The Ghost and the Church Lady (Paperback)

The Ghost and the Church Lady

Chapter 1

Ten-year-old Evan MacDonald noticed the dog first. A yellow Lab carried what looked like a tennis ball in its mouth. Tail wagging, it paced back and forth in the street in front of the MacDonald house. Evan had never seen the Labrador retriever in his neighborhood, and since it was off a leash and no one in sight, Evan assumed someone had lost his or her pet.

Tall for his age, Evan had entered a gangly stage, yet he still possessed soulful brown eyes, delicate features, long dark lashes women envied, and wavy brown hair trimmed short at the sides yet longer on top, showing off unruly curls. He loved dogs, and one of his favorite pastimes was playing with Ian’s golden retriever, Sadie, and Chris’s pit bull, Hunny. Both dogs enjoyed playing catch and roughhousing on the beach. Some people feared pit bulls, but Evan had never been afraid of Hunny. Of course, he had known Hunny since she was just a scared pup. Evan understood Hunny had a lot of fears, Walt had told him. Walt knew because Hunny had told Walt.

Evan watched the Lab for a few more minutes before deciding to try coaxing the dog into his yard, and then he could get his dad. His father, Police Chief MacDonald, could find the dog’s owner, and if the dog didn’t have one, maybe Evan could keep him. Evan smiled at the idea. The smile quickly faded when he saw her.

He let out a sigh and watched as a fair-haired girl with bouncing shoulder-length curls came running toward the dog, who ran toward the girl. She looked about Evan’s age, yet she didn’t dress like the girls in his class. She wore a dress with a full skirt and short white puffy sleeves. Despite the October chill, she had no jacket or coat. On her feet she wore white socks trimmed in lace and black and white shoes.

The dog stopped right when it reached her, sat down, and dropped the ball at her feet. Laughing, the girl picked up the ball and then threw it. The ball flew down the street, out of sight, the dog following it. The girl stood and watched, making no attempt to go after the dog.

Evan muttered, “She shouldn’t be doing that in the street.” He marched to the end of his driveway, toward the girl, who now stood, her back to Evan, some three feet from the MacDonald mailbox.

“Hey!” Evan shouted. The girl did not turn around. “Hey, you! Girl! Don’t throw the ball in the street like that.”

The girl turned toward Evan and stared at him for a moment. Finally, she asked, “Are you talking to me?”

“Yes. Is that your dog?” Evan demanded.

“You are talking to me,” the girl muttered.

“Well, is he?” Evan snapped.

She cocked her head slightly, now smiling. After a moment of silence, she walked toward Evan, stopping about six feet from him. “Yes. His name is Charger.”

Evan looked down the street. He didn’t see the dog. He looked back at the girl. “Where did he go?”

The girl shrugged. “He’ll be back.”

“Aren’t you afraid he’ll get lost?” Evan asked.

“I said he’ll be back. He always comes back.”

“You shouldn’t throw the ball like that in the street. He could get hit by a car.”

The girl smiled. “Oh, I’m not too worried about that.”

“If it were my dog, I’d worry.”

“Do you have a dog?” she asked.

“No. But if I had one, I would take better care of him than you do.”

The girl’s smile vanished. “I take real good care of my dog. He’s my best friend. We will always be together.”

“You won’t be together if he gets hit by a car.”

The girl laughed.

Evan frowned. “It isn’t funny. And it’s against the law to let your dog run around off a leash.”

“A leash wouldn’t hold Charger, trust me.”

As if he heard his name, Charger came running from down the street, his tail wagging.

Evan smiled at the dog, who now stood before the girl, a ball in his mouth. The dog looked at Evan and cocked his head questioningly.

“Yes, Charger,” the girl said in a soft voice. “He can see you. He can see both of us.”

Evan frowned at the odd comment, but the girl just looked his way and giggled before snatching the ball from the dog’s mouth and throwing it away from her.

* * *
Walt had just turned down the street to Chief MacDonald’s house, Danielle in the passenger seat, when a golden Labrador retriever dashed in front of the Packard. He slammed on the brakes and, without thought, threw his right arm toward Danielle to keep her from moving forward.

“Did you hit it?” Danielle asked, pushing Walt’s hand away while leaning forward to peer out the windshield.

“No. But where did he go?”

“People shouldn’t let their dogs run loose like that,” Danielle said.

A few minutes later, after parking the car, Walt opened the passenger door for Danielle. As he did, he noticed Evan standing by his mailbox, watching them, a blank expression on the young boy’s face.

Walt glanced back to the street, checking again to make sure he hadn’t hit the dog. When he saw nothing, Danielle got out of the car and walked with Walt toward Evan.

“Hi, Evan,” Danielle greeted him. “Do you know whose dog that was?”

Evan nodded, his eyes darting back to the street.

“What’s wrong?” Walt asked. “I didn’t hit him, did I?” Walt glanced back to the street, now concerned he might have hit the poor dog, and after Evan witnessed it, the dog had run off afraid and injured.

“No,” Evan said, his expression still blank.

