The two boys jumped high, and came down right in the middle of the Bubble Wrap. It exploded in one earsplitting bang.
Cocoa screamed and flew up the stairs, barely touching a single step. Malcolm and Dandy burst into wild laughter as Malcolm ran up and locked the basement door.
Cocoa jiggled the knob, shouting, “I won’t forget this, dweeb!”
Then Malcolm turned to Dandy. “Now I can show you the greatest gadget in the world.”
“Be very careful,” Malcolm said. He reached in the box and removed the specter detector with the care of a surgeon.
Dandy’s eyes grew wide. “You’re not going to point that thing at me, are you?”
“Why would I point it at you?” Malcolm said. “You’re alive.”
“Yeah, and I’d like to stay that way!”
“Dandy, do you have any idea what this is?” Malcolm’s chest swelled with pride.
Dandy grinned. “Did you make something out of Cocoa’s blow-dryer?”
“No. It’s not a blow-dryer. It’s my Ecto-Handheld-Automatic-Heat-Sensitive-Laser-Enhanced Specter Detector. It’s for hunting ghosts!”
“Cool!” Dandy said. “Does it work?”
Malcolm shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t tried it out yet.”
“Turn it on,” Dandy said, reaching for the switch.
“Wait!” Malcolm hugged the specter detector close to keep Dandy’s hands off. “I think this time we should read the instructions.”
Dandy nodded. “Good idea.”
Malcolm grabbed a small piece of paper out of the box. In bold letters across the top were the words, WARNING: For Serious Ghost Hunters Only!
No one was more serious about this than Malcolm. He kept reading.
“What does that mean?” Dandy asked.
Malcolm shrugged. “It just means you have to be a serious ghost hunter.”
Dandy rubbed his nose. “Then why don’t they just say so?”
“If there’s a ghost around, it’ll let you know,” Malcolm translated.
“It has to warm up,” Malcolm said.
Dandy looked at Malcolm like a kid lost in a department store. “Huh?”
“It’ll make a noise,” Malcolm said.
“We’re not professionals,” Dandy said.
Malcolm gave him a sour look. “Speak for yourself.”
Dandy picked his nose and rubbed his finger on his shirt. “Okay, let’s try it out.”
“It’s not that easy,” Malcolm said. “We have to decide where we’re going to try it.”
“How about right here?” Dandy suggested.
Malcolm laughed out loud. “Here? You think there’d be ghosts around here? Come on, Dandy. The scariest thing around here is Grandma Eunice when she takes her teeth out at night.”
“Then where are we going to find ghosts?” Dandy asked.
Malcolm dropped down on his bottom, right in the middle of the floor, and crossed his legs. He was careful to hold the specter detector with both hands. “That’s what we have to figure out.”
Dandy squatted down next to him and said, “How about the library?”
“Why the library?” Malcolm asked.
“I heard that sometimes the books drop off their shelves by themselves for no reason!”
“Dandy, that rumor was started by Mrs. Crutchmeyer. She’s a lonely old librarian who will say anything to get people to come check out books.”
Dandy just grunted in agreement. Malcolm suddenly had an idea.
“I’ve got it!” Malcolm jumped up and hurriedly put the specter detector in a drawer.
“What?” Dandy asked, still sitting.
“The McBleaky house!”
“No!” Dandy shot up off the floor. “No way!”
“Can you think of a better place?” Malcolm argued. “There’s no doubt that it’s haunted. Everyone knows it.”
“And everyone stays away,” Dandy added.
“Be a coward, I don’t care,” Malcolm said. “But I’m going there right now to check it out.”
Malcolm headed toward the stairs, then looked back at Dandy. “Are you coming, or would you rather stay here and watch my sister hop around like a kangaroo with the chicken pox?”
Dandy stood for a moment considering. “Let’s go,” he finally said.
Malcolm and Dandy snuck out the back and raced around to the front. They ran down the sidewalk, their sneakers pounding hard on the hot concrete.
After two blocks, Malcolm decided it was safe to slow down and walk, but he still hurried. He hadn’t had this much fun since he invented a windshield wiper for his safety goggles with Cocoa’s toothbrush.
The midday traffic hummed as the boys walked toward town. But instead of turning left on Main Street, they turned right and headed uphill, away from the buzz of the community.
Malcolm
