3 TO THE TREE HOUSE

CHAPTER 3 TO THE TREE HOUSE I'm your father," Pops said as Claire tromped across Margaret's backyard, her bottle swinging at her side. "When I say we're not going to do something, we're not going to do it." "Sorry, Pops," Kaz said. "I didn't want to miss our chance to go to the tree house." "Well, I have to admit this is a very interesting way to travel," Pops said. He turned all around inside the bottle. Margaret and Henry had a large climbing structure with a swing and two slides in the middle

of their backyard. There was also a sandbox and lots of toys. The girls walked all the way to the trees at the back of the yard. There was a little house built into the branches of the tallest tree. A rope ladder hung from the porch to the ground. "You're so lucky to have a tree house," Claire said to Margaret. "I know," Margaret replied. One by one, the girls climbed the rope ladder. First Margaret, then Kenya, Olivia, and finally, Claire. "Whoa," Kaz said as Claire climbed higher and higher. The bottle that held the ghosts bumped against her hip as she climbed.

该页暂无翻译

"Uh-oh. Are you skizzy, Kaz?" Little John asked. "Are you going to spew?" He backed up a little, but he didn't dare move back too far. Otherwise he'd pass through the bottle into the Outside. "No, I'm not skizzy," Kaz said. "Then why did you say 'whoa'?" Little John asked. "Because we're up so high!" Kaz said. "It's quite a view," Pops said as Claire stepped onto the little porch outside the tree house. They could see Margaret's whole neighborhood from up here. "We have a lock on the door to keep people out," Margaret told Claire. Kaz watched from inside the bottle as Margaret spun the dial on the lock. First she turned it to three, then to one, then to five. The lock clicked, and Margaret opened the door. "Cool," Claire said as she followed the other girls inside. They had to crouch down a little

because the tree-house door was smaller than a regular door. As soon as Claire closed the door, the ghosts passed through the side of the bottle and expanded. "Mom?" Kaz and Little John called as they looked around. "Elise? Where are you?" Pops called. The inside of the tree house was all one room. A huge tree branch grew up through the floor and out through the top of one of the walls. Two of the walls had glass windows. There was a rug on the floor and several pillows scattered around. Kaz and Little John's mom was nowhere in sight. "Well?" Kenya asked Claire. "Do you see any ghosts?" "Not yet," Claire said. She unzipped her detective bag and took out her ghost glass and ghost catcher. She put the ghost glass to her eye and moved slowly around the small tree house.

"What is that solid girl doing?" Pops asked. Kaz explained about Claire's "ghost-hunting equipment." Her ghost glass was really an old magnifying glass. And her ghost catcher was a handheld vacuum that she'd wrapped in foil. "She can't tell people she can see ghosts," Kaz said. "They'll laugh at her. And they'll think she's weird. So she pretends she needs these things to see and catch ghosts." Pops snorted. "And other solids believe that?" "I guess," Kaz said with a shrug. "Do you see something?" Margaret asked Claire. "Maybe," Claire said. She glanced over her shoulder and wiggled her eyebrows at Kaz. What? Did Claire want him to do something? Maybe she was trying to show him something. Unfortunately, Kaz couldn't see through Margaret, Kenya, or Olivia. They'd all crowded around Claire and were trying to see into her ghost glass. "I don't see anything," Kenya said.