“Do you know whose dog it is?” Danielle repeated.

Evan nodded. “She said it was her dog.”

“And who is she?” Walt asked.

Evan looked up at Walt and said in awe, “I just saw a ghost dog. I’ve never seen one of those before.”

* * *
“A ghost dog?” the chief asked Danielle. He sat with Walt and Danielle in his living room.

Danielle glanced to the hallway where Evan had disappeared with his older brother, Eddy, not long after entering the house. “And a ghost girl,” she added in a whisper.

“He didn’t realize she was a ghost when he first saw her,” Walt explained. “It upset him she was playing ball in the street, afraid the dog was going to get hit.”

“And she and the dog just disappeared?” the chief asked.

Danielle nodded. “That’s what Evan told us.”

The chief let out a sigh and leaned back on the sofa. “He seemed perfectly fine when he walked in here with you two.”

Danielle glanced back to the hallway and then to the chief. “I have to give your son credit. He seems to take his gift—and what he encounters because of it—in stride. I think it relieved him not to have to worry about the dog.”

“Because it’s already dead?” Walt asked with a chuckle.

“Pretty much.” Danielle shrugged.

“It has me concerned. If there is a little girl ghost, then I have to assume a child has died,” the chief said, his tone serious.

“From how Evan described her, I suspect this child died years ago. Still sad, but not quite the same thing,” Danielle said.

“How did he describe her?” the chief asked.

“She was wearing a checkered dress with a full skirt, white Peter Pan collar—” Danielle began.

“I don’t think Evan knows what a Peter Pan collar is,” the chief interrupted.

Danielle smiled. “He didn’t say it was a Peter Pan collar, but from how he described her clothes, that’s what it sounds like she was wearing. And she had on white socks and shoes that were probably black and white saddle shoes, by his description. She had curly blond hair with a big bow.”

“He didn’t get her name?” the chief asked.

“I believe he was too busy chastising her for letting the dog play in the street,” Walt said.

“He had enough time to describe her wardrobe, from the bow to the socks,” the chief returned.

“Well, he is getting that age,” Danielle mused.

The chief frowned. “What age?”

“The age little boys start noticing little girls,” Danielle teased.

“He is ten,” the chief snapped.

Danielle grinned at the chief but said nothing.

“Just wait until your baby is born,” the chief began, only to be cut off by Evan, who had just walked into the room unnoticed.

“You’re having a baby?” Evan blurted, now looking at Danielle.

Danielle smiled at Evan. “Um… yeah.”

Evan looked at his father and frowned. “How come you didn’t tell me?”

“I asked your father to wait a little while before he told you,” Danielle answered for the chief.

“What are you going to have?” Evan asked.

Danielle shrugged. “Too soon to tell.”

“Is that why you didn’t want to tell me yet? So you could wait and tell me if it was a boy or girl?” Evan asked.

Danielle and Walt exchanged quick glances. She looked back to Evan. “Yeah. That’s why.”

But it was a lie. After announcing the news of her pregnancy to a few of her close friends at Connor’s birthday party, Danielle had asked the chief not to say anything to anyone yet—especially Evan. While she felt they would have a healthy baby, because of what Walt’s mother had told him, she understood if something went wrong with the pregnancy, it more likely would happen during the first few months. Should the unthinkable happen, Danielle didn’t want to have to explain to someone as young as Evan why she was pregnant one minute and not the next. However, the sort-of secret hadn’t really stayed a secret, and if Evan hadn’t just walked in on them, he would have likely found out soon anyway.

“I wanted Lily to have a boy,” Evan said.

Danielle smiled at him. “Yes, I remember.”

Evan studied Danielle for a moment and then announced, “But you can have a girl.”

The chief laughed. “Oh, you are giving them permission?”

Evan blushed. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant I think a girl would be okay. Girls aren’t so bad.”

“They aren’t?” Danielle asked, arching her brows at the chief with a smug smile.

“Well, it’s not like we can hang out or anything,” Evan said.

“You and Connor play,” Walt reminded him.

“Yeah, but he’s older now. But I guess a little girl could be fun too. Not like I can play baseball with either of them,” Evan said, sounding a little disappointed.

“Evan, you’re almost getting old enough to babysit,” Danielle said.

“Gee, you would let me babysit?” Evan asked.

Now it was the chief’s turn to arch his brows. “You would let Evan babysit?”

Before Danielle could answer, Evan said, “It would be a long time before I could babysit.”

“It would?” Walt asked with a smile.

“Sure. Well, I could do it if Marie were there. That way, Marie could change the diapers. I don’t think I wanna change diapers.” Evan wrinkled his nose at the idea and then asked his dad if he could take some cookies in the room for him and Eddy. The next minute, he was gone.

“For a kid who just encountered a couple of ghosts, my son is resilient,” the chief said.

“It was the idea of changing a diaper that almost did him in,” Danielle teased.

“Do I need to worry about this girl ghost and her dog coming back?” the chief asked.

Danielle let out a sigh and said, “Unfortunately, that’s just part of Evan’s normal.”