The Haunted Igloo by Bonnie Turner Page B

apudyak for two hours,”
said Aiverk, “listening to the torngark moaning, and talking to the
crazy old man.”
    “ I don’t think they’ll get you.”
Chinook laughed. “But you never can tell!”
    Jean-Paul shrank back
against the sled. “I—I don’t think I’d better. No! I won’t go
inside there! You can’t make me go in there!”
    “ I thought you wanted to be in our
club,” said Nanuk. “Does this mean you don’t?”
    “ No,” Jean-Paul replied, “that’s not
it. I just…” He looked toward Nanuk, but could see only the outline
of his face. “I mean ... well…”
    “ If you’ve changed your mind,” said
Chinook with a sigh, Athen we’d better take you home.”
    “ No! I really do want to join,
Chinook! But you’re trying to make me do things I don’t like to
do!”
    “ Aw, let’s take him home,” Nanuk said
with disgust. “Jean-Paul’s just a big baby, like we thought. He’s
afraid of torngark .”
    “ Yeah, let’s take him back right
away,” agreed Aiverk. “We can’t have babies in our
club.”
    “ I’m not! I’m not a baby!” Jean-Paul
shouted. “I’m not afraid of any old igloo or torngark , either!”
    The wind moaned, and
Jean-Paul thought he heard laughter. Amarok gave an impatient yelp,
then howled. His voice rose, ending in several short, high-pitched
yips. Sasha answered, and her howl drifted away to nowhere.
Jean-Paul’s knees shook, from the stabbing cold and from fear.
Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Jean-Paul knew the laughter had not
come from a human. It was something from inside the igloo.
Something or someone inside there was laughing.
    He forced himself to brush
away the frightening thoughts. Of course there really was no
laughter. The laughter was only in Jean-Paul’s imagination, but he
was too scared to know that. There was only the strong wind
whistling around from behind the igloo.
    “ Two hours?” Jean-Paul tried to sound
brave, but he knew his voice was small and quivering.
    “ Yeah!” Chinook replied. “Just two
hours in that haunted apudyak , then you can go
home.”
    Jean-Paul gritted his teeth
to keep them from chattering. “I g–guess t–two hours won’t be so
bad. If the rest of you can do it, so can I. And when the t–two
hours are up, you will let me join Ice Patrol, won’t
you?”
    “ Sure we will,” they all said at once.
“And we’ll take you home right after.”
    Jean-Paul’s mind was made
up. He wanted in that club more than anything in the world. And, if
he was ever going to overcome his fear of the dark, now was the
time to do it. He started toward the igloo with Sasha at his side.
“Okay. If I can find the entrance.”
    But Sasha had already found the opening. She
poked her nose inside, then backed away.
    “ Better let your dog go in first!”
yelled Aiverk. “She can make sure it’s safe!”
    Someone laughed. A real
laugh this time, not the wind. “If she comes back out, you’ll know
it’s safe to go in!”
    The three boys sat on the
sled and watched to see what Jean-Paul was going to do. Jean-Paul
glanced back at them, but they were just three dark shadows all
running together. He wished it was light. Then he could see what he
was doing. There could at least be a moon, or a bright aurora. He
dropped to his hands and knees before the entrance. They’re trying to scare me, but I won’t let
them!
    The entrance was a short
round tunnel leading into the main room. The darkness from inside
was even worse than the darkness outside, for it seemed to reach
out for Jean-Paul as he moved slowly forward and stuck his head in.
Behind him, Sasha whined. At the doorway, Jean-Paul
stopped.
    “ What are you waiting for?” yelled
Nanuk.
    Aiverk shouted over the
sound of the wind. “Go on in, Jean-Paul Okalerk ! ”
    Jean-Paul found his courage
and crawled all the way into the tunnel. Black as pitch ! Blacker than the ink on Father Cortier’s
desk ! Like going
into a cavern! Suppose there’s no bottom in
this igloo !