Don't Look

Ghosts were the worst.

They gave Helen the heebie-jeebies. Just wandering around like they were regular people. What was their deal anyways?

She sighed as she sidestepped a ghost walking towards her on the sidewalk. She was careful to avert her gaze, suddenly finding fascination with her neighbour's petunias.

The rumble of a large engine interrupted her thoughts and sure enough the yellow side of her school bus sped past.

“Argh” she muttered as she broke into a jog to close the last hundred metres to her stop. She arrived breathing heavily as kids were piling on. As usual no one acknowledged her. Most of the kids were either much younger or much older leaving her in the awkward middle.

Even the bus driver was distracted by something out the side window as she boarded.

She found a seat at the back and sat alone.

At school she found her locker. Her best friend Lacy had the locker next to her and was just grabbing her things. Helen smiled and was about to say hello when the bell rang signalling she was late for class. Lacy ran off and Helen sighed. No time to put her things away today.

In math class Mr. Carls was just walking them through algebra when a ghost walked in. It was a young girl, dressed for school with her backpack on and everything. She just wandered in somewhat sheepishly. There were no extra seats but Mr. Carls turned and motioned to Tim ever so slightly with his fingers. Tim shot up out of his seat and made sure to make an excuse about going to the nurse’s office and he walked out as casually as he could, but there was a noticeable sense of urgency to his stride.

The ghost took her seat and looked to Mr. Carls attentively. For his part, he cleared his throat and kept going.

Helen tried to look at the ghost out of the corner of her eye. Where did she come from? Why did she think this was her classroom?

Helen leaned over to say something to Lacy, but Lacy stared straight ahead. Helen sighed. Ghosts were the worst.

The bell finally rang and they gathered their things and piled out of the classroom. It was so orderly it was unnatural. Teenagers didn’t wait in lines so calmly. They just mushed through the door oblivious of anyone but themselves or their friends.

Gym was not Helen’s favourite. As usual she was the last to be picked for dodgeball. At least nobody singled her out and tried to hit her. A few times she halfheartedly went for a ball but someone else was always quicker. Her parents were former track stars and her dad still played hockey twice a week. What happened to her athletic gene?

The rest of the afternoon floated by without incident. At the end of the day the hallways filled with people and Lacy disappeared in the crowd before they had a chance to chat. That’s ok. She’d find her tomorrow.

On the bus home a ghost got on at the second stop. Not only was it a ghost, but kids were getting dropped off not getting on. Everybody froze. Nobody moved, but conversation stopped. The bus driver recovered first and yelled out.

“Hey kids want to sing a song?” And then he began to sing “Wheels on the bus”. A low murmur of voices chimed in, including my own. Helen looked to Lacy who sat behind her but she had a panicked look on her face and just looked past her.

Oh no. Helen was sitting alone on the seat. The ghost walked down the aisle of seats before stopping at her spot. She was against the window so he just sat down. Helen’s hands went cold. She stared out the window and tried not to cry but silent tears began leaking down her face. She clenched her fists and tried to breathe.

The bus was moving again. Two more stops until my turn. Helen just counted breaths. The words they were taught in school rattled through her brain over and over. Just keep calm and carry on.

At the third stop the bus slowed and seemed like it would stop so kids stood up, but the bus driver moved forward again suddenly causing everyone to fall back. One kid fell on to the lap of the ghost. Or rather through the lap of the ghost. The poor kid couldn’t help himself. He looked up into the face of the ghost and started screaming.

Everyone was looking now. The ghost’s eyes widened and then it opened its mouth and screamed. It was an awful shrieking noise. Every kid instantly covered their ears and held their heads. One by one the windows on the bus exploded raining glass everywhere.

Thankfully the bus driver was trained for this. He grabbed the kid off the seat and half carried and half shoved him down the aisles to the door. He then loudly said “Ok everyone off the bus I think there’s an engine issue.” He tapped a few kids on the shoulder to get them moving and one by one we exited in an orderly fashion.

The kids had been trained too.

Eventually it was just Helen and the ghost. Even the bus driver had left. She was trapped on the interior of the seat with the screaming ghost. She just shut her eyes and counted to ten. Then the screaming stopped.

Helen waited another ten seconds then opened one eye. The ghost was looking right at her.

“Am I a ghost?” it asked.

Helen’s jaw dropped. Ghosts didn’t speak. They never spoke. Nobody in the history of the world had ever spoken to a ghost as far as she knew.

She swallowed and nodded silently. The ghost’s lip quivered and then great big alligator tears started pouring down his face. She could hear his sobbing.

“Umm it’s ok. You’re ok.” What else could she say?

The ghost looked at her. “Will you help me?”

By this point Helen’s tolerance for the weird and unusual had reached a breaking point.

“I’m sorry, I just…I have to go.”

She shoved past the ghost, partially passing through his knees and then dashed off the bus. The bus driver had gathered the kids at the end of the street and was on the phone.

Helen weighed her options. She could wait, or she could walk.

She decided to walk. Nobody on that bus cared if she lived or died anyways.

Along the way home a ghost came walking towards her on the sidewalk and Helen turned to cross the street but then paused.

She had to know.

Slowly she turned and kept walking towards the ghost. She couldn’t bring herself to look at it but as she passed she said as loudly as she could “Hello.”

She took a few more steps than stopped and turned around. The ghost had stopped and had turned towards. It looked shocked. Its mouth hung open in astonishment and when she looked at it it jumped and ran in the other direction.

Ok that answered that.

But what did that mean? Why could she talk to ghosts?

Her mind wandered as she made her way home. Along the way two young parents with their toddler came walking towards her. They were each holding one hand and swinging him and he was laughing.

As they approached each other she smiled and was about to say hello when a neighbour called to them and they turned to speak with him.

Whatever. She could speak to ghosts.

She let her mouth close and kept walking.