said. "Let's get home."
He started the car and pulled out, heading back for Slatington. Kline said,"So what now? You guys gonna come back and look again over the weekend?"
I shook my head. "I need a break. I'm gonna stay overnight with my cousin in Phoenixville, and go on out to my grandfather's farm. Black Rock. There's a story of an old Indian altar that I'd like to look into."
"Sounds cool," said Kline.
"I'll bring you back a photo."
"Bring me one of your cousin, too," he said. "She's cute."
"Kline. For fuck's sake."

"Do you need anything?" my cousin asked. I was sitting on the couch at her place, my sleeping bag next to me.
I shook my head. "No. No, I'm okay. Thanks, Marci."
"So what are you attempting here?" she asked, sitting down beside me.
"A long time ago, when I was little, my grandmother told me about an Indian altar on top of the mountain," I said. "I'm gonna hike up there, and see if I can find it."
"Can she give you some idea where it is?" Marci asked. Marci is on my mom's side of the family, and that grandmother was on my dad's.
I shook my head. "She's not too coherent these days. It can be hard to get through to her."
"I'm sorry."
"It's been happening for a long time. When I was little, she used to be a really good grandmother."
"How come you're going out after this thing?"
"I needed to get out of Slatington for the weekend. I needed a break."
"Why are you so into this stuff all of a sudden?"
"I been into this most of my life, Marci."
"Yeah, I remember you watching Raiders of the Lost Ark fourteen times. But lately, it's like you're obsessed with this stuff. We've all noticed. All of a sudden, you're always out looking for something, some dangerous thing to get yourself killed."
"I made some lifestyle changes," I said. I handed her my thermos. "And I'll tell you all about it sometime. So fill this with coffee in the morning, and give me a lift to Black Rock. Okay?"

I hiked up though the forest and over the mountain. It was about nine in the morning, and I was well on my way.
I stopped, sitting down on a rock. I set down my pack for a rest, got out my thermos, and drank some coffee while I looked down over the river.
The Schuylkill River, where there was said to be a water monster. I could see my grandfather's old farmhouse, and the meadow in front of it. The barns across the property, and the pond in the background. I drank my coffee and looked it over from high up.
After a while, I packed everything back away, put my pack back on, and started walking again.

It was about ten AM when I came across the ruins of the old clubhouse.
It had been my father's. I stopped and looked it over, walking around the exterior. A couple of walls remained, and a little bit of the roof---It looked to have been constructed of boards, almost certainly stolen ones. Weather and time had done their damage; I could see it had been a clubhouse, but it wasn't much of a shelter anymore.
I'd known my dad and his best friend Clint had built something like this up here. He'd told me about it. I'd never seen it before.
My father had a secret place in the woods. A place to come and hide with his best friend. Someplace that has parents never knew about.
My father was like me once.
It was a surprising thought. My father had been my age once, had done stuff like me. I had known it in some logical sense, but it hadn't really sunk in until I saw that ruined clubhouse in the woods.

