Haunting with the Stars Read online

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  SLAPPY HERE, EVERYONE.

  MARS, HERE I COME

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  SLAPPY HERE, EVERYONE.

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  SLAPPY HERE, EVERYONE.

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  SLAPPY HERE, EVERYONE.

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  EPILOGUE FROM SLAPPY

  SNEAK PEEK!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO AVAILABLE

  COPYRIGHT

  Welcome to SlappyWorld.

  Yes, it’s Slappy’s world. You’re only screaming in it!

  Did you miss me? I’m so wonderful, sometimes I miss myself ! Hahaha.

  I wish there were two of me so someone else could tell me how amazing I am!

  I would call myself an awesome genius. But, you know, someone as brilliant and perfect as I am doesn’t like to brag. Haha.

  Some people think I’m evil. But they don’t know me. If they did, they’d know that I’m perfectly evil! Hahaha.

  I say give me a break. What’s evil about wanting to scare everyone to death? We all need a hobby, right?

  Our story today is about a boy named Murphy and his two friends Orly and Cleo. Murphy’s hobby is outer space. He can’t stop thinking about the stars, the planets, and the universe. Murphy’s big wish is to be an astronaut and travel to other planets.

  But, you know, sometimes getting your wish can be scary. Especially in one of MY stories! Hahaha!

  I call this story Haunting with the Stars!

  Go ahead. Start screaming. It’s another one of my frightening tales from SlappyWorld.

  My parents know that I think and dream about the planets and stars and outer space all the time. That’s why they took me to the headquarters of the US Spaceship Academy for my birthday.

  I was so excited, I couldn’t sit still in the backseat of our car. I kept bumping up and down. I could barely breathe. This was the best birthday present ever!

  But I didn’t know how outstanding it would be.

  I would love to work for the Spaceship Academy when I grow up. I know it’s a wild dream. But maybe I could even be an astronaut and travel to another planet or circle the stars.

  My friends Orly and Cleo think I’m weird. And maybe I am. But can you think of anything more exciting than being a space pioneer?

  When we arrived at Spaceship Academy headquarters, I leaped out of the car before Dad even finished parking. I stared up at the huge shiny building and cried out, “Wow!” The building reached up to the sky. It was all glass and shaped like a giant rocket ship.

  Of course I’d seen videos about this place. But it didn’t look this awesome on a screen. The building looked like it could blast off to space by itself!

  Dad showed his special pass, and a guard in a uniform covered in shiny medals pressed some numbers on a keypad. The doors slid open for us. We stepped into an entry hall that had to be a mile long!

  I felt dizzy staring at the models of spaceships that lined the center of the hall. Big posters of astronauts and photos from the moon and Mars covered the walls.

  I wanted to stop and study each model spacecraft. But Mom said we had an appointment with an Academy captain, and we couldn’t be late.

  A Spaceship Academy captain! Whoa. Could this birthday get any more awesome?

  We stopped in front of a glass office door. The name CAPTAIN FARRELL DODGE was stenciled in black letters on the door.

  “Go in, Murphy,” Dad said. “The appointment is only for you.”

  My hand was shaking as I pushed open the door and stepped inside. The office walls were covered with charts and maps of the galaxy.

  Captain Dodge sat behind a big metal desk. He also had medals up and down his uniform jacket. A model of a spaceship stood on one corner of his desk.

  He stood up and smiled as I entered. He was pretty young. Much younger than my parents, I think. “Hello, Murphy,” he said. “I’ve been waiting to meet you.” He stepped around the desk and shook my hand.

  “Th-thank you,” I stammered. I was too excited to say anything else.

  I sat down in the chair across from his desk. He took his seat and leaned forward to talk to me. “Your parents wanted you to have a birthday surprise,” he said, speaking in a low voice. “But they don’t know the real reason I agreed to your visit.”

  I blinked. “Excuse me? The real reason?”

  He nodded. “This is top secret, Murphy. The Spaceship Academy doesn’t want to start a panic.” His voice was just above a whisper.

  “I—I don’t understand,” I replied.

  “It’s the Martians,” he said. “We’ve heard rumors. Rumors they plan to attack.”

  “Huh? Martians?” I said.

  He nodded again. “That’s why we need you. We need you to go on a secret mission to Mars. We need you to find out if the rumors are true.”

  “But—but—I’m just a kid!” I cried. “I’m only twelve.”

  “Yes. That’s why we need you,” he said. “The Martians will expect someone from the military. But they’ll never expect a kid.”

  I stared at him. My brain was spinning. “Are you serious?” I asked in a tiny voice.

  He leaned closer over the desk and whispered, “Murphy, we need you to leave immediately. Will you do it?”

  * * *

  I finished reading my story and turned to Mom. “What do you think? Do you like it?”

  Mom smiled. “I like it a lot, Murphy,” she said. “It’s a very good start to a story. You are such a good writer. You take after me. I took creative writing in college.”

  “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written,” I said. “I can’t wait to show it to Mr. Hawkins.” I waved the story pages in my hand. “But I have one problem with it …”

  “What’s that?” Mom asked.

