"That is a very sensitive piece of equipment, and it's not something that a couple of crazy kids should be manhandling!" The doctor took the sensor and shoved it into the front pocket of his white lab coat. "I need to take this back to the lab and make sure you two haven't broken it!"
"Hey, aren't you the mad scientist who made my cousins sick and weak?"
"How ridiculous!" Doctor Van Der Waal said. "I'm not the one who did it! It's evil spirits! I'm trying to stop them, and I do not do evil stuff like making your dear cousins sick. Even if I used to, I'm too old!"
"Wait- so the Evil Spirits are the ones who made our cousins sick?"
"But- how? And why?" Ben and Elly asked.
"It's a long story." Doctor Van Der Waal said. "Follow me. I will take you to my lab. Bring that hare with you too, I want to examine it, and oh, that fox, too. What a perfect red color you have! Reminds me of my beard's color when I was young. Ho he ha."
"Oh, so he's nice!" Vicky said and hopped onto Doctor's shoulder. "Ho he ha!" He laughed. "This can keep me company when I'm alone after stopping the evil spirits."
The doctor led them behind the house, down a small trail, around a little bend and up a hill. On the top of the hill was a big, brick building with a glass dome and a few columns in the front. "This place used to be the home of the number one Creature Feature, I mean, Frankenstein and his monster. But you know, don't worry about that now. Ho he ha!" The doctor laughed.
"I notice your laugh is 'ho he ha', is that normal where you are from?" Ben asked.
"BEN!" Elly snapped. "You are being RUDE!"
"I mean, yeah, it's a bit rude. Ho he ha! But it's a reasonable question. I say 'ho he ha' because I am a jolly old fellow. As my oude vader - that's how you say 'old dad' in dutch - as he would say..." Van Der Waal took off his hat and started singing and dancing!
Ho He Ha!
Ho He Ha!
The thing I say is
Ho He Ha!
Snap Crack, break his back!
Ho Ho Ho Ho
He He He He
Ha Ha Ha Ha
Ho He Ha!
Ho He Ha!
Ho He Ha!
The thing I say is
Ho He Ha!
Snap Crack, break his back!
Ho He Ha!
Jolly old Vader
Ho He Ha!
Snap Crack, break his back!
Ho Ho Ho Ho
He He He He
Ha Ha Ha Ha
Ho He Ha!
Ho He Ha!
Ho He Ha!
The thing I say is
HO HE HA!!!
After he stopped singing, the doctor spun in his place and did a deep, low bow. The kids couldn't help but clap, it was a fun song and he sang it with some real gusto. "Now let's enter the laboratory, and let me show you how we are tracking the mysterious forces!"
The laboratory was filled floor-to-ceiling with strange devices. Big, circular dials, jars filled with strange shapes, glass tubes filled with arc lightning bolts and little beakers and test tubs full of oozing substances covered everything. Even the tables were filled with odd items! Ben almost slipped in a puddle of strange liquid that turned from purple to gold when he stepped in it.
"Um, I am just going to...stay... here and touch nothing!" Ben said.
"So this sensor you were playing with." Doctor Van Der Waal looked at Ben. "This is an ECTOplasm sensor. Ectoplasm is a material that spirits create when they travel through our world. I have found quite a lot of it around this Mountain. And I think the ectoplasm, or maybe the spirits, well one of them or both is what is making your cousins sick."
"How do you know our cousins are sick?" Ben asked.
"And how do you know who our cousins are?" asked Elly. "and, while we are at it, how do you know we even have cousins?! And how do you know we are trying to help our sick cousins!"
"Yeah, Doctor van der whatever... spill the beans!" Ben said.
"VAN DER WAAL!" The doctor threw up his hands. "Not Van Der Whatever. You kids have so many questions, but let me show you how I know so many things. Ho he ha." The doctor led the kids to a corner of the laboratory, where he had a dusty old computer. "Here." He pointed the screen and he saw the facebook page of uncle Abraham. "I am friends with Abe on facebook, so I saw you kids, your cousins and everything. You really should be more careful who can see your lives..."
"Oh man, maybe we should shut down our facebooks, if any old wizard can look up our lives..." Ben whispered to Elly.
"Yeah, we need to remember to do that." Elly said.
Vicky hopped up onto a big table filled with jars of a oozing, glowy, gluey, goo. "This is, what? Icky, itchy Ectoplasm probably? Anyway, yeah." She said.
"Probably." Jack said.
"Of course it is!" The doctor said.
"I know, we were just trying to move the story along, you humans talk about facebook too much." Jack said. Vicky winked at Jack, who nodded.
"So what have you learned about the ectoplasm?" Elly asked.
"Well, let me tell you. Ho he ha. I have seen two interesting phenomena (this is a fancy word for a thing that happened)." The doctor opened his notebook. "FIRST!" he shouted and put one finger in the air. "I witnessed not one but TWO!" he put two fingers in the air "TWO! Two different Birds that had blue beaks that were speaking in french." He flipped the page of his notebook.
"SECOND!" He put two fingers up. "I noticed a specific odor coming from a weird little tree on the top of Hagen hill." He turned and pointed out the window, slamming his notebook down.
Everyone took turns looking at each other. "Um, that's it?" Vicky asked. "I mean, I am just a fox but I saw a spooky spirit spectre spilling out from under the tall, triangle triple tree over in the rough rocky ridge behind the hill over there."
"Hagen hill?" The doctor stood up and pointed out the window again. "Can you believe this guy?" Jack whispered to Vicky. "So dramatic..."
"Out to Hagen Hill we will hike! Ho He HA!" Van Der Waal led the group out of the laboratory.
YOU ARE READING
Mountains of Mystery
AdventureThunder in the Sky Book #1 Ben and Elly are visiting their Uncle Abraham in the mountains to see their cousins Beth and Daniel. But something is wrong with their cousins- they both got terrible illnesses! Ben and Elly go into the mountains to find...
