Heater

BOO!  Did I scare ya? I think I’m getting better at it!

When I was a really little kid my parents would take me trick or treating every Halloween, and whenever I could, I’d play a game of hide and seek with ‘em. I’d hide on porches next to big skeletons, and behind doors, and when they got close I’d jump out and scream “BOO!”, and it becames really good practice.

I miss Mommy and Dad a lot, but now every days’ is Halloween! That’s what my new best friends tell me. But it doesn’t feel the same without dad’s homemade sugar cookies he let me puts frostin’ on. And I remember mom’s hands being so warm when she’d hold mine. I even dressed up as a ghost one year. That was lots of fun! It was more fun than I have now.

Especially since, I don’t really have no one to play hide and seek with... but I tries to keep happy. 

I try to think that it's not so bad, the other ghosts are my friends, but thems don’t like when I call ‘em that. I know, I know, ghosts aren’t friends, wes is just ghosts. 

I’m still learning the rules, but my friends… well, the other ghosts that lives here, are teaching me all kindsa ghosty things. 

Like hows to say, “BOO!” I gotcha that time! Oh! And they taughts me howta float! 

It’s kinda like going on your tippy toes but alll the way. 

When I do it I feel like an official ghost!

Which is kinda cool… except ghosts can’t play hide and seek….

 and I do miss Mom and Dad… but the ghosts have such cool stories on why they’re all ghosty now! Like this one ghost, Dave, he used to be a baker, and then, WHAM! The oven got too hot and ‘sploded everywheree, and the scariest part… I don’t thinks he has a last name, we just calls him, Dave.

This other ghost Felicity, hers story is real, real sad. She said she had no Mommy, and no Dad either. Which made me feel really bad, cause I miss mine every day… 

Since her dad wasn’t there he never teeched her how to hunt. But she decided she wanted to go try one day. She messed up real bad though, and didn't know how to face her gun the right way. I don’t even know why she thought she could go hunting inside. That’s so dangerous! ‘Cause then, just like Dave, WHAM! Shes was a ghost. 

Just like me too! I don’t have a cool story though, nothin’ with ovens, or guns, and no WHAM! 

I don’t even remember hows I became a ghost. I asked all the others but they said they couldn’t tells me. Something about me bein’ too little. I tried to tell ’em I’m not lil’ anymore. 

I had my 6th birthday which means I can do puzzlses all by myself now!

Six and up is NOT just a recommendation! 

But the other ghosts say puzzlses isn’t for ghosts. A lot of things aren’t for ghosts I guess. That isn’t nice at all because I’s can’t have friends, and forget hide and seek, and the things for us, is no fun. Things for us are like, being in the dark, makin’ things go creak, and sayin’ boo.

I don’t like the dark at all, it’s really scary, but Dave tells me, we don’t get scared, we is scary. I don’t wanna be scary though, that’s no fun. 

I thoughts he was jokin’ until I tried to make a friend the other day. These two boys who were a small bit older than me came to the house. I heard them downstairs and thought they might like to play hide and seek like my parents used to! 

So I crept downstairs real quiet, and when they turned the corner I jumped out and screamed, “BOO!”, just likes I had practiced. Only they didn’t laugh like Dad used to. They didn’t even asks me to be their friend. They turned and ran away really quick. I tried following them to say I was sorry, and I didn’t mean to be so scary, I just am now. But they didn’t have time to listen, they must’ve been in a hurry to get home 'cause they slammed the door in my face and I never gots to see ‘em again. I tried to cry but nothing happened. 

I was sad, but I don’t blame ‘em. Sometimes I pass a mirror and when I see me, I jump. I don’t looks like I used to. My eyes used to be green but now they’re really dark black, like a black hole! My dad used to say I was handsome but now I gots to be scary, and I used to be dry when I was livin’ but now I’m always covered in water for some reason.

I try to smile in the mirror too but I can’t now. Felicity always says I’m not meant to be happy, just meant to float, lots of bein’ a ghost is floating. 

I think ghosts float cause we’s isn’t real. I mean we're too light to be real. We all used to be at some point, even had first AND last names like you guys! 

Well… except for Dave. 

I don’t know my name, so the other ghosts just calls me heater. On accounts of me being less cold than the other ghosts. 

I think that’s why. 

I asked Felicity ‘bout it and she said something different. She said something about hows she watched me when I was little? 

But that doesn’t make sense much. I don’t remember any ghosts when I was little. It was just me, Mommy, and Dad, and wes just played hide and seek. Which is why Felicity says my name is heater.

I guess one day my moms wanted to play hide and seek reallyy good and she thought the water heater was the perfect place, so good my dad never found me… or he stopped looking… but that’s okay I like to think we’re still playing! 

Even if ghosts isn’t meant to play it…