The Ghost Next Door

Itold Mama about the ghost today. “Not now Abby” she said. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?” Mum was busy with Ruth who had just thrown up her breakfast.

“But there really is a ghost!” I said.

“Well, show it to the twins then,” said Mama. “It might just scare them into behaving.” The twins were screaming on the porch as they shoved each other against the plants on the balcony.

“What ghost?” asked Dad as he came into the room after smacking the twins. I explained again, “The one that lives in the shed next door.”

Dad said there was no such thing as ghosts. But, he said, it shows I have an active imagination. That’s good. I can grow up and be a writer or something interesting like that.

“It’s a real one!” I said again, but no one was listening. They don’t listen to me much. It comes of being in the middle. After the twins and before Ruth. She gets attention because she’s a baby. And the twins make sure they get attention by behaving badly. I’m just sort of there. And no one listens to me.

It was difficult to tell about the ghost. It had warned me. “Don’t tell” it said. “Don’t tell. No one will believe you and everyone will say you’re a bad girl.” I was very frightened. But I knew I had to tell mama at least. I tried again at bed time. She just laughed and kissed me on the forehead and said the ghost would go away. I should just shut my eyes and sleep.

I woke up in the night with Mama standing next to my bed looking worried. “You were crying in your sleep, Abby. What were you dreaming about?”

“The ghost” I whispered. “He told me not to tell. He said that if I did, bad things would happen to you. To you and Papa. I shouldn’t tell.” She held me close because I was crying so much. Before I fell asleep I heard Papa in the room asking, “What is it?” Mama said, “That Agnes! She’s been telling Abby ghost stories again! I’ll straighten her out tomorrow.”

Agnes pinched me so hard it left a blue mark on my leg. I know better than to tell Mama about it. “I didn’t tell you any ghost story!” she hissed, “stop getting me in trouble.” When she combed my hair she pulled it as hard as she could. “Go out and play” she said, “I don’t want to see you before lunch. And you better not tell any more lies.” She pushed me out of the door.

I stood on the porch and looked at the shed next door. There’s a drumstick tree next to it and all the yellow flowers keep falling on the tile roof. It looks like just any old broken down shed. But that was where the ghost met me. I opened the door and went in to get away from the twins who had new water pistols and there it was. Sitting and waiting.

The ghost smiled at me. “Come in, little girl” it said. “Shut the door behind you. Oh, you and I will have so much fun!” I didn’t realise it was a ghost at first which is why I went in. But I knew when it touched me, because its hands were as cold as ice. “You have to promise never to tell anyone about me,” it whispered, seating me on its knee. “It will be our secret. Never tell. Never, ever, tell.” It braided my hair and sang a song to me.

Now I’ve told. I’m frightened.

Papa took me on his knee in the evening and asked me about the ghost. “It waits for me in the shed,” I whispered.

“And what does the ghost do?”

“It does tricks.”

Papa said ghosts didn’t do tricks. It was only in my imagination. Then he told me stories about how little children had guardian angels so ghosts could never get them. Their angels slept with them at night and they were very safe. I don’t know about angels. I’ve never seen one. But I’ve seen the ghost. His hands are always cold.

“What kind of tricks does the ghost do?” Papa asked.

I knew I shouldn’t be telling. I put my mouth right next to his ear and whispered “Give me a coin and I’ll show you.” Papa gave me a coin. I put it down the front of my dress. “He puts it down my dress and it disappears. Then he searches for it.”

“I know where that comes from,” said Papa, laughing.

That evening when Mr Pinto from next door came to visit, Papa said to him, “You’ve impressed Abby so much, she’s convinced you’re a ghost.”

“Really?” said Mr Pinto picking me up and putting me on his lap. “A ghost? And has she told you what I do when I’m a ghost?”

“Coin tricks,” said Papa, laughing again.

Mr Pinto smiled at me and put his hand in his pocket. It came out with a coin. The coin ran over his knuckles and van-ished into thin air. He pulled it out from my shoe. Even the twins stopped fighting and came in to watch. Coins appeared in his hands and disappeared. Then he found them in the strangest places. Under Papa’s collar. In Ruth’s diaper. In the twins’ socks. The twins screamed and jostled to be the one to get the coin. Mr. Pinto stopped only when he had no more change.

