Ghost Granny by Carol Colbert Page A

said. “It looked like
fun.” Catherine said. “What do you want to try next?” Cody looked
around and saw a clown getting into the dunk tank. “Let’s go over
there and try and dump the clown!” He laughed and was tugging her
along.
    During the next couple of hours, Cody
participated in the other games they had there. A bean bag form of
horseshoes, and one where he had to balance an egg in a spoon and
try to get to the finish line before the other kids, without
dropping the egg. Cody almost made it.
    There was a maze set up and bleachers next
to it. Five at a time the kids would go into the maze and have only
the instructions yelled by their parent to guide them. The mothers
or fathers could only yell Left or Right and it was mostly by
knowing your own mother’s voice from a distance that was the real
challenge. Cody won out of the first five contestants and ran up to
Catherine to show her the big winner’s ribbon they gave him. “Wow,
Cody, you did very well!” Catherine told him. “Well, that is
because I am used to hearing you yell.” Cody said laughing.
    “You won a ribbon!” Catherine turned to see
a very good looking Robin Hood. She couldn’t help but smile. She
was so glad to see Sebastian. “Promise you won’t steal it to give
to the poor?” Catherine laughed.
    “Ha- ha, funny mom, I’ll be over there.”
Cody pointed to a barn. “What is going on over there?” Catherine
said, but Cody had already taken off running.
    “We are setting up a pig race. Should be a
lot of fun. The pigs take one lap around the pen, it’s built in a
circle.” Sebastian said.
    “That does sound like fun, shall we join him
then?” Catherine said, boldly taking Sebastian’s arm. “Sure. They
should be finished setting up there in a little bit. I think the
boys ran over this way. I love your hair, is that your hair, or is
it a wig?” Sebastian asked. “Nope, all mine, I have the indents of
bobby pins in my head to prove it.” She said.
    “Instead of asking what you mean by that, I
think I will just file that away as girl talk.” Sebastian
laughed.
    “Max and Cody were partners in the water
balloon toss. They came close, but didn’t win. By the way, I was
surprised to hear that you weren’t here last Halloween.” Catherine
said.
    “Why is that?” Sebastian asked her, as they
side stepped a couple of zombies.
    “I don’t know, I guess because you and your
sister seem so much a part of this community, it’s not hard to
imagine you being born and raised here.”
     
    “Actually, we came here by way of the
expressway. I know how that sounds. I meant that we were caught in
a major snowstorm and the car skidded off of the road.”
    “Change the snow storm to a thunderstorm and
you have the reason Cody and I are here.” Catherine said.
    “I would have been fine, could have gotten
the truck going again after a while. We could have waited it out
once we were safely off the expressway. But when we saw Max, we had
to find a town.”
    “I don’t understand. Where was Max? Wasn’t
he in the snowstorm with you and Isabel?”
    “Yes and no. He was in the storm, but not in
the car with my sister and I. We saw him walking. He was all by
himself and freezing cold.”
    “Where did he come from?” Catherine asked,
immediately feeling sorry for any ill feelings she had felt for the
young Max.
    “He said he and his mother were in the storm
and that their car broke down. Max waited in the car with Isabel
and I walked a good two miles and back looking for his mother’s
car, but I never found it. After that, we had to find shelter, poor
kid didn’t know what to think.”
    “But you, at least I think it was you, maybe
it was someone else, but someone introduced him as your son.”
    “I’ve come to think of him that way. His
mother never came looking for him and we tried finding her, but no
luck. This was about nine months ago. Once we got into the village,
people were so nice and my truck was pretty well wrecked