Read this mysterious tale with caution! Is a white bat haunting this small town of Tiburon on the coast? Or could it really be helping? Brother and sister Mace and Flora plan to find out!

Chapter 1: The Fire

Once upon a time, there was a small town on the edge of the ocean.  The town was called Tiburon. In the town lived a boy named Mace. Mace was 7 years old and in 2^nd grade.  He had brown hair and a nice smile. He was a very friendly kid. Mace had a sister named Flora who was 9 years old. She was a little bit bossy, but his best friend.

They had heard mysterious stories about a white bat that haunted their town. It always seemed to show up when a disastrous event happened.

          One night, Flora told Mace how her best friend at school, Abigail, had lost her house in a fire. It all started out when Abigail woke to the smell of smoke. She ran to her mom and dad’s room. Her mom and dad got her and her brother out of the house. When the family was outside, they realized that the baby and the dog, Spot, were left inside. By now, they couldn’t go back inside because the front door was too hot to touch. The fire truck had just arrived when the mom heard the baby crying. She followed the sound, and strangely, she found the baby and Spot outside safely on the grass.

          Then, Abigail said she noticed a white bat flying above the house. It looked almost like a ghost. Mace asked Flora what the bat was doing there. “I don’t know,” said Flora. “I guess that’s why they call it the legend.”

Chapter 2:  The Boat Wreck

          That wasn’t the only story Mace had heard about this white bat. One day at school, Mace’s classmate Rob told him about how he had been in a boat wreck while fishing with his dad. Rob and his dad were with a group out fishing in the ocean on a big boat. Rob had just had a tug on his line when the boat hit a big, sharp rock.  The boat began to fill with water. There was a huge hole in the side. Quickly, they got out the life raft and got in. They started rowing. Suddenly, a big rain cloud covered the sky. It started raining. The fishermen were cold and wet and couldn’t get back to shore because the wind was blowing them the opposite way. Right as the boat was about to tip, Rob noticed huge white wings through the fog. The rope in front of the boat lifted and the boat began to go towards shore. Rob thought that the white thing had sunk their fishing boat.  He didn’t know how they mysteriously made it back to shore alive.

Chapter 3: The Bridge Collapses

A river ran through the middle of Tiburon into the ocean. There was a bridge to cross it. One night, everyone was going home from soccer practice and it was dark. All of a sudden, there was a creak and a crash. One of the pillars holding up the bridge collapsed. The bridge fell away into the raging river. A car had almost gotten across the bridge when the bridge collapsed and the car was leaning over the water. The family inside was screaming. Mysteriously, the car began to inch back onto land, as if something was pulling it to safety. No one could see what had saved the car hanging over the edge.

Chapter 4: The Cave

Mace was looking out of his car window. He had seen the bridge collapse. A few more feet and his family would have fallen into the river. Luckily, they had not quite reached the bridge yet. Everyone was getting out of their cars to see what had happened and who was hurt. Then Mace saw something white fly out from under the bridge. It flew right past his head. No one else seemed to see it. In the confusion, he decided to follow it and see what it was. It was not a seagull. Not this late at night. He followed it up the hillside and near the top saw a small entrance to a dark cave. The white bird flew inside. Mace was too scared to follow in the dark. He climbed back down the hill to his car and family.

The next morning, he told his sister Flora what he had seen. Was it the haunted bat the town talked about, they wondered? They decided to go back with flashlights to explore the cave. Mace & Flora told their mom they were going to go to buy an ice cream at the corner store and would be home soon. They went up the hill and found the cave entrance. The entrance was small, and they crawled through. Inside, the cave was very big and smelled stinky. They covered their faces with their shirts. The cave floor was covered with white stuff, but otherwise it was empty. Then they heard a rustling noise. Mace looked up. “Flora!” He said. “Look at this!” The roof of the cave was covered with small brown bats hanging upside down in clusters. They were sleeping.

