10 THINKING

CHAPTER 10 THINKING... We forgot to ask Andrea whether or not she was going to cancel the Halloween party," Claire said. She and Maddie stood on the underground platform waiting for their bus. Kaz hovered inside the water bottle that hung from Claire's shoulder. "I didn't forget to ask her," Maddie said. "You know how sometimes you want to ask your parents something and you know that if you ask today, they'll say no. But if you wait until tomorrow, they might say yes?" Claire nodded. "That's how I felt about asking Andrea about the Halloween party," Maddie said.

Kaz was so worried about Little John, he'd forgotten all about the Halloween party. "Tomorrow might be a better day to ask," Maddie said, "as long as nothing else happens at the library tonight." A bus pulled up, but the girls didn't get on it. Kaz watched it drive away into one of the tunnels. Wait, Kaz thought, peering into the tunnel. Where exactly does that tunnel go? He knew it went under a bunch of downtown buildings. But which ones? David, the reference librarian, told Claire and Maddie there wasn't anything under the library. But maybe he meant there weren't any buildings under there. Could there be a transit tunnel? "Hey, Claire!" Kaz called from inside the bottle. "Do you know where these tunnels go?" If there was a transit tunnel under the library, maybe a ghost could get to it if he swam all the way through the concrete. In which case, Little John might be in one of these tunnels!

"CLAIRE!" Kaz called, louder this time. "WHERE DO THESE TUNNELS GO? DO THEY GO UNDER THE LIBRARY?" But it had gotten noisy on the platform. Claire couldn't hear Kaz calling to her. A bus stopped in front of Claire and Maddie, and this time they got on. They tromped to the back of the bus and plopped down in the middle of the last bench. Kaz thought about the ghosts that passed through the bus yesterday. If Little John was in the tunnel, maybe he'd pass through the bus like those other ghosts did. If he did, Kaz didn't want Little John to miss him. He started to pass through Claire's water bottle. "What are you doing?" Claire asked. "I'm not doing anything," Maddie said. "I didn't mean you," Claire whispered as two ladies in front of them turned to look. Now that he had Claire's attention, Kaz asked, "Do you know if this tunnel goes under the

library? If so, Little John could be in the tunnel or on a bus." "I don't know," Claire said. She turned to her cousin. "Do you know if the transit tunnel goes under the library?" Maddie shrugged. "No idea," she said, pulling out her phone. "But we can look for a map on our phones once we're through the tunnel." "Can you look now?" Kaz asked. If the tunnel did run under the library, he would quickly get off this bus and go try to find his brother. Claire shook her head. "We can't get online in the tunnel—only on the underground platform," she said. Kaz groaned. He could see daylight up ahead. The bus was coming out of the tunnel. He wouldn't be able to get off the bus now. Claire and Maddie bent over their phones, searching for a map of the transit tunnels. "Got it!" Claire said, zooming in with her fingers.

Maddie leaned toward Claire, and Kaz tried to see between them. "Nope," Maddie said. "They're close. The library's over here." She touched a spot on Claire's phone. "But the transit tunnel is over there. It's, like, half a block away." So much for that idea. That night, Claire and Maddie carved pumpkins. Aunt Beth helped Claire carve a funny face in one of the pumpkins. Maddie used a pattern to poke holes and cut a design in the other one. Claire couldn't tell what the design was until Maddie finished. It was a witch on a broomstick with a full moon behind her. "That looks nice," Claire said. "Thanks," Maddie said, picking up her pumpkin. "Let's go outside and see how they look in the dark."

Not wanting to be left behind, Kaz shrank down... down... down... and passed through Claire's water bottle. Claire grabbed her bottle and her pumpkin and followed Maddie out onto the front porch. Maddie lit the candles inside the pumpkins. Then the girls clomped down the steps so they could see them glowing from the sidewalk. "They look good!" Maddie declared. "Scary, but not too scary," Claire said.