Ghost at the Drive-In Movie (6 page)

“Wow,” said Jessie. “The other day I thought that someone was hiding something back here. But it’s too bright to hide anything! You can see almost everything from the road.”

“But wait,” Violet said. “What if that’s why the sign was broken last night?”

Henry thought about this. “That’s possible. All along we’ve thought someone broke the sign to make Mr. Duke angry. But maybe somebody wanted it to be dark back here.”

“But why?” Jessie said. “There’s nothing here.” She looked on the ground by the screen. Nothing.

Violet wasn’t looking at the ground. She was looking up and she saw something along the top of the screen.
Had that always been there?
she wondered. It was high up and hard to see. She wanted to look closer. But then Benny made her forget what she was doing.

“Ghost!” he said, in a very loud whisper.
“Ghost!”
Watch started barking, too.

The children turned and saw the ghostly figure. It walked along a fence in the theater lot. The children hurried out to see it better. But while Jessie, Violet, and Benny raced towards the ghost, Henry did not. He turned and ran toward the projection booth.

“Hey!” he called. The others stopped and watched him as he ran up the steps of the booth and threw open the door.

“Henry, what are you doing?” Violet yelled.

Amy and Joey were in the booth. The film projector was on. Amy gasped and then reached over to turn it off. As soon as she did, the ghost disappeared.

“I knew it!” said Henry. The other children had run up to join him. “I knew the ghost had to be a movie of some kind.”

Jessie glared at Amy and Joey. “Why were you doing that? Why were you trying to make the theater seem haunted?” she said.

“I know why!” Benny said. But he wasn’t able to finish. Just then, Uncle Flick drove up in his golf cart with Grandfather.

“What’s all this about?” he said to Amy and Joey. “I heard voices out here, and I saw this ‘ghost’ of yours. What are you two up to?” he was very angry.

“We can explain,” said Joey.

“You’ll do no such thing!” growled Uncle Flick. “I’ve had it! You’re done here! You’re—”

“Wait!” Benny yelled. He turned to Joey and Amy. “Tell him!” he said. “Tell Uncle Flick about the haunted house!”

“What?” said Jessie.

“How did you know?” said Amy.

“Haunted house?!” said Uncle Flick. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ll show you!” said Benny. “Follow me!”

Benny led them all to the storage shed, where Amy had told the children not to go. Benny pulled open the door.

“Turn on the light!” he said to Joey.

Joey did. And the children couldn’t believe what was inside.

“Yikes! A huge spider!” Violet said. Then she laughed.

“Oh my gosh, look at that bat!” Jessie exclaimed. And she laughed, too.

“Wow, that mummy is amazing!” said Benny.

The shed was filled with all kinds of haunted house things—fake skeletons, cobwebs, and plastic bats hanging from the ceiling. There were spooky gravestones made from painted wood, and even a casket with a lid that lifted to show a mummy inside.

“This stuff is even better than the haunted house they have every year at the Greenfield Town Hall!” Henry said.

Amy grinned. “We’ve been working on it for two months,” she said.

“It’s very impressive,” said Grandfather. “But what’s it all for? And why were you keeping it secret?”

Joey pushed the hair out of his eyes. He turned to Uncle Flick. “Well, see, Amy and I had this idea to do a special event here at the theater this fall. We would call it ‘Haunted House Days’ and open the theater during the day.”

“And at night we would show monster movies. And have hayrides,” said Amy.

“And we’d decorate the whole theater with all this spooky stuff and special effects. But …” said Joey.

“Go on,” said Uncle Flick.

“We were afraid that you wouldn’t want to do it. We were worried you’d think it was too much work. So we decided to do it all by ourselves and surprise you,” Joey said.

“During the day, we worked on making things here in the shed,” said Amy “And at night, we tested out the ‘ghost’ special effect. I’m a film student at college, so I made a short movie of Joey walking around draped in a sheet. Then we projected it against the fence so that it looked like a ghost.”

“It really
did
look like one,” Jessie said. The other children agreed.

“But we never meant to scare anyone for real,” said Amy. “We’re so sorry about that.”

Joey looked down at his feet. “And we’re sorry we haven’t been keeping a better eye on things. If I hadn’t been here painting stuff maybe the snack bar wouldn’t have been vandalized.”

“It’s not your fault, Joey,” said Uncle Flick. He didn’t look angry now. He had a wistful smile. “I just wished you’d told me about your ideas. All along I thought you weren’t interested in helping run the Diamond Drive-in. I wish I’d known before I decided to sell it.” He sighed. “But this ‘Haunted House Days’ is a fine idea. It’ll be a good thing to do at the end of the season. It’ll be a great way to say good-bye to the theater.”

Joey and Amy looked at each other, and then at the Aldens. They were wistful, too.

“Yes,” said Joey. “It will.”

It was Monday morning, the last fall day of the Aldens’ visit. Tomorrow morning they would return to Greenfield. Since the Diamond Drive-in was closed on Mondays, they had the day all to themselves.

“I’m going over to Dan Brinker’s auto store this morning,” said Grandfather at breakfast. “Would you kids like to come along?”

“Are we going to get a new car?” Benny asked.

“No, not this year,” Grandfather said. “But sometimes it’s fun to look at the latest models.”

“Good idea,” said Jessie. The other children nodded.

