4 FIRE!

CHAPTER 4 FIRE! Sparky's howls were loud, but the alarm was even louder! Kaz pressed his hands to his ears. It didn't help. Firefighters rushed to the garage. Some burst through the door at the top of the stairs. Others slid down the pole. They hopped into boots, grabbed coats and helmets from the hooks, and ran to the trucks. The big garage doors started to rise. Kaz didn't want to be sucked into the Outside. He swam back... back... back as hard as he could. But not too far back, because the back door

was open, too! He swam up to the glass window where the lady sat in front of all those computer screens. The radio room, RJ called it. Kaz sailed through the window and into the room. Safe. "Little John?" Kaz said as he turned around. Where was Little John? Was he still inside the ladder truck? Kaz wafted back over to the window and looked down into the garage. He didn't see Little John anywhere. The radio-room lady had something on her head that attached to a small microphone in front of her mouth. "You're heading to 1024 Elm Street," she said into the microphone. One by one, with lights flashing and sirens blaring, the trucks pulled out of the garage below and drove away. And before anyone knew what was happening, Sparky charged after them! Right into the street.

Kaz couldn't hear Brynlee and RJ over the sound of the alarm, but he saw them say something to each other as they waved their arms in the air. Then they hurried after Sparky. Claire glanced up at Kaz. She said something to him, but Kaz couldn't make it out. "What...?" Kaz wailed as Claire set her bag and water bottle on a bench. "What... did...

you... say,... Claire?" "Who said that?" the radio lady asked, looking all around. Claire grabbed a rope from a hook above the bench and ran after the twins. Leaving Kaz behind. "CLAIRE...," Kaz wailed again. Louder this time. All of a sudden, he felt tired. Really tired. Like he had no energy. "Who's Claire?" the radio lady asked, looking right at him. Kaz blinked. Was the radio lady talking to him? Could she see him? "What? Am I glowing?" he asked. Was that why he was suddenly so tired? He looked down at himself. No, he wasn't glowing. The radio lady couldn't see him. But she had definitely heard him say Claire's name. "I was wailing, wasn't I?" he cried in amazement. "You heard me wailing!" But the radio lady didn't hear that because Kaz

wasn't wailing anymore. The alarm stopped. The big garage doors rumbled as they started to close. With a shrug, the lady turned her attention back to the screens in front of her. "Engine one is in service," came a voice from a speaker in front of her. How did I do it? Kaz wondered. He didn't know, because he hadn't been trying to wail. The wail had just come out. But that was how it happened with most of his ghost skills. The first time he got a skill right, he did it without even thinking about it. Maybe wailing had something to do with how LOUD a ghost said something. It probably had something to do with stomach muscles, too, Kaz thought, because his stomach muscles ached. He tried tightening his stomach muscles. Tight! Tight! Tight! As tight as he could make them. Then he wailed, "Wooooooo..." The radio lady moved the microphone away

from her mouth. "Who said that? Who's there?" she asked, looking all around. It worked! "I-it's... me...," Kaz wailed. "Kaz..." His stomach muscles gave out. He couldn't wail anymore. "Kaz? Kaz who?" the radio lady asked. "Are you the fire station ghost?" "No, I'm just Kaz. I'm a different ghost," he said. It came out as words, not wails, so the lady couldn't hear him. And Kaz didn't have the energy to try wailing again. "Ladder one is arriving on the scene," came a voice through the speaker. "Engine one is two minutes out," came another voice. "Well, whoever you are, I can't talk to you right now," the lady said. "I'm working." She scooted closer to the microphone and turned her attention to the screens in front of her. Kaz didn't want to bother the lady. Or keep her