Not far after, I got to the field.
The neighboring property, behind my grandfather's farm and up the mountain, was owned by a man named Jim Kirk. Seriously. I was at the edge of one of his fields, and I had the option to either skirt around the edge, or cut right across it, which would save me some time.
I started walking across it. In the summer, it would be potatoes or something, but right now it was just a wide, empty field.
I was about halfway across when I heard the dog begin to bark.
It was in the barnyard, in the distance at the edge of the field, maybe six hundred yards away. I could see it---It was a big one, dark-colored, and running across the barnyard toward me.
I felt a moment of terror. I was out in the open, like a bug on a plate. There was no way I could outrun this dog; it was way faster than I was. If it was in a mood to bite---And it sounded really pissed off---There wasn't a whole lot I could do about it. There were no trees to climb anywhere near me; I was far from the edge of the field.
I turned and bolted.
I got out my whip as I ran. I needed obstacles. I couldn't outrun the dog, but if I could get to the tree line I stood a chance. I raced for the edge of the field, not turning to check, hearing the dog bark angrily as it came in my direction.
It was one long, stressful run---Probably it seemed longer than it really was----But I made it to the tree line with the dog still a good distance away. I dashed into the forest, dodging and zigzagging, and put some trees and logs in between me and the dog.
I kept running, and then slowed down. I couldn't hear it. Chances were it had lost interest once I was thoroughly out of sight. I had trouble picturing your average farm dog stalking me silently through the woods like a Chupacabra.
I slowed down to walk, breathing heavily. After a while, I got my breath, and I was again just walking pleasantly on the mountain, on the edge, with a visible cliff ahead.
That meant I had to be near the top, east of my grandfather's house, far above the river.
Another minute of walking, and my feet shot out from under me.
I slid, landing on my back. In the fallen leaves, I slid down the slope in a lying position, heading directly for the cliff.
I reached up as I slid under a fallen limb, grabbing it and hanging on. It held, and I clung to it, my feet dangling over the edge of the cliff.
Slowly, I pulled myself back up, gripping onto the limb. I crawled along it, struggling until I got to a good place, stood up, and went back uphill and to the top of the mountain.
And I found it. There it was.
It had to be the altar. It couldn't be anything else. It was a large, flat black stone, maybe four feet by three feet, sticking out of the ground by several inches. Clearly, it hadn't shaped this way on its own; someone had worked it. This was it---This was the Indian altar.
It may very well have not been actually an altar; by calling it that, my family was making the same mistake a lot of archaeologists make. They'd confused an unknown function with a religious function, which happens to the best of us. But, looking at it, I realized something else, too.
This thing had been here for centuries. It had been here longer than my entire family. And, given the color, it was very likely that this was where the family farm, Black Rock, had gotten its name.
I sat on the edge of the rock, looking out over the river.

Late that afternoon, with the sun just beginning to go down, Marci picked me up.
"How's it going?" she asked as I got in the car.
"Pretty good," I said. "I had a good hike."
"You find what you were looking for?"
I smiled.
"Yeah," I said. "I think I did."
She pulled the car out, and we headed toward home.

Sleeping Dogs

The retired nurse was drinking a cup of tea in her kitchen. I could see her through the window.
I knocked on her back door. When I had to stop by her house, it was always the back door.
"Lou," she said when she opened it. "I knew it would be you. Would it kill you to stop by in the daytime? Come on in. It's freezing out there."
I stepped into the kitchen. "Hi, Mrs. Lehrig. I just had a quick question. If I've been limping for two days and might be bleeding internally, would that be considered an issue?"
"My god. What happened?"
"A yeti hit me in the back with a board. Actually, it may not have been a yeti. It may have been the insane guy from down the street."
She sighed. "Sit down. Let me take a look. You really should go to the hospital."
"No way. I hate hospitals. And Kline's out of town for Christmas, so you're my best shot here."
She listened to my heart with a stethoscope. "I knew you when you were five years old, Lou. Watched you grow up. And now that I'm retired, you're always showing up on my porch with more injuries than ever. Why are you doing this to yourself?"
"I'm doing some good stuff, Mrs. Lehrig. I'm discovering things, helping people."
"I'm worried about you. I don't want to see you get yourself hurt."
"I'm fine. Just a little banged up."
She began to check my back for broken ribs or something. "What could have happened to you, Lou? For the last year, you've been reckless. What happened to make you think a life of nightly injury is okay?"
"I'm learning. I'm doing good things. And I'm getting better every night---Becoming what I want to be."
"And what about after high school? What about college?"
"If I make it to graduation, I'll think of something."
She shook her head. "You seem okay, but bruised. Rest for a few days."
"Pssh. I'm going exploring. We're going to my grandfather's for Christmas."
"Well, whatever it is you're doing, take Christmas off."
I stood up. "Thanks, Mrs. Lehrig. I'll be allright."

