[Muffled heartbeat]
[Child laughing]
Betty Ann! Kiki!
You guys!
What's taking you guys so long?
I thought I'd lost you.
How can you walk so fast in this heat?
Yeah. We're dying.
Come on. We're almost there.
I'm not sure sitting by a roaring fire
is the best way to spend the hottest night of the year.
I say we rename it "the Heat Wave Society"
and tell the story by my uncle's pool.
Come on. It's not that hot.
How can you say that?
How could she say that? How could she wear that?
You still have your jacket on?
By the end of my story, you'll be wearing yours, too.
'Cause I got a sure way...
To beat the heat...
A story that's guaranteed to give everyone
a massive case of the shivers.
Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society...
I call this story...
It all began when
Charles Pemberton Shelley III
was sent with his baby-sitter
to spend a weekend with his aunts
so his parents could go to a wedding out of town.
It was the coldest winter
anyone could remember in 100 years.
Aren't you hot with all that stuff on?
It's 90 degrees in here.
I'm not allowed to catch a cold.
[Kristen] Daphne had been putting up with--
I mean, baby-sitting Charles since she was 12,
so she knew what she was getting into.
Are we here?
Yep. This is it.
Whoa. Spooksville or what?
What's the holdup?
[Chauffeur] Doesn't look like anyone's home.
[Charles] Yeah.
I don't think this is the place.
How do you know? You've never met them.
Come on.
Now what's the problem?
What if they're asleep?
What if they get mad at us for waking them up
and don't like us and they're mean all week?
They're your relatives,
not a couple of wicked old witches.
I hope.
[Creaking]
Little Charlie?
Is that our little Charlie?
I don't believe it!
We haven't seen you since you were a baby.
How you've grown!
This must be the baby-sitter Debbie.
Daphne.
Oh. So sorry.
But you're right, so please, do come in.
Come. Come along, Charlie. Oh, my goodness.
Oh, Charlie. Ha ha ha!
Come along, dear.
Young man,
you must be exhausted from the drive.
Why don't you let us make you a cup of tea?
Thanks, but I'd better be going.
Thanks for the invitation.
Shame he had to run off.
Well, they never do stay long anyway.
The main thing is,
we have our little Charlie with us.
Let us give you the grand tour of our humble abode.
[Daphne] Let me help you with that.
Nonsense! You are our guests.
That's right.
We want you to be absolutely comfortable.
[Daphne] I'm sure we will be.
No, no. We're only trying to be good hosts.
Maylene...
I thought we agreed not to mention that.
Gretta, dear, I only said hosts,
not ghosts.
Ghosts?
Silly me. My hearing isn't what it used to be.
Ghosts?
Your aunts are totally neat.
What?
They're kind of... weird.
Why? Because their house isn't new and perfect like yours?
We can't all be Richie Rich.
Don't. You'll get it wrinkly.
Fine. Do it yourself if you're going to be picky.
Mom said I have to take care of my things.
Whatever. I'll draw your bath, sire.
[Boy's voice] I'm cold.
Daphne, wait!
Did you hear that?
What?
A voice from outside.
The wind, Charles. You heard the wind.
Now get a move on, or you'll be late for supper.
[Squeaking]
[Voices whispering]
Who's there?
[Voices whispering]
[Daphne] A wood stove! How totally great.
This old thing never quite worked right, I'm afraid.
We're only using it
because the electric range
doesn't work when the power's out.
Why is the power out?
Oh, it's that old electric company.
They get all uppity
when a person's just a wee bit late with the payment.
Gretta, dear, it's been three months.
Hush, Maylene.
Remember what Father always said--
"keep your finances to yourself."
If you're having trouble with money, well,
won't Charles' parents help you out?
Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
Did Father say that, too, Gretta?
Actually, Father would roll over in his grave
if he heard us even talking about borrowing money
from the Pemberton and Shelley side of the family.
Why? It's not like they're short on cash.
There was this little feud.
It was a long time ago.
There was a terrible falling-out
between Father and Uncle Charlie.
Uncle Charlie was Charles' great-grandfather.
He hired a common criminal to work on the farm.
Uncle Charlie didn't know he was a criminal
when he hired him!
But Father thought
there was something odd about him from the start.
Uncle Charlie wouldn't listen.
Wow. Was he a murderer?
[Gretta] Goodness, no.
Far as I know, he was a bank robber.
What happened?
The police caught him in the woods out back
and put him on the train to prison.
End of story.
Gretta, dear, that wasn't my understanding.
I heard he never made it to prison.
The train crashed,
and everybody on it was killed.
They never found the body of that poor man.
Tea?
Whoops!
I thought we'd closed that window
after we let the smoke out.
We did, Sister.
Maybe it doesn't shut just right.
I'm sure I felt a distinct chill just now.
[Gretta] It's all right, children.
We'll see about having it fixed in the morning.
Walter was supposed to do it,
but he left rather suddenly.
Who's Walter?
