The Dummy Meets the Mummy! Read online

  He stopped because the doorbell rang. The bell to the back door. It clanged loudly once … twice … three times.

  Dad turned and started toward the stairs. “Who could be here this time of night?” he asked. “Who would come to the back door?”

  We followed him down the stairs. He turned the locks on the door and slid the latch open. Then he pushed the door open, and we heard him cry out, “How weird!”

  I saw him bent over, struggling with something on the ground. “Dad, can I help?” I started to the door.

  But he turned and stepped inside. He pulled a long wooden chest into the building. “How strange is this?” he said breathlessly.

  He set it down in the middle of the hall and took a few seconds to catch his breath. “I saw a car speed away when I opened the door,” he said. “Then I looked down and saw this chest.”

  Logan took a step back. “Do you hear anything inside? Is there an animal in there?”

  We all listened. Silence.

  “Only one way to find out what our mystery box holds,” Dad said.

  We gathered around as he leaned over and snapped the two rusted latches on the front of the chest. Then he put both hands on the lid and shoved it open.

  I gasped. We all stared at a large ventriloquist dummy. He lay on his back in a wrinkled gray suit, a white shirt, and a crooked red bow tie. He appeared to stare up at us with glassy green eyes.

  “Totally weird,” I muttered.

  “He’s way ugly,” Logan said. “Look at that sick grin on his face.”

  “His nose has a big chip at the end,” Shannon pointed out. “The dummy looks pretty old.”

  Dad scratched the top of his head. “Guess someone wanted to donate it to the museum. But why did they do it at night? And why did they hurry away like that?”

  Shannon reached for it. “Can I try it? Can I make it talk?”

  “Not now,” Dad said. “I think—” He stopped. He was staring at a bunch of rolled-up papers tucked at the dummy’s side. “What are these?”

  He tugged them out and unrolled them. He scanned the first page quickly. “Hmmmm … Says the dummy is very old. His name is Slappy. Slappy seems to have a long history.”

  I felt a shiver run down my body. I had the crazy feeling the dummy was staring at me. Just a wild thought, but it gave me a sudden tingle of fear.

  Dad rolled up the papers and stuffed them back into the case. “I’ll have to read all the info later,” he said. “I think I have the perfect empty display case for this dummy.”

  He shut the lid and slid the chest against the wall. “Still a lot of decorating to do,” he said.

  “Yeah. Where are the plastic bats?” I asked. “We can start hanging them around.”

  “I think I stacked them in my office,” Dad said. He glanced at his watch. “Oh, wow. I promised to pick your mother up. She’s working late tonight. I’ve got to run.”

  He began to hurry toward the front entrance. “I’ll be back in twenty minutes. Hang up the bats and blow up the black balloons. The helium tank is outside the mummy room. I’ll get back as fast as I can.”

  The door banged shut behind him.

  Shannon turned to me. “Cathy, did Dad seem a little frantic to you just now?”

  I laughed. “When isn’t he frantic? The overnight means a lot to him. He loves having kids stay at the museum. He looks forward to it every year. Let’s get to work,” I said. “Shannon, come with me. We’ll put up the bat decorations. Logan, why don’t you start on the balloons?”

  He gave me a quick two-fingered salute. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  We split up. Logan headed toward the mummy room at the end of the hall. Shannon led the way upstairs to the office.

  It took us a while to find the black plastic bats. Dad had them buried beneath a big stack of papers. Dad isn’t the most organized person in the world. Actually, he’s a total slob. Seriously. The big trash dumpster behind the museum is neater than Dad’s office.

  Shannon and I worked together, hanging the bats on the walls. We put a few in the mummy room, where the boys would be sleeping.

  Deep in its case, the mummy appeared to gaze at the ceiling as we worked. I thought about leaving a bat on its chest, but that seemed kind of lame.

  The mummy was creepy. It didn’t need any decoration.

  The mummy was the newest display in the building, and Dad couldn’t talk about anything else. He said it made his horror museum complete.

