The Haunted House

The house at 101 Oak Tree Lane was not pretty. Its paint was chipped. Its windows were cracked. The grass on the lawn was so high that you couldn’t see the front steps. No one had lived there for years.

“It’s haunted, Drew,” said my sister, Diana. “Ghosts live there.”

“No way!” I said. “You’re just trying to scare me.”

Diana shook her head. She said her friends had been in there. They had heard sounds coming from upstairs. And then they ran away, scared.

“Yeah, right.” I rolled my eyes at her.

“If you don’t believe me, go see for yourself,” she said.

“Fine,” I said. “I will.”

My friend Zia wanted to explore and look around the house as much as I did. She loved spooky things. But our other friend, Joel, wasn’t so sure. He did not like spooky things at all.

“Don’t you want to know what’s in there?” Zia asked him.

“Sort of,” Joel said.

“We won’t learn anything unless we explore,” I said.

“OK. I’ll come,” he said.

The next day, Zia, Joel, and I met at the house. It was raining hard. The sky was dark. We huddled close together under Joel’s umbrella and looked at the house.

“Ready to explore?” I asked, as I pulled a flashlight from out of my pocket.

“Born ready!” Zia said.

“I’m ready to get out of this rain,” Joel said.

We walked through the tall, wet grass in the yard. Then we climbed the crooked front steps, turned the rusty doorknob, and went inside.

We stepped right into a big puddle. Rain was dripping from the ceiling.

“It’s a good thing we have rain boots on,” I said.

The place smelled like old cheese.

I shined my flashlight around. There was a dusty couch, a broken table, and a piano with a lot of missing keys.

“This is so creepy. I love it!” Zia said.

Just then, a rat ran past Joel’s foot. Zia covered his mouth before he could scream.

He moved her hand and said, “This house isn’t haunted. It’s just gross! Can we leave?”

“After we check out upstairs,” I said. “That’s where Diana said the sounds came from.”

I turned toward the stairs. Zia and Joel were behind me.

That was when we heard something.

Pat-pat-pat-pat. It sounded like footsteps. And it was coming from the top of the stairs.

Zia put her hand on my shoulder and said, “Explorers explore. Let’s do this!”

Joel and I nodded. We slowly began climbing the stairs.

“Hello?” I called out. No answer.

But we did hear the pat-pat-pat-pat again. Louder.

“At the count of three, I’m pointing my flashlight at the top of the stairs,” I whispered.

“One, two, THREE!”

I pointed the flashlight. We were face-to-face with . . . A LITTLE DOG!

We all gasped. A dog lives here, not a ghost!

“Wait! Drew?” Joel asked. “Isn’t that Mr. Lee’s dog?”

Mr. Lee was a nice old man who lived on my street. His dog, Sadie, disappeared a month ago. Mr. Lee had looked all over, but he could not find her. He was so sad that Sadie was gone.

I looked at the dog closely. “It is Sadie!”

“Why did you run away, Sadie?” Zia asked. Sadie dashed away from us.

“I guess she wants us to follow her,” I said.

We followed Sadie into an old bedroom. We couldn’t believe what we saw. Puppies!

“Awww! Sadie’s a mommy!” Zia squealed. The puppies were so tiny!

We knew we had to help. Sadie and her puppies needed a home that was warm and dry and safe.

“Let’s go tell Mr. Lee,” Joel said.

We ran all the way to Mr. Lee’s house.

We told him everything. He was so glad we found Sadie. He did not know that she’d had puppies. He was shocked!

That night, we went back to the house with Mr. Lee and our parents. Sadie’s tail wagged happily when she saw Mr. Lee. She licked his face about a hundred times. He took her and the puppies home.

Our parents were proud of us. But we still got in trouble for sneaking into the house at 101 Oak Tree Lane.

We visited Sadie and the puppies at Mr. Lee’s house every day. When the puppies were old enough, Mr. Lee said we could each take one home.

“What are you three going to name your puppies?” Mr. Lee asked. We didn’t even have to think about it.

“Oak,” Joel said.

“Tree,” Zia said.

“Lane,” I said.