"And then," Penny says, "I think I'll try a chocolate chip cookie."

"Okay. Lemme get you a bag."

"Not with the coffee. In the coffee, all crumbled up."

There is no point asking Penny the why of anything. Becky grabs a cookie, thinks for a moment, and wraps a clean cloth around the comestible before fetching the hammer. Theirs is possibly the only coffee shop in Minnesota that keeps a fully stocked tool kit next to the refrigerator; but she can't imagine how the others do without it.

"So I had such an interesting morning. I went out to get my hair done."

She has six customers in line and a Penny story to contend with. Uncle Mac, where are you when I need you?

(Out playing hockey with Jack, as she'd insisted. Oops.)

"Did you?"

"No, not yet. Because I'd forgotten the nice old lady who used to do it for me retired last week, and I couldn't remember who she said I should go to instead...ooh, I'll have to go find that place next. You see, I thought I knew the right street, but I got lost."

"You got lost in Mission City?" the next customer asks. "How?"

Becky gives him his black coffee and an imploring look. He shrugs, leaves.

"Oh, well, I can get lost anywhere," Penny says, sipping her cookie-reinforced drink. "Even in my own house, once...so I went down the street, and just kept going, and going, and eventually I found myself at the lumber mill. You know. The old, haunted lumber mill."

"That's a good three miles away from downtown," Eudora says. Becky makes sure to smile at her; the librarian's command of Minnesota's interlibrary loan system is what keeps her and her uncle in books. "One iced coffee, not too heavy on the sugar."

"Here's one I prepared earlier," Becky says in relief.

"Thank you. Will you tell Mac, the latest edition of 2600 just arrived."

"Sure thing."

"The old, haunted lumber mill," Penny repeats. "I thought, maybe I'd go say hello to the ghosts, cheer them up, so I went around looking for an entrance, but all the doors were locked. But I found a way in by accident." She giggles. "Actually, I fell down it."

"Now that I can believe," Luke says, with a isn't-she-something look for Becky. It's not as bad waiting on him as some of her other classmates; for one thing, he's kinda cute. She'd even thought about dating him, until the day he'd said he couldn't imagine living anywhere besides Mission City- and that is one family mistake she is definitely not going to repeat.

"Gingerbread, yeah?"

"With chocolate sprinkles?"

"With chocolate sprinkles," Becky agrees. "You didn't hurt yourself or anything, did you?"

"Oh, no! It was a nice smooth slide all the way. But it was just a little steep to climb up, so I went out to find another way out- and do you know what I saw?"

"Let me guess," Hans says. "Ghosts! Becky, my regular?"

"Sorry, but the bakery ran out of pumpkin mix. Can I sell you on a banana bread muffin with your coffee?"

"A sweet girl like you? You can do anything you like, honey." He winks at her. Becky rolls her eyes. Some of the older guys in town really push the envelope.

"Nooo, they weren't ghosts," Penny says thoughtfully. "They were spooky, and they were whispering, but when I found the light switch and turned it on, they didn't vanish. And then they started shooting at me, and I never heard of a ghost that tried to shoot anyone."

"Whoa," Becky says. "What?"

"Just what I said! They were shooting at me, and I ran! But they couldn't shoot at me very well because the whole room was full of crates, and I just hid behind them, and then I found a door that I could lock and locked it. So there I am," Penny says dramatically. "The heroine, trapped! In an old mop cupboard. It was just like that last play I was in- or was it the play before that?"

Sergeant Olson doesn't even notice when Becky hands him the usual apple fritter doughnut; he's whipped out his notebook and is scribbling like mad.

"But then, on stage I'd have someone else to rescue me. This time I didn't have a co-star...so you know what, Becky? It was really your uncle that saved me."

"Uh- was he there, or something?"

"Oh, no. But I just thought, he's so clever at making something out of nothing, what would he do in my place? Mix up all the chemicals lying around- of course, I didn't know what the right ones were. So I just put everything I could find in a bucket, and it started to fizzle and give off this terrible smell, and smoke, and I rushed out and they couldn't see me. Because of the smoke. But then I tripped and spilled it all over one of the crates, and it just went up like- whoosh! So then there was even more smoke, and just everything was on fire when I found the stairs, and I suppose those three men are still there trying to put the fire out. But they really shouldn't have been keeping anything there, anyway. I mean, the mill is for the ghosts..."

"Have you filed a police report yet, young lady?" Sergeant Olson says sternly. "I think we'd better be going down to the station."

"Oh, that'll be fun! I haven't been there since the time I accidentally crashed my car into your police car, I think."

Penny smiles. There is a speechless silence.

"Just as soon as I finish this drink. I thought I deserved a chocolate chip cookie after a morning like that, don't you?"