The farmhouse had been in my family for over a hundred years. Tonight, my family was in the farmhouse.
We had all gathered for Christmas Eve at my grandfather's place, an old farmhouse by the Schuylkill River in Montgomery County. There were sleeping bags in every room, and at least a dozen kids running around---My brothers and sister, my cousins.
The old farmhouse was known as Black Rock for old family reasons I'd never understood. It was a big old house on a hill, with a couple of barns and outbuildings, and a lot of forest land surrounding it. Great for adventures.
I stood by the river, looking out with binoculars. It was partially frozen over, but still running. I could see the bridge in the background.
"What're you doing?"
I turned. My cousin Megan was approaching over the meadow, followed by much younger cousins Robert and Joey.
"I'm looking for a water monster," I said. I put the binoculars back in my pack and got out my camera. "I saw something swimming around in here over the summer. Something big, kind of a big black shape. And cousin Donnie said he saw something sticking a long neck out of the water." I took several photos. "I'm gonna name him Monty."
"Dumb," said Megan, and turned and walked back to the house.
"I'm scared of water monsters," said Robert.
"Can we go back inside?" asked Joey.
I sighed. "Yeah, let's go back in."
Indoors, I shrugged off my coat and hung it in the front hallway. It was warmer in the house. In the living room, several cousins were sitting around the coffee table, paging through an old photo album of our family.
"Stay quiet," said my cousin Amy. "Grandmom is sleeping. She's not having one of her good days."
There was coffee on in the kitchen. I checked to make sure it was fresh---All of my grandparents had grown up during the Great Depression, and it would be just like my grandfather to re-use the same coffee grounds for over a week. Evidently Aunt Mary had made the coffee; it was pretty good. I got a cup and watched as cousin Laura paged through the album.
"Look, here we all are playing with Sparky," Laura said. "Grandpop's little beagle. I love that little guy."
"Look, there's that time we all went climbing up the ravine in the summer," said Megan.
"That was fun," I commented. "Remember we hung a flag at the top?"
She nodded. "But it was made of paper, so I don't think it's still there."
"Who's that?" asked my little cousin Michael.
"That's all of us, when we were kids," said Laura. "These are old photos. Look, here are some when you guys came to stay at our house in Boston when you were little. Look, you can see Lou and David dressed like Batman and Robin."
"Oh, god, put that away," I said. "I was like six."
"You two were running around all day in your costumes, looking for clues," said Laura. "Look, here's another. You haven't changed at all."
"I've changed a lot," I said.
"You're exactly the same as when you were six," said Laura. "You're still running around looking for adventure, pretending you're some sort of superhero."
"Things have changed a lot for me," I said. "I'm not the same as when I was a kid! I have a lot more stuff on my mind now, and I've been going through some stuff in the last year. So don't tell me I still act like a little kid."
"You're still out pretending to have adventures."
"Shut up."
"You shut up!"
"Screw you," I said. "I've changed a lot. I'm gonna go out to the barn and look for ghosts."
"There aren't any ghosts in the barn," said Laura.
"Shut up!"
I grabbed my pack and walked through the kitchen and out the back door. Dusty, the old gray cat, with asleep outside the door. My grandfather's farm had a lot of old barn cats that never seemed to change position much---If I wanted to find one specific one, I always knew about where to look.
I walked to the small barn. There was one huge one, and just outside the back porch, a smaller one. I aimed for the small one---It was beginning to snow pretty heavily, and I didn't want to trudge through it to the big barn.
The small barn had a dog pen attached, with a dog house and a hole in the side of the barn. This was for Sparky. My grandfather had owned the little beagle for as long as I could remember. he lived in the pen, and could walk through the hole into the barn in bad weather. There was a light on in the barn. I opened the door and walked in.
My cousin Wendy was crouched on the floor, holding Sparky in her arms. The little beagle was breathing heavily, gasping.
Wendy looked up at me.
"He's dying," she said.