In the middle was a large white bat, much larger than the others. It opened its eyes and looked at them. The children wanted to run away but were frozen in fear. The white bat had soft yellow eyes like the moonlight.  “You are the unlucky bat who has caused all the problems in our town!” said Flora. The bat seemed to shake his head no. He turned around and fluttered down onto a rock near the children. It looked them in the eyes. When it looked at them, they could hear it speaking inside their minds, but its mouth did not move except to make some chirping noises. “My name is Ghost. I did not hurt anyone. When something bad happens, I have been trying to help save people. I am king of the bats. They are my helpers.” Mace answered, “you mean, you saved Abigail’s baby brother and dog from the fire, and Rob in the boat wreck, and the car from the bridge collapsing?”

“Yes,” answered the great white bat.

Chapter 5: The Pirates

          After that meeting, Flora and Mace knew that the great white bat, Ghost, watched over the town and helped protect the people. Sometimes at night they would open their bedroom windows and Ghost would land on the windowsill and say hello. They seemed to understand all the sounds he chirped as if he were speaking.

One night, he landed on Mace’s window and said he had bad news. He said that the town was in great danger. He had been flying over the ocean when he saw a giant boat, and on it was a huge flag with a skull and crossbones. In the front of the boat was a tall man with long gray hair and a gold ring in his nose.  This pirate leader was known as “Dagger.”

“Was it a pirate?” Mace asked hopefully.  “Yes,” answered Ghost,  “a bad one.”  “Oh” said Mace. Flora gasped, “pppp pirates? We’d better tell mom and dad right away! The town will need to defend itself!” “Oh, nonsense,” said Mace, “all pirates are nice.” “Not these pirates,” answered Ghost.

Chapter 6: An Idea

          No one in town believed the children. They thought it was silly for pirates to attack the town. They didn’t think the white bat was real. The mayor thought it was silly too, but he told the town members to set some traps.

First they put a small pile of money under a huge pot of boiling hot of water. Next they put a small pile of cash in the middle of a field of tar.  They also put some gold coins in a tree with a big net under it hidden by some leaves.

Then the mayor told everybody to go inside their houses and stay. A little toddler named Jon was outside with his mom. His mom asked him to go inside with her but he said “NO!” and he ran to the edge of the beach.  The mayor of the town made his mom go inside and Jon was left alone on the beach.

Just then, a rowboat full of mean, dirty pirates reached the shore and grabbed the little boy, Jon. They tied him up and yelled for everyone to bring them their money and valuables or they would have the boy walk the plank. A few of the pirates took the rowboat with the boy back to their big pirate ship. The rest of the pirates lit a campfire on the beach and stayed there.

The mayor went down to the pirate’s camp on the beach. He told them that all the money and coins were ready. He told them to let the little boy go.  Then he went back to town and locked his door so he would stay safe.

Chapter 7: The Traps:

That night, Ghost flew over the pirate camp. They were laughing about how they would take all the money and still make the toddler Jon walk the plank anyway. Ghost flew back to Mace and Flora’s windowsill.  He told them the pirates would make Jon walk the plank even if the town gave them all their money and gold.

“Oh no, Flora said. That’s terrible!”

“I know where there is a rowboat hidden by a big boulder on the beach,” said Mace. “Let’s go rescue Jon tonight!”

“Good idea,” said Ghost. “I can go with you and bring my helper bats.”

“It will be fun,” said Mace. 

“Uh, not if they catch us,” said Flora. 

          That night, as soon as Flora and Mace went to bed, Ghost came in with his helpers.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yep, got our flashlights and our rope and pocketknife,” said Mace.

They all went down to the rowboat together and began to quietly row to the pirate ship. The bats flew silently behind them. Finally they reached the ship. They tiptoed across the deck. The pirates were too busy laughing and talking to see them.

In the meantime, the pirates on shore decided to go get their booty from the town and get back on their pirate ship. They split up into three groups for the three piles of treasure.  The first group saw the money in the tree. The pirates greedily stepped out to get the treasure. They fell in the net and were pulled up into the tree. They were very mad and started yelling.

