6 NOT EVERYONE IS AFRAID

CHAPTER 6 NOT EVERYONE IS AFRAID It's alive!" a younger boy cried as Claire and Maddie leaped back from the monkfish. "It is not," said an older boy beside him. "It is too," the younger boy insisted. The monkfish just lay there on the ice now. It didn't look like it was alive. But Kaz couldn't tell for sure. "Can I help whoever's next?" asked the man behind the counter. He wore a white apron and a name badge that said BILL. The fish popped up again. "AAAHHHHHHH!" Kaz and Little John grabbed on to each other inside the bottle. The

solid people standing near the glass case shrieked. "Is it alive?" the younger boy asked Bill. "Is what alive?" Bill asked. "Oh. This fish? This one right here?" He poked it with his finger. "It feels dead. Would you like to touch it?" "No way!" the boy shrieked. Bill smiled. "Or maybe it is still alive." The fish popped up again. But this time Bill let the crowd see that there was a stick attached to the back of the fish. He used the stick to make the fish pop up. A bunch of people laughed.

"Told you it wasn't alive," the older boy behind Claire and Maddie said to the younger boy. "That guy's just playing a Halloween trick on everyone." "He does that even when it's not Halloween. I think he likes scaring the tourists," Maddie said as she and Claire moved away from the counter. "Come on. Let's get some flowers." The girls strolled past long tables of flower bouquets. Maddie chose one with a mix of large blue, yellow, and white flowers. Then they left the market. They dashed down several flights of stairs to reach the underground transit station. A bus waited at the other end of the platform. "That's our bus," Maddie said, running toward it. She and Claire got on, paid their fares, and sat down on the first open seat. The ghosts stayed inside the bottle. "Do you think we'll see those ghosts that we saw this morning?" Little John asked as the bus

sped through a tunnel. "I don't know," Kaz said. They kept their eyes open, but no ghosts passed through the bus this time. That night, Aunt Beth made spaghetti for dinner. "I love spaghetti," Claire said. She plopped a large serving of noodles onto her plate. Kaz and Little John hovered above the table. "I like the noodles, but not the sauce," Maddie said. "I'm a vegetarian, but Mom still tries to sneak hamburger in the sauce." "You need protein, Maddie," Aunt Beth said. "You can get protein without eating meat," Maddie said. "Hey, Claire. The teen advisory board is going to have touch-and-feel boxes at the Halloween party. What do you think? Should we put cold spaghetti in one of them? We could tell kids it's intestines. Or maybe brains."

"Sure," Claire said with a laugh. Aunt Beth reached for a slice of garlic bread. "What else are you going to put in them?" she asked. "Peeled grapes," Maddie said. "Those will be eyeballs. Unpopped popcorn will be monster teeth. Sliced bananas will be witch's tongues. Oh! We also talked about putting a box over a hole in the table and having one of us sit under it. When a kid

puts their hand in that box, the person under the table will reach through the hole and grab the kid's hand!" Aunt Beth gasped. "Now, that's scary," Claire said. "Too scary?" Maddie asked. "I don't know," Claire said, wiping her mouth. "Maybe." "Some kids like to be scared, though," Maddie said. "Especially on Halloween." "Oh! We can scare them. Can't we, Kaz?" Little John said. "We can glow and wail at the party. Should I tell Maddie that?" "No," Kaz said. "No glowing or wailing, remember?" "Not even on Halloween?" Little John asked. "Not even on Halloween," Kaz said. "But you heard Maddie. Some kids want to be scared. They might want to see a real, live ghost on Halloween," Little John argued.