The Sleepwalking Snowman

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One: Winter Is Weird

  Chapter Two: A Snowman Problem

  Chapter Three: Toasty Toes

  Chapter Four: Snowball Bully

  Chapter Five: The Snowdrift

  Chapter Six: Frightful Weather

  Chapter Seven: Wake Up

  Chapter Eight: Thumpety-Thump-Thump

  Chapter Nine: Catch Me If You Can

  Chapter Ten: Melt Away

  About the Author and Illustrator

  CHAPTER ONE

  WINTER IS WEIRD

  Winter is weird, isn’t it?

  At first, everything is great! There’s a chill in the air. The first snowfall covers the world like a white, fluffy blanket. Even the smell of winter is awesome.

  And there are so many things to do: like snowball fights, skiing, playing hockey, sledding, skating, and even making snowmen.

  Then at night there is nothing better than warming up in front of a roaring fireplace.

  Winter is the best!

  At least it’s the best until the snow gets all dirty and gross. Then the streets get icy and slippery, and it gets so windy outside, you can’t even keep your eyes open.

  The days get shorter. It gets dark right after school. And then there’s no time for winter fun.

  If I thought winter in Kersville was going to be any different, boy, was I wrong.

  Big-time!

  See, that’s me, Andres Miedoso, under all that snow. And that’s my best friend, Desmond Cole, with the snowballs.

  And that’s the sleepwalking snowman. Yeah, you heard me right.

  How did we end up here? Well, like I said, winter is weird!

  Let me start at the beginning.

  CHAPTER TWO

  A SNOWMAN PROBLEM

  It was a perfect winter day. Desmond and I were in his garage, also known as the Ghost Patrol office.

  I took a sip of hot chocolate and slurped down one of the warm, melty marshmallows. It tasted ooey-gooey and hot . . . just the way I like it.

  “What’s that?” I asked, pointing to one of the strange gadgets hanging on his wall.

  “It’s the Goblin Detector 3000,” Desmond said. “But it doesn’t work.”

  My hands started to shake. “G-goblin detector?” I asked.

  Desmond smiled. “When I get it to work, we’ll be able to find goblins anywhere!”

  He was excited about this. Me? I was happy living a goblin-free life!

  A knock on the door made me jump.

  “Looks like we have a customer!” Desmond said as he opened the door.

  A bunch of snow and cold air blew inside. So did a kid, wrapped from head to toe in heavy winter gear.

  “Welcome to the Ghost Patrol,” Desmond said to the kid.

  All we heard was a muffled grunt as the kid unwrapped a super-long scarf.

  Underneath the pile of clothes was a boy. I didn’t know him, but I had seen him around school.

  “My name is Carter James,” he said with a scared look in his eyes. “I have a problem.”

  “Is it a monster problem?” asked Desmond.

  Carter shook his head. “No.”

  “Is it a ghost problem?” Desmond asked.

  “No,” Carter said.

  I leaned forward and asked, “Is it a math problem?”

  “No,” Carter said.

  Why can’t anyone ever come here with a math problem? I thought. That was something I could actually handle. Plus, math was never scary!

  Desmond sat behind his desk. “Tell us what kind of problem you have, Carter.”

  The kid looked over his shoulder, like he was making sure we were alone. “It’s a snowman problem,” he whispered. “You see, I built a snowman in my yard yesterday. But when I woke up this morning, my snowman was gone.”

  “That’s easy to solve,” Desmond said. “It snowed so much last night, your snowman got covered up.”

  “Nope,” Carter said. “That’s not what happened.”

  “Maybe some other kids knocked it down,” I guessed.

  “Y-you don’t understand,” Carter said with a shaky voice. “I f-found the snowman.”

  Now I was getting a little bit nervous. Something about his story was creeping me out.

  “Well, then, the mystery’s solved!” I said. “Sounds like you don’t need us.”

  “I need your help,” Carter pleaded. “My snowman moved to another yard . . . all by itself. Then it vanished. I don’t know where it is!”

  A walking snowman?

  That was all Desmond needed to hear. The Ghost Patrol had a new case!

  CHAPTER THREE

  TOASTY TOES

  Back at my house, I prepared for the snowman mystery.

  The secret to battling the freezing cold is wearing layers of clothes. I put on my favorite red sweater, then my red vest, then the blue scarf and hat my mom knitted for me.

  Last, but not least, I put on my winter boots. I loved them! They were the thickest, furriest, warmest boots I had ever worn. No matter how slushy and cold it was outside, my toes were always dry and toasty!

  The doorbell rang. Of course it was Desmond. He was wearing his Ghost Patrol backpack. That meant he was on the case.

  When Desmond stepped inside, he stopped in his tracks and stared at me.

  “What?” I asked him. What could take away Desmond’s power of speech? It had to be something big!

  “What’s wrong?” I asked again. “Come on, Desmond. Talk to me, man. This isn’t funny.”

  I started to tremble. Was there something behind me? A monster? A mummy? A goblin?