          Meanwhile, the second group saw the money in the middle of lots of tar, but in the dark, they could not see the tar. One by one, they leaped out to get the treasure but got pulled back into the tar and stuck. They kicked and screamed but could not get out.

          The group that was left walked into town to reach for the treasure right under the pot of hot water.  One of the mayor’s servants tipped the water over and the pirates ran away screaming.  The pot hit one right on the head and knocked him out! The pirates ran right by their shipmates trapped in the net and cut them loose. Then they all pulled their buddies out of the tar. They were a sticky, wet, leafy mess. They ran back to their boats and rowed away to the pirate ship.

Chapter 8: The Rescue

          Mace and Flora searched the big ship with their flashlights. They finally found Jon below deck tied up to a log. He was crying. Mace got out his pocketknife.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said to Jon. Then he cut the ropes.

Flora hugged Jon and asked him if he was OK. 

“Yes,” Jon said.

“You’ve got to be quiet,” they told Jon, “so we can sneak out of here.” They made their way carefully up the stairway to the deck.

Meanwhile, the Captain with long gray hair and a gold ring in his nose, who they called “Dagger,” got tired. He headed down to check on his prisoner. When he found him missing, he let out a yell for his pirate workers to look everywhere for Jon.

At the same time, the pirates from land came back to the ship. Jon, Flora, and Mace were surrounded. There was nothing the bats could do to help them.

“You’ll walk the plank for this, you dirty kids!” yelled Dagger. “There are sharks in these waters. Lots of them,” laughed Dagger. Six dirty pirates carried the kids to the plank. Flora went first. As she was pushed off, Ghost flew under her and she landed right on his back. Then Mace jumped off and swung his rope into the air. As he was about to hit the water, he felt himself being lifted in the air. More bats than he could count were huddled together, grabbing his rope and clothes and lifting him up.  Right before Jon was about to be grabbed again by Dagger, Jon jumped off the plank. He could not swim.  Ghost swooped back under the plank and Jon landed on his back right behind Flora.

The pirates were very mad, but they were also scared. They saw the children flying away from the ship on a white ghost. The boy seemed to have hundreds of tiny wings.

“This place is awful,” moaned the pirates who had been caught in the traps. Some had blisters on their skin from the boiling water. Others had tar and twigs stuck to them.  Dagger pulled up the anchor and steered the boat away as quickly as he could. “Let’s never go back to that town!” he howled. Some of the pirates even cried.

Chapter 9: The Party

The townspeople of Tiburon saw the pirates run away. They knew the little boy was still their prisoner and were worried. They had all come out of their houses and were watching from the shore to see what would happen.

Suddenly, through the mist, swooped Ghost, carrying Flora and Jon on his back. Behind him was Mace being carried by one hundred small brown bats. The people were amazed. They realized that they were wrong about the white bat. It was real. It was not a bad bat. They realized it had saved Abigail’s baby brother and dog from the fire, and Rob from the sinking boat, and the car from the bridge collapsing. Their white bat really was a legend, but it was a good one!

The bats set the children down and Jon ran to hug his mother. His mother cried with happiness and thanked the bats and Mace and Flora for saving him and saving the town. The mayor arranged a party for the next evening.

             The next evening, when Mace and Flora were done setting up for the party, the Mayor called everyone to come to the celebration. Everybody gathered around in a circle. The Mayor presented a medal to Mace and Flora. He also gave a big box of bugs to Ghost and his workers (it lasted them a whole year!) Mace and Flora and Ghost had become great friends and worked together to help the townspeople.

          In some places, they still tell stories of the legend of the white bat. In the town Tiburon, however, they have a gathering every year to remember how Ghost saved the town and people! If you look out your window at night, you might happen to see white wings floating in the sky like a cloud. If you’ve read this book, you’ll know that it was Ghost!

About the Author: Sierra Merrell was born in Washington, D.C.  She is 7 years old and loves to read. This is her first chapter book. She is in second grade. Her main hobby is exploring. She got the idea for this book because she has a toy glow in the dark white bat. Her next book will be called: “The Stinky Ghost.”