The Library's Ghost

TW: suicide

“Ashley! Jessie! How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet?”, the librarian shouted at both the girls with an exasperated face, her voice thundering like the thunderstorm outside. She had deep wrinkles and a long neck with a flimsy body, her skin under her eyes dark indicating she hadn’t slept in days. 

“We’re sorry, Mrs. Canes. We didn’t mean to make so much noise.”, Ashley apologizes.

Jessie adds,” Yeah, it will not happen again.”

Mrs. Canes goes back to her desk. Jessie whispers to Ashley,” She looks like she needs a long break from whatever that she does here, best if it would be forever.” Jessie laughs softly and Ashley just gives her the side-eye with a little smirk. They read silently for the rest of the time but could hear the wind roaring and the clouds’ thunder from time to time. It’s 7 p.m now. The library closes at 8:30 p.m. They think it’s time to go and return the books they read but Mrs. Canes is nowhere to be seen. Then they hear something different from the noises they heard before. They hear someone sobbing and reading something at the same time. Jessie shouts,” Mrs. Canes? Are you here?” 

Mrs. Canes comes running and tells her to stop yelling immediately. Jessie says, “Why are you telling us to not shout? It’s not like anyone’s here.” At that, Mrs. Canes mutters, “Who said there ain’t no one here? He is here. He is always here but I’m just never able to find him.”, her shoulders slowly dropping and face turning somber. Both Jessie and Ashley look at each other. “Who’s here? We’re the only ones here.”, Ashley asks. “Well my husband, of course. My dear husband, Ralph.”, she says with concerned eyes. “We don’t see anyone here ma’am but If you would like, we can call him and tell him to take you back home. Anyways, it’s almost time to close the library too.”, Jessie says in a meek but soft voice. Ashley puts her hand in her bag to take out her phone to call her husband but gets interrupted by Mrs. Canes weeping. “You can’t call him. He isn’t in this world anymore, well, at least not in his human form.”, she says, eyes filled with tears. Both perplexed and a little afraid, Ashley speaks up, raising her right eyebrow like it’s some kind of a joke, “What do you mean? Are you saying that he is dead and that he is a ghost?” 

