June 23, 2020
Review, Edit and Update
Just a couple of teeny tiny fixes: removal unnecessary spaces.
Promise Not to Laugh
Over pizza and coffee on the evening of Mother’s Day, Dez and Emmie did reminisce about the changes wrought in their lives since their almost forced reunion two months prior. They also talked of their dreams and hopes for the future. The conversation looped and swirled around the different ways they lived. On Dez’s mind for most of the time was a question she had held to herself until the proverbial right moment. After the pizza was only crumbs scattered on the grass, and the coffee had only drops remaining, Dez decided the time was right. It had to be, or she would just keep putting it off. Emmie would know. At least Dez hoped she would. If she did know, why hadn’t she told Dez about the girl on the swing.
“Emmie. We’ve talked about everything from your black eye when you were 15 to the horrible colour job of my hair and everything in-between. I have a question though that only you can answer. That’s if you know the answer.” Dez was nervous. She was ordinarily pretty straightforward to the point of being blunt. But this would make her sound really crazy. Lock’m up crazy and throw away the key crazy.
“Dez, stop beating around the bush and ask your question. Is it something personal? Something you need to know about me and my marriage?" It was unusual for Dez to not just come out and ask her questions or make a bold statement about something.
“Promise you won’t laugh or think I’ve lost it? It’s just something that happened a few days ago when you weren’t on the estate. And no one else was either."
“What did you do, Dez? Now you’ve really got me curious.” The puzzled look on Emmie’s face almost made Dez laugh.
“Ok. Here it is. I saw a ghost. She - or it - was in the dining room and then she was on a swing on the big old redwood in the front yard………Did you know about it? You’ve gone white as a sheet, Emmie……Emmie?” Now it was Dez’s turn to look puzzled.
“You’re sure you saw her…I mean a ghost?”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“I didn’t tell you because she doesn’t appear very often. When she does, it’s usually because something is going to happen. Not everyone sees her. No one seems to talk about her, so I don’t really know if she has appeared to anyone else. Digby told me quite a story about her.”
“I still don’t understand why you didn’t tell me about her? But meeting a ghost is kind of exciting. I’ve never been in a real haunted house before. Was she in the house when you and I were isolating?”
“You know, now that you mention it, I don’t know why we don’t talk about her. It’s like it’s some big shameful secret. Or maybe, it would make our whole family look a little odd. Digby knows about her, but I don’t know if he has actually seen her. His father, the first Digby, found this old diary in the back of an unused little cupboard in his room. Having just taken over from his father, Digby was investigating all the nooks and crannies in his office. It wasn’t a big diary and could have been easily missed or as easily thrown away. He showed it to me one day when he was telling me about some of the house’s history. The leather cover was dusty and cracked. The pages were yellowed and flaking away. Most of the ink had faded or smudged, but was still legible enough to read her story. The date looked like it could have been 1748 or 1773, I’m not sure which. I assume it was written by the butler at the time.
'the Master’s young girl child has passed away. She was taken with a fever only one week past. Her face and hands blistered. Master had servants bathe her fevered body with cool water. They have all sickened and one of them has passed on.’
A few pages on there was another entry
‘Although buried in the graveyard, the little child has come home. One evening, I heard the swing creaking. There was the girl on the swing. I approached her and she vanished.’
After that entry there was nothing more about her or about how the family managed.”
“Could that be why I could see her? Because there is a ‘sickness upon the land’.” Dez laughed at her own poor joke. She stopped smiling. Emmie was trembling. “What’s wrong Emmie? Or are you just cold?”
“No, I’m not cold.” Emmie was a bit snappish. “Her story always leaves me frightened. She has never done anything to anyone, but she is just there with her big blue ghost eyes. Like she wants me to help her, but I don’t know what to to for her.”
“Now you’re sounding like she materializes more often that once in a while.”
“I suppose I am. I’m just worried that something bad is going happen when she shows up. If I just knew who else had seen her. I could talk to them and find out what they know. Maybe I could plan a seance or exorcism or something. When we walked in on Giles and Digby the other day, and they were talking about a picnic under the branch of the old redwood, it made me terribly nervous.”
“I know! It freaked me out too. That’s where her swing was. Has Digby forgotten about that? He read the diary with that first mention of the girl on the swing.” Dez had not only seen the girl with the blond ringlets, but she had seen the scars on the branch where the rope would have been tied. “I suppose we should warn Digby against putting the picnic table too close to that branch’s overhang. But let’s just leave any more ghost stories for the day time, Emmie.” The sisters gathered up their things, discarded their paper pizza plates and coffee cups, and walked back to Dez’s apartment. It would not be long before Sarah would appear again on her swing.
“we need ghost stories because we, in fact, are the ghosts.”
~ Stephen King, Danse Macabre
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