It was a sunny afternoon when my next-door neighbor, Julie Flat, banged on my door. Startled, I ran to see who it was. Julie stood there, her long brown hair fell in her face, and her eyes looked red. It looked like she had been crying.
“Hi Julie,” I said. “What’s up?”
“Scraps just died. I'm so sad. I need to bury him, would you help me? ”
“Of course,” I said. I remembered how much fun her little Scottish Terrier had chasing the squirrels up the rotten old crabapple tree in their yard. “As soon as I finish my lunch, I'll be over.”
We buried Scraps under the crabapple tree so he could always be near the squirrels he used to chase.
When we finished saying good-bye to Scraps, Julie asked if I could spend the night camping in the tent they had in the backyard. I called my mom and asked her if I could. She said “Sure,” so I ran home and got all my gear together for camping: sleeping bag, pillow, toothbrush, and Raggedy Ann, she went everywhere with me.
When I got back, Julie was standing outside the tent with her stuffed dog, Freddy. “Are you ready, Freddy?” she giggled.
“Definitely,” I said, and we crawled into the tent. It was warm and comfy and after giggling some more, we fell asleep.
Suddenly, Julie tapped me. “Did you hear that?” I sat up and listened, and then I heard it too! It was a soft “whoo whoo whoo whoo” which sounded like it was coming from the crabapple tree!
“Yikes,” Julie said. “Do you think it's Scraps' ghost?”
“I-I-I don’t know,” I whispered, barely breathing.
“I'm scared,” Julie whispered quietly in my ear.
“Me too,” I said putting my finger to my lips to quiet her.
The noise stopped. It was very, very quiet, and there were weird shadows on the tent walls.
“Maybe we were just imagining it,” I said, but before I could even finish my sentence, there was a scratching sound right outside our tent. Whatever it was, it was near. Julie opened her eyes wide. I tried to act relaxed and shrugged my shoulders like it was no big deal. “Let's just try to go back to sleep,” I whispered, hugging Raggedy Ann tightly. I could see Julie hugging Freddy so tightly I thought his seams were going to rip.
As soon as we closed our eyes, the ghost of Scrap started howling again, only this time it was closer. Whooooo, Whoooo. That was all it took. Julie unzipped the tent and flew into the house screaming for her mom. I was right on her heels. There was no way I was going to face whatever it was out there all by myself. Even if it was the ghost of Scraps.
Mrs. Flat came running. “Girls, what's wrong?”
“There's something out there! Mom, I think it's Scraps' ghost.” Julie was waving her hands.
“It's true Mrs. Flat, there were sounds outside the tent, and there was a terrible moaning noise coming from Scraps' gravestone.”
“Oh you baloney heads,” said Julie's mom with a smile. “It's not Scraps' ghost. He was a good dog and I'm sure he wouldn't be haunting you. He's probably in doggie heaven right now chewing on a rawhide or chasing the squirrels.”
“Then what was moaning outside if it wasn't Scraps' ghost?” Julie asked. There were tears in her eyes.
“Honey, you probably just heard the owl that lives in the crabapple tree. And the sound outside the tent was most likely that same squirrel that Scraps used to chase all day long.” She laughed.
“Oh silly us,” said Julie laughing. I gave her a hug, and we decided to finish our sleepover in her bedroom instead of the tent. We laughed our sillies out, and slept the whole night long... Raggedy Ann and Freddy by our sides.
~The End~
Illustration Copyright © 2009 Linda T. Snider
Copyright © 2009 by Eden Ainscough, age 7