  A real mummy—thousands of years old. Dad has spent so much time lately reading up on it. He has stacks of paper on his desk about the letters and symbols on the mummy case. The whole first week it was here he did etchings and charcoal rubbings of the ancient words, trying to figure out what they meant.

  How weird to think that someone’s all-time dream was a mummy. But … that’s my dad.

  After we finished in the mummy room, my sister and I headed to the front, on our way to the dinosaur bones room.

  “Hey—!” Shannon grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop.

  I turned to where she was looking—and gasped.

  What’s up with this?

  The dummy was sitting on top of his chest with his legs dangling to the floor.

  “What are you staring at?” he rasped. “Get back to work!”

  A “gawwwwllllp” sound escaped my open mouth. Shannon squeezed my arm harder.

  Then Logan’s grinning face popped up from behind the chest. He shook his head. “You are too easy to scare. You should have seen your faces!”

  “We weren’t scared,” I said. “We were just surprised.”

  “Don’t try to fool a dummy!” Logan said in a tinny voice, working the dummy’s mouth.

  I brushed Shannon’s hand away and strode up to Logan. “Why are you playing with that? Why aren’t you blowing up balloons?”

  “I couldn’t get the helium tank to work,” he said. “I think the valve is stuck. So I decided to give you two a thrill.”

  “Can I hold Slappy?” Shannon didn’t wait for Logan to answer. She lifted the dummy off the chest. “Whoa.” She almost dropped him. Slappy was nearly as tall as Shannon!

  Shannon sat on the chest and arranged the dummy on her lap. Its big wooden head toppled over and hit her on the shoulder. “How do you work his mouth?” she asked Logan.

  “How do you work YOUR mouth?” the dummy rasped.

  “Stop it, Logan,” Shannon said. “Answer my question.”

  Logan raised both hands in the air. “I didn’t make it say that. It wasn’t me.”

  “Shut up, Logan,” I said. “You’re not going to scare us again.”

  “Seriously, Cathy. I didn’t say that.”

  “How do you work the mouth?” Shannon repeated. “Tell me.”

  “You put your hand in its back,” Logan told her.

  Shannon fumbled under the dummy’s sports jacket.

  “Stop it! I’m ticklish!” Slappy cried.

  Shannon jerked her hand away.

  “It wasn’t me!” Logan said, shaking his head. “You’ve got to believe me. I didn’t say that. This is too weird.”

  Shannon stood up and propped the dummy against the wall. “There’s something weird going on here,” she said. “Maybe the dummy is programmed to say stuff.”

  I pushed open the lid to the chest and lifted the stack of papers out. They were old and yellow, crinkled up with tiny type on them.

  I raised the first page and read through it quickly.

  “What does it say?” Shannon asked. “Does it give instructions?”

  I read a little more, squinting at the tiny type. “No. No instructions,” I said.

  I turned to the second page, reading quickly. “It says the dummy was made more than a hundred years ago. Whoa … By an evil magician. It says … Wait … It says Slappy has powers.”

  All three of us turned to stare at the dummy.

  “Powers?” Logan said.

  “It says the dummy has an evil curse on it,” I cont
inued. “It brings evil wherever it goes.”

  Shannon laughed. “Dad will love that!” she exclaimed.

  “Perfect for this museum,” I said.

  “Someone had fun making this up,” Logan said. “You don’t believe it—do you?”

  “Of course not,” I said.

  “Dad probably will,” Shannon said.

  I uttered a short cry. “Did that dummy just blink?”

  Logan made a face. “Now you’re trying to scare us? Get real.”

  “I thought I saw it blink. Really.” I raised the papers to my face and read some more. “There are a bunch of strange words here,” I said. “I don’t know what language they’re in.”

  “Probably dummy language,” Logan said.

  Shannon turned to him. “You speak Dummy, don’t you, Logan?” She tried to tickle his chin, but he backed away.

  “Quiet,” I said. “This is interesting. It says if we read the words out loud, Slappy will come to life.”

  Shannon and Logan laughed. “Someone has seen too many horror movies,” Logan said.

