6 ANOTHER GHOST CATCHER

CHAPTER 6 ANOTHER GHOST CATCHER Kaz, Finn, and Little John hovered safely inside Claire's water bottle while Claire stood on the sidewalk outside the movie theater and stared at the card in her hand. "There's an address on this card," Claire told her ghost friends. "I don't have to be home until dinnertime. We've got time to visit Gabriel Goodman before we go back to the library." "Great! Let's go," Finn said. "Wait," Kaz said as Claire started walking. She stopped. "What?" she asked. "Well," Kaz said. "If this boy can see ghosts when they're not glowing, then won't he be able to

see us? What if he somehow forces us out of this bottle and blows us into the Outside, too?" Little John let out a big breath of air. "Do you have to worry about every little thing, Kaz?" "Of course he does," Finn said. "He's Kaz." Claire set her bag on a bench, then sat down beside it. "No, Kaz is right to worry," she said, holding her water bottle on her lap. "We know this boy blew Jessie and Conrad out of the theater. He probably blew Dave out of the theater, too. We need to make sure you guys stay safe." "We're safe. We're inside your water bottle," Finn said. "It doesn't hurt to take extra precautions," Claire said. She unzipped her bag, picked up the bottle with the ghosts, and put it inside the bag.

"Hey!" Little John cried as Claire started to zip her bag closed over them. Finn swam to the top of the bottle. "Don't put us in here!" he shouted. "We won't be able to see anything!" "That means Gabriel won't be able to see you, either," Claire said. "I think that's best. At least until we know a little more about him." She zipped her bag the rest of the way closed and everything went dark around Kaz, Finn, and Little John. Finn sighed. "Maybe she's right," he said. "Better safe than sorry. No one knows that better

than me." The ghosts could tell by the way the bottle jiggled back and forth that Claire was walking now. Kaz wondered how far away Gabriel's house was. "This reminds me of when we traveled inside that box with the doll that didn't shrink," Little John said. He rubbed his hands together to make them glow, which provided a little light inside Claire's bag. "Huh? What are you talking about?" Finn asked. He rubbed his hands together, too.

Kaz and Little John told Finn about the doll they'd found in the secret room at the library. They thought it belonged to Little John's friend Kiley. They wanted to take it to her, but they couldn't make the doll shrink. That was when they learned that ghostly objects that used to be solid don't shrink. By the time Kaz and Little John finished the story, it sounded as though they had arrived at Gabriel's house. They could hear Claire talking to someone. "I'm looking for Gabriel Goodman," she said. Her voice sounded muffled, but Kaz could still make it out. "That's me," a boy replied. "I see you have my card. Do you have a ghost you need me to take care of?" "No, I—" Claire broke off. "This is kind of hard to explain. Can I come in?" "Okay," Gabriel said. The ghosts heard a door open, then shut.

"Let's go out there," Little John whispered. He started to pass through the water bottle into Claire's bag, but Kaz and Finn each grabbed one of his arms and pulled him back. "Not yet," Kaz whispered back. "Not until we know it's safe," Finn added. "I'm like you," Claire said to Gabriel. "I can see ghosts when they're not glowing and I can hear ghosts when they're not wailing." "What's glowing? What's wailing?" Gabriel asked. "You don't know what glowing and wailing mean?" Claire asked. "Haven't you ever talked to any of the ghosts you've seen?" "No. Why would I do that?" Gabriel said. "Because that's how you get to know people," Claire said. "You talk to them. You tell them about yourself and they tell you about themselves. That's how you become friends." "Why would I want to be friends with a ghost?" Gabriel asked.