4 A GREAT IDEA

CHAPTER 4 A GREAT IDEA Who do we have here?" Beckett asked when Claire walked into the library craft room with a jarful of ghosts. Kaz and his family passed through the jar and expanded. Grandmom and Grandpop gazed up at the paper birds that dangled from the ceiling. "Beckett, these are our grandparents," Kaz said. "Grandmom, Grandpop, this is Beckett." Beckett froze when Kaz said grandparents. "Hello," Grandmom said, turning to Beckett with a friendly smile. "It's nice to meet you," Grandpop said, offering his hand.

Beckett took it. "It's, uh, nice to see you again," he said, not quite looking Grandpop in the eye. "Again?" Grandpop seemed confused. "Have we met before?" Mom wafted over. "Dad, this is Beckett," she said. "You know, from our haunt in the country." Haunt in the country? Grandmom's smile disappeared. "What haunt in the country?" Little John asked. Grandpop yanked his hand from Beckett's. He turned angry eyes to Kaz and Little John. "This is the ghost who was looking after you?"

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"Why didn't you tell us?" Grandmom expanded in front of them. Kaz and Little John glanced at each other. "Tell you what?" Kaz asked. He and Little John had told their grandparents all about Beckett. "We didn't know this was the Beckett you were talking about," Grandmom said. "We can't stay here," Grandpop told Claire. "I demand that you take us back to Valley View at once." "No, no," Beckett said, raising the palm of his hand. "I'll go." "You were here first," Mom said. "We'll go." She motioned for Kaz and Little John to swim back into the jar. "What? No!" Kaz and Little John protested. "There are six of you. Seven, including the dog," Beckett said. "And only one of me. I can find a new haunt." He wafted over to Claire. "Would you mind transporting me to another haunt? Preferably one with some books?"

Claire shook her head. "I'm not taking anyone anywhere right now!" she said. "It's dinnertime. And I don't think my parents will let me go out again after dinner. So, unless you all want to blow around in the wind outside, you're stuck here until I get home from school tomorrow." The ghosts stared at Claire. "Tomorrow then," Grandpop said firmly. "Tomorrow you'll take us back to the nursing home as soon as you return from school." "It's not fair," Little John moaned later that night while Claire and her family were asleep. "I don't want to live at Valley View with all the old people." "Neither do I," Kaz said. "I don't know why we can't all live here together. What happened at the haunt in the country? Why are Mom and Grandmom and Grandpop so mad at Beckett?" "I don't know," Little John said. "I think someone should tell us."

Kaz agreed. But Pops couldn't answer any of their questions because he didn't know. And Mom, Grandmom, and Grandpop gave them the same answer: "It doesn't concern you." It does too concern us if we have to leave the library, Kaz thought. If no one else was going to tell them what happened, Kaz and Little John thought they'd ask Beckett. But they couldn't find him. They searched upstairs, downstairs, and in the secret room. Beckett was nowhere to be found.