Vampire Brat
There are lots of turrets in Spookie House, but the best one to watch thun- derstorms from is the haunted turret. The haunted turret is not really haunted. Well, I've never seen a ghost there and I have spent many hours looking. But it is the tallest turret and is so high in the sky that you feel as though you are right in the middle of the storm. It is very exciting.
After you push open the little door with the weird creak that goes "Eeh-aaaah . . . Ooooh, " you climb up some rickety, cobwebby stairs, but you must not step on the third stair or the seventh because they are rotten because of some very big woodworms who live there. The stairs go around two corners and are really dark and steep. At the top is a dusty old velvet curtain, which is inhabited by some fierce moths that do not like being disturbed and dive-bomb your head, so it is best to squeeze through the curtain very slowly and carefully. Once you are in the turret you have to walk around the edge because there is a big hole in the middle of the floor where a bath- tub fell through. Aunt Tabby used to keep lots of old bathtubs in the turret, but she made Barry help her take them all out after that.
I rubbed a clean patch on the glass and peered out. Even though it was not yet dinnertime it was almost dark out- side. There were heavy gray clouds filling up the sky and a few fat spots of rain were falling. It was perfect-- and really spooky. In the distance, all misty through the rain and the grubby window, I saw a car's head- lights. I watched the lights, expecting them to keep going along the big road, but to my surprise the car turned off onto the lane that goes by Spookie House. I wondered where it was going--since Aunt Tabby put up a sign that says danger, unexploded mines not many cars drive past. As it drew nearer I could see that it was going really slowly, as if it was looking for somewhere, and then it stopped--right outside our front gate. At the very moment that it drew up out- side Spookie House there was the most enor- mous Craaaack. A brilliant white streak of lightning shot down and hit the car. It was amazing. A blue flame whizzed around the outside of the car and I held my breath, wait- ing for it to explode. It was very disappointing--nothing hap- pened. The car did not explode at all. Instead the rain started to pour from the sky in buck- ets and the car didn't even sizzle.
The rain was falling harder now, it was splashing in through the rotten window frame and dripping onto my socks. I rubbed the window clear with the end of my sleeve, and when I looked again the white-faced driver had gotten out. He opened an enormous black umbrella, and was holding the door open for the old lady. She stepped out of the hearse very carefully and was fol- lowed by the little kid and the almost grown- up girl. Even though I did not want to be a detec- tive anymore because now I had decided that I was going to be a werewolf hunter, I still practiced my detecting skills when I got the chance. I thought the people in the hearse were on their way to a funeral. That was pretty obvious because if they had been on their way back from the funeral, the coffin would not have been there.
A flash of lightning lit up the purple sky, and there was a sudden crash as the thunder rolled back over the house. Far away down- stairs, I heard the doorbell ring. Yes! We had a hearse with a coffin and spooky visitors in the middle of a thunder- storm. What could be better?