5 SEARCHING FOR GHOSTS

CHAPTER 5 SEARCHING FOR GHOSTS The fourth floor was creepy. There were no outside windows. Not where Kaz was, anyway. No bookshelves, either. Just a narrow, dimly lit hallway that circled the floor. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all painted a deep, dark red. "Hello? Are there any other ghosts on this floor?" Kaz called as he drifted in and out of meeting rooms. He didn't see any ghosts on the fourth floor.

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He came to another set of stairs and swam down to the third floor. This floor was a lot brighter than the fourth floor. The ceiling and slanted glass walls went up, up, up to the top floor of the library. There was another outside entrance to the library on this floor. And another checkout desk... an information desk... bookshelves... a store that sold cards and bags and a bunch of other stuff... a planter with real plants... and lots of places for solid people to sit and read. Words on a concrete wall told Kaz he was in a living room. There was a living room in the library back home, but that one was just for Claire and her family. It was in their apartment above the library. This living room looked like it was for everyone. Kaz wafted past the living room, through a section marked Teen Area, and up over a wall. There were several librarians working at desks back here. But no ghosts.

Kaz went all the way to the end of the office area and returned to the main part of the library. He wafted past the checkout desk and saw a bright yellow escalator going down. He followed it, expecting to come out on the second floor. But somehow he was back on the first floor now. The door where they had come in was right in front of him. The elevators and children's center were to his right. And the checkout and returns were to his left. Where is the second floor? Kaz wondered. Well, he hadn't searched this floor yet. Maybe he'd find another escalator that led to the second floor somewhere on this floor. He continued past the checkout and returns area... past the reserves... and into the world languages area. There was writing on the wood floor here. Kaz couldn't read any of it because it was written backward. Some of it was even in other languages.

He drifted in and out of small storage rooms, in and out of restrooms, and through a dark auditorium beside the children's center. Still no ghosts. No secret escalator to the second floor, either. Kaz glanced over at the checkout and returns area. He stared at the strange machine that carried books up through an opening in the ceiling. Wait. Maddie said that books were sorted on the second floor. Maybe you could get to the second floor by following that machine. Kaz swam over. He sailed up, up, up along the conveyor belt and through the ceiling. Aha! This was a new part of the library. This must be the second floor. Kaz watched books move along several conveyor belts. Sometimes the books fell into bins. Sometimes they rode the conveyor belt to another bin. How do the books know where to go? Kaz wondered.

There were several solid people in here who watched computer screens, pushed buttons on machines, and wheeled carts in and out of the room. Kaz followed one of those people to some sort of loading area. There was a big garage door that was open to the Outside. Kaz quickly backstroked out of there. He didn't want to get blown into the Outside. He searched the rest of the second floor. There were no ghosts here, either. "Hi, Kaz!" Little John waved from the back of the children's center. "Did you find any ghosts?" "No," Kaz replied. "Did you?" "No. But I found a secret room," Little John said. "It's in there." He pointed at a slanted mustard-colored wall below him. Kaz hadn't noticed that room before. But as he wafted over, he realized it wasn't totally secret. Not like the secret room in the library back home.