Mama came in smiling. “You spoil the children,” she said.

“I guess I miss having any of my own,” Mr Pinto said.

I sat still and quiet, not daring to move. It was a long time before he took me off his knee.

The twins cornered me after dinner. “So what’s the ghost like? Does he have long nails and blue teeth?” asked Cecil.

“Does he smell bad, like he’s been rotting in a grave?” asked Cyril.

“Can you see right through him?”

“Do you think he would feel it if I fired my pistol at him?”

“I have an idea,” said Cecil. “We’ll wait for him in the shed tomorrow and try out our bows and arrows on him.”

“Don’t go!” I told them. They weren’t listening, because they were already fighting over who would get to hit him first. They had two bows but only one arrow because they had lost all the rest. It made me so worried that they would end up with the ghost that I clenched my fists and opened my mouth and screamed as loudly as I could. That made them stop fighting and pay attention for a bit.

“Don’t go!” I begged them “Don’t go! There really is a ghost. Really, truly. He does terrible things.” I cried so much that even Cecil and Cyril got worried. Cecil said they wouldn’t go anywhere near the shed. “Why do you go?” they asked me. “He makes me,” I said. I couldn’t say anything more. Telling is very difficult.

I woke up crying again at night. Mama had to hold me a long time. I heard her telling Papa, in the morning “I’m wor-ried. It’s not normal for a child to have so many nightmares. She was screaming last night. And she’s not eating very much.” Papa said, “It’s this silly ghost nonsense she’s got in her head. She’ll get over it.” Mama sat there silent for a while. “I don’t know, Tony” she said, “something is not all right.” Papa said, “I think she just wants attention. She doesn’t get too much. Those twins take all my time and the baby takes all yours. I’ll try and spend more time with her just as soon as Christmas is over.”

For the next few days no one had time for me and my ghost. It was almost Christmas and the twins got fever and Mama was busy all the time.

Christmas day was the quietest we’d ever had because the twins were ill and in bed and the doctor had to come home to see them. Santa left lots of presents under the tree. The best presents were from Mr Pinto.

“It’s really nice of him” said Mama. “He’s been so good, keeping Abby occupied while I looked after the twins. He even managed to keep Ruth quiet for a whole afternoon.”

“Probably grateful for the chance to do something. All these old fogeys don’t know how to pass the time of the day.”

I took my present from Mr Pinto and put it under the bed.

I discovered something today. I’m not the only one who’s seen the ghost.

I was sitting on the floor playing with my coins when Ruth walked over. She’s just learnt to walk, and she falls down a lot. She took a coin and put it down the front of her dress. Then she smiled and looked at me, waiting for me to fetch it out.

“Do you know the ghost Ruthie?” I whispered to her. She just looked at me and gurgled. “Did he teach you that trick?”

I didn’t want to go to the shed any more. I had the coins the ghost gave me in my tin box with the picture of a puppy on top. I took all the ghost’s money and put it in my dress. I wanted to go and bury it in the garden. I didn’t want it any more. But when I was going through the dining room I let go of my skirt for a minute and the money fell all over the floor. It made a lot of noise. Mama came out to scold me for waking the baby.

“Where did you get so many coins, Abby?’ asked Mama. “Who has been giving you so much money?”

“The ghost,” I said, trying to pick it up and put it in the skirt of my dress as fast as I could. There was a lot of it.

“Stop this ghost nonsense. Ghosts don’t have money. Where did you get that money from?”

“I told you the ghost gave it to me.”

“I’ve had enough of this ghost! Stop lying!” Mama shook me until I began crying and all the coins fell noisily on the floor again. “Tell me the truth Abby. I’m worried!”

“I am!” I said “The ghost takes the coin and he puts it down my dress. Then he searches for it. He touches me. Here, and here, and here.”

Mama grabbed my hand and held it. “Oh my god, Abby!” she said, and her face ment all funny “Oh my God!”

She believes me now.