Grandfather knowingly hummed, tapped the paper with the stem of his pipe and said, “A girl gave you that, huh?”
“Yes sir.” I answered as I folded the paper again and stuffed it into my pocket.
“Yeah,” he grunted as he returned the pipe to his mouth and puffed as though it were lit, “well,” he said almost humming as he spoke, “be sure that it doesn’t end up in the laundry again. What-What!”
Once again he took hold of my shoulder and squeezed, “You were about to say something before?” he asked.
He looked down and I really do think that he smiled again.
“Um…” I began, but whatever it was I had intended to ask him had vanished from my mind. That is when I heard something off to my right. When I looked in the direction of the sound, a sick feeling came over me as I saw Chris standing on the corner of the street looking right at me.
I looked back up to Grandfather, but only for a split-second. When I looked back, Chris was gone again.
Excitedly I shouted and pointed to where Chris had been, “Grandfather, did you see him?”
I turned, grabbed his tartan flannel shirt and as if I was pleading for him to say yes I again asked, “Did you see him?”
He looked at me, then to where I had pointed and back to me. I already knew the answer; he didn’t have to say anything. Grandfather had not seen Chris.
Scared and angry I pushed away from him, ran into the house and headed to the one room I knew had a telephone. Moving across the country was one thing, moving to a haunted town was another thing all together! Moreover, I had reached my limit of what I could handle on my own. I needed help and the only one I knew that I could count on was Gary!