Read Five Days of the Ghost for Free Online

about it, remember?”
    â€œYeah, well, I was scared.”
    â€œNothing to be scared of. That guy didn’t see us.” He took another huge bite of the sandwich.
    His fingers were wet with pickle juice and tomato juice. “I might even go back. I didn’t get much info last night.”
    â€œHe did see us, John!” Sometimes my brother’s confidence made me mad. He was so sure all the time. “He looked right at us when your stupid watch beeped!”
    â€œLookit, Karen. Be reasonable. You were rattled before we even found the graveyard. You were convinced we heard a wolf, right?”
    He didn’t wait for me to answer. “So everything after that was influenced by the fact that you were scared. See? It’s basic psychology.”
    It’s hard to take anyone seriously when he talks with his mouth full and you can see gobs of red and green and brown when he talks, not to mention silver bands. How could someone who is so neat and organized in everything be such a messy eater?
    â€œBeing scared doesn’t mean I didn’t see what I saw, John. You talk like I was a winkie or something.”
    John was licking the juice from his fingers. He burped. “We found a cemetery, saw an old Native in traditional clothing, and that’s it. He was probably doing some kind of Chippewa ritual at that new grave, that’s all.”
    â€œThen how come he wasn’t cold, like we were? We could see our breath, but not his. And how come he left no footprints in the earth?”
    â€œNo footprints?” He thought for a moment.
    â€œThat’s easy. It was dark. You thought he climbed off the gravestone on our side, but he obviously got off on the other side where the ground wasn’t dug up.”
    I noticed that he ignored the point about not seeing the man’s breath.
    â€œI know what I saw, John.”
    â€œWhat did you see, then? A ghost or something?”
    He laughed the way you do at school when somebody does something really dumb.
    I didn’t answer. But I was sure that what we saw wasn’t a real human being.
    He slurped some tea. “Anyway, let’s see what’s in that little leather bag. I’ll come up to your room in a minute.”

Late Saturday Morning
    While I was changing I could hear John blow-drying his hair in the bathroom.
    I put on a light blue cotton blouse and loose-fitting white shorts. Then I slipped into my blue deck shoes. While I was combing my wet hair at the mirror over my dresser John came in wearing white track pants and a baggy blue O.D. T-shirt.
    â€œWhere is it?” he asked.
    I waved toward the window with my comb, trying to look casual. The truth was that I was dying to open that little leather bag, but I had been too scared to do it myself.
    John held it in the palm of his hand. The quill and bead work seemed to glow in the summer sunlight that poured in my window. He held it up by the neck for me to see and pointed to the dried dirt that still clung to the bottom.
    â€œSee this, Karen? Doesn’t look like supernatural mud to me.”
    He sat down on the rail of my unmade waterbed and pulled the drawstrings slowly. I half expected him to reach in with his fingers and pull out a red, white and blue rubber ball.
    â€œCome on and take a look.”
    I sat on the chair at my desk. “No thanks. I’ll sit here. You can give me a report.”
    John started talking in his I’m Going to Teach You Something voice. “This leather is really soft. It’s probably deerskin. You can tell from the light colour.”
    He hooked his two thumbs inside the neck of the bag and stretched it as wide as he could. Using his thumb and finger as a tweezer he reached inside.
    And pulled out a small curved tooth. It was yellowed with age and it looked like it came from a small dog.
    He put the tooth down on the sheet beside him.
    He stuck his thumb and finger inside again.
    And pulled out another tooth, the