“I think . . . two hundred dollars is our base rate.”

Shelly looks over from making tea. “Two hundred?” she asks. They’re not supposed to charge everyone money—and never before they’ve seen what the haunting is like.

“A base rate,” Grandma repeats. “It may change if the ghost is harder or easier to deal with.”

“That’s all right,” says Anna, looking grateful to be told yes, even if it comes with a steep price. “I’ll pay anything.”

Anna’s house is an old place on top of a hill. Shelly hears the ghost as soon as they step inside—a rattling squeak coming from the fireplace in the living room just off the entrance. The house is huge, with high ceilings and real wood floors. Anna’s couches are piled high with decorative pillows, and she has photos of her family all along the wooden mantle of the fireplace.

The sound that fills the living room makes it almost unbearable to stand in. Anna shivers as she leads them inside. Shelly wonders if the noise is as loud for her as it is for Shelly and Grandma or if she can hear anything at all.

“I see,” says Grandma. “Quite an active ghost, isn’t it?”

“So it is haunted?” Anna asks, tugging at her necklace. “Sometimes I hear sounds like someone is screaming in here —like someone’s being hurt. Can you fix it? Get rid of it?”

“Oh yes,” Grandma says. “This won’t be a problem at all. The basic package will more than cover it. Shelly?”

Shelly walks over to the rattling fireplace and ducks her head down so she can peer up the dark shaft. She can’t see much—it’s black with soot and there’s no light—but another squeak comes from above her and Shelly is glad her head is up the chimney so no one can see her laugh.

It’s an easy ghost. A raccoon that got stuck in the chimney. He looks furious about being stuck. When Shelly lets down her hair, he grabs hold of it eagerly, pulling himself free from the shaft and climbing straight into her arms.

There’s still a large part of Shelly that doesn’t want to be dealing with someone else’s ghost, but she can’t help feeling proud when she walks back over to Grandma and Anna. “I got him!”

“That was it?” Anna asks. “I thought there’d be more ceremony.”

“He didn’t want to haunt you. He just got wedged in the wrong place and couldn’t get loose,” Shelly says. “He won’t bother you again.”

“You should get a professional chimney sweep in before you try starting a fire this winter,” Grandma adds. “Just in case.”

Anna counts out $200 in twenties and Grandma tucks them into her purse. Shelly carries the chittering raccoon out into the daylight and he leaps from her arms, fading from sight as he hits the ground.