Simon Crumb and the Ghost of Blaine Street Synopsis Twelve-year-old Simon Crumb has trouble, Truman trouble. Truman Smith, school bully dares Simon to enter a haunted house and take a selfie when the three a.m. train tears by. In return he promises to leave Simon alone. While in the house he meets the ghost of a boy who tries to give Simon something shiny on a rawhide string. Simon bolts without taking the object. But he comes away with more than he bargains for, a ghost in his phone. Now, the spirit, Richard Wigget is protecting Simon from Truman. The ghost wants something, but what? Simon, school nerd, and Nikki Bronson, school pretty girl, who is also under Truman’s big fat thumb team up to research the house. They learn that Richard fell from a bridge called the Dizzy Bridge. Simon and Nikki think they’ve solved the mystery. Richard fell off the bridge, case closed. Richard has other ideas and lead Simon and Nikki to clues about Truman’s family tree, a tree full of bullies. Truman and his gang wear a medallion with the sign of Taurus the bull on it, the same kind of medallion that the ghost tried to give to Simon in the house. \tFurther research shows that Truman’s grandfather, Prescott Smith, probably pushed Richard off the bridge into a deep gorge. \tIn order to keep Simon and Nikki apart, Truman dares Simon to cross the Dizzy Bridge at night. The deal? If he succeeds, Truman will leave him and Nikki alone. If he fails, Simon has to stay away from Nikki forever. If he declines the deal, Truman will send incriminating photos of Nikki committing vandalism to the school principal, a crime she was forced into. He takes the deal. \tOnce on the bridge, Truman attacks Simon and throws him off. But Simon is suspended in the air, and then brought back up onto the bridge. Then the ghost of Richard plays with Truman by throwing him off the bridge numerous times but saving him. The reason the ghost latched onto Simon in the first place was that they were both bullied into taking dares. And that the reason he’d been hassling Simon was to get him, Richard, on the bridge with Truman. Simon begs the ghost to stop his game with Truman, which he finally does. In the end, Truman breaks the cycle of bullying in his family. \tThe story concludes with the haunted house and the bridge both being demolished, and Simon and Nikki more than just friends. Having had his revenge, Richard disappears for good. \t