The Doll in the Garden

Chapter 13

Kristi Comes Too

AS SOON AS I finished breakfast, I ran next door. I was so angry at Kristi, I wasn't sure what I'd do when I saw her. Beat her up maybe. Throw her to Max and let him chew her to bits. Force her to get the doll back.

When I finally found her hiding in her treehouse, Kristi glared at me. "What are you doing on my property?" she asked fiercely. "I didn't invite you up here."

"Why did you tell Miss Cooper about Anna Maria?" I shouted at her. "She has her now, and we'll never see her again. I hope you're satisfied!"

"You shouldn't have taken her," Kristi said. "Anna Maria was supposed to be our secret. We were going to share her!"

"Well, nobody's going to share her now. She's gone for good, you little baby." I had to clench my fists to keep from slapping her.

"I'm not a baby!" Kristi crouched inches away from me, ready to defend herself. "And you better not hit me cither. Brian taught me how to fight, so you watch out what you say to me!"

"I didn't come over here to beat you up," I said. "I just want Anna Maria back!"

"I want her too!" Kristi glared at me, her eyes as hard as little stones. "You're the one who took her and hid her in your house. It serves you right Miss Cooper has her!"

"You don't even know what you've done, do you?" I took a deep breath and decided to tell Kristi everything. She'd be sorry then, wouldn't she?

"It's not for myself I want Anna Maria," I told her. "For your information, she doesn't belong to me or you or Miss Cooper. She belongs to a little girl named Louisa who used to live over there." I waved my hand toward the field, and Kristi stared at the empty lot.

"What are you talking about?" she said scornfully. "There's no house over there. Never has been."

"Just shut up and listen, will you? What I'm going to tell you sounds really weird, but it's true, I swear it." I paused and watched Miss Cooper come outside with Max. She sat down on her porch, opened a book, and started reading. There was no sign of Anna Maria.

"Remember what you said about Snowball being a ghost cat?" I asked.

Kristi sighed. I could tell she didn't want to believe a thing I said. "Yes, but I didn't really mean it," she muttered.

"Well," I said, "you were right."

That got Kristi's attention, and she actually listened to every word I said about Snowball and Louisa. "So you see why you shouldn't have told Miss Cooper we found Anna Maria?" I asked at the end of my story. "I was going to give her back to Louisa and now, thanks to you, I can't."

"Even if you're telling the truth, which I doubt, that old witch won't let us have Anna Maria." Krisd leaned over the edge of the platform and watched Miss Cooper get up and go back into her house.

As the door thunked shut behind the old woman, Snowball appeared in the shade on the edge of the garden. When he approached the tree, I turned to Kristi.

"Suppose Snowball takes us both to Louisa. Will you believe me then?"

Krisd stared at the cat as I started climbing down the ladder. By the time I reached the ground, she was right behind me. "If I go, will you hold my hand?" she asked me.

Although I was still angry, I took her hand. I wanted her to come, to see Louisa herself, to feel really bad about what she'd done.

Together we ran across Miss Cooper's lawn and followed Snowball through the hedge. As before, the sunlight dimmed, and I shivered as I found myself standing once more in the twilight, staring at Louisa's house. It had happened again; I hadn't imagined it. My own world had vanished, and all I could do was hope Snowball would lead us back.

Kristi clung to me, and I could feel her trembling. "I'm scared," she whispered. "Let's go home, Ashley."

"First we have to see Louisa," I said firmly.

Kristi glanced over her shoulder at the hedge behind us. Like me, she saw Miss Cooper's house as it had looked before the porch and stairs to our apartment had been built.

"My tree house is gone," Kristi whimpered. "There's no tree at all, and it's getting dark. Are you sure my mother's there?"

"I've done this before," I told her.

"Why is it so dark? I can see the moon."

"Time is different here," I said, but I wondered myself why it was darker than it had been yesterday.

"I'm cold." Kristi's hand sought mine again as Snowball brushed against us. "Can't we go home now? I don't like this place."

"You have to meet Louisa." I gripped her hand tightly to keep her from trying to bolt back through the hedge.

"I'm afraid of ghosts." Kristi was close to tears.

"Louisa's not a ghost," I said. "When we hear her crying at night in our world, she's a ghost, I think. But here in her world we're the ghosts, not Louisa."

"You're real," Kristi insisted, "and so am I. I can feel you and you can feel me. Besides you have to be dead to be a ghost, and we're not dead."

Snowball meowed then and circled our legs. I picked him up and handed him to Kristi. "He's real, isn't he?"

"He feels real," she said, but she put Snowball down quickly. He meowed again and nudged us toward the path.

"Come on," I said. "He wants to take us to Louisa."

"You won't tell her I gave Anna Maria to Miss Cooper, will you?" Kristi asked, still hanging back.

I shook my head and followed Snowball down the shadowy path. Reluctantly, Kristi stumbled along behind me. I knew she was still scared, but I wasn't sorry for her. If she hadn't been such a tattletale, I'd have Anna Maria in my arms right now. Instead, I was returning to Louisa empty handed, and Carrie was once again in possession of the doll.