I was stunned for a moment.
Then I took off my pack and knelt beside her.
"How did you find him?" I asked.
"I came out to see how he was doing," said Wendy. "When I get bored, I like to come and check on him. I know you do, too."
I nodded.
"He was in his dog box, all curled up in the corner," she said. "He was shivering. I got him out, and held him, and he's just been laying here. He won't drink any water."
"How long?"
Wendy looked at her watch. "About an hour."
I got out my first aid kit, a solid metal box that I carried in my backpack. I took out a stethoscope and listened to Sparky's heart. Kline was always stealing me all sorts of good stuff.
"He's breathing heavy, fast heartbeat," I said. "He doesn't sound good."
"He's dying, isn't he?" Wendy asked.
"I think so. I don't think there's anything we can do....I think all we can do is keep him company."
"Poor thing."
I sat on the chilly floor. "We've played with this little guy forever," I said. I ran my fingers over Sparky's little head. "Isn't that right, Sparky? We've known each other our whole lives. I don't remember a time without you."
And starting tomorrow, I will. I'll have to learn to remember a time without Sparky. I'd say a prayer....But I don't. Not ever, not anymore. Not since that night.
"I remember a time before Sparky," said Wendy. "I was little when Grandpop got him. I remember him coming home as a puppy. Do you remember Princess?"
"Grandpop's old collie," I said. "Yeah, I was about four when she died."
"She was a nice dog," said Wendy. "I wasn't sure if you'd remember."
"I remember a little. I remember when Dad told me she'd died. I cried, and then asked if Grandpop could get a new Princess."
"Doesn't work that way."
"No. It doesn't."
We sat in companionable silence for a while, alternately touching and holding Sparky, the snow falling outside.
"Are you okay?" Wendy asked me.
I made a face.
"Yeah."
"No, seriously," she said. "You're not like you used to be. You act like something's wrong all the time now. It's been, what, like a year maybe? You're acting different."
I nodded.
"I tried to kill myself."
"Oh my god. When?"
"About a year ago."
"Why?"
"I'll tell you," I said. "I mean, not right now, okay? But we'll talk. I'll tell you about it."
"Okay," she said.
Sparky made a soft noise. We both looked down at him.
"Sparky?" I petted him, running my hand down and over his back. "Hey, Sparky, little dog. We love you, little guy. We always have."
He took two more breaths, and then lay still.
Wendy cried. I closed my eyes.
"He's gone," she said.
I nodded.
"What do we do now?" she asked. "Should we....Tell somebody?"
"We'll go get my dad," I said. "But let's just sit here a while first."
Maybe there was a ghost here now.
It was midnight. It was Christmas day.

In the morning, we all gathered and opened presents under the tree, a tree grown on our own family farm. I opened up a brand new backpack, a deep purple and loaded with pockets and zippers.
Wendy caught me in the kitchen.
"Hey. You okay?"
"Hey, Wendy. Look, don't tell anyone what I told you last night. I don't want Mom and Dad knowing."
"Okay, I won't. But I want you to call me, allright? I want you to talk about this."
"It's long-distance. Dad sees I'm doing that, he'll kill me anyway."
"No he won't. Look, I don't want anything to happen to you, okay? You're my cousin. I'll be there for you, okay? You know that."
I nodded.
"I know."

Haunted Barn

I stood outside the high school, facing down four jocks.
I'd been walking outside, halfway between the school newspaper and play practice, when they'd shown up. They were coming back from the stadium after football or something. When they'd seen me alone, they'd decided to declare it Pick On Lou Day.
"Back off," I said warningly.
They surrounded me, one on each side. I was unarmed---I hadn't really thought to bring my whip to school. I turned, shifted into a fighting stance like I'd learned, and balled my fists. My gym bag with all my books in it was slung over one shoulder. I slid it down my arm, letting it dangle and wrapping the strap around my wrist.
One of them moved toward me. I swung the gym bag, and he jumped back. Another one, behind me, came closer, and I spun, swinging at him and driving him back, too.
They stopped and stared at me, the kid with the glasses that was holding them back.
"I don't believe this," one of them said.
"No more warning shots," I said. "Get lost."
One of them made a grab for me. I swung the gym bag, clipping him in the side of the head. He staggered back, clutching at his ear.
I didn't wait. I swung the bag again, catching one in the neck. I turned and kicked the first one. The other two moved back, out of range, and I stepped forward, swinging the bag with some heat.
"That's not fucking fair!" the one I'd hit in the face claimed.
"Like four on one was so nice?" I said. I took a step forward again, and he dodged way back.
All of them were in front of me now; I'd herded them into a cluster. They were looking more hesitant than they had. I came forward again and swung wildly, and they all ran, getting about twenty feet away.
"Get out of my sight," I said. "Don't make me tell everyone how I beat four of you."
They retreated, heading back for the stadium.
I shrugged and headed to play practice.
Just another day.

