Kelly Bandersaw's closet was haunted.

  Every night, when her dad came home from his job working second shift at the factory in the city, her closet door would open by itself. Creaking on old hinges, the door would swing out into the room, the clothes hanging on the bar inside making odd shapes in the gloom. From her bed, the darkness inside looked impenetrable.

  Kelly would lay in her bed, her eyes huge, until she could work up the courage to shoot out of her bed and through her bedroom door, down the steps to the kitchen, and into her dad's arms.

  "Oh, Kelly," her dad would sigh. He would hug her and brush his calloused hands over her hair.

  The first few times it happened, her dad had checked the door out, with her younger brothers hovering in her doorway curiously. They normally would be teasing her and jostling each other at any mentions of ghosts. But that first night they were both oddly silent as they watched their dad test the door. He swung it in and out and frowned at the mechanisms as if they held some answer to the ghostly phenomenon.

  "It opened by itself," Kelly insisted, rubbing the palms of her hands over her upper arms.

  Her dad frowned at the door and nudged it with a finger. The door creaked and swung easily outward.

  "You've got a lot of stuff hanging on the outside," he said, with a frown and a hard look at the hoodies and cardigans hung one on top of the other on some hooks she had drilled into the outside of the door.

  "I was in bed, dad, I didn't even touch the door!" Kelly said indignantly. What did her stuff have to do with the door opening by itself? All that stuff was always on her door, but it only opened at night.

  Her dad shut the door a few times, finally pressing the door in very hard until there was a dull click. Then, twisting the door knob, and pressing the door shut. Then, just swinging it shut with the barest of effort. After a second, the door swung open on it's own and her dad gave her an I-Told-You-So sort of look.

  Kelly boiled with embarrassment and frustration. Her little brothers started to titter.

  "You didn't even latch it! I know to latch the closet door, Dad!" she shouted.

  "Kelly, it's an old house. It's an old door," her dad said in his peace keeper voice, which always pissed her off. She wasn't a little kid. She didn't need him to patronize her. "The closet door is a little out of shape. I don't think it's latching right and all the weight on the door might have pulled the hinges a little off center. I'll fix it okay? But, I promise, it's not a ghost."

  Her brother's were snorting and she could feel her face heating with embarrassment and anger.

  "Aw, Kelly. You can sleep with us if you're scared," Terrence, said in a baby voice.

  "Kelly's scared of ghosts," the youngest boy, Jamal, laughed.

  Kelly whirled around in a dramatic swirl of her bathrobe, ready to show her brothers what they would get for messing with her. Luckily for them, her Dad stepped in to stop her.

  "Boys!" he boomed. "Back to bed! I don't want to hear you teasing your sister. It's an honest mistake."

  The boys scurried off, but Kelly could hear them still snickering and whispering to one another. It definitely wasn't going to be the last she heard of the ghost in her closet, either from her brothers or the ghost itself.

  She sat heavily on the edge of her bed. Now that her anger and shame were fizzling out, she felt shaky and scared. Her dad didn't believe her, her brothers thought she was a joke, and now she was alone with a ghost and no one to turn to.

  Her dad sat down beside her, his bulk tilting the mattress down in the middle. She had to lean sideways not to fall into his side.

  Kelly sniffed and wiped at her eyes, trying to hold onto her dignity by her fingernails.

  Her dad put his arm around her shoulders. His arm was warm and he smelled nice, like his soap and aftershave underneath the dust and grime of the warehouse.

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  "I'm sorry, Kelly. I know it's hard on all of you, me being gone in the evening. But, I know it's hardest on you," he said. He sounded tired. He always sounded tired lately.

  Kelly thought about what it was like to be responsible for two kids every night. She had to make them dinner, make them do their homework, as well as worry about her own schoolwork. She was only fifteen. But, until her dad could get onto first shift, there wasn't much they could do. There weren't a lot of jobs to be had around Middlely and they were lucky that their dad had a good paying one.

  She didn't like all the responsibilities she had to take on, but her dad obviously didn't like them either. They were just stuck.

  Sniffing again, Kelly let herself fall into her dad's side, let herself feel his warmth sink into her through her pajamas.

  "The house is scary at night," she said, her voice thick with tears. "I don't like being here by myself."

  "You have Terry and Jamal," her dad said hopefully, but even he didn't sound like he believed two elementary school boys were much comfort.

