Wicked, Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House

Maureen Swanson is the scourge of the neighborhood.

At age nine, she already has a reputation as a hard slapper, a loud laugher, a liar, and a stay-after-schooler.

The other kids call her Stinky. So sometimes when Maureen passes the crumbling (and haunted?) Messerman mansion, she imagines that she is Maureen Messermanrich, privileged, and powerful.

Then she finds a way into the forbidden, boarded-up house.

In the hall are portraits of seven young women wearing elaborate gowns and haughty expressions.

Maureen has something scathing to say to each one, but then she notices that the figures seem to have shifted in their frames.

So she reaches out her finger to touch the paintjust to make sureand touches . . . silk! These seven daughters of privilege are colder and meaner than Maureen ever thought to be.

They are wicked, wicked ladies, and Maureen has something they want. . . .