BEGINNING
Each week, the True Spook team went to a different haunted place: a house; a cemetery; a dark, rusty factory; or even an old railroad bridge. They investigated the haunting. They filmed interviews of people who described what they’d seen.
Paul didn’t believe a word of it. He thought it was suspicious that so many of the haunted places were inns that needed some publicity and restaurants where the rugs smelled weird.
MIDDLE
He sat on the bed. The sleet still struck the window.
A face was looking at him. It hung in the air. It glared.
Paul yelped. The eyes were huge. The mouth was down-turned. It hung there like a mask.
He looked wildly around—hoping that he’d see something that might be reflecting.
There were other faces. They also hung in the air. Brothers. They hated him.
Paul thought he should run to the door. But he couldn’t. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t move his legs or arms. Too terrified.
END
Paul's father picked up a piece of heavy, green clay. "Like a Ming vase?"
"Not Ming. Shang," whispered a voice. It was the ghost of Josiah Smitch. He was sitting next to Paul, apparently invisible to everyone else. He looked glum. "Much older than Ming," he said. "Priceless."
"Are you sure it's Ming?" Dennis asked Paul. "It looks kind of ugly."
Mrs. Giovetti explained, somewhat unhelpfully, "I used it to hold fake flowers."
"Not Ming," Paul muttered. "Shang."
They all turned in surprise to look at him.
Josiah Smitch, invisibly, nodded.
The psychics looked ready to argue.
But then again, now Paul, apparently, was a psychic too.
