Lawton,Heidi

1/23/97

Is Anybody There

Eve Bunting

170

A small house on a quiet street in southern California is were this story starts out. It is Christmas time yet it is 75 degrees outside. An apartment close to the house is rented out to a man named Nick. Across the sreet live two nosy old women who keep an eye on the house and its keepers. Outside the small house is a large tree that contains a key to the house for when the boy who lives there with his mother need to get in. It seemed like a peacful place to live but was it?

Marcus Mullen, a thirteen year old boy who doesnÕt just wimp out at anything, begins to feel a creepy, goose bump feeling in his own home. He may just be in the seventh grade but he knows something is up. When he tries to tell his mother she just rumpled his brown hair and told him not to worry. He realized that if he was going to figure out what is wrong he would have to do it himself, but he has no solid proof.

Marcus starts to notice little things missing from his house. little things that a theif wouldnÕt take but a child. A small alarm clock, some meatloaf, bread, peanut butter and a sleeping bag. He has check his home many many times but no one is in his sight. Eventually he asked Nick their renter from upstairs to check with him he figured that he might has over looked something. Nick didnÕt see anything either. Marcus is sure Nick is guilty. One night Marcus hears some creaking noise upstairs in the attic. He followed the noises and found not Nick, but Nicks son who had been taken from him in a nasty divorce.

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