MY FIRST HALLOWEEN AS A GHOST

+ MY FIRST HALLOWEEN as A GHOST

When I arrive ____the party is taking place in a wide and almost dark underground room , which you have to go down an infinite number of steps to get there___I approach a table when a dozen guys, some in vampire dress, some in skeleton dress, some in devil dress, are drinking a yellow drink , in big pot-bellied glasses. “ It’s pumpkin juice at poisoned tooth! “ A vampire announces, cheerfully, in a shrill voice, lifting the big pot-bellied glass overhead. “ Would you like

to taste this nectar, too?” he asks me. I hesitate to answer, given my condition., since I’m pretty worried, and I cannot help but be, about how all these happy and carefree partygoers of this sleepless night might take it, when they find out what I really am.

“Oh, don’t worry about the poisoned tooth…” the devil reassures me. “ It’s peppering rum , a real specialty, a supreme delicacy “ I am reluctant to…to take the fabulous drink, knowing full well that I will be able to pour it on myself, at most, if I don’t even end up to pour it on the floor, since I won’t be able to drink it, for sure, as all these young people are doing, they, completely taken by the frenzy of this black , but even magical night. Well, they all believed I am dressed as a ghost , instead ( while) I’m a real ghost. Yes, I’m a fairly recent ghost, I became a ghost only a few months ago, and this is my first night of Halloween , since I’ve been a ghost.                                    I’m still undecided whether to accept the glass of pumpkin juice____at the poisoned tooth____when a girl dressed as a ghost approaches me. “ Oh, how much beautiful your dress….as a ghost, like mine! Oh, but yours is more beautiful…Oh, the cloth of your costume….of your sheet…..but it’s wonderful…Never seen a cloth like this” the girl says, and, swaying under her sheet, she comes even more close to me, reaching her hand to….my sheet! Luckily, with a leap backwards, I manage to avoid she can …can touch it. Otherwise she would immediately understand____since her hand, if it tried to grasp, or even land on a flap of my…..of my dress, let’s call it so, it, her hand, but, at the same time she, the girl, would feel that…they are not grasping anything, that they are not touching anything, yeah she, this chirping, even a little petulant girl, would feel nothing between her fingers, she would immediately understand, and she could not fail to understand, that I really am a ghost.

“ Oh, the cloth of your sheet…oh it must be very precious, eh…it must be even very delicate, ah, I understand” the girl keeps on chirping “ It’s so thin, it seems…almost evanescent….oh, but it’s giving off such an iridescent light….even if it is white….that your sheet seems a truly ghost dress”  After an incredible moment of silence, she___still swaying under her sheet, which covers almost entirely her body, but not entirely, since two red patent leather shoes emerge from under her sheet____asks, thoughtful: “ Where did you buy it? I would like, too, a sheet like yours”

Oh, I would feel compelled to answer her with…words which would reveal my state, my real being. But I stammer: “ It was given to me….it’s is a gift” So saying, I try to give a tone as human as possible to my voice, that is impossible, since I’m really a ghost.

“ Oh, a gift! Who give it to you?” the petulant grin insists on asking. From how she is moving in frenzy, even if I can’t see her face, eh, the girl, besides having drunk, must have taken something to get high.

As I’m hesitating to answer, since I’m afraid that my voice can reveal….what I’m___A GHOST___I have noticed how it sounds, compared to their voices, which are voices of young people, they all taken in tonight party, eager to have fun, a lot of fun. Yep, their voices sound bright and light….mine instead____and I have said only a few words____my voice sounds blurred, heavy….as if it were coming from somewhere other than the room of this party. My voice sounds as an echo, coming from a faraway place….not only, it also seems that the faraway  place from which my voice is coming, is separated from the space of this room by a heavy, massive wall on which my voice bounches______( as I’m hesitating to answer) the girl repeats her question, she wants to know who gave me the wonderful sheet___the gift which I take on myself____,and she also seems irritated , since I didn’t answer her. “ Eh, did you hear? Who gave you this gift? Up, I’m speaking to you! Answer! Haven’t you perhaps lost your voice?”                                                                            In response I can only say, indeed murmur , in just a faint voice: “ My grandmother”                    “Oh, but how nice! Your grandmother! “ the girl rings, turning on herself. “ Well, your grandmother is still alive, then you must be very young, aren’t you?”

Damnation, what got me naming my grandmother? The girl’s curiosity catches me off guard….Sure, as a ghost, I can be considered young, since recently I became a ghost. But when I died, I was not longer young, even though my maternal grandmother was alive, and, as far as I know, she is still alive.

“ So? Don’t you answer again? The girl chirps, impatient, wagging around me.. “You must be very shy….you…I bet you’re shy and you have difficulty in dealing with others, especially….with girls! Ah, I understand it from how you move away when I’m getting near you, and also from how you’re trying to avoid my gaze. Eh, darling, certain details cannot escape me, since I study psychology” she says, keeping on wagging.  I try to get away with a joke. “ Well, I am not as young as I seem” I say, trying to give a joking, cheerful tone to my voice, but , unfortunately, without succeeding in it. “ Ah! Ah! I see that you want to be funny! But what is happening to you? I would say, from your voice, that you feel bad “ The girl approaches me with a decisive air, reaching out to

me. “ Wait! Don’t run away! I ‘m not going to eat you! I just want to look you in the eyes!”

God, no! I can’t let her….look me in the eyes….my eyes which do not exist…in their place I have only two black holes.                                                                                                                                           I rush away, passing among witches and skeletons, vampires and devils, who, all they, are obviously masked. I end up on someone disguised as a devil- “ Scared, huh? Funny! A ghost scared by a girl chasing him! Ah! Ah!” the devil laughs, grinding his shark teeth. And he grabs me by the neck….Oh, but incredible that he can grab me , since I, being a ghost, have no body, I am evanescent. “ Ah! Ah! I got you” he laughs over me, with a frightening voice, holding me tight.

“ You are a real ghost, but I am really a devil, too! Ah, you escaped me, but now I’ve got you and I’ll take you to hell”