Read Online The Elevator Ghost by Glen Huser - Free Book Online Page A

numbers and instructions with Carolina Giddle before they headed out the door, Benjamin was packing his collection of model spaceships into the living room. He wanted Carolina Giddle to have a full viewing of his collection.
    â€œDon’t touch them, Emma,” he warned. “You know what happened to my Mars ­climate orbiter.”
    â€œBut I needed a treadmill for my Barbies.”
    â€œPerhaps you can help me clear a space to put out some snacks, Emma.” Carolina Giddle opened her large handbag. She drew out a lumpy plastic grocery bag and a couple of plastic containers.
    â€œAnd, Lucy, could you find me a plate for these Martian Munchies?” Carolina Giddle held up something round and green, like a tennis ball flecked with icing sprinkles. “I hope none of you are allergic to popcorn.”
    â€œNot me! I’m not bellergic.” Emma did one of her little twirling dances perilously close to another of Benjamin’s models. “What’s in these?” She stopped and tapped her fingers over Carolina Giddle’s containers.
    â€œWell, let’s see. In this one I have delicious frozen alien worms.”
    â€œEww, worms.” Lucy made a face.
    â€œFrom Venus.” Carolina Giddle toyed for a minute with her silver hair clip. It looked like a giant dragonfly. “Worms are a great delicacy to the Venusians.”
    â€œWell, actually…” Benjamin gave a little yank on Carolina Giddle’s sweater. “It’s very unlikely that there are worms on Venus. The Russians thought they spotted a scorpion but scientists have decided it was just a lens cap that fell off some of their equipment.”
    â€œThere is much yet to be explored on Venus,” Carolina Giddle said knowingly.
    Emma opened the lid on the other container.
    â€œOh, wow,” she giggled. “These look like bugs, too.”
    â€œJupiterian Jumbles,” Carolina Giddle said. “Very healthy. I make them with carrots and celery and peanut butter.”
    It took Benjamin the better part of an hour to present all of his space models to Carolina Giddle. Lucy and Emma busied themselves with a game of Chinese checkers, careful to lick peanut butter and green icing off their fingers as they moved marbles over the playing board.
    â€œHey!” Benjamin finally noticed the snacks were disappearing. “Save some of those for me.”
    â€œYes, it is your turn to take a little sustenance,” Carolina Giddle said. “Why don’t we all find a comfortable spot around the coffee table? I’ll light a few candles, and we’ll need to find a spot for Chiquita.”
    All the children in the Blatchford Arms had heard about Chiquita.
    â€œShe’s fond of a good ghost story,” Carolina Giddle noted.
    â€œIs it your birthday?” Emma asked, eyeing the candles as she crunched the head of a Jupiterian Jumble.
    â€œOh, dear, no! But candles always help me to focus when I’m telling a story. I call it the incandescence factor.”
    When they were all settled, and Chiquita was chewing on something that looked suspiciously like a real worm, Carolina Giddle began.
    â€œThis is a story my Aunt Bedelia told to me when I went to stay with her for a couple of months when I was ten — about your age, Lucy. She lived in Roswell, New Mexico — ”
    â€œRoswell!” Benjamin jumped up from his cushion and nearly stepped on his model of the Starship Enterprise . “That’s where some UFOs crashed and they found bodies of aliens but the army said they weren’t really extraterrestrials — ”
    â€œYes, Benjamin, you’re right. But you must be as quiet as a stealth plane, or this story will never get off the ground.”
    Aunt Bedelia did live right where those sightings were said to occur. There is a good deal of debate about what actually happened, but no matter what anyone reports, Bedelia — who was about twelve years old in