Wrath of the Grinning Ghost by John Bellairs

and he perched it right on top of his head. He wore baggy tan walking shorts, a bright blue T-shirt, knee-high white socks, and tennis shoes.
    Fergie stuck with his jeans, but he did change to a plain white short-sleeved shirt. Johnny wore his shorts and a cool, jacket-like denim shirt his dad had bought him on their previous trip. Beneath it, the thunderbird charm hung around his neck on the leather thong. It felt odd against his chest, as if the carving were somehow warmer than it should be. And it made his skin feel tingly, not quite itchy and not quite sunburned.
    "Well, gentlemen," said the professor as he looked at his gold pocket watch. "It's time to decide on our next tactical move. Now, I for one am starving. Before I waste away to a mere shell of myself, shall we first find a place to dine and then begin snooping around to find some trace of this Lumiere person? Or—"
    "Hey, Whiskers!" called a voice from thin air. "You can stuff your face later! The first thing you have to do is get the grimoire! In case you don't know what that is, it's a book of magic spells. Be careful, because this one is very ancient and extremely evil! Johnny knows what I'm talking about. Well, glom on to that little booby prize! And do it pronto!"
    Fergie laughed out loud, and Johnny felt relief well up inside him, as welcome as cool water in the middle of a burning hot desert. There was no mistaking that quarrelsome, raspy voice.
    Brewster was back.
     
     

 
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    Johnny pulled the thunderbird amulet out of his shirt. It swung on its leather thong as if it were alive. "Take off this rope!" ordered Brewster's irritable voice. "Then I might be able to help!"
    The rawhide strip ran through a clip behind the thunderbird's head. Johnny untied the knot and pulled it through and, as soon as it was off the thong, the little carved wooden bird rose into the air and hovered above them. The professor said, "All right, you poor excuse for an antediluvian deity, where is this blasted book?"
    "How should I know, Whiskers?" shot back Brewster. "This is your world, not mine! By the way, how am I coming through?"
    "Loud an' clear," said Fergie. "Say, how come you weren't able to talk to us before?"
    "Dark forces are working against me!" said Brewster, making his voice sound mysterious. "Forces on my side as well as on the earthly side! Besides, it helps if there is a focus of power on the earth. If Fuzz-Face here hadn't sent my statuette back to ancient Egypt, it would be no sweat. As it is, I have to make do with this foreign carving!"
    Professor Childermass snorted. "Look, you frustrating fowl, I tried to get in touch with you through a replica of your figurine. Why didn't you cooperate then, eh?"
    The little carved thunderbird jittered in the air. In an agitated voice, Brewster said, "That was a fake, and you know it! It wasn't a real temple figure at all, just an—an unreasonable facsimile thereof! For the trick to work, somebody who believes in me had to create the figure! And the gumps who worked in that factory in Grover's Mill didn't believe in much of anything beyond a weekly pay envelope!"
    "Hang on, Feathers. Whoever carved this thunderbird pendant didn't believe in you either," said Fergie sarcastically. "They were Cheyenne or Sioux or something, not Egyptians. They never heard of Horus!"
    The thunderbird image spun to face him. "It was me, anyway!" Brewster declared. "I was the thunderbird, just as I was Horus! After all," he added, sounding temperamental, "when the Egyptians stopped believing in me, I still had to work, didn't I? So I got a job as the thunderbird to tide me over!"
    "Please," said Johnny, "let's not waste any more time.
    We have to find that book! Brewster, is it around here? Can you give us a clue?"
    "A clue?" asked Brewster. "You mean like saying, 'You're getting warmer'? Sorry. I'm on this side and you're on that side, and just as you can't see the spirit world, I really can't see your world. All I can