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3<br />
“Whitey!” I knelt down and pulled the dog away from the door. “What’s your problem, doggie?”<br />
As soon as I moved him aside, Whitey lost all interest in the door. He trotted off and started<br />
sniffing another corner. Talk about your short attention span. But I guess that’s the difference between<br />
dogs and people.<br />
The rain continued to pound down, a steady roar just above our heads. I could hear the wind<br />
whistling around the corner of the house. It was a real spring storm.<br />
The door had a rusted latch about halfway up. It slid off easily, and the warped wooden door<br />
started to swing open before I even pulled at it.<br />
The door hinges squeaked as I pulled the door toward me, revealing solid darkness on the other<br />
side.<br />
Before I had gotten the door open halfway, Lefty scooted under me and darted into the dark<br />
room.<br />
“A dead body!” he shrieked.<br />
“Noooo!” April and Erin both cried out with squeals of terror.<br />
But I knew Lefty’s dumb sense of humor. “Nice try, Lefty,” I said, and followed him through the<br />
doorway.<br />
Of course he was just goofing.<br />
I found myself in a small, windowless room. The only light came from the pale yellow ceiling<br />
light behind us in the center of the attic.<br />
“Push the door all the way open so the light can get in,” I instructed Erin. “I can’t see a thing in<br />
here.”<br />
Erin pushed open the door and slid a carton over to hold it in place. Then she and April crept in<br />
to join Lefty and me.<br />
“It’s too big to be a closet,” Erin said, her voice sounding even squeakier than usual. “So what is<br />
it?”<br />
“Just a room, I guess,” I said, still waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dim light.<br />
I took another step into the room. And as I did, a dark figure stepped toward me.<br />
I screamed and jumped back.<br />
The other person jumped back, too.<br />
“It’s a mirror, dork!” Lefty said, and started to laugh.<br />
Instantly, all four of us were laughing. Nervous, high-pitched laughter.<br />
It was a mirror in front of us. In the pale yellow light filtering into the small, square room, I<br />
could see it clearly now.<br />
It was a big, rectangular mirror, about two feet taller than me, with a dark wood frame. It rested<br />
on a wooden base.<br />
I moved closer to it and my reflection moved once again to greet me. To my surprise, the<br />
reflection was clear. No dust on the glass, despite the fact that no one had been in here in ages.
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