So they all went across the road to the car dealership. It was in a big glass building surrounded by rows and rows of shiny cars. It seemed more like a circus than a store. There were balloons everywhere, and bright painted signs that said
Great Deals!
All the salespeople wore red jackets. There was a huge showroom with cars on display. The Aldens liked getting into each one and smelling the new car smell.

Dan Brinker seemed very glad to see them. “So! Are you looking for a family car? I love families!”

“Oh, we can’t buy anything right now,” Grandfather said. “We’re happy with the car we have now. But I just like to see the new models! Please don’t mind us—we’re just looking.”

“Ah, yes, it’s good to plan ahead,” said Dan. He was very friendly. But he also followed Grandfather all around the showroom.

“This is the hottest style around,” he told Grandfather, pointing to a bright yellow car. “We’ve got two left. I’ll give you a special low price so you can drive it home today! “

Grandfather shook his head. “As I said before, I’m not interested in buying today. Or even this year.”

“I know you don’t
need
a car now,” Dan replied. “But you might need one next year. And if you get it now, you’ll be planning ahead!”

“No, thank you,” Grandfather said firmly.

Dan turned to the children. “I bet you kids want a new car, don’t you?”

“No, that’s okay,” said Jessie. “But speaking of buying, is it true you’re going to buy the Diamond Drive-In Theater?”

“Yes, indeed!” said the car salesman. “I love the Diamond!”

“So you’re going to keep the place open as a drive-in theater?” Henry asked.

Dan smiled. “I promised Flick Fletcher that the screen would always stay standing,” he said.

The children wanted to ask Dan Brinker more questions. But one of his employees walked up and handed him a cordless phone.

“It’s the bank,” the man said.

“Sorry, kids,” Dan told the Aldens. “I’ve been waiting for this important call.” He leaned against one of the cars and started to talk on the phone.

Grandfather wanted to look at some of the new cars in the lot outside, so the Aldens walked towards the door. As they were leaving, Dan started to shout into the phone.

“What do you mean he wants a little more time? I want to buy it now! No … I’ve planned ahead for this deal! I want it to be speedy!” He sounded upset. The children didn’t hear the rest, though. It would have been rude to listen in. But they couldn’t help but wonder if he was talking about the Diamond Drive-in Theater.

“Why is he in such a hurry?” Jessie wondered.

“Maybe he just likes to do everything fast,” Violet said. “He sure talks fast.”

As the Aldens got back into the minivan, a saleswoman in a red jacket waved good-bye.

“Come back to Brinker’s Auto Store soon! “she said. “We’re the biggest place in town to buy a car. And we’re getting even bigger!”

They had just finished lunch at Uncle Flick’s house when there was an urgent knock on the door. It was Mr. Duke.

“Flick! I heard a rumor that you’re selling the theater to Dan Brinker!” he said as he marched into the kitchen where the Aldens were clearing the table.

“Yes, we’re discussing it,” said Uncle Flick.

Mr. Duke shook his head. “Are you crazy? Are you sure he’s not planning to shut it down and turn it into another sales lot? He’s just across the street! How do you know he’s going to keep it open?”

“Well, because he said so,” Uncle Flick replied. “He knows I wouldn’t sell it to him unless he swore that the movie screen would stay standing. And that’s just what he promised.”

Mr. Duke scratched his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “I just don’t quite trust him. Maybe you should think about this.”

“I’m not going to rush into this, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He patted Mr. Duke on the back.

“That’s good to know,” said Mr. Duke. “Because if you change your mind about selling the theater to Dan Brinker, you can always sell it to me.”

Uncle Flick’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, Duke?” His voice sounded cold.

Mr. Duke tried to explain. “Nothing! I … I mean … I wish you weren’t selling the theater in the first place. But if you need someone trustworthy to buy it, someone who will keep it going …
I
could buy it. That’s all I’m saying.” He stepped back. The children could see he hadn’t meant to make Uncle Flick angry.

“Oh, is
that
what you want?” said Uncle Flick. “To take this place over? Is that why you’ve been playing all those pranks? You’ve been trying to drive me to sell the place, haven’t you?!”

Now it was Mr. Duke’s turn to get angry. “Now, Flick, you
know
that wasn’t me. I would never do that! We’ve been working next door to each other for thirty years! We haven’t always gotten along, but how dare you think I’d play tricks!” Mr. Duke turned around and walked out of the kitchen. A moment later everyone heard the door slam.

Uncle Flick’s face was red. He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I guess we lost our tempers.”

Grandfather put his hand on his old friend’s shoulder. “Flick, do you want to go for a walk?”

“We can finish cleaning up here,” Jessie offered.

Finally Uncle Flick managed a smile. “Thanks, folks. Yes, perhaps I need to take a walk. And think.” He left the room with Grandfather. After a moment the children saw them walking down the road towards the drive-in.

“We may have solved the mystery of the ghost at the drive-in,” Henry said, “but we still haven’t figured out who’s behind the pranks.”

The oldest Alden was right. They still hadn’t found out who had switched the movie sound the other night, or broken the Duke’s Dogs sign, or vandalized the snack bar.

“Someone’s trying to ruin everything,” Benny said.

“We’ll just have to stop that someone,” Jessie replied.

Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny sat around the kitchen table. Jessie had her notebook open to a new page. On it was a list of names she’d written:

AMY

JOEY

DAN BRINKER

MR. DUKE

One of these people, the children were sure, had been causing the trouble at the Diamond Drive-in Theater.

Violet pointed to Amy’s and Joey’s names. “I don’t think they did it. I think they want to save the theater.”