The Diary of a Ghost

Day 1 、Day2 、Day3 、Day4 、Day5 、Day6 、Day7 、Night 7、Day8 、Day38 、Day39、Night 39 、Day40

Day 1:

I am a ghost, or at least I think I am. I am not quite sure really, and I have no idea how I became a ghost. All I can remember is that something very strange happened one night.

It seemed I was in a very dark tunnel and there were bright colours like a rainbow shining at the far end. I thought I was dreaming. In the bright light there were some vague figures beckoning:

“Come with us,” they called, so I approached the light.

“You have finished here,” I heard them say, but I didn’t understand. What have I finished? Who were they? And where was here?

I hesitated, the dream was uncomfortable, and I just wanted to wake up.

“I am not going.” I turned around.

“Come with us,” they called again, but I hurried back towards the darkness.

“Wow!” I was running so fast that I felt almost like flying, somehow next moment I found myself in the living room.

I had a big shock the moment I opened my eyes wide. The living room was bare. I searched through the whole house, there was no furniture and no trace of my parents or my brother either. They were definitely gone! Had they moved house without me? They wouldn’t! But where were they? Why didn’t I go with them? What have I been doing to miss them? Thousands of questions raced through my mind, but I had no answers.

It must have been about dawn. The faint daylight made me feel a little uncomfortable. I went into my bedroom. Everything had been removed except the mirror on the wall. I glanced into the mirror; the oak tree in the back garden was just visible. The room looked so big and empty. Empty!

Oh! Strange! Why couldn’t I see myself in the mirror? I moved right in front of the mirror and looked hard into the sheet of glass. I couldn’t see even a trace of my reflection!

What? I was invisible! But how could I be? It must be a trick! Oh! Heavens! I remembered Grandma used to say that ghosts have no reflections. I looked even harder into the mirror from all angles. No! No! No! I could not see myself at all! Was I a GHOST? My heart sank.

I am too sad to carry on now.
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Day 2 :

The bright sunshine outside is making me very ill. I am trapped in the house. I don’t know what to do now. I have looked into that mirror on the wall thousands of times, even standing upside down in front of it. Am I really a ghost? Was Grandma right about ghosts having no reflections? Could I be invisible for some other reason? How can I be a ghost? I can think and I can move too, didn’t old Descartes say “I think therefore I am”? I shouldn’t be a ghost! I can’t be a ghost! I refuse to be a ghost! But why am I trapped in this empty house?
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Day 3 :

Nobody around and nothing happened all day long. I don’t know the date, month, year or hour. That awful sunshine still makes me ill. I still can’t see myself in that stupid mirror. Wait until my family come back. How could they move away without me? Don’t they realise that I am missing? I’ll make them sorry! Why didn’t they get the police to search for me, how could they be so stupid? Surely the school wants to know why I am absent, don’t they? Why haven’t they notified my parents and got them to look for me? Why is everyone so incompetent!
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Day 4 :

Still no one around! The sunshine makes me feel horribly ill. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, or with everything. I used to love sunny days, and now I start to lose my energy as soon as the sun comes out, I only get better after dark. I need to see my doctor. Doctor! Why didn’t I think of him earlier? He would be able to tell me everything. If I could just be cured I swear I would never be unkind to my brother, or tell lies, or do anything bad ever again. I just want my family to come and save me. I don’t want to be in this horrible empty house. Please can someone, anyone, come and save me. I promise I will be a better person from now on.
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Day 5 :

I can’t be bothered to even look into that mirror any more, what’s the point? I can’t see anything in it anyway! I don’t know what’s going on in the world, or where my family is. Nobody came today, not even the postman; there’s no electricity or water, and no TV or telephone; nothing is right, why should I care about anything any more? I might as well disappear from this house! Instead I am stuck here, alone, sick and sad, sad, sad….
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Day 6 :

It has been several lonely and empty days! All I could do was to scream silently: help! Help! Help! Why couldn’t someone come to save me? I looked into that mirror again today just in case, but I could only see the oak tree. I guess grandma could be right, then, why is there no one to certify that I am a proper ghost if I am supposed to be one? What can I do if I don’t want to be a ghost? Do I have any choice at all? What is a ghost anyway? I have never seen one before; in fact nobody I know has seen a ghost, not even grandma. What is a ghost supposed to look like? Am I really a ghost? Never mind, since I can’t see my reflection in that mirror, I’ll assume that I am a ghost, so from now on I am a ghost! So be it! But what does a ghost do anyway? I will have a good rest and sort out what to do tomorrow.
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Day 7 :

I felt better today. Now that I have accepted what I am, I shall do what ghosts are supposed to do, but what does a ghost do anyway? Knocking things down and throwing furniture around to frighten people. I don’t even need to use a bed sheet to pretend to be a ghost like Mark and I used to do when we were young – cool! But there’s nothing here I can throw and no one to frighten either, how annoying! I must try my ghost powers somehow.

