7 Escape

CHAPTER 7 ESCAPE Claire tramped down the stairs and tried the door. "Uh-oh," she said, glancing up at Kaz and Mrs. Beesley. "We're locked in here." "What?" Mrs. Beesley cried. "That door is never locked." Holding tight to the railing, she slowly made her way down the stairs and tried the door herself. It was indeed locked. "You have a key, don't you?" asked Claire. "Yes," Mrs. Beesley said. "But... it's in the lock. On the other side of the door. Do you have a cell phone? We could call one of my neighbors

and ask them to come over and unlock the door." "I do," Claire said. "But it's in my bag. And I left my bag in the living room." "What are we going to do?" Mrs. Beesley moaned. A noise in the Outside caught Kaz's attention. He knew that window was open, so he didn't want to get too close. But he was close enough to catch a glimpse of that neighbor boy, Eli, running across Mrs. Beesley's yard toward his own yard. "Claire! Claire!" Kaz cried. "Come quick!" Claire clomped back up the stairs. "Look outside," Kaz said, backing away from the window.

Claire strode over to the window. "Hey, this window is open," she called to Mrs. Beesley. "Yes," Mrs. Beesley said from halfway up the stairs. "It smelled musty up here, so I opened it this morning." "Do you see Eli?" Kaz asked Claire, stretching the top part of his body a little bit closer, but not too close, to the window. "I saw him running over to his own yard from Mrs. Beesley's yard. Could

he be Mrs. Beesley's ghost? Could he have climbed that tree out there and sneaked into the attic? Could he have made all those noises, and broken the lamp, and locked us in here to play another trick on Mrs. Beesley?" "I don't know, but I'm going to find out," Claire said. Kaz darted out of Claire's way. "What are you going to find out, dear?" Mrs. Beesley asked. Claire raised the window as high as it would go and swung her leg over the windowsill. Mrs. Beesley's eyes widened. "What are you doing?" she cried as Claire climbed out onto the roof. "I'm going to climb down that tree and find out what's going on. Then I'm going to come back through your front door and open the attic door." Mrs. Beesley gasped. "B-but you could fall!" "I'll be okay," Claire said. Holding her arms out to the sides for balance, she sloooowly walked

across the roof. Mrs. Beesley stood at the window and wrung her hands nervously. She didn't take her eyes off Claire. Kaz was just as worried as Mrs. Beesley was. What if Claire slipped and fell? What if she fell all the way to the ground? Solids weren't like ghosts. They could get hurt. Really badly. Mrs. Beesley gasped again as Claire reached for the tree branch that ran alongside the roof. Kaz closed his eyes. He couldn't bear to watch. But he couldn't bear to not watch, either. He opened one eye and watched Claire crawl along the tree branch. Careful not to get too close to the window, Kaz watched Claire climb down the branches as though

they were stairs. Soon she disappeared from Kaz's view. Kaz sailed across the attic and down along the stairs. There was no carpet here like there was on the second floor of the library, so when he reached the closed door, he took a deep breath, made himself as flat as a piece of paper, and swam under the door. He needed to get someplace where he could see Claire. He started to go inside one of the bedrooms, but the window was wide open. Kaz could feel the pull of the Outside, so he backed away. He tried the next bedroom. The window in this room was open only a crack. He swam to the top of the window and looked outside. He saw Claire talking to Eli, the boy next door. Whew. Claire was safe. Claire and Eli didn't talk for long. After a couple of minutes, she broke away and ran toward Mrs. Beesley's house. Kaz couldn't wait to hear what she had found out.