In the dark, I walked across the lawn. It was late October, a little chilly, and I was wearing my green denim jacket and bright blue Slatington sweatshirt. I was looking for some kids.
My mother was two doors down at a PTO meeting with several other parents. Most of their kids had been sent out to go play in the neighborhood, and I'd been asked to go corral them and make sure they weren't in trouble. I walked over toward the yard where they'd been playing.
As I got closer, I looked around the property. I could see the kids, several of them, scattered throughout the yard. They were crouched in the grass and approaching the neighbor's property, hiding behind trees, and crawling closer to the neighboring house. I watched them for a moment.
"Hey!" I called. "What are you guys doing?"
They all turned around, saw me, and ran to me all at once. Lisa, Brian, Jamie, Suzie, Renee, Jason, and Danica---All kids i knew. They gathered around me and began frantically explaining, all talking at once.
"Hey! Hey! Down shift!" I held up my hands, quieting them down. I turned to Lisa, marginally the most mature one. "Lisa. Explain."
"It's almost Halloween, and we were talking about ghosts," said Lisa. "And, like, the old barn over there, we think is haunted, and Jason and Brian dared each other to go and find out, so...."
"Oh christ," I said.
"So we were going to go explore it and find ghosts," said Renee.
"Oh my god, no," I said. "That barn has been in ruins since before I was born! You guys could have been hurt! What were you thinking?"
"We just wanted to see if we could explore a little," said Suzie. "Please don't tell our parents on us."
I looked at her, considering.
"No," I said. "I won't. Your parents sent me over to keep you busy. I'm going to teach you how to do this right."

"Here's my pack," I said. "I usually have some adventure stuff on me."
We were all sitting in a circle on the grass. My backpack was a battered blue thing that Kline had given me. I began pulling items out to show to the kids.
"Camera. Look. I got a Polaroid. This thing develops pictures in minutes, so you know right away what you got. I've got some spare flashes for working in the dark. And a couple of flashlights, too. You never know when you're gonna need one. I mean, what were you guys planning on doing? Just stumbling around a haunted barn in the dark, crashing into things?"
"We didn't think that far ahead," Renee admitted.
"Yeah, well, you'd have needed this, too. First aid kit. I always carry one. When you get hurt, it's too late to go and find one." Mine was in a big metal box that Kline had stolen from one of the school buses, and we'd filled with first aid stuff. I opened it to show the kids.
"What's this stuff?" asked Suzie.
"Science stuff. Litmus paper. Filter paper. A beaker. That's more for hunting water monsters, but I use it all sometimes." Kline had stolen all that, too.
"Can we hunt water monsters?"
"One thing at a time."
I pulled out my binoculars. "Binoculars. They're for watching from a safe distance. A lot of ghost hunting is just waiting for stuff to happen. You hear the part about the safe distance? This way, you don't go stumbling around a dark yard and getting killed."
"We didn't get killed," pointed out Brian.
"You didn't get killed because I showed up before you could get to the barn. I also always carry my Swiss army knife and my whip, in case I need them."
"Can I try the whip?" asked Jamie.
"No. Now, what makes you think the barn is haunted?"
"We hear noises in there," said Lisa. "Sometimes it sounds like screaming."
"Okay. We're gonna go take a look. We are staying safe." The fact that I myself had not always made a policy of being safe was something I ignored for the moment. "Everyone stays behind me. Do not run off. Do what I say, no matter what. Understand?"
They all nodded.
"Okay," I said. "I'll even let you guys hold one of the flashlights. Let's go."

