7 TRADING STORIES

CHAPTER 7 TRADING STORIES No fair talking in a code we don't know," Little John whined. "Plus, I want to talk to Mom, too!" "Your mom thinks we should stop talking for a while," Pops said. "There are a lot of solid children out and about. She's afraid they'll notice us." He hovered in the window and glowed three long glows, then one long, one short, and one more long glow. "Long-long-long," Little John said, "and long- short-long. What does that spell?"

"It spells OK," Pops said. "Long-long-long is O. And long-short-long is K. I'll teach you the whole alphabet, Little John, but not right now. We have to figure out a way to rescue your mom." "If Claire were here, she could help us," Kaz said. "We don't need help from solids. We are perfectly capable of rescuing your mother ourselves!" Pops said. How? Kaz wondered. "We need something to travel in," Pops said. "Something hollow with a lid. Like a bottle or a box." There were several things in the room that could work. A covered coffee cup. A plastic box that had farm animals inside. A toy drum. If the drum was hollow on the inside... Kaz shrank down... down... down... and passed through the side of the drum. It was hollow.

"Good idea, Kaz," Pops called from outside the drum. "We can travel in there." Kaz passed through the outside of the toy drum and returned to the living room. "We could... if we had someone to carry the drum across the street," he said. Someone like Claire. Pops scratched his head. "What if only one of us goes inside the drum, and the others stay here and roll it across the street?" "How do we get it out the door?" Kaz asked. "You could transform it," Little John said. "Then it could roll through the wall!" Kaz peered out the window. "Yeah, but then it would just blow away in the wind," he said, "With one of us inside."

"Oh," Little John said, hanging his head. "That would be bad." Pops sighed. "Maybe we do need help from a solid." "When Margaret comes back, let's glow and wail and tell her to call Claire," Little John said. Pops nodded. "Okay," he said. But the ghosts didn't have to wait for Margaret to come back. And they didn't have to ask her to call Claire. Henry came back before Margaret did. He carried a red case in his arms. "What's that you've got there, Henry?" his mom asked when he came in. "Some cars," Henry said. "Sam's letting me borrow them." He dropped to his knees and opened the case upside down. "See?" It wasn't just cars that came tumbling out of the case. Kaz and Little John's mom wafted out, too.

"Mom!" the ghosts shouted as she expanded to her normal size. They hugged and kissed and danced around. "I'm so happy to see you all!" Mom said. "Us too!" said Pops. "I knew you were nearby. I found beads from your necklace." He reached into his pocket and pulled out three ghostly blue beads. "We found some beads, too. Didn't we, Kaz?" Little John said. Kaz nodded. "I found one at the purple house where Kiley and those other ghosts lived," Little John said.

Mom's face glowed in surprise. "You met those ghosts?" "Yes," Little John replied. "They told me you'd been there. Why did you leave?" "I was looking for all of you," Mom said. Pops frowned. "You should've stayed in one place. Then we would've found you instead of all those beads from your necklace." "I didn't want to. I wanted to do something," Mom said. "I was determined to find someone in the family before I ran out of beads." She reached into her pocket and pulled out what was left of her necklace. There were only five beads left. "Well, you found us!" Kaz said. "How did you know to go inside that case?" Little John asked. "How did you know Henry would bring the case over here?" "Because I've been watching the solid children," Mom replied. "I knew that the boy