Billy Bean and the Pesky Poltergeists

By Robert Umber

Billy Bean is an eleven year old boy with a fascination for the supernatural and wants to be a ghost hunter just like his idol, celebrity paranormal investigator, Roy Arnow. Billy meets his hero at a school assembly and practically begs Roy to give him a case. Billy recruits his friends, Keisha Washington and Raymond Davis and eagerly begin their first investigation. Things go awry from the beginning and continue to spiral out of control as Billy realizes it is not as easy as it looks on TV, and some of the people he has to deal with aren't quite as they appear. Billy and his friends now must set matters right and gain some credibility or face being little more than ghost hunter wannabes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Umber
• Release date: Aug 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310155321

Robert Umber

Rob Umber writes historical fiction, middle grade fiction as well as fantasy books. He lives in Kalispell, in northwestern Monatana, with his wife Catherine.

Book preview

BILLY BEAN

AND THE

PESKY POLTERGEISTS

BY ROBERT UMBER

PUBLISHED BY

ROBERT UMBER

Billy Bean and the Pesky Poltergeists

written by Robert Umber

Smashwords edition 2015

copyright 2015 Robert Umber

Cover art by Robert Umber

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author/publisher.

All characters, events and locations depicted in this book are fictitious and from the imagination of the author. Any resemblances to characters' likenesses, events and places from other authors, or of real people, either living or dead, have no relation to this work and is purely coincidental.

-PROLOGUE-

By nearly all accounts, Billy Bean was an ordinary eleven year old kid. Like most his age, he had many interests and enjoyed hanging out with his friends and doing things that kids do. Unlike most kids, Billy loved to study ghosts, anything haunted, and all things supernatural. He openly talked about his findings to his friends or to anybody

who would listen. This had also made him a target for harassment and bullying by the athletic types and the resident bully, Fergie Fenner.

Billy was introduced to the paranormal at the age of five by an older cousin, who thought it would be funny to scare the pants off of him. It was on a particularly dark and stormy Halloween night when the cousin and some friends, took Billy to a real haunted house. Yes, Billy’s eyes were the size of hubcaps, his heart raced and pounded in his chest and his mouth agape at the gloomy, run down house and this and that, that went bump or creak on the inside.

Instead of being frightened (like his cousin and his friends were) a fascination sprouted inside him with ghosts that would only grow over time. The next few Halloweens would see Billy dress up as the ghost of some famous dead person or another. His costumes were never the same and were pretty creative. Yet, this, too, seemed to draw more chides and jeers than compliments from many of his schoolmates.

Billy lived in a town called Huntsville. It was given the nickname Hauntsville a few years back from an article in a travel magazine because of all the ghostly activities said to occur throughout the town. No one knows for sure why Huntsville is such a magnet for the paranormal. Yet, for Billy Bean, these are the mysteries he would be solving.

CHAPTER ONE

SCHOOL LIFE OF A GHOSTHUNTER WANNA BE

Typical. That's how daily life at the Bean household could be described. Every school day morning at six thirty, Billy, a thin, pale skinned boy with brown eyes and sandy brown hair (at the moment resembling a windblown haystack) would emerge, stooped like a question mark, from his bedroom toward the kitchen.

Billy's family would already be grouped around the table. His parents were hidden behind sections of The Huntsville Times the town's daily newspaper. His older brother, Kevin, would be half asleep and slouched in his chair. His face, except for his pointed nose, disappeared behind his shoulder length hair and his head dipped toward his chest. Billy's sister, Jennifer, chomped on her cereal like a squirrel chewing on a peanut. She paid him not the slightest bit of attention as he slid into the chair next to hers.

Billy poured cereal and milk into his bowl and grabbed toast from a plate in the middle of the table and tore through his breakfast like he hadn't eaten in days.

What's the hurry, Sport? his dad asked, peering over the Sports section at his youngest son.

Roy Arnow's coming to school today! Billy blurted out.

That isn’t until 2 o’clock this afternoon! tooted Jennifer, her green eyes glinting and zipping to the side of his head.

Now, Jenny, began their mother, from behind the Business section of the news-paper. It’s all right for Billy to have a role-model to look up to.

Billy’s face warmed, turning different shades of crimson.

It's like you with that singer, Jason Bixmore, Kevin grunted.

HMPH! Jennifer snorted, shooting her eldest brother with an evil, hurt glare, her round face flushing red.

Billy smiled at Kevin, poured himself a glass of orange juice and swallowed it in seemingly one gulp, and was excused from the table. He rushed to his room changed his clothes, put on his socks and sneakers and gathered his books into his backpack.

