13 DO WE HAVE A DEAL

CHAPTER 13 DO WE HAVE A DEAL? Kaz followed the tunnel around a corner. There, in front of him, was the very same ghost boy that he and Little John had chased through the library yesterday. Unfortunately, Little John wasn't with him. The ghost boy hugged his knees to his chest and sobbed. "Hello?" Kaz said gently. He didn't want to scare the boy the way Little John had. The boy stopped crying for a second. He looked up at Kaz, and his eyes widened. He started to swim away.

"Wait!" Kaz said, wafting after him. "Don't go. Please don't go." Surprisingly enough, the boy stopped. Kaz drifted a little closer. "What's your name?" he said. "My name's Kaz." "Oliver," the boy said. "Hi, Oliver," Kaz said. "Why are you crying?" Oliver wiped the back of his hand across his face. "I got blown away," he said with a sniff.

"Oh no," Kaz said. "From where? Where's your haunt?" Oliver shrugged. "How did you get blown away?" Kaz asked. Oliver shrugged again. "It was an accident," he said. Kaz felt bad for Oliver. "I got separated from my family once, too," he said. "We used to live in this old schoolhouse, but it got torn down and then the wind blew us to different places. But guess what? I found my whole family again!" Now Oliver looked at him with interest. "Unfortunately, I lost my little brother yesterday," Kaz went on. "Do you know where he is? The last time I saw him, well... we were chasing you." "That wasn't very nice of you," Oliver said in a small voice. "We weren't trying to be mean," Kaz said. "We wanted to know why you were crying. We wanted to help."

"How did you find your family when you got lost?" Oliver asked. "A solid girl helped me," Kaz said. He expected Oliver to have questions about that. Whenever Kaz told another ghost about Claire, the ghost always had lots of questions. But the only thing Oliver wanted to know about Claire was, "Can she help me find my family?" "Maybe," Kaz replied. "Probably. But we're leaving in a couple of days and—" "I know what happened to your brother," Oliver interrupted. He sniffed again. "I'll tell you... if your solid friend can find my family. But she has to help me first. Deal?" He held out his hand. What if Claire can't find Oliver's family? Kaz wondered. Well, he didn't have any other options. So he shook Oliver's hand and said, "Deal."

"Where's your solid friend right now?" Oliver asked. "Her name is Claire," Kaz said. "She was at the Underground, but she's meeting me in the library. Do you know how to get to the library? Do we just swim up through the ceiling?" "Pretty much," Oliver said. "It takes a while, though. Hold your breath and kick as hard as you can. Eventually you'll come out in the parking garage." Oliver took a deep breath and swam up through the dirt ceiling. Kaz did the same thing. Deep breath... then kick, kick, kick, kick, kick through the concrete... kick, kick, kick, kick, kick... kick, kick, kick, kick, kick... oh, how Kaz hated concrete. He was starting to feel skizzy again. But if a little kid ghost like Oliver could swim through it, so could Kaz.

Kick, kick, kick, pop! He was in the parking garage. Oliver was, too. "Okay. Where's your friend?" Oliver asked as a solid car drove through him. Kaz darted out of the way so the car wouldn't drive through him, too. "We'll meet her and her cousin upstairs," he said. They hadn't actually agreed on a meeting spot. But Kaz had a feeling Claire and Maddie would go to the children's center.