We walked up to the barn, looking around the outside. I said,"Okay, let me turn on my official ghost detector." I clicked on the flashlight. "Hey. There any ghosts in here?"
Nothing happened. As we walked along the side of the barn, I saw a spot where a few boards were missing, leaving it open. I said,"We'll go in there, but let me check first."
I slipped in through the broken boards. I shined my flashlight around. The inside was big. And rickety. I could see moonlight through holes in the roof. The floor was packed dirt, and there were stables on each side.
It certainly looked haunted.
I took another step inside. A moment later, someone was slipping in through the cracks beside me. Suzie.
"I told you to wait outside," I said.
"I wanted to see," she whispered.
I nodded. "Let's check it out. Stay behind me."
We walked further in, into the center aisle of the barn. Suzie said,"Hey, Lou? I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For doing something dangerous. I didn't know."
I looked at her in the flashlight beam. "It's okay, Suzie. I'm sorry I yelled at you guys. I just don't want you to get hurt."
She smiled. "Okay."
"Come on," I said. "Let's go get the others."

All together, we walked into the barn. The kids behind me, shining our flashlights.
"Everyone stay behind me," I said. "Do not touch anything. Step where I step."
There was a noise from up ahead.
I felt Jamie grabbing my arm. "What was that?"
"Careful. Let's find out."
We carefully turned the flashlights, looking across the barn. Lisa pointed. "There!"
We looked at something moving, up ahead on the other end of the barn. I shined my flashlight on a raccoon, crawling across the floor. It looked up at me for a moment, then continued on.
"There's our ghost," I said. "There's raccoons living in here. They make a lot of noise, and sometimes even a screaming sound. I used to hear them a lot on the farm when I was little."
"Mission accomplished," said Renee.

We gathered back outside the barn, standing in the moonlight.
"That was fun," said Brian.
"We solved it," I said. "A lot of them come out like that, something you can find and explain. A while ago I went looking for Bigfoot and found a horse. Everyone learn something?"
They all nodded.
"Now you guys can do it, too," I said. "But be careful. Always. Stay safe."

Books Across Slatington

The forest would have been peaceful if it hadn't been for the sound of Kline's machete. Or my Swiss Army knife, using the saw blade to chop fallen branches to the right size. Or the occasional curse word as something went wrong.
The fort was coming along. Composed of heavy branches and stolen string, the thing was now taller than I was, about ten feet long and three wide, with three rooms inside and a six-foot doorway. It stood on the high ground between two streams, deep into the forest on our farm.
"So, your plan for this is what?" Kline asked me as we worked.
"Gonna be my secret base," I said. "Once we get this place up and waterproofed, I'll stash some of my equipment here, a couple of jackets. This will be where I plan some of my adventures."
"How come you're building your own fort in the woods? You have a bedroom, and your dad has like a million old barns."
"All of which my parents go into sometimes. Nobody ever comes this far down into the woods. This spot is all mine. I want something hid, it's going in here."
"Also, the Great Christmas Tree Goblin might show up."
"We'll see."
"What you got coming for the weekend?" he asked.
"Got a service project with the scouts. Our troop is helping to move the library."
"Wow. You think you guys can lift it by yourselves?"
"Not the whole building, you mope. The books. The library is moving to a bigger building up the road. They're gonna get everyone out there and pass books up the road. I'll be going with Troop 58, and helping out."
"Hey, cool. Call me when you're done, okay? Maybe we can go blow some stuff up." Kline looked around at the fort. "Okay if I leave some homemade bombs here?"
"See? This place is useful already."

