“Whew, what a mess!” Pirate shone his flashlight into the interior as Sam edged down the passenger side of the car to turn on the garage’s overhead light.
It popped on, then off again almost instantly, illuminating more of a disaster than Sam remembered. He hadn’t remembered the boxes stacked on the trunk, the miscellaneous gardening tools tossed on the roof.
“Hey, come over here with that flashlight, will you?” He didn’t want to just shove the boxes onto the ground, though that was his first instinct. He didn’t want to break anything that might be stored in them.
Pirate edged his way toward Sam, stepping gingerly. “Dang, it stinks in here.”
“We found a dead skunk.”
Pirate shone the flashlight into the interior of the car. “Cloth seats. You might not be able to get the smell out.”
“Maybe not, but I want to try.” Wouldn’t she be happy to have this part of her grandfather? Okay, so it was a gas guzzler and probably just had an AM radio and might have the lingering scent of dead skunk, but it would be something for her to have.
And if he could get his dad to help him rebuild it, well, that would be something that might both smooth over their relationship and give his dad something to think about other than his injury.
The boxes had Christmas decorations, old dried-up art supplies and, naturally, books. Sam set them on the sturdy wooden workbench. One of them was heavier than the others, and the box beneath it crumbling, and when he pivoted to place it on the bench, the bottom fell out.
Surprise surprise. Books.
Finally, working together, they cleared a path so that Pirate could back the tow truck to the vehicle, then loosened the winch and lowered the flatbed.
Why Sam had thought he could do this quietly, he had no idea.
He watched as his friend attached the winch to the Buick and hauled it onto the back of his flatbed.
A movement from the house caught his attention, and he turned to see a flicker of light in the window. He spun toward the house, but only caught a fading image in the attic window, like a light had been shone into his eyes, then turned off.
“Hey, did you see that?” he asked Pirate, who was climbing into the cab, ready to take off..
“See what?”
“That…light in the window? Like, not a regular light though?”
Pirate leaned against the cab, watching him. “My dude, are you seeing ghosts?”
Maybe? But Sam didn’t say it.
“I know this place is supposed to be haunted,” Pirate went on. “You don’t believe in ghosts, do you?”
The way Pirate asked, it sounded like he for sure didn’t believe in them. Sam was more curious. “I wonder if I should go in and check to make sure everything is okay. That no one’s in there trying to scare Erielle when she gets home.”
Pirate turned back to the cab and mounted the step. “Go ahead, if you can get in, I guess. I’m going to take this on over to your folks’ place. They know I’m coming?”
“Mom does.” He’d already discussed this plan with his mom, and she agreed it could be good for his dad. “I’m going to go check. I want to be sure the house is safe when she comes in. Can I use your flashlight?”
The front and back doors were locked, naturally, and she’d put those little gadgets on the insides of the windows so they couldn’t be raised. He walked around, sweeping the beam of his flashlight over each window, each shadow, looking for any sign of forced entry.
The flashing red and blue lights in front of the house startled him so bad he nearly dropped his flashlight. He rounded the corner and came face to face with Cal and his own flashlight beam.
“Cal, what are you doing here?”
“The question is, what are you doing here?” Cal’s voice was accusing. “Neighbors called about prowlers. Well, I don’t know if we can call them prowlers, since they were making all kinds of noise, beeping and throwing stuff around in the garage.”
“Ah. Well. Yeah.” Sam rubbed the back of his neck, squinting past the light to see his friend’s eyes. “We came to get the Buick out of the garage so I can try to fix it up for Erielle.”
“At eleven at night.”
“Yeah, well, it’s kind of a surprise. I mean, it will be. If you help me make it a surprise.”
