The Doll in the Garden

Chapter 4

In Trouble

IN THE MORNING, I asked Mom if she'd heard any strange noises during the night.

She smiled and shook her head. "I was up till two typing," she said, "and when I hit the bed, I slept like the proverbial log, Ash."

As Mom paused to sip her coffee, her eyes scanned my face. "People often hear strange noises when they sleep in a new place," she said. "It's perfectly natural."

"But it sounded like a child crying," I told her, "all by itself somewhere outside."

Mom put down her empty cup. "Maybe one of our neighbors has a baby, Ash."

"I saw a cat, too, staring at the house. Oscar was scared of him. He growled and hid under the bed."

Mom looked puzzled. "There's nothing unusual about seeing a cat in the yard. Or in Oscar being scared of him. Oscar's afraid of his own shadow."

Then she reached out and closed her hand over mine. Giving me a squeeze, she said, "How about helping me put up the curtains and pictures?"

Instead of telling Mom what Kristi had told me, I silently finished my cereal. In the morning sunlight, the garden had lost its sinister quality, and I found myself thinking again of building my own little hideout in its shady center. Unlike Kristi, I wouldn't be scared away by a white cat, especially not in the daytime.

***

When we'd finished hanging the curtains and pictures in their new places, I told Mom I was going to visit Kristi. But, as I ran across the grass, Miss Cooper stopped me.

Without giving me a chance to say hello, she said, "Did I see you in my garden yesterday?"

I nodded, surprised by her tone of voice. It hadn't occurred to me she wouldn't want me in the garden. "The real estate agent said I could play in the backyard," I told her.

"Not in the garden, though. Not there! You stay away from my roses!"

"It's all weeds," I began, but Miss Cooper interrupted me.

"Don't you sass me! This is my house and if I don't want you and your mother here, I can kick you out - just like that!" Miss Cooper snapped her fingers with a dry sound like sandpaper being rubbed together.

As if to emphasize what Miss Cooper said, Max bared his teeth and growled at me.

"And I don't want that Smith girl in my yard. Or her brother - do you hear me?" Miss Cooper added shrilly.

"Kristi's my friend," I said, edging away from her. By now I could feel the hedge at my back. A few more steps and I'd be safe from Miss Cooper and her dog.

"We'll see about that!" She brandished her walking stick and turned away from me. I watched her pause at the bottom of our steps. "Is your mother home?" she called.

Before I could answer, Mom came outside and leaned over the railing. "Is something wrong, Miss Cooper?"

Without waiting to hear what the old woman would tell Mom, I ran through the gap in the hedge to Kristi's house.

When I knocked at the door, Kristi's mother invited me in. Her brother was sitting at the kitchen table reading the comics, but he barely looked up at me.

"So you're Ashley," Mrs. Smith said, smiling pleasantly. "Kristi's upstairs doing some chores, but she'll be down soon."

Mrs. Smith offered me a seat and a glass of Hi-C. While I sipped it, she told me she had a pie in the oven. "I was planning to send Kristi over with it, but maybe you can take it to your mother yourself."

Brian groaned. "I thought you were making that for us," he said. Close up, he was a taller version of Kristi — same tawny hair, same tan skin, same gap between his front teeth.

"I made two," Mrs. Smith said. "One for Ashley and her mother and one for us."

Brian wrinkled his nose as if he were thinking half a pie was more than enough for Mom and me. Then he pushed his chair away from the table and left the room. I could hear him whistling as he thumped upstairs.

"Teenagers," Mrs. Smith sighed as she gathered up Brian's breakfast dishes and dumped them in the sink.

Glancing out the kitchen window, she watched Miss Cooper and my mother for a few seconds. "Don't let that old grouch worn you," Mrs. Smith said to me. "She doesn't have much use for children, so I always tell Kristi and Brian to stay out of her way as much as possible. Of course, that only makes them devil her all the more."

Just then Kristi came downstairs, and I followed her outside. She led me up a ladder into her tree house, and I realized that's where she'd been sitting when I saw her red shirt the day before. The tree house had been hammered together from all kinds and sizes of wood and it tilted to one side. But it had a roof and two crooked windows, and it was big enough for us to stand up in.

"Brian built this when he was ten, but he gave it to me a couple of years ago," Kristi said. "One of these days, if my dad ever buys me the paint, I'm going to fix it up. Mom might even make some curtains for the windows."

As Kristi droned on about her plans for the tree house, I interrupted her. After all, I'd come over here to talk about something much more important than paint and curtains and rugs. "Were you trying to scare me last night?" I asked her.

Kristi sucked in her breath and her eyes widened. "You heard the ghost, too, didn't you?" she whispered.

"It was you," I said. "Playing a trick on me."

Kristi shook her head. "It was not! Whenever I hear that sound, it scares me to death. I hide under the covers and put my fingers in my ears."

"I don't believe you." I glared at Kristi. No seven-year-old kid was going to scare me.

For a couple of minutes, Kristi didn't say anything. She just sat there on the platform and scratched the mosquito bites on her legs. Then she looked past me at the garden. "I don't care what you think, Ashley," she said. "Every summer the cat comes and I hear the crying - why would I make up something like that?"

"For a joke, to tease me or scare me."

Kristi shook her head. "I don't want to scare you," she said and her face got red. "I want you to be my friend. Honest."

I looked her in the eye for as long as I could without blinking, but she kept her eyes on mine, and she didn't blink either. Little goose bumps ran up and down my spine and made me shiver.

"So what do you think is going on?" I asked her. "Why would a garden be haunted?"

Kristi shook her head and together we stared down at the tangled bushes and weeds. From here, I couldn't see the little cherub or the dried-up goldfish pond, but I noticed a movement in the shrubbery near the garden's center, and I wondered if the white cat was back. I wanted to see him again in the daylight. He had to be real, I thought, a stray cat who'd made a home for himself in the underbrush.

"Will you go in the garden with me?" I asked Kristi. "I want to find the white cat and prove he's real."

She chewed on her lip and stared at me for a second before busying herself by scratching another mosquito bite. "I'm not going in there," she said in a low voice.

"Are you scared?"

"No!" Kristi scowled at me, the mosquito bite forgotten. "I just don't want to."

I leaned toward her. "Come with me and prove you're not scared."

"Miss Cooper will sec us," Kristi muttered.

"Not if we're careful. I bet we can sneak into the garden from your yard."

When Kristi once more returned her attention to her mosquito bites, I added, "It's not scary in the daytime. It's nice and cool. There's a goldfish pool in the middle, and I was thinking we could fix it up and make it our secret hideout. Wouldn't that be neat?"

"We already have my tree house," Kristi said. "Can't it be our special place?"

I sprang to my feet, exasperated. "All right," I said. "If you won't help me, I'll do it by myself."

Without looking at Kristi, I started backing down the rope ladder. But, before I reached the ground, I heard her behind me, begging me to wait.