Mark was there on Saturday. Jonas was there. So, tragically, was Rusty. In fact, most of Troop 58 had shown up to help pass books. We lined up on the street, making a human line that stretched for over a block, from the corner up to the new library on Main Street.
Mark was on my uphill side. On the other side, there was a line of younger kids---A couple I already knew, a couple of newer ones. Lisa, Jaime, Susie, Renee. Nice kids; I tried to supervise them a little as we passed books.
"No rush," I said. "Just keep it steady. You're doing fine."
"You guys! Spread out! And be careful, don't take more than you can handle! We don't want anyone getting hurt here!"
That was Esther. Esther had been in my class since the fourth grade. She was a know-it-all, a straight-A student who never so much as bent a rule. Basically the opposite of me, and it was just like her to walk in and assume that I couldn't handle it and she was in charge. Cute, though.
"Esther," I said,"I been here all morning. I got this."
"I'm making sure this gets done right," said Esther.
"I was doing it right," I muttered.
"Lou," said Mark. "We're passing the word down the line. Joey just went for a bathroom break, and he says Troop 66 is one the lower end of the line, and they're just putting books into a shopping cart."
"Those bastards!" I said. "They're gonna move more books than us!"
"So what?" said Esther. "It's not a competition. Who cares who's doing more, as long as the work gets done?"
We both stared at her. Clearly, she'd gone insane.
"What's the plan?" Mark asked.
"We're gonna take a quick break." I turned to the kids. "Be right back. Can you guys cover for me?"
"Sure," said Lisa. "We can do that, Lou."
"Thanks. Back in a  minute."

Mark and I hid behind the fireman statue, a ten-foot sculpture of a fireman with a fountain on the bottom, at the corner of Main and Third Streets. When I'd been about ten years old, it had been knocked over by a drunk driver, and then rebuilt. As far as I know, they never got the guy.
"See them?" Mark asked. I was holding out a signal mirror, trying to see from the reflection. Yeah. I carry a signal mirror.
"Not yet, I----Wait a minute. There they are." I watched them in the mirror, exiting the old library doors.
"Are they using a shopping cart?"
"Yeah. They're not in line, they're just piling up books with the shopping cart. And that idiot Walker is in charge."
"Bastards."
"Let's go tell the other---" I turned. Mark was no longer hiding behind the statue with me. He was storming out to confront Troop 66. I sighed and followed him.
"Hey! You! Dumbasses!" Mark stormed across the sidewalk, standing in front of the other troop. "What do you think you're doing?"
Their patrol leader, Walker, looked up at him. Walker was a tall kid with curly hair, the kind of insensitive jerk who usually says the wrong thing. He did that this time, too.
"Helping out," he said. "Better than you guys."
"It's not a competition, you asshole," I said.
"Good. Then it won't matter when you lose."
"I'm gonna hit him," said Mark. "Can I hit him?"
"Not yet," I said. "Look, Walker, just pick a place in the line. We're all in this together."
"Well, no," he said. "Troop 66 is in this together. Meanwhile, you guys are losers."
"Quit acting like a jackass, Walker. The last time I saw you was at that camporee where you were selling solar flashlights."
"Yeah, and you threw a cooler at my head," he said.
"You did," admitted Mark.
"I couldn't find anything heavier," I said. "And I will find a way to screw you up this time, too."
"Sure, go ahead," he said. "And with every second you waste now, we're loading up our shopping carts."
"Carts?" shouted Mark. "You guys are using more than one?!?"
I grabbed him by the collar. "Come on, Mark. Let's tell the troop."

"So, are you done acting like insufferable morons?" asked Esther when we returned to the line.
"Probably not," I said. glaring at her.
She turned to the younger kids. "Remember, lift these books safely, the way I showed you."
I was annoyed. It gave me a bit of a pang when she just walked in and took over like that. She turned and walked into the new library.
"Did you find out what you needed?" asked little Suzie.
"I think so, kid. Thanks."
"What're we gonna do?" asked Mark.
"I don't know yet. Maybe nothing. Walker's a jerk, but does it really matter?"
"We may lose this move, but we'll win the fight after."
We heard the sound of the shopping cart coming up the sidewalk. Walker and another kid were pushing it, and they were accompanied by a reprter from the local newspaper, strolling along with a pad and paper.
"I mean, I'm glad to be here," Walker was saying. "I like what we're doing, though the air is a bit nippy."
:What? Hey, interview me!" said Mark. "I'm not cold."
The reporter turned to him. "Are you with the same troop?"
"God, no. I'm with Troop 58. We're better."
"And how do you feel about today?"
"I like it," said Mark. "It's a really good cause."
The reporter wrote that down, and went to interview someone else. Walker pushed the cart into the new library. Mark said,"Why didn't you say anything?"
"I don't need to get into the newspapers. I'll just write an article for the school paper. It's almost lunchtime---Tell the guys we're gonna have to meet."

