By the time he had finished giving each of the dogs a proper greeting Herb noticed that the rest of his family famiily had made their way into Aunt Lucinda's enormous living room Herb scooped Dasher up into his arms and followed his family The other three dogs chased after him leaping onto the sofas and chairs to greet the rest of the family Freddy had flopped onto a couch Lucy was browsing browsing the built in bookshelves on the far end of the living room and Aunt Lucinda sat in her recliner next to the unlit fireplace Dad was perched awkwardly on the front edge of Herb's favorite big squishy armchair Herb squeezed in behind Dad trying to hide from all the paintings that always seemed to be keeping watch over his every move So Dad said at the exact same time Aunt Lucinda said Well Aunt Lucinda chuckled and went on I'm guessing you have some questions about my letter Dad nodded When the Peaches had returned from their summer road trip in the Peach Pie Truck they had found a letter from Great Aunt Lucinda waiting for them in the mailbox of their tiny house across town It was filled with a bunch of surprises The past summer had been filled with surprises
First the Peach kids had learned that one of their mom's inventions had sold two whole years after she died which turned the Peach family into overnight millionaires Dad had donated most of the money to charity and saved most of the rest for his kids college but he'd also set aside a small sliver of Mom's windfall to spend on fun stuff Then Dad had surprised the kids with the news that he'd bought a used food this he told truck them was what he meant by fun stuff But the biggest shock of all had come when they'd found out Dad was taking a whole month off from work in order to travel around the Midwest selling pies as a family Aunt Lucinda's surprising note had capped off a summer that was full of twists and turns Great Aunt Lucinda had been visiting her daughter in Europe when Herb and his family had returned home so the Peaches had all been waiting impatiently for nearly all of August to find out what her unusual letter letter meant Like I said in my letter I've decided to move into an apartment at the Birch Pond retirement community community and I'm giving you my house Aunt Lucinda said bluntly This is what Lucy had told Herb the letter said He'd even read it with his own eyes but he had a hard time believing it could be true Who just gave someone a house
Why Lucy asked spinning away from the bookshelves bookshelves You love this house I love this house yes but it's a pit Aunt Lucinda said gesturing to a patch of peeling wallpaper and the light switch that everyone in the family knew didn't work It's too much for me to keep up And frankly I'm lonely All I've got is these dogs to keep me company day in and day out and I'm just not putting the place to good use So what are you saying You want us to put the place to good use Dad asked What does that mean exactly Move in Make it great again and bring the place back to life Before Aunt Lucinda could finish what she was saying a loud clank sounded somewhere upstairs Then something clunked and vibrated inside the walls The dogs all started barking at once and Herb squeezed in closer to his dad That's just the ghost upstairs Aunt Lucinda explained with a casual laugh One of many as you know You'll get used to all the racket they make Herb gulped Aunt Lucinda had joked about her house ghosts before but Herb had never really paid much attention After all he'd never had to sleep in the mansion alongside all those funny noises But now it was sounding like that might be changing
He looked around the room taking it all in with fresh eyes The creepy shadows on the walls eyes staring staring out from the artwork the spooky noises secret passageways and dark corners Home sweet home