***

Like every weekday, this time of the year, Kevin drove Billy and Jennifer to their school (Huntsville Middle School) where Billy was in sixth grade and Jennifer was a year behind in fifth. Kevin dropped them off at the front sidewalk of the crowded school parking lot and sped off, as if he were fleeing from a horde of rampaging zombies, to Huntsville Heights High School, one of three high schools in town.

Jennifer waved good-bye to Kevin, stuck out her tongue at Billy, and tried to hit him with her long, curly brown hair as she turned to meet her friends.

Billy, too, wasted no time finding his friends, Keisha Washington and Raymond Davis.

Keisha was nearly as tall as Billy. She was dark skinned, with coal black eyes. Her black hair was usually tightly braided and hung down past her shoulders. Her wit was as sharp as a knife, but she had an explosive, quick trigger temper that sometimes got her into trouble.

Raymond was short with a heavy set body. His wavy, brown hair spread all over his head and ears like ivy vines on a wall and always looked uncombed. Raymond's face was round, his skin pale and freckly. His blue eyes were separated by a long nose that seemed to hang over his mouth. Raymond was a nice kid, but he had self esteem issues and could be easily intimidated.

Billy, Keisha and Raymond had known each other since their earliest days in school. Keisha and Raymond shared Billy’s interest in ghosts and spooks and other supernatural doings, but to differing levels. Billy studied everything about the paranormal no matter how real or far-fetched. Keisha only had an interest in the realistic occurrences and was skeptical of most other supernatural claims. Raymond could be swayed by what he heard and saw on TV. His parents, especially his mother, were very controlling of him. They didn’t allow him to go out of the house much. So all he got to do was gaze into his TV or stare at his computer monitor during his free time.

The three exchanged hello's and welcoming grins. They slowly walked the pale, gray sidewalk leading to the school’s tall, clear glass doors amid the chattering throng of students, moving in the same direction like a multicolored river drifting under a bridge.

What did you think of Roy Arnow’s show last night? asked Billy, positioned between his two friends.

It was cool to a point, Keisha replied in a dull tone of voice.

What do you mean? asked Raymond, his eyes darting to Keisha, Billy also glanced at her.

He never did find the Dust Devil Tumbler of Sandstone Flats, she finished.

Yeah, but it was a good story! Billy said, enthusiastically.

Yeah, right! Keisha returned, frowning at Billy. "He missed all the clues! That Dust Devil Tumbler could’ve swirled him up and tossed him thirty feet in the air, and he still wouldn’t have caught on!"

Raymond chuckled, while Billy just rolled his eyes...

Billy let out a startled gasp as he was jolted forward by a hard shove between his shoulder blades. His feet hopped off the ground and he fell to the cold, hard tile floor (feeling as though he had just been hit by a truck) to the sounds of taunting laughter by three older kids.

"Watch your step, Beanbag!" boomed the loud, twanging voice of Fergie Fenner, while his friends still laughed in a mindless sort of way.

Fergie Fenner was taller than Billy and much bigger. Fergie had very short blonde hair and sported a uni-brow over his angry looking green eyes.

Behind him stood his followers. Caleb Zangski, was a tall and skinny kid with bug eyes and a long nose. He had a craning neck with bushy, shoulder length black hair, parted clumsily to the right. Caleb resembled a stork with hair. Keisha derisively called him Stork Boy.

The other boy was known simply as Jack to the rest of the student body. Jack resembled Fergie in size. He was bald except for a row of stiff, brown hair that divided his head in half like a furry fence. He had dark brown, penetrating eyes that never twinkled and had a nobody's home look to them. Billy had said before that Jack was the evolutionary missing link. Jack’s actions did nothing to prove him wrong.

Billy got back up, his chest heaving up and down, his eyes narrowing and throwing, daggers of death at Fergie. The bully stepped back, his eyes widened, pretending to be afraid, his uni-brow bent up in the middle of his forehead, making it look like a fuzzy, upside down V.

Oooh, Fergie went on, holding out his hands and mockingly wiggling his fingers at Billy, Caleb and Jack laughed themselves red-faced. You gonna take a swing at me? A menacing twinkle sparkled in Fergie's eyes as though willing Billy to do something.

Keisha stepped in ahead of Billy, while Raymond cowered behind them. Raymond was terrified of Fergie and his groupies and they knew it, thus, they never missed an opportunity to scare the pants off of him.

Keisha was another matter all together. She didn’t like Fergie, Jack or Caleb and was not afraid of any of them...

You aren’t worth it, Billy spat, shaking his head and turning to walk away.

You’re not getting off that easy, Fergie growled as Jack slid in front of Billy to block his escape. Jack pressed his hands together and cracked his knuckles while grinning evilly down at Billy. Caleb, fists clenched, hurled nasty glares at Raymond who was little more than a quivering mass on the floor.

QUIT IT! Keisha shouted at Fergie, her hands balled tightly together. She looked ready to take on all three