Read Charlie Bumpers vs. the Squeaking Skull for Free Online

the Squid asked.
    Matt was cleaning up the milk, Dad was still coughing, and Mom was shaking her head.
    “Not
rabbit,
” I said. “
Rabid.
It means it has rabies.”
    “What are those? Are they like babies?”
    Everyone else was still recovering. I was suddenly the expert on rabid bats. “It’s a disease that animals get sometimes. It’s really bad, and it makes them act crazy. They foam at the mouth.”
    The Squid turned to Mom. “Are you going to make Charlie a rabbit bat costume?”
    I answered before Mom could feel bad. “No,” I said. “Ms. Bromley said I could do it in art class. I just have to bring in the materials.” I took out the sketch and held it up.
    A smile spread across Mom’s face. “Charlie, what a good idea! I could never have come up with a design like that!”
    “I’m mostly going to do it myself,” I said. “She’ll just be there to help. I have to bring in the stuff to make the costume tomorrow. The most important part is the broken umbrella.”
    “Like mine with the rainbows and frogs!” the Squid chimed in.
    “No, a black umbrella. I have to find one.”
    “I happen to have two broken black umbrellas in my car,” Dad said. “I knew I shouldn’t just throw them away.”
    “I want to be a bat!” the Squid said. “Only a
purple
one.”
    “One bat in a house is enough,” Mom said.
    “I agree,” Dad said. “Anyway, you’re already a bunch of grapes.”
    “I hate to admit it,” said Matt. “But this is actually a pretty good idea. Maybe I’ll use it, too.”
    “No way. It’s my idea,” I said. “Not yours. I’mthe
only
bat in the house. And I think the rabid bat might win the costume contest at school.”
    “Really?” asked the Squid.
    “Really,” I said. “I might just win the movie tickets.”
    “Do rabbit bats hop or fly?” the Squid asked.
    Matt’s stories about Simon Purslip were getting scarier and scarier. I didn’t know if I was going to make it until Friday. If the de-scaring got much worse, maybe I’d have a heart attack and then I would be dead and I wouldn’t have to go watch a movie about the stupid shrieking squeaking skull.
    By now, the Long-Fingered Man was grabbing everybody—not just nine-year-old kids but also moms, dads, grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts, dogs, hamsters, and kittens. At a certain point, I knew the stories couldn’t possibly be true. If they were, there would be nobody left in our town.
    “I don’t believe this,” I said to him in the middle of the story about a pet shop owner. The Long-FingeredMan had taken all the furry little animals from the shop, one by one.
    “It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not,” Matt said in his disgusted older brother way. “It’s true.”
    It drove me crazy. This is exactly what I hated about scary stories or movies or books or scary anything. You were almost 100 percent sure that they weren’t true and that they were just dumb stories made up to scare you.
    But there was always just that little bit left.
    The teeny tiny part you couldn’t be sure about.
    And that was the part that scared my pants off.

12
Don’t Tell Anyone
    The next day in the lunchroom, I told the guys at our table about Ms. Bromley and my rabid bat costume.
    “It sounds really great, Charlie,” Joey said. “I think you might win the contest.”
    “Thanks,” I said. “But, you guys, don’t tell anyone, okay? I want to keep it a secret.”
    Tommy made them all raise their hands and swear they wouldn’t tell another soul. He also made them promise not to glue hair on their faces, since that was
his
idea.
    “Is your mom going to let you do that?” Joey asked.
    “I think so,” Tommy said.
    A few minutes later, Kyle Curtis came over and sat down at the one seat left at our table. He usually sat with Darren and a couple of other kids from Tommy’s class.
    “Hi, Kyle,” Tommy said.
    “Hey,” Kyle said. Then he turned to face Alex. “What movie are you gonna show at your house on