66 pages 2 hours read

Mary Downing Hahn

Wait Till Helen Comes

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1986

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Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

Each day, Dave works in his pottery shed and Mom paints in her studio. They assume Michael and Molly are looking after Heather. Instead, Michael stalks insects for his collection and Molly reads and writes.

Wading in the creek one afternoon, Molly hears Heather speaking to someone in the graveyard and finds her sitting trancelike by the dead girl’s grave. Heather promises “Helen” to do whatever she wants if Helen will be her friend. Molly, concerned, interrupts Heather, who angrily tells Molly to stop spying on her. Molly briefly feels a dark presence in the graveyard, is creeped out, and leaves.

Molly tells Mom the graveyard is haunted, but Mom, exasperated, dismisses her fears. Molly attempts to talk privately to Michael about it, but he also disregards her supernatural theories, suggesting that Heather was talking to an imaginary friend. Heather interrupts, saying that Helen dislikes both Molly and Michael. Heather threatens that when Helen comes, she will make them pay for being mean to Heather. Molly is fearful, but Michael thinks she is being foolish. Hurt, Molly rejects Mom’s offer of ice cream.

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By Mary Downing Hahn

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