  I swallowed hard and waited for Desmond’s answer, but he just kept staring.

  Just then Zax floated into the room through the wall. “Hey, guys,” he said. But then he stopped talking and stared at me too. His ghost mouth dropped all the way to the ground!

  “Not you, too, Zax!” I screamed. My heart was thumping. “What is everybody staring at?”

  Finally, Desmond and Zax looked at each other and burst out laughing.

  Zax said, “It’s your boots, Andres!”

  “Yeah,” Desmond said. “They’re so . . . furry. Did you steal them from Bigfoot? Or wrestle them away from a bear?”

  Zax nodded as he giggled. “Are they still alive?”

  “You guys are the worst!” I said as my heart slowed to its normal speed. “We’ll see who’s laughing when my feet are warm and your feet are freezing!”

  Zax cackled again. “Dude, I don’t even have any feet!”

  Okay, that made me laugh too. A lot. Maybe too much.

  Desmond cleared his throat. “Are you ready?”

  I nodded. It was time to find the missing snowman.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SNOWBALL BULLY

  Since Zax couldn’t stop giggling every time he looked at my boots, Desmond and I decided to leave him at home. After all, we were on a serious mission. No giggling allowed!

  Soon we were at Carter’s house across from Kersville Park.

  Carter yawned big and loud. “Sorry. I couldn’t sleep last night.” He walked across the yard and stopped near a tree. Desmond and I followed him. The spot was completely empty. “This is where I built the snowman.”

  Right away, Desmond opened his backpack and got to work. A few minutes later, he had set up some flags and tied yellow tape around that part of the yard. Desmond called it “the Ghost Patrol scene.” He really took his job seriously.

  Finally, Desmond said, “Carter, tell me about your snowman.”

  Carter pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket. “Here—I wrote down all the details.”

  Desmond nodded. I could tell he liked this Carter
kid.

  After reading the notes, Desmond searched the Ghost Patrol scene, looking for clues. Then he dropped to his knees and pulled out a . . . ruler? Desmond Cole had a ton of gadgets in his backpack. Why would he need a ruler of all things?

  “Do you see what I see?” Desmond asked, measuring the snow. “Look at these!”

  I bent down. When I looked closely, I could see there were footprints. They were plain with no boot treads or anything. They looked kind of fluffy, too.

  Whoever moved the snowman must have been lighter than air!

  Suddenly something freezing cold hit my head. “Aargh!” I screamed. “What was that?”

  THUD! It hit me again, but this time I knew what it was: a snowball.

  “Hey!” I yelled, looking around. “That’s not cool.”

  Another snowball hit me on the arm. I ducked down.

  “Oh no!” Desmond hollered. “It’s Cindy Lee! Run for it!”

  Across the street, I saw a little girl with an armful of snowballs pop out from behind a tree. And just like an automatic pitching machine, she threw those snowballs at us fast and hard!

  No one had to tell me twice. I ran away. “Who is Cindy Lee?”

  “She’s the neighborhood snowball bully,” said Desmond. “Nobody can win a snowball fight against her. She never misses, and you never see her coming.”

  We reached the back of Carter’s house and everyone stopped to catch their breath.

  “Just once,” Carter huffed, “I’d love to win a snowball fight against Cindy Lee.”

  That wouldn’t be easy. She hit me with so many snowballs that I looked like a snowman. But thanks to my boots, my toes were still super toasty!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  THE SNOWDRIFT

  We waited, silent and still, listening for signs of the snowball bully. But all we heard was nothing. It was a perfectly quiet winter day.

  We peeked our heads out and stared at the park across the street. Cindy Lee was gone.

  Desmond waved a plan to us with his hands: He wanted us to split up and check behind all the trees in the park for the missing snowman.

  I had a hand signal of my own. It meant Let’s go home and have a cup of hot chocolate! Unfortunately, nobody understood my signal.

  So, we split up and searched the park. Desmond went one way, and Carter went the other. Before I knew it, I was all by myself.

  Warm feet or not, I didn’t like being alone. Especially when I was looking for someone I didn’t really want to find.

  Sure, there were other kids and parents in the park, but none of them knew that a snowball bully was on the loose.

  I ducked from one tree to the other, expecting Cindy Lee to jump out any second. But I didn’t find her anywhere. I started to relax.

  That was when a kid on a sled flew by me at top speed. He was moving so fast that I had to jump out of his way. I landed in a huge snowdrift.

  “Ow,” I moaned, lying there. “That hurt.”

  Leaning against the snowdrift, I had an idea. I could use this as a fort in case Cindy Lee came back!

  I started making snowballs and putting them in a pile. Then I noticed something very weird about my winter fort. It had two huge, snowy feet. Looking up, I saw buttons, a long red scarf, and a black hat.

  I stood up, forgetting all about Cindy Lee, and stared at my fort. It had a face . . . with a carrot nose and scary teeth!

  I almost screamed. This wasn’t a snowdrift. This was the biggest snowman I had ever seen!