Today I realised I haven’t eaten or washed for days, and I feel quite alright; wow, not bad being a ghost. I have not been to school for many days, I’ve had no teachers nagging me for homework and I’ve got no exams to worry about. Best of all, no alarm waking me up at seven for school, I can sleep all day and stay up all night too, hooray! Mark would be so envious if he were here. Well, life is going to be different now, how great!

I thought that ghosts can fly; I tried it and just managed to hop about, not very ghost-like, though bouncing up and down was effortless, but that’s what zombies do, not for a decent ghost like me! I did wonder if I could walk through the wall, but hesitated to try just in case any accidents happened, strange, the thought of accidents made me uneasy. Never mind, perhaps I have to practice.
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Night 7:

Staying in this house is no fun! I decided to find out how to get around as a ghost. I managed to squeeze myself through the small gap under the back door, not bad! This skill could be quite useful.

There was a full moon tonight, everything in the garden looked just as clear under the moonlight as in the day. I peeped into the garage, it was empty inside, our car, lawnmower, deckchairs, football, cricket bats, and tennis rackets … nothing was left. I rushed around all over the garden, Mum’s greenhouse, Grandma’s comfy bench, Dad’s goldfish pond, and the football goal I bought for Mark’s birthday were still there.

I looked at the football goal, wondering why they had left it behind; Mark loved playing football with me! We played together a lot even though he is five years younger than me; I taught him how to play chess and card games; we used to go swimming with Dad while Mum was cooking Sunday dinner; I suddenly realised that I missed my family very much. How stupid of me to become a ghost!

I slowly glided to the front garden, there was a sign standing near the front door, under the moonlight I could see it clearly, it read: SOLD by … Sold? I should have realised my family had moved! Why else would the house be empty? I must find out where they moved to; they might be missing me, somehow I’ve got to let them know that I am still here! I am still alive and kicking! Well, perhaps not alive, but not quite dead I think.
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Day 8 :

From now on I will just rest during the day, and spring into life in the night like the ghosts I have seen in films.

I feel it’s ridiculous to live a life like this, full of nothingness! Nothing ever happens; I have devised a way to keep track of time, every night I will go out to the garden, pick up a tiny stone and put it under Grandma’s comfy bench to mark a day.
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Day 38 :

A whole month has passed without a single human being or ghost visiting this place. I began to wonder if this house was on the Earth at all. Life being a ghost is so empty, I have to find some ghost friends or some ghostly things to do.

As I was dozing off from boredom, someone suddenly opened the front door. I was surprised and quickly hid behind the curtains, but then I realised that probably no one could see me anyway. I wanted to find out what was going on, so I stayed hidden just in case. A couple came in.

“I love the view from this window,” the woman said as she pulled the curtains back. I froze and expected that she would scream when she saw me; but she looked right through me as if I wasn’t there. Of course she couldn’t see me, what a silly ghost I am!
“The house still looks reasonably clean inside, but I have to cut the lawn and get ready for the removal men to come tomorrow,” the man said, then they left.

So they must be the new owners of this house! It looked like they are moving in tomorrow; great! I am going to have some company at last!
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Day 39 :

All morning I had been patiently waiting for the new owners to come, I hoped they hadn’t changed their minds, enough lonely ghost days for me, I was eager to have anyone moving into this house.

Mid afternoon, a car followed by two huge removal vans arrived outside the front door, several workers started to carry furniture and boxes into the house. I hid behind the curtains again to keep out of their way in case they bumped into me, I might frighten them out of their wits.

It was nearly dark by the time the removal vans left. The couple came in the living room, followed by a teenage girl and a nerdy looking young boy. This empty house was full of furniture, boxes and people. Wow, the situation is getting better! Now, no more lonely ghost!

The doorbell rang; it was the pizza delivery man. Great! Pizza! I love pizza! Oh, I still couldn’t come to terms with the fact of being a ghost and there were many things ghosts couldn’t do, such as eating, bathing or going out in strong sunshine.

