Hello again, Story Club members.

I'm Ivy, your ghostly host with the most and keeper of the strangest, spookiest tales on Earth.

Today is another Ivy's chilling tale. This forbidding tale story club members might make you not check that certain tiny door.

It's one I call the Dumbwaiter.

What is a Dumbwaiter, Dad? Kim Middler asked.

And why is it called that?

Dumbwaiters were invented a long time ago, Kimmy.

They're tiny little elevators that bring food up.

Many old buildings have them,

and some old homes like ours. I guess they were called dumb waiters since they were kind

of silent servants for people. Does this one still work? I don't think so, but I haven't had

time to check it out. Don't worry about it. We have more stuff from the truck to unpack.

Kim and her family had just moved into this house that was over a hundred years old. Her dad had gotten a really good deal on it, and he was constantly talking about it. She didn't like the new house. She missed the much more modern house that they'd moved away from. And all her friends, and her school.

Life in a new town and an old broken-down house you don't even like.

Great.

What a steal, Dad.

Over the next few days, Kim explored the entire house.

It was a two-story house with an attic and a cellar.

She did not like the cellar one bit.

It was damp and shadowy. She'd noticed that there was a dumbwaiter door down there too. That's so weird, Kim thought. Why would

they have food delivered down here? The main door for the dumb waiter was in the kitchen,

except the door up there didn't open like the one in the cellar did. The dumbwaiter door in the kitchen had been painted shut years ago.

...