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Ghost Stories

Maria jumped when she heard Billy scream. She turned around just in time to catch his hair-raising experience on the electrostatic generator at the Discover Center.

Billy had a huge grin on his face and hair sticking wildly out of his head. He said the floating hair tickled his ears and offered Maria, his neighbor, classmate and best friend, the next turn. Billy and Maria were both delighted to have run into each other at the Rockford Riverfront Museum Park., even if it was getting late.

Her parents came to gather Maria. By luck - or accident - both kids replied, "I'll ride with him/her." The similar response surprised the kids, and they burst into laughter as Maria's parents left the room. Not a minute later, Billy's parents dropped in and the kids were laughing before anything was said. They stared at each other. The words were the same, but the timing was a little off the second time around. Still, it seemed twice as funny.

They took a couple of turns on the electrostatic machine. But the most fun was when they stood on the machine at the same time. Suddenly, the sensation on their fingertips and scalp stopped and lights turned off. A final door was shut and brought along with it almost pitch darkness.

In fright, Billy reached out for Maria but fell back on his seat when sparks of energy shot up dual rods of the lightning ladder he had accidentally activated. The flare-up was scary and the sound of electricity buzzing reminded him of Frankenstein movies.

He felt a little relieved because he had at least found Maria. He was sitting on her. They both sat up and hugged each other for a minute.

It took them a minute to realize what had happened. "We're locked in," they said in perfect unison. They couldn't help laughing through a few tears welling up in their eyes.

Maria said, "If we can just find the stairway, there's a telephone up there."
Holding hands - all four hands - Maria and Billy turned a corner, then another. Billy turned to tell Maria they had reached a dead end. Maria's pretty brown eyes grew to the size of quarters and she covered her face with her arms, as a shadowy figure seemed to reach over Billy's back and grab them. They both mouthed huge silent screams, but it was only a color computer tracing their movements. They were out of there in a second. No laughs.

Luckily, they were at the stairs. Billy wanted to climb the inside of the Climb 'n' Stairs, but a bone-rattling sound started a race up the steps. Billy tripped and had to remove his foot form between the bars of the staircase. He fell again, but this time he was nowhere near the metal bars. It felt as if someone had tugged at his foot.

Maria was waiting at the top in the Health and Body section. She remembered an exit and telephone just to the left of the Hector exhibit. They began inching their way along the wall. Maria accidentally pushed the button that controlled Hector and the lights in his display case turned on. Ends of strings dangled where Hector the skeleton usually hung.

The kids began to slowly step backward when they bumped into something. A cold, bony hand touched their shoulders from behind and …

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