  “There’s no ending,” I said. “It just stops.”

  “Yes. I was wondering about that,” Mom said. “What happens next? Does Murphy go to Mars?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t decide what happens next. I’m totally stumped.”

  Mom thought about it for a moment. “Well, tomorrow is your school trip to the Rayburne Observatory,” she said. “You’ll be looking at Mars and all the planets and stars in the big telescope. I’ll bet that will give you some ideas for your story.”

  Mom wasn’t always right. But she was right about that. My trip to the observatory gave me lots of ideas. Terrifying ideas.

  Orly Roberts laughed and punched me in the leg. “Murphy, you’re so excited, you can’t breathe!” she said.

  I shoved her fist away. “Hey, you know I have asthma. I always have to take this inhaler with me.”

  “You’re totally pumped because you’re going to see stars close-up,” Cleo Lambeau said. “Look at you. You can’t even sit still.”

  “I am sitting still,” I said. “It’s a bumpy road. The bus keeps bouncing me up and down.”

  The girls laughed. I sat between them as the school bus rumbled up the narrow mountain road. The three of us had been friends for a long time. You’d think they’d get tired of teasing m
e. But they don’t.

  The bus bounced hard. The inhaler flew out of my hand and dropped to the floor. Orly leaned over and picked it up for me.

  I pointed out the window. “What’s that animal? Did you see it? Was it a mountain lion?”

  Cleo sat next to the window. “I think it was a dog,” she said. “Murphy, you’re so psyched, you’re seeing things!”

  “You don’t get it,” I said. “This isn’t a typical school trip. The Rayburne Observatory has one of the most powerful telescopes in the world.”

  “And you really think you’re going to see close-ups of tiny Martians?” Orly said.

  “And maybe they’ll wave back at you,” Cleo added. They both laughed.

  “Do you know how funny you’re not? You’ve seen too many cartoons,” I said. “This is serious.”

  Serious to me, anyway. They could joke all they liked. But my parents took me to see a rocket blast off at NASA in Florida when I was nine, and I’ve been obsessed with stars and space travel and the universe ever since.

  I dream about space travel. And I love writing stories about it.

  Here’s something I would never tell Orly or Cleo: My big dream is to be an astronaut.

  I know. That’s kind of sad. I don’t think I’d ever be accepted. Mainly because I have asthma and bad allergies, and I have to carry the inhaler at all times.

  But I can dream about it, right?

  “Listen up, people.” Mr. Hawkins, our sixth-grade teacher, stood up and faced us from the front of the bus. He’s very tall, so he had to duck his head so he didn’t hit the roof.

  “We are approaching the observatory.” He motioned out the window. “I just want to remind everyone that this is a place of serious science. You’ve had a long bus ride, and you’re probably feeling restless. Like you want to run around and blow off steam.”

  He shook his head. “But you have to remember that many scientists are doing important work here. So, you need to be serious—and respectful, too—as we enter the observatory.”

  “Are we getting lunch?” Jesse Halstrom asked. Jesse always likes to know where his next meal is coming from.

  “We will have lunch in the observatory cafeteria,” Mr. Hawkins said.

  “Will it be that freeze-dried astronaut stuff?” Jesse asked.

  A lot of kids laughed.

  “I think they serve real food,” the teacher answered. “As you remember from the videos we watched, the observatory is enormous. Please stick together. Do not wander off on your own. I can’t keep track of all of you. And when we return to school, I’d like to bring most of you back with me.”

  That was a joke. And we all laughed really hard because Mr. Hawkins doesn’t make that many jokes.

  The bus climbed higher and squealed around a curve. And I could see the huge stone building poking up from the trees above us. My heart started to pound as I gazed at the enormous dome, gleaming under the sunlight.

  Orly grabbed my arm. “Your breathing is like an accordion going in and out!” she said. “Calm down.”

  “We’re only going to see stars and planets,” Cleo said. “We’re not going to visit them.”

  She was wrong.

  We piled off the bus and followed a gray-uniformed guard through the wide glass front doors and into a huge round entryway. Our footsteps echoed off the high stone ceilings.

  “This is awesome!” I whispered to Orly and Cleo.

  Cleo rolled her eyes. “I thought you might say that.”

  We heard rapid footsteps ringing out on the marble floor. A man in a long white lab coat came walking out. And I gasped. “It’s him! It’s Sidney Rayburne! I don’t believe it. He actually came to greet us himself!”

  Cleo raised a finger to her lips. “Murphy, please. You’re going to explode if you don’t calm down!”

  Dr. Rayburne was tall and thin with straight white hair pulled back in a ponytail. He had pale blue eyes behind black square-framed eyeglasses and a white mustache that stuck straight out at the sides. He carried a clipboard in one hand, which he swung as he stepped in front of the class.

  I’d read a lot about Sidney Rayburne, but I never expected to be in the same room with him. He designed the amazing telescope that made him famous around the world. And he was in charge of the observatory and all the scientists who worked here.

  Some videos I saw said that he was a bit strange and didn’t always get along with other astronomers. A lot of people said he was difficult to work with.