  It looked so creepy that I waved my arms in front of it to make sure it wasn’t alive. The snowman didn’t move, but this was Kersville. Almost everything here was haunted. So I did the most logical thing I could think of: I climbed onto the snowman and tried to pull off its carrot nose. I tugged and tugged, but it was frozen in tight.

  “Hey, Desmond and Carter!” I yelled. “Come here!”

  A few seconds later, Desmond came over alone. “It’s just me. Carter was tired so he went home to get some sleep—Whoa! That’s a big snowman. Are you trying to climb to the top?”

  “No,” I grunted as I planted my feet on the snowman’s chest to pull harder. “I’m trying to get this carrot.”

  Desmond stared at me in awe. “You’re weird, Andres. Just let it go. This snowman isn’t going anywhere.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  FRIGHTFUL WEATHER

  “Do you think this is Carter’s missing snowman?” I asked after I climbed down.

  Desmond walked around and pulled out the paper that Carter had given him. “There’s only one way to find out. We will follow this list.”

  That made sense to me.

  “Are there three buttons?” asked Desmond.

  “Check,” I said. This snowman had three buttons.

  “And a red scarf?”

  “Check.”

  “And a black—”

  But before Desmond could finish talking, we heard a strange noise. It sounded like a low groan.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  Desmond shrugged. “Dunno.”

  Then we heard it again. But it wasn’t a groan. It was a . . . yawn?

  And it came from the snowman. The creature lifted its arms high into the air and yawned again.

  “The snowman is waking up!” Desmond screamed. “Come on!”

  Desmond ran, but I was too scared to move. I was frozen. Well, everything except my toasty toes, but you already knew that.

  “Andres,” Desmond yelled. “Move!”

  The snowman looked down at me and smiled with its scary, jagged teeth. Then it leaned over and let out a sound that came from deep inside all that snow.

  It was a growl!

  I could definitely run then!

  The snowman stumbled after us with its arms outstretched. It was trying to snatch us!

  Or was it trying to eat us?

  Either way, I didn’t want to find out.

  Desmond and I ran across the park. We jumped over kids on sleds.

  We slid under teens practicing on their snowboards.

  We swooped along the cross-country trails, weaving in between skiers.

  Nothing was going to stop us!

  Nothing . . . until whack!

  A snowball hit the side of my face. Cindy Lee was back!

  Whack! Whack!

  “Ow!” Desmond and I screamed as snowballs crashed all around us.

  Cindy Lee was hiding behind a tree, and she had a pile of snowballs beside her! We were trapped! If we ran one way, we’d be attacked by a snowball bully. But if we ran the other way, we’d be eaten by a snowman monster.

  Desmond and I nodded at each other. There was only one thing to do. We ran toward Cindy Lee!

  And nobody could have been more surprised than Cindy Lee herself. She pelted us with snowballs until she saw the overgrown snowman chasing us. Her eyes widened bigger than big, and before we knew it, all three of us were running from the snowman together.

  Actually, Cindy Lee was way faster than we were. She was gone in a flash.

  Me on the other hand? I slipped and tumbled into the snow. Hard.

  Luckily, we were at the top of an icy hill, and I slid down it on my back.

  “Great idea!” Desmond called as he leaped into the air headfirst. He slid down the hill on his belly and caught up to me.

  Then we glided onto the crowded ice rink at the bottom of the hill. We kept sliding until we crashed right into a heating lamp.

  I closed my eyes, waiting to be grabbed by that snowman. But nothing happened.

  So I opened my eyes just in time to see the snowman. It was still at the top of the hill, looking down at us. Its stare sent shivers through my body.

  But it didn’t come after us anymore. Instead, it turned around and walked back into the woods.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  WAKE UP

  For the first time ever, Desmond Cole didn’t chase after a creepy monster. “Let’s go back to Carter’s house to check out the Ghost Patrol scene,” was all he
said.

  On the way there, I kept checking for that snowman.

  I was still in shock. Did a snowman just come to life and chase us? It was too crazy to be real.

  The good thing was that the snowman wasn’t following us anymore. Plus, Cindy Lee was scared away. We were safe . . . for now.

  Back at the Ghost Patrol scene, Desmond studied the area inside the yellow tape even more carefully now. “I must have missed something,” he told me.

  I sniffled. Being pelted with snowballs and chased in the cold air had given me a runny nose. I needed a tissue. Fast!

  “I’ll be right back,” I said as I ran to Carter’s front door.

  After a few knocks, Carter answered, still looking super sleepy. I must have woken him.

  “Did you solve the case yet?” he asked.

  “No, not yet, but we found your snowman,” I said.

  I could feel my snot turning into an icicle. “Do you have a tissue?”

  “Sure. Yeah. Come in,” Carter said. “There are tissues in the kitchen.”

  He went to get them, and while he was gone, I looked outside the window. Desmond was walking around with a flashlight strapped to his head.

  He was carrying a new gadget, something I had never seen before. This was a strange one. It was a box that glowed, and it had a bunch of antennas pointing in different directions. Every few seconds, it changed color.

  Now what was that?