  “Have you seen your face?” The dummy lifted his head. “You belong in a horror movie!”

  I gasped. This was way too creepy. How did he know what we were saying?

  I walked up beside Slappy and tapped the top of his head with my fist. “Who’s in there?”

  “My brain is in there!” the dummy rasped. “Something I’m sure you’ve never heard of! Hahaha!”

  All three of us took a step back. “Someone programmed him to say those things,” Shannon said.

  “I’ll program YOU!” the dummy shouted. “I’ll teach you how to wave bye-bye! Your parents will be so impressed! Haha!”

  Logan turned pale. “This isn’t funny,” he murmured. “It’s like he can hear us.”

  “I can see you, too!” the dummy exclaimed. “Wish I could unsee you! I’ll have nightmares tonight.”

  “It … it’s alive!” I stammered.

  “I wish Dad was here,” Shannon said, backing away.

  “Was that your dad?” Slappy rasped. “I thought a buffalo escaped from the zoo!”

  “This … this is too scary,” Logan said. “Let’s shut him back up in the case.”

  “I’ll shut you up!” the dummy cried. “I’ll be giving the orders from now on!”

  “Grab him!” I said. “He … he’s dangerous. We have to lock him back up.”

  Logan and I dove for him. But to our surprise, the dummy could run—and run fast! As he took off, Shannon grabbed one arm. But Slappy tugged hard, almost pulling her off her feet.

  As he sped down the hall, he tossed back his head and let out a long, ugly laugh that echoed off the walls.

  My heart pounded as I chased after him, Logan and Shannon close behind. “Whoa! Look—!” I cried as Slappy suddenly turned and ran through an open door.

  Dad’s office.

  What did he want in there?

  Gasping for breath, I stepped into the doorway. And saw the dummy sweep a hand over Dad’s desk. He sent a tall stack of papers flying to the floor. He grabbed a glass paperweight and smashed it on the wall.

  I moved to grab him with my free hand. I was still gripping the papers from the dummy’s box in the other one.

  Slappy laughed that ugly laugh again. “Looks like you’re in trouble!” he rasped. “Dad’s office is a mess—and he won’t blame ME! Hahaha.”

  Logan and Shannon tried to squeeze past me. But Logan bumped me from behind. Slappy’s papers fell from my hand. I scrambled to pick them up.

  Shannon and Logan grabbed the dummy around the waist. Logan pinned Slappy’s hands behind his back so he couldn’t do any more damage.

  My hand was trembling as I tried to pick up the scattered papers. Actually, my whole body was trembling.

  I couldn’t believe this was happening. It was too crazy … too terrifying.

  I don’t know why, but I raised the paper to my face. I didn’t really think about it. The words on the page—the strange words that were supposed to bring the dummy to life—shook before my eyes.

  I squinted hard at them. And without thinking, I said them out loud:

  “KARRU MARRI ODONNA LOMA MOLONU KARRANO.”

  I lowered the paper and stared at the dummy. Shannon and Logan walked closer to it.

  “Whoa. Look,” I whispered.

  The dummy’s eyes closed. Its head tilted to one side. Its mouth dropped open and stayed open. It didn’t move.

  Shannon laughed. “We didn’t bring it to life. We put it to sleep!”

  I heard a sound. A footstep?

  “Where are you?” a familiar voice shouted. Dad’s voice.

  He trotted over to us. “Why is this place such a mess? What are you doing in my office? You were supposed to be decorating, not making a mess! Did you hang the bats? Blow up the balloons?”

  We all started talking at once.

  “The dummy—he’s alive!”

  “It was totally creepy! The dummy talked to us!”

  “He made fun of us. He has a cruel sense of humor. He’s totally mean.”

  Dad grinned and shook his head. “Don’t kid a kidder. I’m the one who plays the jokes around here.”

  “You’ve got to believe us. He’s alive, Dad. We’re serious. He’s alive—and he’s scary.”

  “You’re going to have to try harder than that,” Dad laughed.

  We argued with him. We pleaded for him to believe us.