  He shook hands with Mr. Hawkins, and they said a few words to each other. I was desperate to shake hands with him, too. I knew I would never wash that hand!

  He turned to us, and a smile formed beneath the straight mustache. “I am always happy to greet school classes here in my observatory,” he said. He had a deep, booming voice that rang off the stone walls. “And I promise you that you will see parts of the universe you have never seen.”

  “How far can the telescope see in the daytime?” I asked. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t hold back my question. My voice came out high and shrill because of my excitement.

  “It’s the same day or night. My assistants will be explaining everything you want to know,” Rayburne replied. “I’m sure that you—”

  “How many other galaxies have you seen?” I blurted out.

  Rayburne chuckled. “I hope we can answer all your questions later, young man.”

  “I read that the Salzburg telescope was designed to be more powerful than yours,” I said. “Is it true?”

  Mr. Hawkins took a few steps toward me. “Murphy, if you could hold your questions till later …”

  Cleo squeezed my arm hard. “Shhh. What’s your problem?”

  “Murphy Shannon is a bit of a fanatic,” I heard Hawkins tell Dr. Rayburne. “This is the biggest day of his life.”

  Rayburne’s smile grew wide. “I know we won’t disappoint you, Murphy.”

  He gave us a quick wave. “Enjoy your trip to the stars, everyone.” Then he turned and walked out of the room.

  Two women in white lab coats appeared and led the class into a large, round auditorium. Tiny lights twinkled like stars, high overhead in the domed ceiling. Comfortable movie-theater seats wrapped around the wide circle.

  “I am Dr. Gonzalez, and this is Dr. Jackson,” one of the women announced. “Sit anywhere you like.” She motioned around the circle with one hand. “Our chief astronomer, Dr. Freed, will be here to give you an introduction to the observatory.”

  I led Cleo and Orly to the back row because it had the best view of the entire ceiling. “This is awesome!” I said. “I’ll bet they have amazing light shows up there on the dome.”

  “Murphy, take a deep breath,” Cleo said. “You’ve really got to chill.”

  “I hope this astronomer will let us ask questions,” I said. “I have a million things I want to know about this place.”

  “If you have any problem,” Dr. Gonzalez said, “or if you need to leave the auditorium for any reason, please see Dr. Jackson or me. Because of security, you will need a guide wherever you go.”

  Around the room, everyone began talking at once. I wasn’t the only kid who was excited. But, of course, I was the most excited.

  The room grew quiet as Dr. Freed, a tall young man in a dark suit, came stepping into the middle of the circle. He had wavy black hair down to his shoulders, and a short black beard covered most of his face. He wore a red bandanna around his neck in place of a tie, and I saw a silver ring gleam in one ear.

  Freed had a tiny microphone clipped to the lapel of his suit jacket, which he tested by poking a finger against it. “Testing … testing … one … two … three …”

  Dr. Gonzalez carried a tall wooden stool to the center of the circle. Dr. Freed lowered himself to the edge of the seat and cleared his throat. “Welcome, everyone,” he said. “I am Samuel Freed, and I’m the head astronomer here at the Rayburne Observatory.”

  He fiddled with the microphone for a few seconds. “We have cle
ar weather on the mountaintop today,” he continued. “So I know you kids are going to have some amazing views later.”

  “Oh, wow,” I murmured. I was forcing myself to stay calm. But that was definitely good news.

  “I’d like to start out by giving you all a brief history of the telescope,” Freed said. As he said that, the twinkling stars disappeared from the domed ceiling. A photo of an old-fashioned telescope took their place. All the other lights in the auditorium went dark.

  “In 1609,” Dr. Freed continued, “an Italian astronomer named Galileo became the first person to use a telescope aimed at the stars. Even though his telescope was small and primitive, Galileo was able to make out mountains and craters on the moon. In later years …”

  Freed rattled on about Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton and how telescopes became bigger and sharper. He had a droning voice, and he was reciting everything as if he had said it all a hundred times before.

  I poked Cleo in the side. “Come on,” I whispered. “I already know all this stuff. Let’s get out of here.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Sneak out? No way. You heard what they said—”

  I motioned to the door right behind us. “Let’s just take a short walk. You know. Explore. While he’s doing ancient history.”

  “I’m with you,” Orly said. “This is boring.”

  Cleo crossed her arms in front of her. “I’m not going. They said not to leave.”

  I grabbed both of them by the arm and tugged them to their feet. I was too excited to sit still. I pulled them to the door, and we slipped out.

  “A short walk,” I whispered. “Very short. No one will notice we’re gone.”

  Was I making a mistake?

  “Let go of my arm. I don’t want to do this,” Cleo said.

  Orly was always ready to have fun. But Cleo was the wimp in the group. She was a genius at finding things to be afraid of, like always finding bugs in her food that turned out to be raisins or chocolate chips.

  She never went bike riding with Orly and me because “what if I got a flat tire?” When she was home by herself, she turned on every light in the house. I’m not sure why.

  Last summer when my parents took the three of us to the beach, Orly and I went racing into the waves. It was so cold, we started to scream.