My Haunted House (Page 11)
GO AWAY!
I could not believe it. There was the sun- glasses woman gazing into space like her best dream ever had just come true. Then the frog man got up and waved a few bats away, and he said, "Perfect! It's even bet- ter than we expected, isn't it, dear?" "It is, " agreed the sunglasses woman. She turned to Aunt Tabby and shook her hand. "What a wonderful welcome, " she said.
But the sunglasses woman went right ahead and said to Aunt Tabby, "This house is perfect. We'll take it. We can move in tomor- row!" What? Now I really could not believe it. It had been the best Awful Ambush I could pos- sibly have done. Everything had worked per- fectly--even Sir Horace had turned up. But not only had the weird people liked it, it had made them want to buy the house. What more could I do? So I yelled at them. "GO AWAY!" I shouted as loud as I could. It was great yelling from so high;it echoed around and around the hall, and everyone looked up. Three of them looked amazed and one looked annoyed. "You can't live here, " I yelled at the top of my voice. "It's my house and I live here. GO AWAY!"
The weird people followed Aunt Tabby down the stairs to the kitchens. Just before they disappeared, the stupid short one looked up at the balcony. I stuck out my tongue and gave her my best Fiendish Stare. That showed her. "What a twit, " I said to Edmund. And can you guess what Edmund said? It was completely idiotic. He said, "I thought she looked all right. " I thought she looked all right! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I gave him my Fiendish Stare as well, and he shot off into Sir Horace's room, but I followed him. I had a Last Chance Plan, and I needed Edmund's help. "You've got to come down to the kitchen with me, " I told Edmund, who had backed into a corner. "If they saw a real ghost, they wouldn't last five seconds. "
"So--you're meant to do what he tells you, aren't you?" "Ye-es . . . " "And Sir Horace told you to help me, didn't he?" "Yes . . . " He sighed just like Aunt Tabby does when the boiler has done something really annoying. "Well, I need you to help me get rid of all those horrible people. Right now. I want you to come with me and scare them away. " "All right, " said Edmund in a sulky voice. But I didn't care how sulky he was. This was my Last Chance Plan, and it had to work.