  Finally, a sob broke through and Kelly hid her face in her dad's shoulder. "Oh, sweetheart," he sighed, and turned sideways to pull her into a hug. "It's just temporary, I promise. I'll figure something else out soon."

  But, he never did figure anything else out. And, eventually, Kelly stopped complaining about the ghost.

  When her dad came home at night, and the door creaked open, she would run downstairs to him. She would hug him and feel the cold of the night on the outside of his clothes. He wouldn't ask why she was still awake and she wouldn't offer it. He would heat something up to eat in the microwave and they would sit in the dark living room and watch TV until she was tired enough to go back to bed by herself.

  Then, one night, something changed.

  Kelly woke up when she heard the back door open and close. Her dad was home, which meant the ghost would soon come out.

  In the dark of her bedroom, Kelly opened her eyes and looked at her closet. It was already open. There was a dark figure crouched inside.

  It was a man. Even in the dim light of the moon streaking through her window, Kelly could tell that it was a man crouched in her closet with his back to her. He was doing something to the hinge of the door, something in his hand working at it, resulting in a very faint squeaking and the clicking of metal on metal.

  Kelly held her breath, frozen. She knew her eyes were huge in her face. She knew that her dad was just below her and she ought to call out for him. Or, if she wasn't going to do that, she should at least try to pretend to be asleep. But, she couldn't bring herself to do anything. She was completely frozen in fear.

  Standing, the man looked even bigger. She could make out some kind of belt with weird shaped things attached to it slung around his hips.

  He swung the closet door back and forth, back and forth. It was completely silent, no more creaking or groaning coming from the old rusted hinges. Then, he stepped back and swung the closet door shut. It closed with a quiet click.

  The man made a pleased humming noise.

  Kelly's dad had been moving around downstairs during all of this. She heard the beep of the microwave downstairs, the quiet thunk of the fridge door opening and closing. She listened to her dad pace the kitchen a few times, before the oddness of her absence seemed to bother him enough that he started the slow process of clomping up the stairs in his work boots.

  The man's head turned toward her bedroom door at the noise. Then, he seemed to notice Kelly's big terrified eyes in the dark.

  He turned to her.

  He didn't look like a ghost. He looked like some guy who just crawled off the cover of a harlequin romance novel, but a lame one about a lumberjack or something. He was handsome, but also sort of bland looking. He was clean cut, with a plaid shirt, a tool belt, blue jeans, and brown work boots.

  When he caught her staring at him, he smiled with charming straight white teeth and actually winked at her.

  "What the heck?" Kelly whispered, frowning at the weird man standing in the middle of her bedroom.

  Before she could say or do anything else, he crossed to her window and lifted it. A blast of cold night air rushed into her room, ruffling the curtains.

  The man wiggled the window frame in his hand, frowning at it thoughtfully.

  "I'll come back to fix this some other time," he said over his shoulder with a smile, before diving through the window and disappearing into the night.

  When Kelly's dad burst in, Kelly had managed to at least sit up in bed so that she could stare at the open window.

  "Did I hear someone talking in here?" her dad asked, sounding a little out of breath.

  Still dumbfounded, Kelly pointed at her open window.

  Frowning, her dad rushed across her small bedroom. "Why did you leave the window open, Kelly? It's too cold tonight for that."

  "I didn't," she said faintly. But, if her dad heard her, he didn't make any indication of it.

  He stuck his head out her open window, looking this way and that. Their yard was small and bracketed on both sides by a tall fence. The moon was full that night, providing plenty of light to see. Her dad turned his head left and right, sticking his head all the way out the window, but he didn't see anyone.

  Still frowning, he came back inside and pulled the window shut, then locked it.

  Coming back to Kelly, he knelt on the floor by her bed with a grunt of effort.

  "Kelly, sweetheart," he said, gathering her hands in his big warm ones. "I thought I heard a man in here. Why-"

  "There was," she interrupted him to say.

  Her dad froze.

  "He fixed my closet?" she asked more than said, finally turning to frown at her dad.

  "What?" he asked, mirroring her frown back at her.

  "A guy just broke into my room and fixed my closet?" she said again. Or asked. She had no idea what was going on. "And, he said he'd be back to fix my window next."

  That, at least, seemed to be something her dad knew how to answer.

  "The hell he will," Mr. Bandersaw said with a thunderous frown.

  Within a week, Kelly's dad had gotten moved to first shift at a very small pay cut. He had also replaced Kelly's window with a brand new one and installed a security system with cameras at every corner and entryway of their house.

  Kelly was never happier.