Ghost Stories

Craig Peters got his salad and the large pizza.  He precariously brought the bulky items back to the table where John and Fritz Hardly waited. While John was an impressive six feet tall, Fritz was even taller.  Craig was only average height.  He wondered if a few more inches of height might have helped impress the cashier.

While he struggled with his large load, he knew he had only himself to blame.  Both John and Fritz in normal circumstances would have been helping him carry the food.  They had waited at the table at his request.

Brushing back his light brown hair, John Hardly eagerly asked, “Did she say yes?”

Craig plopped down the pizza and salad on the table, then sat down heavily.

“No,” he replied.

“Don’t worry about it,” John reassured him.  “There are plenty of other fish in the sea.”

Trying to change the subject, Fritz asked, “What kind of new car did you get, again?”

“It’s an ordinary Ford Focus.  It’s good enough until I graduate and far more reliable than my old oil-burning muscle car,” Craig said without the enthusiasm the Hardly boys were used to from him for any car subject.

John remarked, “That’s a small car for a big guy like yourself.”

Craig winced.  He was indeed overweight, unlike his two fit, trim, and handsome friends.  Fritz noticed the wince, but could not think of what to say to improve the situation.  John did not notice his friend’s bad mood as he dug enthusiastically into the pizza.

John swallowed, then said, “This pizza is great!  Come on, Craig.  You have to have at least one slice.”

Fritz Hardly shot back, “Cut it out, bro’.  Sticking to a diet is hard enough without comments like that.”

“How would you know?” Craig said.  “You two have never had an ounce of extra weight in your life.  You two are both as thin as you were when I first met you.”

John gulped, then said, “I’m sorry.  You really are looking much better.”

Fritz asked, “How much have you lost so far?”

“Forty-eight pounds.  My long-term goal is seventy-five.  I would need to lose even more than that to be thin like you two, but I think getting to seventy-five is a realistic goal for me,” Craig said.

John said, “Well, it’s her loss not going out with a great guy like you.  Keep on losing the weight and you’ll be fighting the girls off.”

Craig had some salad, then remarked, “I’m used to being rejected for being fat.  That’s not the reason she gave, though.  How old do you think she is?”

Fritz speculated, “I’d guess around twenty.  Certainly out of high school.”

John countered, “I know some of her friends.  She’s indeed out of high school, having graduated two months ago.  She’s still eighteen.  She’ll be a Freshman at Port City College next month.  She’s not moving away for college like you did, Craig.”

Craig said, “She said I’m too old for her.  I don’t think I’m that much older.  I’m not even out of college yet.”

Fritz replied, “I think it’s not the few years, but that you’re well along in college and she probably still thinks of herself as a high school girl.  That’s a bigger gap then just years.”

“I didn’t really feel like a college kid myself until I was there taking classes,” Craig admitted.

Craig then fell into silence as he munched down more salad, then drank some carrot juice.  John chowed down about half the pizza and having emptied his large soda pop, got the free refill, and emptied that too.  As Craig noticed this consumption, he found that having that much pizza and soda held no appeal for him anymore.  He had dieted many times before, but always before been envious of his friends who ate with abandon.  This feeling of really not wanting that anymore was new for him.  He felt some confidence that he really might keep the weight off this time.

Fritz ate and drank plenty too, but not at John’s rapid rate.

John broke the silence, “Hey, Craig, you were always into lots of hobbies.  What’s your latest?”

Craig replied, “I had lots of them during my Freshman and Sophomore years, but you already know about those.  This last school year, I’ve been too swamped with schoolwork for hobbies.”

John said, “Both Fritz and I are starting our Senior year next month.”

Fritz reminded the others, “I’d have graduated last year if that illness hadn’t put me back a year into your grade, John.”

John recalled, “I read about a medical breakthrough.  If you had the same disease now, you’d have missed less than a week of school.”

Fritz sighed, then said, “Too late for me, but I am glad for anybody else who gets it.  A year is a long time to be off of school.”

John told Craig, “My brother and I both will have light class loads when school starts.  That’ll give us lots more time to solve mysteries.”

“I can only wish for spare time like that,” Craig said.  “My Senior year is going to be murder, unless I want to postpone my graduation date.”

Fritz gestured with a slice of pizza, “What about having hobbies now?  This is summer break.”

Craig complained, “Some break!  I’ve been working sixty, even seventy hours a week.”

