7 THE LONG NIGHT

CHAPTER 7 THE LONG NIGHT Kaz still didn't understand what sleeping was. Obviously it was something that took a long, long, long time. How long? he wondered as he floated around the upstairs turret room. Even though he'd just met Claire, he missed her. He missed his family even more. Kaz peered into the Outside night. He wondered where Mom, Dad, Little John, and Cosmo were. Did they find their way to new haunts, or were some of them still blowing about in the Outside? What about Finn? And Grandmom and Grandpop?

Would Kaz ever see any of them again? Back at his haunt, nighttime was when the family told stories. But here in the library, without Claire for company, Kaz didn't know what to do with himself during the dark hours of the night. Kaz drifted down the hallway. He knew Claire was behind one of those closed doors. She'd said earlier that one of those rooms was hers, but he couldn't remember which one. He heard a strange rumbling from behind one of the doors. It sounded like... well, Kaz didn't know what it sounded like. He'd never heard a sound like that before. "Hello? Claire?" he said outside the door. Claire didn't answer. Kaz heard a softer rumbling from behind the door across the hall. He swam over. "Claire?" he said again. "Are you in there? What's that noise?" Kaz sucked his body in and made himself as flat as he could. He dived down and tried to swim under the door, but the floor here was different

than it had been at the old schoolhouse. It was fuzzy and thick, and it stretched all the way to the bottom of the door. Kaz couldn't swim under this door. He sighed. Bored, he wafted down the dark hallway... across the—what did Claire call this room? The 'living room'?... and down the stairs. When he reached the entryway, he noticed a light coming from the nonfiction room. Didn't Claire's grandma "turn out the lights" when she went upstairs? Didn't "turning out the lights" make the library dark? Kaz wafted over and peered around the doorway. He saw a light shining in a corner of the room. That ghost man, Beckett, hovered near the light with a book in his hands. A solid book. Kaz stared. It wasn't easy for a ghost to hold on to a solid object. Kaz wondered how long Beckett had been doing it.

"Well, are you going to stay there in the

doorway or are you going to come in?" Beckett asked as he reached out a ghostly hand to turn a page in the solid book. Kaz was surprised that Beckett knew he was there. "How long have you been holding that book?" he asked as he swam into the room. "About an hour," Beckett replied. "My record is an hour and a half." "Wow." Kaz was impressed. Beckett sniffed. "Unfortunately, I can't practice during the day with all those solids coming and going. It's difficult to even read at a table during the day. That solid with the pink stripe in her hair keeps grabbing my books out from under me and putting them away." Kaz could see how that would be a problem. Beckett set his book down on the table, then glided over to Kaz. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. I'm Beckett." He tipped his hat. "Kaz."

"Well, Kaz. I was a little surprised you didn't follow me back to my private haunt earlier. I don't extend an invitation to every ghost I meet, you know. Imagine if word got out that there was a secret place no solid could ever get into. I'd be overrun! But you didn't even want to join me." "It's not that I didn't want to," Kaz said, lowering his eyes. "It's just... well, I sort of don't like to pass through walls." "You can't pass through walls?" Beckett gaped at Kaz. "I didn't say I couldn't," Kaz said. "I said I don't like to." "Hmm," Beckett said. "So you'd rather spend time with that solid girl than pass through a wall." "Well...," Kaz said. Actually, he would rather spend time with Claire than pass through a wall. "You don't like solids much, do you?" Kaz said. "Nope," Beckett said, making no apologies.