Mrs. Canes looks at her, tears still rolling down her face, and a book called ‘Ghost Gate’ in her hand. “We’re so sorry, Mrs. Canes.”, Jessie says and reaches for her but Mrs. Canes gets away from her and doesn’t let her. “Don’t touch me! And go back home!”, she says with a look of anger on her face which abruptly changes to regret. “I’m so sorry, dear. I know you want to rest. I will keep it quiet from now on.”, she says and gestures at both the girls to keep their voice down. Ashley and Jessie, who are so astonished seeing her apologize to god knows who, take a step back to talk to each other. “What do we do? Anyone can very well tell that she is not okay. I think her mind is unstable.”, Ashley says, adjusting her glasses. “Well, yeah. But she just misses her husband whom she loved so much. That’s so sad!", Jessie replies, keeping an eye on Mrs. Canes. “Yeah, but that doesn't mean you should just hallucinate someone who died.", Ashley counters her. They finally decide what to do. They go over to Mrs. Canes again and see her chanting something in American Native Language. When Mrs. Canes see them coming towards her, she stops and drops her hand behind her back. Ashley speaks up, "Look, Mrs. Canes, I know this is hard but your husband, Ralph, is dead and is not a ghost. There are no such things as ghosts." Jessie looks at her and back at Mrs. Canes with a look of sympathy. With that, Mrs. Canes' face suddenly turns angry and she says, “You don’t know anything! I know that he’s here and this book will help me bring him to me!”, she gestures to the book in her hand, making it reappear from behind her back. Jessie and Ashley both try to convince her that it’s not going to work, but, alas they fail. At last, they give up and try out the book and see what she is all talking about. Keeping an open mind to it all. Ashley and Jessie both take the book from her fragile hands carefully so that they don’t touch her as she so clearly told them not to. They comfort her and open the book to yellow, old pages and some foreign writing. They try to read it but fail miserably. Ashley takes out her phone and searches the internet to translate the book while Mrs. Canes looks on in confusion. Jessie holds the book trying to understand the words but is interrupted by Ashley who holds her phone over a page of the book of ghosts to decipher the words. Ashley and Jessie read the sentences over each other and their eyes get more big and big as they read the next sentences. After reading it whole, they do as the book tells them to. They go to a big, vacant area next to Mrs. Canes' desk which was a brown, wooden floor, and set the book down in the center. The three of them form a circle around it and join hands when Mrs. Canes tells them not to touch her, again. Jessie thinks she must be a germophobe, but which contradicts the fact that she works in an old library. They join hands, cautious not to touch Mrs. Canes. Never in a million years, Ashley and Jessie imagined that they’d be summoning a ghost in an old library with a probably crazy woman. Hell, they never even believed there were ghosts. They all look at each other nervously. Ashley and Jessie turn to look at each other, close their eyes and start chanting, “For the living, for the dead, your wife wants to see you, Ralph, she is sad.” As the chanting grows louder and louder, so does the rain and wind outside. When Ashley and Jessie finally open their eyes and the chanting stops, they see that Mrs. Canes is glowing. Jessie shrieks and says, afraid,” WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHY ARE YOU GLOWING?” They both get away from Mrs. Canes and get behind an aisle of books. They peek from behind the books and see that Mrs. Canes is just sitting there and crying. “I think we should go to her. I really think she is harmless.”, Ashley suggests. Jessie counters her,” Are you insane? She just glowed and is still glowing like a lightbulb!” “Yeah, I know! But I don’t think she will hurt us in any way.” “You don’t know that! She could be a really good actor. We don’t even know her!” Ashley ignores her protests and sits close to Mrs. Canes. ‘Fine!’, Jessie thinks to herself. Mrs. Canes looks at her with a sad smile and gives her a look of apologizing. “Mrs. Canes, what are you?”, Jessie questions, emerging from the shadows and joining her best friend. Mrs. Canes starts to say something but thinks better of it and stops. Ashley says,” Look, we don’t know you but we’re willing to. We don’t know what you are but we’re not afraid because we know you’re a good person. Whatever’s the truth, we’re not going to hurt you or run away from you. We’re going to help you.” At that, Mrs. Canes looks at her, wipes away her tears, and stands up. She looks at the dark window longingly and says without looking at either of them,” It was in 1995 that my husband worked here. He loved this library and all the books. He must have read every single one. One night, he didn’t come home and I got worried. I went to the library but he wasn’t there. I called him, 10 times at least. I went home hoping that it was just a misunderstanding and that he was home. I opened the gate to our house and there he was, blood dripping down his neck.”, she was now crying loudly, tears coming out of her eyes, endlessly. “What! Then what did you do, Mrs. Canes?”, Jessie asks. “I--I--I couldn’t

bear it. I found a rope in our backyard and tied it to the fan in our living room and just--tied it around my neck too. That is the truth.”, Mrs. Canes was now crying but one could see the regret in her face and the love for her husband. Ashley and Jessie were startled and sad at the same time. But then they realize that they are talking to a dead woman. Their instinct is to get away from her and out of the library. But they don’t think that that’s going to help anyone here. “I am the ghost, not my Ralph. I thought that If I did that, I would be with him again, I would talk to him again.”, she finishes and turns around to look at the girls. “Mrs. Canes, you don’t need to tell us why you did it. I know what love can do to you. You thought you could be with your husband again. But because of not finding out what happened to him, you came here taking the form of a ghost.”, Jessie says. “You can only be with him when you go to heaven. It is where your husband is. We want you to live a happy afterlife with the love of your life. You need to let go of everything you’ve ever felt for your husband’s death and only remember your love for him. Revenge is never the answer”, Ashley tells her that it’s the only way. Mrs. Canes tries but then asks the both of them something that would almost be impossible after 25 years. “I just--I want you, both of you to do something for me. I want you to find what happened to Ralph, and why did someone do that to him. Can you do that for me?” Ashley and Jessie both look on in horror but Ashley says,” I don’t know if that would be possible but we will try our best to find out. Even if it takes years.” Jessie looks at her nervously but nods in agreement. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m glad that you two were the ones who I saw in my last moments in this world.” With that, she starts gleaming and grows brighter and brighter until Ashley and Jessica have to cover their eyes. When they both look again, there is no one there. Only the memory is left there, of sweet Mrs. Canes. Ashley and Jessie pack their bags and get out of the library, smiling. “Well, that was a twist. Now I get why she was yelling at us when we were trying to touch her. She was the ghost!”, Jessie speaks, at last, breaking the silence. “Yeah. But she was a beautiful soul.”, Ashley replies.