..

Every ghoul has a game. Some love collecting toys and spend all day admiring their collection. Others like to make music up in the attic. They might stomp their feet, whistle like the wind, or stand on a creaky board to make just the right sound for their song. For Glip, he loved to stack things. Especially cards. It was very fun to stack the cards higher and higher, until they were taller than him. Then, he had to stack boxes, so he could climb up and build the cards even higher. Toward the attic’s ceiling. His dream was to stack cards all the way up the ceiling. He wondered what would happen if the top card could touch the ceiling. Would the whole house jump like a startled frog? Would a little hole open in the roof, and he could keep stacking higher and higher? He could never find out because whenever his cards got too high, the parents got home.

They were big, noisy people that dropped bags on the floor and plopped themselves into chairs. This would have been ok for a normal ghoul, but all that commotion was enough to make Glip’s cards shiver. Then, the cards would collapse in a pile of red and white. “Doit!” he would say, but even his favorite word would not make him feel better. Sometimes he tried to build another tower that night, but the parents were always slamming the fridge door or walking around with their loud feet. His towers did not get tall. The person who never made Glip’s cards fall was Davy.

Davy was a boy that lived below Glip’s favorite corner of the attic, where he had built his highest tower. Davy was a quiet boy who played with the toys in his room and read the books on his shelf. His favorite toy was his bear. He played with it every night, and he always tucked it into his bed beside him. Glip thought the bear was Davy’s best friend.

In another room, the parents liked to watch the loud TV. If the parents were more like Davy, Glip wouldn’t cause so much mischief for them. You see, ghouls don’t get hungry, but they do get mischiefy. It’s no wonder why ghouls cause so much trouble around the house, especially for adults. When a ghoul is feeling mischiefy, they might hide a parent’s keys, or leave a light on in the kitchen. It was always scary for a ghoul to sneak Below, which is where the humans lived. Glips favorite mischief was to put a little smudge on the dad’s glasses at night, and in the morning, the dad would blink through his smudgy glasses like an owl. Glip also liked putting extra salt in the mom’s soup, and he would guckle up in his attic (that is what the ghouls call a chuckle). 

But there was one night when he felt extra mischiefy. He smudged the dad’s glasses, but he still felt mischiefy. He salted the mom’s soup, but he was still mischiefy! That left only Davy. Glip wondered what to do. He watched Davy play in his room that night. Davy read a book and played with cars before building a lincoln log house. When his parents came in, it was a big house. Not as big as Glip’s cards, but good for a human boy. The parents said it was time for bed, and when the lights turned off, Glip had an idea. He could knock down the lincoln logs!

He snuck down from the attic and was about to push over the toy house when he stopped. He liked Davy, and he knew pushing over the house would make Davy sad. So Glip found some more lincoln logs. Glip was quiet, even for a ghoul. He stacked the lincoln logs a littler higher on the house, and much to his surprise, the mischiefy feeling went away!

In the morning, Davy was amazed that his house had grown! He asked his parents, but they shook their heads and slurped their coffee. That night, Davy built the house a little taller. When Davy was asleep with his bear, Glip snuck down again and stacked the logs higher still! It made Glip very happy to see Davy so surprised again, but when Davy told his parents, they only shook their heads more. Davy went back to his room, and he watched the house with his bear. He looked very sad, and that made Glip sad. Glip thought all day about what he could do for Davy. He had another idea, but it made him very nervous. It was the scariest idea a ghoul could have.

That night, Glip went Below. He was in Davy’s room, and it was getting hard to find more lincoln logs, since most were already in the house. But Glip knew the box that had more. He slid the box off the shelf and dropped it onto the floor with a loud thump. There was a rustle in the bed and a polite cough.

Glip got ghoulbumps all along his furry arms, and he felt very scared. He hoped his idea was good. He waited for Davy to yell or holler for his parents. Glip would be in big trouble then. But when he turned to look at Davy, the boy was smiling.

“Are you the one building it higher each night?”

Glip nodded.

“You are a very good stacker,” Davy said. “What are you?”

“Ghoul,” Glip said. It was the only word he knew that wasn’t goulish. 

Davy nodded. “Do you want to play tomorrow night?”

Now Glip nodded, and it was easy. Every night, after the parents put Davy to bed, Glip would go Below. Davy would join him on the floor, and together they would stack log by log and make the house bigger until one day, they ran out of logs. The house was as tall as Davy. They were both very proud, but very sad. Glip had grown to like stacking the logs very much, and it had been many days since he’d stacked his cards alone in the attic. He wanted to keep stacking with Davy, but there were no more logs. Then, he had his best idea, a most ungoulish idea. 

“Doit!” he said, and waved Davy up, through his secret path and into the attic. 

The boy was amazed to see the ghoul’s home, which was full of cards and cozy, lumpy boxes. Glip loved his boxes, and the little home they made in the attic, and he knew one box had something special. The dad’s old lincoln logs. Glip showed Davy, and they stayed up late, building the house all the way to the ceiling of Davy’s room. It was the most fun in the whole world, and when Glip snuggled into his boxes that night, he dreamt of stacking, and surprised parents, and a good night of mischief.

The End.