"Wow," said Chris. "Look at that!"

"Forget the stream," said Jackie. "Check out that house!"

"Oooh," said three or four of the kids. I peered out the window to see what they were looking at. A huge, imposing brick house stood high on a hillside. A long drive led to it, winding through clumps of tall trees. There

were no flowers in the yard, no clothesline, no birdbath. I thought I saw a few lights on in the house, but somehow it still looked empty and abandoned. I felt a chill run down my spine. There was something creepy about the place.

"Whoa!" said Charlie, breaking into my thoughts. The van came to a sudden stop. "Oh, man, now what are we going to do?" he asked. I looked through the windshield and saw what he was talking about. Another stream and another bridge were in front of us. But this stream was out of control, and the bridge was almost completely washed away!

"Go back," said Bart. "Quick! Go back to the other bridge."

But guess what happened when we got back to the other bridge? It wasn't there. We looked silently at the few posts that still stood. It didn't take long to figure out that we were stuck. I tried not to panic. "Okay," I said. "There's no way off this road right now, so we're just going to have to knock on somebody's door and ask to use the phone." I thought of the washed-out bridges. "We might even have to ask if we can spend the night," I went on.

"At the haunted house?" yelped Jackie.

"What haunted house?" I asked.

"The creepy brick one," he said. "That's the

only house on this whole road."

"I'm sure it's not haunted," I said, even though I thought it looked creepy, too. "Anyway, it's our only choice." Charlie had already turned the van around, and within minutes we were driving up that long, twisty driveway.