– 1 –
A STRANGER ARRIVES

Geela Gribbs was known as more than a little weird.
        She looked ordinary enough to Caro Carolina, when she came to pick up the key to Pirate's Den, the tiny cottage next door. She did all the usual things. She smiled and admired the view of the ocean. Caro's mother said, like she did with all the guests, "You must be tired after your long drive." Geela admitted she was, took the key, turned to go. And then she snapped her fingers, looked downward, and said, "Come on, Fluffers."
        There was no one with Geela Gribbs, no one Caro's mother saw, no one Caro saw. Caro and her mother looked each other in the eye. Without either of them saying a word, they decided then and there that the new guest was weird.
        But it didn't matter, Caro's mother told Caro once the new guest was out of hearing range. Geela had paid in full for two weeks, and she looked harmless.
        That was mid-afternoon, Friday, June 15th, right after Caro's last day of school, two days after Cassie and Liana had said they weren’t talking to her anymore.

No shiver went up or down Caro’s spine. She didn’t have a strange feeling in her stomach. She just plain didn’t have an inkling that, in just one week, she would find herself, in the middle of the night, past the edge of town, on a deserted stretch of road, facing the ditch, needing to climb down into it, and yet afraid to, afraid of what she would find there – but even more afraid of doing wrong if she did not go. An urgent whining was coming from the ditch.
        On June 15th, that was far away.

Caro's Quest - a preteen girl and ghost dog story

Just what is this preteen girl and ghost dog story about?
This preteen girl and ghost dog story is about a preteenage girl - Caro Carolina, 13,
whose two closest friends have just decided not to talk to her.
This preteenage girl and ghost dog story is also about Geela Gribbs,
the grownup who comes to stay in the little cottage beside Caro's home.
Most, this preteenage girl and ghost dog story is about a ghost dog.

But it's hard for Caro to think of Fluffers as a ghost.
She thinks of Fluffers as invisible - because that's what Fluffers is, to her anyway.
Totally invisible.
And as Caro finds out, Fluffers is dead. That would make Fluffers a ghost.
But no one ever talks of Fluffers as a ghost. Somehow that word does not fit.
So this preteen girl and ghost dog story is about a dog that is a ghost dog,
but that no one talks about as a ghost dog.

There is more to this preteen girl and ghost dog story.
Caro is asking herself questions about what is real.
She stopped believing in the tooth fairy long ago.
But what about Fluffers? Is Fluffers real?
How can one tell - especially if someone else sees Fluffers, but Caro can't?

In this preteen girl and ghost dog story, Caro wonders a lot.
Like, is Geela nuts?
And what about flaky Fran who reads palms and is always acting as if she talks to spirits
the way other people talk on the phone.

Like so many people asking questions, in this preteen girl and ghost dog story,
Caro can't get answers that make sense to her from anyone.
The grownups around her have such definite - and totally different - opinions.
You wouldn't believe they were living on the same planet, from the way they talked.
God plans everything out. There is no god.
Spirits float around everywhere. All this stuff about ghosts and spirits is hogwash.

Hogwash? Caro imagines someone washing a hog, a great big smelly pig.
In her mind's eye, the hog snorts.

That doesn't give Caro any answers.

In this preteen girl and ghost dog story, Caro Carolina looks for answers over and over.
She wishes everything was simple, the way it used to be when she was sure the tooth fairy was real.
But it isn't.

And then Fluffers comes to her in the night, leads her to a deserted stretch of road,
and disappears at the edge of a ditch. In the ditch, Caro finds Jake, a schoolmate.
A car hit him hard.. The driver didn't stop.

How did Fluffers know? How could Fluffers reach her?

And how can Doug see Fluffers - Doug the quiet kid Caro Carolina has never even noticed,
but who has been in her school since the first grade.
That's something else this preteen girl and ghost dog story is about.
Friendship - figuring out who can be a friend.
And for Caro, this is the first time she's been friends with a boy.
So this preteen girl and ghost dog story is also a girl boy story.

Who is a friend? How do we get the help we need?
What is real? Most of us keep asking those questions.

The Fluffers Book -
a preteen girl and ghost dog story for all ages.

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a preteen girl and ghost dog story for all ages, click here.

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