The Old Willis Place: A Ghost Story

To prove her humanity, Diana requires toiletries and new clothes. The only way to obtain these supplies is to enter the old Willis place—so, she squeezes through a broken window that leads “into the cellar” (55). The house smells of cat urine and decay, and it makes creaking and moaning noises as if it were alive. Diana cautiously climbs the stairs to the first floor and enters Miss Lilian’s bedroom.

Diana knows she must work quickly, so she gathers some cleaner clothes from the closet and soaps from the bathroom. As she grabs the soaps, she notices movement out of the corner of her eye. Diana turns to see Miss Lilian, “wilder and stranger than ever, her hair long and tangled, her clothes in rags” (58). As Diana stumbles back, she pieces together that she is looking at a mirror, not Miss Lilian—and realizes why Lissa was so afraid of her. When Diana returns to Georgie, she catches the albino deer watching her.

Unaware of Diana’s plan to meet Lissa, Georgie doesn’t understand why his sister wants to bathe and wear clean clothes. When Diana offers soap to him, he scowls and declines. Diana enters the pond to comb her hair and scrub her body. She eventually emerges from the water with her hair back to its original color and body scrubbed free of grime. Georgie almost doesn’t recognize Diana; he suspects that she wants to change for Lissa and runs away in anger.

Diana doesn’t go after her brother; instead, she watches Lissa from afar. When Lissa reads her returned diary, she shouts her answer: She agrees to meet Diana but will bring Macduff for protection. Diana skirts past the parlor windows, hoping Miss Lilian isn’t watching, and waits for Lissa on the terrace.

Lissa and Macduff approach Diana on the terrace. After some initial hesitation, Lissa sits next to Diana. When Lissa asks about Diana’s wild appearance, the latter lies and says her parents don’t mind how she and Georgie present themselves. Diana looks at Lissa’s clean tennis shoes and then down at her own bare feet. She explains that she doesn’t have shoes and holds up “one foot so [Lissa] could see the sole, as black and as hard as if it were made of leather” (70). Lissa kindly offers Diana her old shoes, the thought of sharing making the latter smile.

Just as Diana is starting to feel like Lissa is warming up to her, the latter asks about her stolen items. Lissa says she won’t be mad, but she wants them back. Diana’s cheeks burn as she explains that the bike is broken beyond repair, but Lassie Come Home will be returned once she’s done reading it one last time. Having read the book multiple times, Lissa agrees to let Diana keep it for now. She asks for her teddy bear back, but Diana insists that Georgie needs it.

While hurt about the bear, Lissa moves on to more questions: Where is Georgie now? Where do Diana and Georgie live? Do their “parents know [they] come here after dark?” (72). Diana answers as best as she can, her lies beginning to grow. She says that Georgie is probably by the pond, that they live across the highway, and that their parents don’t know about her and Georgie sneak out at night. Lissa comments that the siblings are “pretty good at sneaking” (73), since they sneak into her room and “borrow” things so often. She says they can only be friends if Diana returns Tedward.

Before Diana can respond, Georgie bursts out of the woods with paint on his face, feathers in his hair, and “wearing nothing but a loin cloth” (73). He shouts at Lissa, who starts and drops Macduff’s leash. The noise is loud enough to bring Mr. Morrison out of the trailer. Diana is petrified, as Mr. Morrison is an adult and “harder to fool” (75). Mr. Morrison tries to check if Georgie is hurt, but the boy scurries away, still livid. Once Diana and Lissa assure Mr. Morrison that Georgie wasn’t hurt by Macduff, he invites Diana home with them for snacks. Certain that she permanently damaged her and Georgie’s relationship, Diana follows the family to the trailer.

At the trailer, Diana’s lies spiral out of control. To explain her and Georgie’s oddities, she invents a strict set of parents that won’t let them make friends, wear normal clothes, watch television, or “drink sugary stuff like lemonade” (83). Diana tells Lissa that the two of them “will have to be secret friends” (83), and the latter promises to be friends forever.

Once Mr. Morrison finishes asking questions, Diana and Lissa get to know each other better. They discuss their favorite colors, foods, and book—which is Lassie Come Home for both of them. Finally, Lissa asks Diana who her favorite actor is, and she names Roy Rogers—to the former’s confusion; Diana begins to question how much time has passed since she and Georgie came to the farm. Lissa suddenly announces that she wants to meet Georgie and make amends, so Diana leads her into the woods to find him.