[Gretta] He was our old maintenance man.
I'm afraid he got rather impatient with us.
Because you couldn't pay him?
Is that why he left?
I thought it was because of the ghost.
Ghost?
Would you like more macaroni and cheese?
There's a ghost here? Is it the bank robber?
Ghost?
I don't think we should talk about such things.
Why not?
We know how young imaginations
can take the simplest things
and build them up into nightmares.
I'm not afraid of ghosts and neither is Charles,
are you, Charles?
Ghosts?
Really, dear, it's better we don't.
I'm going to apologize,
because every time I talk about this,
strange things happen.
Maylene, that is enough.
Give that back, kid.
Give that back!
Yah!
Help! Help!
I'm cold.
Aah! Aah!
Help!
Tell them I saw it! I saw it!
Charles, what are you doing?
The ghost! I saw the ghost!
It was a boy. It was outside. It was calling to me.
You had a bad dream. Get out of my bed and go to sleep.
It wasn't a dream.
I was having a bad dream, and then I woke up.
The window burst open-- crash! Like that.
Then I looked down, and I saw him.
You've got to believe me!
[Door slams]
[Knock knock knock]
Daphne! Let me in.
[Sigh]
Now, now, children.
It's not nice to argue.
Why won't you tell Auntie Gretta what's wrong?
Charles kept me up all night
because he thinks he saw a ghost.
He's mad because I don't believe him.
What's that? What did you see?
The ghost. I saw it.
He says it talked to him.
It did!
Gretta, did you hear that?
It's never spoken to us.
You mean, you've seen it, too?
Now, Daphne--
Debbie.
Daphne.
You mean, there is a ghost,
and it's not just a ghost story?
I suppose there's no use pretending now.
It was Charlie we were trying to protect,
and he's already seen it.
Besides, it never comes in the house,
so there's no need to worry.
You guys really believe this, don't you?
[Maylene] Of course we do.
Cool. Whose ghost is it?
No one knows exactly, but--
there was this little boy
who lived at a neighboring farm,
and Father said he used to
come over here all the time,
sneak around the house
trying to find where mother hid the cookies.
What happened to him?
It's very tragic. No one really knows.
They just found him one day out in the woodshed,
all curled up like he was trying to keep warm.
They said he froze to death, poor thing.
How sad.
Oh! Look at that.
The fire's gone out again.
And we have no more wood.
Does that mean we're going to freeze to death?
No. There's plenty of wood around.
Tell me where to go. I'll bring some in.
I was thinking, maybe we should call Mom and Dad,
and they can come and get us.
I'm sure their wedding's over by now.
The ax isn't where they said it would be.
Ax?
How else do you chop wood?
I don't know. I've never chopped wood.
There's a first time for everything. Come on.
Am I going to get dirty chopping wood?
Filthy.
This should do the trick.
Hey, this isn't hard at all.
In fact, it's kind of fun.
Want to try?
Yeah!
But I'm not allowed to play with sharp things.
I can't take it anymore. You are a total wuss.
I am not!
You're always finding an excuse not to do things.
When are you going to quit being a freak?
I am not a freak!
If it weren't for me, you'd be a couch potato,
sitting at home playing a nice, safe video game
in your nice, clean clothes.
What's wrong with clean clothes?
You want to know?
I'll show you what's wrong with clean clothes.
Uh! Oh!
Oh, look, he's still alive! What a surprise.
He survived a little bit of mud.
That's it! I'm telling my mom you did that.
I'm telling my mom and dad.
They're going to get angry at you and--
[boy's voice] I'm cold.
What was that?
The ghost! The ghost!
We have to get back to the house.
Maylene and Gretta said it won't come inside.
I think it came from over here.
No--Daphne! Come back!
Daphne!
Where did you go?
[Wind blowing]
[Footsteps]
Daphne!
I'm cold.
Aah!
Daphne, help!
I'm cold.
Aah!
[Screaming]
I'm cold.
Aah!
Aah! Aah!
Oh. The ghost! I saw it.
It's following me!
Calm down.
I'm cold.
What does it want?
The log from my dream.
What?
He was in the log.
The bad guy pulled off his--
Charles!
I see something.
[Daphne] What are you doing?
He just wanted his coat.
We helped him.
Yeah. We helped him.
What's this?
It must have fallen out of the jacket.
[Maylene] Whatever could that be?
Looks like some kind of key.
I know!
[Gretta] Why, of course!
It's the latch for the stovepipe.
That's why it never worked properly.
We couldn't get the flue open without it.
[Rattling in stovepipe]
Maylene, Gretta,
I have a feeling your money troubles are over.
The criminal hid the gold in the pipe.
And the little boy saw him
when he was looking for cookies.
Charles' dream.
Poor kid.
He froze to death hiding from the criminal,
and no one knew.
I told you you'd get the shivers.
I declare this meeting
of the Heat Wave Society closed.
Good night, everybody.
Captioned by Grant Brown