Page 35 of Ghost in the Night

On the computer screen is a black-and-white copy of the house layout.

“Whoa. Where did you get this?” I ask, leaning close.

“The internet is a vast and marvelous place,” Robby says.“It was on some builder site. I guess they were trying to renovate before giving up on the project.”

“Are the Myers listed as a previous owner?” I ask excitedly.

“Nope. Not that I can see.”

I don’t get it. I know I heard Asher tell the story right. Are we spelling their names wrong or something?

Myah clicks a few buttons and prints the blueprint out on a giant sheet of paper, almost the size of Robby.

“The builder says the place is uninhabitable,” Robby says. “No electricity, no running water, no plumbing.”

“Which means no leaking pipes to make noises or static to get in the way of equipment,” I say. “Whatever sounds we hear or things we see in there, it’s definitely a ghost.”

“Definitelyis a strong word,” Robby shoots back, and I roll my eyes.

Myah spreads the sheet out on a cutting table and we gather around. All I see are a bunch of lines and scribble scrabble.

“I … don’t know what I’m looking at here,” I say.

“Me either,” Robby admits. “And I build things for a living.”

Myah begins pointing at the different lines on the page. “The house has two floors and a basement, which is the width of the house. Here’s the front door, and here’s the back door. The first floor makes an I shape. Kitchen, bathroom, sitting area.”

Robby raises a skeptical eyebrow.

She shrugs. “Architects come by here all the time printing these things. I know how to read them. See this? These double lines mean doors. These lines mean windows. It means that the ghost you captured in your photo was in this room. Closest to the front door. Since the front steps are gone, we’d have to go through the back, up the basement stairs, and down this hall.”

I nod, pointing to the room. “Then we set up in there?”

“Set up what?” Robby asks.

“The equipment! We’ll use the EMF reader to track the ghost. Myah will use those rods to talk to them, and I’ll take a bunch of photos,” I explain.

“Nah, I think we should cover the whole house,” Myah says. “Not just that room.”

“That’s gonna be a problem,” I say.  “Remember Asher said the wood is really old and kind of dangerous to walk on.”

“Hmmm.” Robby stares at the sheet, tapping his chin. “Maybe we don’t have to walk in every room. I can build a robot that could go around the house, fit it with a camera and maybe even that thermal meter.”

“Wait, you can do that?” I ask, impressed.

He nods excitedly. “I can program it to read the temperature and snap pictures too. Then we’ll know which rooms we have to go in and which ones we don’t.”

I grin. “That’s actually a dope idea! But do you think you can make a robot in a day?”

“Pfft. I didn’t win back-to-back competitions for nothing.”

I laugh. “Whatever, I’m still gonna help you,” I say. “We can work on it tomorrow.”

Robby brightens. “Really? Okay! I already got all the parts we need!”

“Yeahhhh,” Myah says skeptically. “But robots can’tfeel energy. That’s how I know spirits are with us, I have tofeelthem.”

“Oh brother,” Robby mutters.