  He walked over to the dummy and held him up. “Hello, Slappy,” he said. “Can you talk?”

  The dummy’s head slumped down. He was silent.

  Dad shook him. “Talk to me, Slappy. Are you alive? Or are they pulling my leg?”

  The dummy bounced lifelessly in Dad’s hands.

  Dad raised his eyes to us. “You call this alive? Can we finish up what we have to do and go home? I’ll straighten my office tomorrow.

  “Take him,” Dad said, handing the dummy to Logan. “Take him upstairs. I’ll lock him in a display case.”

  “No. Please, Dad—” I said. “You’ve got to get rid of him. He’s dangerous.”

  “We’ll be careful with him,” Dad insisted. He grinned. “Just in case he comes to life again.”

  Dad didn’t believe us.

  Logan took Slappy from Dad and pushed it into the wooden chest. He carried it upstairs.

  “Let’s go,” Dad said when Logan returned. “Mom needs help with dinner, so we better get back home.”

  My legs were trembling as I followed Dad to the car. Chills rolled down my back.

  A dummy that comes to life? And hurts people?

  I was scared. I was seriously scared.

  But … the fact is, I was afraid too soon.

  The true horror didn’t begin until one hour before the overnight began.

  Do you know what the baby mummy said when he got lost in the woods? “I miss my mummy!”

  What did the mummy say when he wanted to quit work and go home? “Hey, guys, let’s wrap it up!”

  Hahaha. I love mummy jokes, don’t you?

  But I have the feeling this new mummy in the horror museum is no joke.

  I mean, it’s GOT to be Arragotus—right? The museum’s the perfect place for that bag of Kleenex.

  Tell me, what kind of name is Arragotus?

  It sounds like someone barfing up his lunch! Hahaha.

  Do you think Arragotus will come to life?

  He’d better. If he doesn’t, this will be a very short story!

  Hahaha.

  Friday night Dad was running through the schedule with Logan and me. “When the kids arrive, everyone can put their bags down on their cots. And then we’ll meet here in the main hall,” he said.

  Dad had to spend most of the day getting his office back in order. What order, I don’t know. It was always a mess. This was just a different kind of mess than he was used to. But he seemed happy and excited.

  He loves having school classes stay overnight in his museum. It
gives him a chance to show off his big collections. And he likes giving kids a few scares.

  Logan and I were pretty excited, too. How awesome to party all night with our friends.

  Stacks of boxes with pizza had arrived. Black balloons floated overhead. The bat decorations covered the walls. And Dad had tested the museum sound system so we could crank up the music.

  “We can start in the mummy room,” Dad said. “I know everyone will want to see the new mummy as soon as they arrive. Good old Arragotus. He is going to be a star.”

  “Arragotus?” I said. “Is that the mummy’s name?”

  Dad nodded. “I’ve been doing a lot of research about him, but he’s still quite a mystery.”

  “That mummy is totally creepy,” Logan said. “The kids are going to freak when they see him.”

  “I guess the dinosaur is the second stop,” Dad continued. “I know parts are missing. But we have the head and the torso and three legs.” He smiled at me. “Someday we’ll have a whole dinosaur. That will be awesome.”

  “Awesome,” I repeated. I liked seeing Dad in such a good mood.

  Glancing at a small notepad, Dad continued telling us the schedule. “After the dinosaur, we can have the scavenger hunt for the petrified insects in amber.”

  “What about the pizza?” Logan smiled.

  “We can eat after the scavenger hunt,” Dad said. He closed his notepad and shoved it into his pocket.

  “You’re not going to show off that new dummy, right?” Logan asked.

  “Not yet, Logan. There will be plenty of other things to scare the kids,” Dad said. “He’s locked in a glass case where nobody can mess with him. I want to take a better look at him before I introduce him to an audience.”

  A noise from down the hall made him stop. It sounded like a deep groan. A human groan.

  We all turned and gazed down the long hall.

  I heard it again. Louder this time.

  And then a girl’s shrill scream—a scream of horror.

  I let out a cry. Dad gasped. “Where’s Shannon?”