More than a ghost

 “Pack your clothes quickly, Hannah. We’re moving now.” Hannah’s mother shouted from downstairs.

  Annoyed by her mother shouting, Hannah replied from upstairs with a grudging tone. Although Hannah was used to her mother yelling for years, she could not stand it from time to time and became angry with her mother. Hannah stuffed the last dress in her suitcase, put on her checkered skirts and a white shirt with a tie. In fact, it was her high school uniform; however, it was really well-designed that it could suit her daily life. Not to let her mother wait anymore, Hannah quickly dragged her suitcases downstairs. Daddy helped her and mother put the heavy suitcases into the back of the car. Hannah looked at her home one last time; recent arguments with mother had completely ruined her nostalgia.

  Daddy was always good at calming down his woman and girl and the whole family soon enjoyed their trivial conversation about work, school and pastimes. Yet, Hannah had already known too well that she and mother would soon argue again cause their anger was too regular that it would be strange for them not to argue oftenly. It took 5 hours of driving to get to their new home and that Hannah fell asleep all the way.

   It was already midnight when she arrived at the new home, so she went straight to bed and fell deep into sleep. Not until her mother shouted again did she wake up. Hannah opened the windows; the sun was shining brightly and the wind was blowing gently. Her new home is cute; it had a small flower garden full of color in the backyard. Inside, everything was painted in bright color; every hall and the living room was in glowing blue; the kitchen was in light yellow; parents’ room was in leafy green and her room was a mix of pink and white. In short, her new house was just like a rainbow. It created a peacefulness in her that made her believe that she would no longer have nightmares like when she was living in the old home near the graveyard. However, things didn’t go on as she expected.

   On that day, it took Hannah hours from morning till night to finish all her deadlines. It was right at midnight when she clicked the button to submit the last assignment. Hannah intended to turn in bed right away but she remembered that she had not washed her face and brushed her teeth yet. Suddenly, a strange, lolita face appeared on the mirror that scared Hannah out of her wits. It was a little girl with long, curly hair, bloody eyes and a pale and white face; it was just about 1 meter and 50 centimeters and standed to her breast. Hannah screamed loudly; her parents right up stairs. She sobbed and reported everything. Having seen nothing strange in the bathroom, mother scolded Hannah for irritatingly screaming at night. Hannah got into a quarrel at midnight with her mother because of her disbelief but the anger was enough to calm down Hannah’s fear and made her turn in bed more easily.

 Her dream didn’t go well as previously thought; she had a nightmare. Hannah saw a little girl like the one she had met in the mirror and a mother; both of them were yelling at each other. They started to smash things. All of a sudden, the little girl threw a tea cup at her mother; blood was spilling on the ground. Hannah woke up and sweat was running down her face. She couldn’t stop thinking about the dream, which ruined her mood all day to the point that she stomped out of the house with a shattering noise when she broke a vase on her way. She didn’t talk with her parents all that day while the dream kept returning every night. Hannah became more silent and silent as she was obsessed with what she saw in every sleep. She couldn’t find anyone to confide in; she was born an introvert and recent quarrels with mother refrain her from talking with mother. 

  One night, deciding to wake over midnight, Hannah sat in front of the large window in her balcony and played games to kill the time. The clock pointed at the number 12 with a "tik tok" sound, signalling it was midnight; everything fell into utter silence until a strong wind blew the leaves outside and howled frighteningly. Looking out the balcony, Hannah saw that little girl again; it was staring at her but she felt no sign of threat. Thus, Hannah opened the door to the balcony and approached the girl. They sat opposite to each other.

- Hello, my name is Laurie - the little girl said.

- And I’m Hannah. Why were you here?

- I have been here for 100 years; my mother used to be here too but I killed her long ago. After that incident, I committed suicide and became a ghost. I guessed mom didn’t want to be with me anymore; I'm a lonely ghost.

- Why did you kill your mother?

- In a quarrel, I lost my temper. You had better control yours. I didn’t mean to kill her on purpose; I just lost my temper. Can we be friends? Sorry for the bad dreams; I just wanna got attention.

  Hannah didn’t know how to reply but to accept the invitation. It turned out that Laurie was not a scary ghost; she was just a soul who felt badly regretted of her sin and could not get over it. Laurie told her all her stories and Hannah confided in her. They were so similar to each other; both were hot-headed; both often quarreled with their mother. The only difference was that Hannah hadn’t let her temper go too far yet. Laurie’s stories had become Hannah’s reminder to control her temper before mom. Anytime Hannah argued with mom; she would run upstairs and find Laurie; she could complain and talk about anything; as long as she could relieve herself. Laurie wanted to help Hannah as a way to atone for her sins.

   They soon became best friends with each other; one alive and one dead. It amazed Hannah that she would be so close to somebody from the other world and she had learned much. She became more patient, elegant and improved her relationship with mother. Laurie was not a typical ghost that was depicted in the novel, she just wanted to ease her remorse and loneliness. Hannah realized that, from time to time, life would give you something that you thought was bad at first sight, but turned out to be a blessing in disguise.