"Check it out," said Jonas. We were all sitting together at a table in the new library, eating lunch. "They got stacks of old books from the school for sale. Dollar apiece."
"I remember this one," I commented. "We used these books fro my seventh-grade English class. My old book is probably in here somewhere."
"Let's talk about Troop 66," said Mark. "This is important."
"Rusty's in the restroom," said Jonas,"But he was wondering what the big deal is."
"The big deal is that Rusty acts like a dumbass," I said. "We can't let Troop 66 do better than us. They're losers. Walker is the poster child for birth control. We have to move more books than them."
"They're using shopping carts," said Jon.
"We did come here in a pickup truck," said Mark.
We all looked at him. I said,"We did, didn't we? We have a pickup truck."
"Your dad has a pickup truck," Jonas pointed out. "We have a ride home."
"But if we can convince him to use it after lunch," I said,"We can probably get the rest of the books in one or two trips. And it's just a matter of driving the thing up the alley. Hell, I could do it."
"Don't."
"No. You talk to my dad," I said to Jonas. "He likes you. Convince him to let us load up the truck. Mark and me will check out the back of the old library, see where we can load up. And we'll get more books than those jerks over in 66."
"Okay," said Jonas. "I'll try."
"We'll help," said Lisa.
I looked at them. The kids had been sitting quietly at the next table eating their lunches. I said,"What?"
"We'll help you load the books," said Renee. "If you need us, we'll help. It'll go faster with all of us."
"Why are you helping?" I asked.
"You've been good to us," said Suzie. "You're our leader."
I smiled.
"Okay. Thanks. Let's get to work."

Mark and I walked through the library, looking at the mostly empty shelves. I said,"My mom used to bring me here when I was little. Had some good times in this library."
"We'll have good times in the new one, too," said Mark. "And I sent Rusty to start up with Walker, as a distraction."
"That's about all Rusty's good for."
"How about that door?"
"Let's try." We walked to the back of the building, and I tried the door. "Locked."
"I can probably pick it. Or bust it down."
"Mark. We're on the inside." I unlocked it. "Now, if Jonas just talked Dad into showing up with the truck...."
I opened the door. Out back, in the alley, Jonas was sitting in the back of my father's blue pickup truck.
He grinned at us. "About time you guys got here."

"Stack them---It'll save space!"
We began carrying books out the back door to the alley, loading up the truck. I had Suzie and Jaime in the truck, organizing and trying to be as space-efficient as possible. With all of us working, we got the truck loaded up---It was most of the remaining books, probably the last load of the day.
I ran to the back door with the final stack of books, threw it into the truck, and then jumped in after it. With everyone in the truck, sitting on top of books, we held on as Dad backed up the alley. Safety-wise, it was a much different time.
We backed up the alley to the loading dock on the new building, and I reached up and opened the doors. We began unloading the final books into the new library, and Mark and I high-fived.
I stepped off the truck and into the building. Lisa walked up to me, holding one of the English books.
"We found your old book for you," she said. "It's a present."
I opened the cover, and there was my signature, scribbled in the handwriting of seventh-grade me. I smiled.
"You guys dug through all those books to find this for me?"
"It's because you've always been so good to us," said Renee.
"Thanks," I said. "I know just where I'll put it."

I had a small shelf in my fort, composed of a small piece of wood propped on the branches. I set the book on the shelf, took a step back, and looked it over.
"Your first trophy," said Kline, standing beside me.
I nodded. "Now that we have the waterproofing done, I figured I'd keep it down here."
He looked it over. "It looks good. Like it belongs there."
"Yeah," I said. "It does."