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Teenage Ghost
Jeff watched Rhonda cry herself to sleep at the kitchen table for the fourth night in a row. He hated being powerless, all he could do was watch.
He watched over his best friend as well.
Evan got ready for the school year, with the clothes his mother had bought from the local department store. The two were supposed to be swapping out clothes, so that Evan would have some of the cool mall clothes.
Evan wasn’t bothered about clothes though, what he would wear next school year never crossed his mind. All he thought about day and night was that the school year was about to start and his friend was missing. He also thought a lot about how he almost went to jail, with Jeff’s mom, for just trying to help out.
It was strange to Evan that a mother wouldn’t have pictures of her own son. He said nothing about it because he had no pictures either. He looked at his phone, “Next time. If I ever see him again. That’s the first thing I’ll do.” He set the phone on a charging pad and glanced at the nylon duffel bag his mother had bought him, instead of a backpack.
“This year is going to suck!” Evan shouted out loud and fell backwards onto his bed.
Jeff stood in the corner wanting to cry out, but there was nothing he could do. Not a sound he made could be heard, and his hands phazed through everything. He couldn’t even enter Evan’s dreams to talk to him.
Jeff walked to the mall, it would be closing soon. Eartha would be going home.
“Home” was a small one bedroom apartment, filled almost to the ceiling with packed cardboard boxes. Some of it was personal, but mostly it was storage for the shop. She had various “mystical” knick-nacks. A box of loose crystals here, a box of amulets there. Made in China, of course.
Jeff went through every box he saw, there was nothing legitimate about this woman. Nothing other than the fact that she was the only person who could see him.
Eartha sat down at the dining table, which was cluttered with boxes, save the small space reserved for eating. She opened a box of chinese take out she had gotten in the mall, and sat down to her meal.
Jeff came up in the middle of her space, leaving only his head visible.
Eartha pretended not to notice the ghostly head on her table.
“You have to help me become real again.” Jeff said plainly.
Eartha looked into the ghost’s eyes. What was he talking about real again? Was this some kind of ploy to get her to talk.
“I was real. Real like Vi, that girl who attacked you in the mall.” Jeff continued.
Eartha’s curiosity overwhelmed her common sense. “What do you mean you were real like that girl in the mall?”
“I mean I was almost flesh and blood. People could see me and hear me like I was alive.” Jeff moved away from the table and stood up to her right.
“How is that possible?” Eartha was beginning to rethink what happened at the mall. “She’s not a witch, she’s a ghost?” she said more to herself than to Jeff. Eartha raised her eyes up into Jeff’s and asked, “How?”