When the whole family went into the dining room to have their dinner, I gingerly stepped out from behind the curtains. I spotted a big bookcase next to the window, but no books in it yet. I hovered around in the living room, hopping over the coffee table, armchairs and a pile of boxes, feeling excited, just like being at home.

The door to the dining room suddenly opened and I landed on the floor facing squarely to the nerdy boy. He hesitated for a second then slowly walked to the armchair looking at me all the time; or I thought he was looking from behind his glasses. I felt he could see me, but how could he? No, he couldn’t. I got up from the floor and glided to the coffee table in front of him, waving my arms up and down and making a funny face at him.

“Don’t be silly!” he whispered, “You shouldn’t stand on the coffee table.”
My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe that he could see me, I must have been imagining it. I looked straight into his glasses for a long while. He looked back at me.
“Can you …?” I asked doubtfully.
“Yes,” he answered quietly.
“You mean you can actually see me?” I was puzzled. He nodded.
“Daniel, give us a hand here please,” the man called from the dining room.
“OK, Dad,” the boy replied, getting up from the armchair.
“But I am a …” I tried to make sense of what had just happened.
“I have to go, tell you later,” he walked towards the dining room, “And don’t follow me!”
I couldn’t describe how I felt: shocked, surprised, or something else like seeing a faint light at the end of a long tunnel.
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Night 39 :

All evening I had a big question in my head: how could the boy see me? Then I thought perhaps all his family could see me too, and that could mean I am not really a ghost after all, perhaps I am just invisible somehow. I must find out, so I sat in the middle of the settee waiting for them to have a big surprise when they discovered me.

Late evening, the mother came in the living room and turned on the TV. She called out,
“The film is going to start in a minute, come and relax now; we’ve had enough unpacking for today, I’ll get some drinks,” then she went to the kitchen.

The rest of the family came in. I thought the boy discreetly waved me to go away, but I was determined to stay. His father and the teenage girl sat down on each side of me, but they both ignored the fact that I was in the middle of them. The mother came in with a tray of drinks; she put the tray on the coffee table and looked like she was going to sit right on me.
“Don’t sit there, Mum!” the boy said quickly, “there’s something on it, I’ll get rid of it for you,” he walked towards me putting a hand into his trousers pocket. He looked at me firmly from behind his glasses, and pulled out a paper tissue from his pocket. I realised that he was the only one who could see me, I disappointedly got up and hovered away to sit on the floor next to the empty bookcase. The boy picked up something from where I sat,
“It’s alright, Mum, only a paper clip.”
“Oh, I wonder how it got there.”
The mother sat down in the middle of the settee.

I was struck by a deep feeling of sadness; I am a ghost after all! I didn’t care which film was on the TV,
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Day 40 :

Yesterday was a funny day, I was so excited to have some people moving into the house, and discovering that the boy could see me had raised me to heaven, but then the realisation of being a ghost dropped me right into hell.

Very early in the morning, Daniel was the first to come downstairs. He came into the living room.
“Good morning, er, I don’t know your name,” Daniel said.
“William,” I answered emotionlessly still feeling quite sad.
“What’s the matter?”
“You won’t understand,” I was in no mood for a conversation.
“Well, alright, I am going to have some toast now, if you want to join me,” Daniel walked towards the kitchen.
Toast! Toast! I haven’t had any toast for donkey’s years! I followed him into the kitchen.

I sat down opposite Daniel at the table, he made some toast. I took a piece of toast.
“Have you got any peanut butter?” I asked Daniel.
“Peanut butter? Can you eat? I mean…”
“Oh! Blast! I forgot.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to …”
“No, it’s OK, you are right! I can’t get used to being a ghost. I can’t eat, can’t go out, can’t even frighten people! It’s blasted stupid to be a ghost!” I was getting angry with myself.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you become er …?”
“I don’t know, and this is the silliest thing, I thought I was in a bad dream one night, but found myself trapped in here, anyway, how come you could see me? Are you some kind of spiritualist or something like that?”
“No, I am not spiritual, I just see, I don’t know why or how.”
“You’re spooky!”
“You are the spooky one!”
“Can your family hear us talking?”
“They can hear me of course, but they can’t hear you or see you.”
“Did your …?”
“Shh! My sister is coming, talk to you tonight,” Daniel stopped my question quickly, “Morning, Sally.”
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