The Ghost of Whispering Willow. Amanda M. Thrasher

just heard.

      “It said, ‘I see you,’” replied Stewart. “Just like that. ‘I see you!’” Stewart stared at his friends; their mouths had dropped open and their eyes were huge. “It was so clear, I couldn’t move. Heck, I even screamed. I’ll admit it. I screamed – a manly scream, of course – but a scream like this: Ahhh!”

      “Whoa!” Zack mumbled. “Wicked! Very, very, wicked!”

      “I know, right!” Stewart said in agreement. He jumped up off the bed and pointed to his arm, “I’m pretty sure it brushed past me, too. I felt it right there!” he said excitedly.

      Andy picked up the pen and started scribbling again. He was still as intrigued as Zack was about the voice. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to miss a single detail.

      Zack wanted his own personal experience so bad he could taste it. But for now, he would just have to accept being a part of the team, hunting the ghost, and searching for some answers. He definitely wanted his own physical or visual experience like Andy’s or Stewart’s, one they could log in the journal on his behalf. “I can’t wait to have an experience like that, except you can bet I won’t be scared!” Zack joked, and all the boys laughed.

      Andy threw a football at Zack’s head, and just as Zack picked it up and threw it back, he said, “Hey, I just thought of something: we still need to review the tapes.”

      Stewart’s eyes lit up as he looked at the disks; there was no telling what they would find. With any luck, both of the boys’ personal experiences would have been captured. They were getting closer to figuring out what was going on in the Willows.

      They dimmed the lights and hit play.

      4 Plans

      “Hi, Mrs. Cook. Is Maggie available, please?” Ally asked, rolling a soccer ball underneath her foot as she waited.

      She could hear Mrs. Cook talking to someone. There was a slight pause and then, “Yes, we had a fabulous time, and thank you for asking.”

      “Hiya, Ally,” Maggie said cheerfully as soon as she picked up the phone. She smiled at her mom and waited for her to leave the room before she continued. “Go!” said Maggie. It was her signal. “Hey, did you talk to Kendall, and can you guys come over?” Maggie asked. All of the girls could and would be there shortly.

      Their meeting was a very important one; they had to decide what they wanted to do next regarding the boys. The bombshell had been dropped for sure at the lunch table, but it didn’t seem to be enough. Andy was very stubborn, especially when it came to girls. The girls suspected that if they’d told the boys that they knew that they were investigating a ghost, there would be consequences. But they had no idea what those consequences would be. They’d end up telling the boys they’d been spying on them, and if they did that, well, even they knew that would probably make the boys mad.

      Maggie didn’t know what to do about getting the boys to take them seriously, and hoped that Krista, Kendall or Ally would have a suggestion or two. Maggie wracked her brain as she waited for her friends to arrive. She kept going over and over the events they had witnessed and wondered if the boys had seen the same things. If she wasn’t mistaken, Kendall had caught sight of something first. Then Krista had unfortunately experienced an actual physical encounter with the ghost and had been scared to death! Maggie had admittedly blown the whole thing off, telling the girls that their imaginations were running wild, until Ally had run into her house, white as a sheet, visibly shaken, and scared beyond belief. The ghost had been staring at her from a distance; just watching her, Ally had said. She’d stopped what she was doing to take a closer look and that’s when it had walked straight toward her and simply disappeared. Ally had been visibly shaking as she’d described the ghost. Maggie finally had to admit that something strange was going on in the Willows! It was then that, just like the boys’, the girls’ investigation had begun.

      It wasn’t long after they had started visiting the Willows that they realized that the boys were up to something as well. Naturally, they couldn’t help but wonder if it was the same thing. The girls had watched Stewart and Andy messing with something, but they had no idea what it was. They could tell that it was some kind of equipment, but they couldn’t see it exactly. They had crouched behind the willows, scared to death that the boys would catch them spying on them. They had been very lucky that the boys hadn’t caught them, and they’d watched the boys through several different excursions. The girls decided it was time to take the investigation to the next level. Their plan was to stay in the Willows until dusk, catch the boys red-handed, and confront them. They had hoped that Andy and Stewart would have some information to share with them about the ghost that the girls had seen in the woods.

      When the girls had put the plan into motion, they’d had no idea how creepy the woods could be once the sun went down. The light – or lack of it – changed everything, and they had been afraid. They’d sat behind a large rock, clasping each other’s hands as they waited to see if the boys would show up. It had taken two weeks to catch Andy and Stewart in the woods again, and Kendall had been certain Stewart sensed something was not right. When he’d appeared to stare a little longer than necessary in their direction, Kendall had thought for sure that Stewart had seen her. She’d ducked down as quickly as she could. Stewart had definitely been busy with something, and thank goodness he had not noticed them.

      The girls had realized that the boys seemed to have a camera. Stewart had appeared to be pulling and pushing the camera into a log. The girls had come to the conclusion that if Stewart was pushing a camera into a log, it was fair to say he intended to leave it there. They surmised that the boys were, without question, onto something major. It made sense that Stewart and Andy had seen the ghost, too! Maggie thought something else: the girls had the upper hand in the situation, and the boys didn’t know that they knew.

      Maggie was suddenly startled when her little brother appeared out of nowhere and jumped up onto the bed and sat next to her. “Clay, out now, please. My friends are coming,” she said, as he continued to bounce up and down. He didn’t care; he liked it when they came over, the girls always made a fuss over him!

      “You, out,” Mrs. Cook scolded Clay, as she suddenly appeared at the bedroom door. She smiled at the two of them. Maggie was tickling Clay and he was trying to break free. She pulled out the mom voice again. “Now, Clay, I’m not playing. Let’s go, bath time in ten!”

      “Later, gator,” Maggie said as the doorbell rang. “Clay, answer the door and send the girls up to my room.” He was happy to help and raced down the stairs.

      ***

      The girls piled on top of Maggie’s bed, stacking the pillows and getting comfy before they started their meeting. Kendall had a suggestion, and it was a good one. “Well,” she said, “we’ve already told the boys that we know what they saw, and it’s pretty clear they don’t believe us; not yet, anyway.”

      “Right,” Ally, Krista, and Maggie said in unison.

      Kendall continued, “I think we should give them a push and tell them exactly what we saw and when we saw it. I mean, the actual ghost!” She giggled. “I know, right? Can you imagine the looks on their faces when we steal their thunder?” The second bombshell could be very effective, that was for sure. With delivery of such a message, the timing would definitely be everything! It was the perfect way to speed everything up; after all, there was no telling how long the boys would wait them out if they didn’t make their next move a drastic one. Stewart had been pretty stubborn during summer camp, only speaking to the girls if spoken to, and not once initiating a conversation, and Andy, well he just followed Stewart’s lead. The girls seemed to irritate them both, getting on their nerves. And Zack was always busy; it really didn’t seem to matter to them whether he was around or not.

      “Let’s