2 WHERE IS DAVE

CHAPTER 2 WHERE IS DAVE? Gone?!" Mom exclaimed. Grandpop wafted forward. "What do you mean gone?" "I mean gone. Disappeared. Not here anymore," Conrad said. "Where'd he go?" Grandmom asked. "We have no idea," Jessie said. Claire set her orange juice bottle on the floor and pulled a purple notebook and green pen from her bag. She glanced warily at the other solid people who were buying popcorn at the counter, then turned her back to them. "How long has Dave been gone?" she asked Finn's friends.

George's mouth fell open. Jessie and Conrad waved their hands in Claire's face. "Can you see us?" "Yes. I can hear you, too," Claire said, barely moving her lips. She was used to ghosts asking her these questions. "How?" Conrad and Jessie asked. "We're not glowing," George said. Claire shrugged as two solid girls walked past her with their popcorn. "No one knows," Little John said. "Someone must know," Jessie said. "There must be some explanation." Claire shrugged again. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" Conrad asked.

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"She doesn't like to talk a lot when all these other people are around," Kaz explained. "They can't see us, so they'll think she's talking to herself." "Ohhh," Conrad and Jessie said at the same time. "Let's talk about Dave instead of Claire," Kaz said. "How long has he been gone?" "Since yesterday," Conrad said. Kaz glanced out the big front window at the stores across the street. A ghost could pass through walls and visit a bunch of stores on that side of the street without ever going outside. You could probably do that on this side of the street, too. "Maybe he's not really gone," Kaz said. "Isn't there a toy store on the other side of that wall?" He pointed to the wall behind the snack counter. "And a restaurant on the other side of that wall?" He pointed to the other wall. "Maybe Dave's in one of the other stores or restaurants on this block."

"We already looked in all the other stores on this block," George said. "Several times," Conrad said. "He's gone." "We know he's gone because he didn't show up for the sing-along last night," Jessie said. "Sing-along?" Little John asked. "You guys still do that?" Finn asked. "Of course," Jessie replied. She turned to the other ghosts. "After the theater closes, we meet by the piano in the balcony and have a sing-along." "It's how we celebrate that all the solids have gone home for the night," Conrad added. "My brother always loved music," Mom said with a wistful smile. "He did indeed," Grandmom agreed as Claire wrote everything in her notebook. "Dave wouldn't leave without saying goodbye," George said. "Something bad must've happened to him." Jessie and Conrad nodded in agreement.

"Maybe he accidentally passed through the back wall," Finn said. "If you pass through the back wall, you don't end up in another store. You end up in the Outside. In an alley. That's what happened to me." "Tell us about it," Pops said to Finn. "Well," Finn said, looking a little embarrassed. "I was making faces at the solids before the movie started. Just for fun. And I sort of backed through the wall into the Outside. The wind blew me into a packing and shipping store across the alley. I tried to swim back over here, but the wind was too strong. It blew me up and over all these stores. I ended up at the library for a while. Then Eli's house. That's where Kaz and Little John found me." "Maybe the wind blew Dave to Eli's house, too," Little John suggested. "I think it's more likely that it blew him into one of the stores across the alley," Finn said.