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do for our guests. We are going to go find the sunglasses for the zombie. We’ll be back soon. Enjoy your breakfast.”
    The children sat on the deck and ate the delicious breakfast. Soon there was only one waffle left on the big platter that Wendy and Will had set on the table.
    “May I have the last waffle?” Benny asked.
    “I think you have eaten more waffles than me, Benny,” Henry said. “I don’t know where you put it all.” Henry slid the waffle onto Benny’s plate.
    “Me either,” Benny said. “But my stomach sure does like this breakfast!”
    “Does it hurt to eat?” Jessie asked.
    Benny touched the side of his face. He had a purple bruise on his right cheek. It was swollen, too. “It hurts a little when I chew,” Benny said. “But if I didn’t eat, my stomach would hurt more!”
    “Who do you think could have done such a thing to Benny?” asked Violet. “It certainly was very mean. He could have been hurt very bad.”
    Henry poured himself a glass of milk. “I don’t know,” he said. “And I was quite sure that Mr. Hanson had locked up the haunted house. How did the person get inside? And who turned the ride on?”
    Benny wiped a drip of syrup from his chin. “It wasn’t locked when I went in,” he said. “But I did not turn the ride on. It went on all by itself.”
    “Someone turned it on,” Henry said. “Whoever it was must have sat at the control panel and turned the switches that make the ride start.”
    “But why would someone do that?” Jessie asked. “Turning the ride on only got our attention. It made us run to the haunted house. The person could have been caught if we were closer and had gotten there quicker.”
    “That is true,” Violet said. She suddenly remembered something. “When I was on the top of the Big Slide, I saw someone or something running down the steps from the pier onto the beach. It was very dark. But it might have been someone carrying the zombie.”
    “But the ride did not turn on until you were already at the bottom of the Big Slide,” Jessie said. “The person could not have run onto the beach, and then snuck back to turn on the ride. We would have seen something.”
    “That is true,” Violet said. “And a person cannot be in two places at the same time. That is a hard mystery to figure out.”
    While the children discussed the mystery, Violet had finally finished her sign. She turned it around for her sister and brothers to see. “What do you think?” she asked.
    “Oh, Violet! It’s perfect,” Jessie exclaimed.
    Henry read the sign aloud. “ ‘I love the beach. But I can’t wait till dark. I am going to go to Hanson’s. It is the best amusement pier on the boardwalk!’ ”
    As the children were washing the breakfast dishes, Wendy and Will returned. They had a giant pair of sunglasses, a big yellow duck float, and a colorful beach towel.
    “Are you ready to dress up our zombie?” Wendy asked. She handed the float to Benny.
    “I’m ready!” Benny ran down the steps and out into the sand. Everyone followed him. Benny gazed up at the giant zombie. “He doesn’t look so scary when he is not in the haunted house,” he said.
    Will agreed. “He looks pretty silly on the beach.”
    Henry placed the silly sunglasses on the zombie’s nose. Benny hung the duck float from the zombie’s right arm. Jessie draped the colorful towel over the other arm. A group of people on the beach came over to watch. Many were laughing and calling to their friends.
    Violet took her sign and hung it from the zombie’s neck.
    Two little boys with buckets and shovels ran up to the zombie. “Mommy!” they called. “Come look!”
    A woman in a pink bathing suit hurried to stand behind her boys. “Can we go to Hanson’s pier tonight? Pleeeease?” the boys asked.
    The mother laughed. “I think we should,” she said. “It looks like a fun place!”
    Violet noticed a woman taking photographs of the zombie. “This is so great!” the woman said.