Chapter 1 Don’t Hesitate It was one of those lazy afternoons Malcolm and his best friend Dandy were hanging out in Malcolm’s basement lab Dandy played with an old yo-yo while Malcolm flipped through the ads in the back of the latest Worlds Beyond magazine That’s when he saw it Grow a Ghost Tired of gardening housecleaning and doing laundry Then order Mystic Mack’s Grow
a Ghost In just a few short steps you can have your own ghost to wait on you hand and foot Our ghosts are guaranteed to do your work for you They are skilled servants and experts at walking a dog loading the dishwasher babysitting writing book reports and much more Don’t hesitate Order your Grow a Ghost kit now Only 12 95 Take a look at this Malcolm said Dandy stopped yo-yoing long enough to read the ad A helpful ghost That’s what it says Malcolm dodged the yo-yo as Dandy tried a trick called Around the World The yo-yo was supposed to circle and wind back But instead it looped wide and conked Dandy in the head 5
I don’t know Dandy said rubbing the sore spot on his noggin Sounds risky to me Think about all the ghosts we’ve caught Why would we want to grow one Malcolm and Dandy had been in the ghost business for a while now Not all of the hauntings were frightening but every one of them was annoying Still the ad had a guarantee What could go wrong This could be great Malcolm replied The ghost would do our homework while we play video games Dandy attempted Rock the Baby He was supposed to form the string into a triangle and swing the yo-yo inside But the string webbed itself around his thumb and pinkie cutting off the circulation Ouch Dandy freed his pinched fingers Won’t Mrs Goolsby know we didn’t
write it Their fifth-grade teacher caught everything The ghost will type it Malcolm answered Ghosts have lots of talents That’s what bothers me Dandy said as he tried Walk the Dog And that’s another thing Malcolm said watching Dandy make a mess of the trick The ad says they’re experts at walking dogs We can’t take Spooky for a walk but a ghost could Malcolm picked up his Ecto-Handheld Automatic-Heat-Sensitive-Laser-Enhanced Specter Detector It was his best tool for ghost hunting He powered it up and Yip Yip his ghost dog Spooky appeared wagging his tail Yeah Dandy agreed He’d like getting out of this basement once in a while