John wondered, “Don’t you get paid overtime?”

“That’s why I do it.  The money’s unbelievable.  Even after I had to replace my old car with the new Focus, I am in good financial shape for my Senior year.  It’s funny how that turned out.”

Fritz asked, “What’s funny?”

“I was never treated as a smart kid like you two, so I got stuck taking all those shop classes.  With my poor grades and no honors courses, I was surprised I was accepted at the university.  Yet, because of those machine shop courses, I got my summer job.  Do you realize how much machinists make?  Sometimes I wonder why I bother staying in college.”

Fritz recommended, “I think a college degree will be better for you in the long run.  Even if you do end up working as a machinist for the money, it’ll give you a broader perspective on life.”

John snatched the last piece of pizza even though he had already had more than his brother, then said, “How time flies.  We’re talking you into finishing your college degree when once the Lobster Bend Gang tried to talk you into quitting high school to earn some quick bucks doing farm work.”

Craig asked, “What are you talking about?”

Fritz responded quickly, “My brother is thinking about somebody else.  We kept a kid from joining a gang during one of our cases.”

Craig admitted, “I never could keep track of all of your cases.  I really appreciated that you let me tag along on some of them back when I was in high school.”

John said, “Hey, we’re working on a case now.  Tonight, all night long.  You’re welcome to tag along.  Tomorrow’s Saturday, so why not?  It’ll be like old times.”

Craig remarked, “I can work tomorrow.  It pays time and a half for Saturday.”

Fritz asked, “Have you taken off any Saturdays this summer?”

“No,” Craig said, as though this was a revelation even to himself.  “Okay, I’ll do it.  But before you tell me more, I have something to tell you.  When that cashier turned me down, she then asked about my cute young friends at the table in the back.  She liked both the dark haired and the light haired one.  She meant you two, obviously.”

John looked longingly at the shapely young cashier, then in a regretful tone said, “It wouldn’t be right after she just rudely turned you down.”

Craig declared, “That wouldn’t bother me.”

Fritz said, “John’s teasing.  We’ve already got steady girlfriends.”

Craig asked, “Still Christine and Vicky?”

“Uh, huh,” John said.  “Both of them are out of town this week on vacations with their families.  Christine’s going to be furious when she finds out she missed a chance to spend a night in a haunted house!  She loves spooky ghost stuff, unlike my stick-in-the-mud brother here.”

Fritz said, “I think my girlfriend wants to believe in ghosts.  I don’t think Christine really does believe, but that somehow she thinks the world would be a more beautiful, mysterious place if ghosts did exist.”

John speculated, “Fritz, the only way you’d have serious competition for Christine’s affections is if she had a chance to date a real ghost.”

Craig joked, “I didn’t have ghost of a chance with that cashier.”

“Ha, ha,” said Fritz.  “Christine really will be upset she missed this case.  She’s been involved in about half our cases lately.”

“Just like I did until I moved away,” Craig said, realizing he felt jealous of her and ashamed of himself for that.

Fritz admitted, “Despite her fascination with an irrational subject like ghosts, she is an excellent amateur detective.”

Craig muttered, “I did my best back then.  I just don’t have much talent along those lines.”

Fritz was taken aback, then said, “I didn’t mean it as an insult, Craig!  You contributed to solving cases too.  You always had a...well...creative approach.”

John supportively added, “While Christine may have more detective skills than you, Craig, she’s so driven about proving herself.  I wish she’d lighten up and have more fun with it, like you did.  As for my girlfriend, Vicky is brilliant, but she doesn’t even want to be a detective.  I find that being with her helps me unwind.  It isn’t a competition with her.  Still, Vicky loves horror movies, but only if not too violent.  If she were here, I’m not sure if she’d want to tag along on this case.”

Craig said, “You’ve been dating them since I was still in high school.  I’m surprised you two haven’t married your girlfriends yet.”

Fritz said, “I don’t think marriage is in the near future for my brother or me.”

John spoke up, “Enough of the mushy stuff!  Let me tell you about the new case.  Roy Smith hired us to search for ghosts!  We’re being paid to stay overnight in his haunted mansion!  It’s not our first case at that same haunted house.”

Fritz argued. “My brother is being overly dramatic.  There are not any ghosts because ghosts don’t exist.  We are investigating mysterious happenings at his Mansion on the Mound that surely have a rational explanation.  Explanations that I think we’re good enough detectives to uncover.  We found out the explanation for the supposed haunting at the exact same mansion was caused by Viperly the last time we had a case there.”

John declared, “It can’t be Viperly this time.  He died.”

Craig suggested, “Maybe it is Viperly’s ghost doing the haunting?”

Fritz replied, “Viperly was convicted of Mr. Rodluck’s murder as well as for smuggling.  Viperly died in prison.  I thought ghosts only haunted where they died.  We’re not looking for ghosts at the prison.”

John remembered, “It could be Mr. Rodluck’s ghost.  We certainly know he was murdered in the Mansion on the Mound, because we were the ones who proved Viperly did it.  Mr. Rodluck certainly had a violent death, and that is supposed to cause the ghost to remain behind.”

Craig asked, “How did Mr. Rodluck die?”

John nonchalantly replied, “Shot to death.  I heard the spot where he died has a blood spot that reappears no matter how many times it is washed away.”

Fritz remarked, “That is one of the things we are supposed to check out.  There is also a place where visitors report a noticeable chill.”

John added, “Don’t forget the rattling from the madman who was once kept in chains there.  Back in the nineteenth century when there were not many institutions for the insane, some families had to care for their insane family members themselves.  Sometimes chains had to be used for the protection of others and themselves.  It sounds brutal today, but there were not many options back then.”

Fritz said, “I don’t dispute that some insane people used to be kept in chains like that long ago.  However, I found a very detailed genealogy of the Rodluck family at the Port City library.  There is no record of any insane family member.”

John suggested, “They probably did not list the lunatic in the family tree.  The Rodluck family has a curse on it!”

Fritz said, “If so, it was an effective curse.  The Rodluck family seems to have died out with the murder of the Mr. Rodluck that we solved.”

Craig asked, “What’s the chill supposed to be from?”

In a spooky voice, John related, “The father of the Mr. Rodluck whose murder we solved hung himself with a rope tied around a staircase rail.  The cold spot is supposed to be in the wall near where he died.”

Fritz threw up his hands and claimed, “That promotes the legend of the Mansion of the Mound, but Mr. Rodluck’s father did not own the house.  His uncle did.  Mr. Rodluck’s father did commit suicide by hanging, but it was in a different house.  That house got torn down long ago.  His son was taken in by the rich uncle who owned the Mansion on the Mound.  Mr. Rodluck’s uncle died of natural causes at a ripe old age.  He left the mansion to his nephew.”

John asked, “What’s the chilly spot doing in the Mansion on the Mound then?”

“I don’t even know that there really is a chilly spot!  I’ve got a thermal imager in our van.  I’ll be able to quantify the temperatures and detect any change in temperature,” Fritz stated.

John playfully jostled Craig and said, “It’s probably a psychic chilly spot that humans can feel, but no instrument can detect.”

Fritz sighed and said, “It’d be a psychic cold spot that drifted two and a half miles from where the suicide actually took place.”

John pondered, “Maybe the suicide did occur at the Mansion on the Mound, but the records were changed or the body moved to avoid a scandal.  It is hard to trust anything in records from that long ago.”

Craig summarized, “So, you two were hired to spend the tonight in a rundown haunted house.  All night, I presume.”

Fritz said, “You got it almost right.  The house is not rundown anymore.  It used to be.  The place was falling down on itself when Mr. Rodluck was murdered, but after Roy Smith bought it, it has been rebuilt and restored.”

Craig said, “Oh, it’s that Mansion on the Mound!  Before I moved away to college, I read about that restoration in the newspaper.  I thought you meant some other mansion.”

John remarked, “The Mansion on the Mound is open for tourists now.”

Craig wondered, “After all these years, the restoration is finally done?”

John said, “Yes.”

Fritz looked at his watch, pulled out some keys, then said, “It’s after five pm , so the museum is officially closed.  We can go there now.”

Before they went, they drove to the Hardly house on Birch Street .  They left Craig’s Ford Focus there.  The three climbed about the Hardly boys’ van.  There were a couple backpacks already in the van, one for each Hardly boy.  They threw in an extra sleeping bag in for Craig Peters.  Craig retrieved a toothbrush and toothpaste that he kept in the glove compartment of his car.  He had picked up that unusual habit in his high school years when he constantly and unexpectedly was off on an adventure with the Hardly Boys.

 

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.