Local Ghost Adopts Children

Day 24093
This is my house.
I won’t allow anyone to harm it.
There should have been no more intruders after the last one.
I do not want these people here. They will leave-

Day 24095
They are siblings. They are loud.
Always singing and talking and stomping. As if they must be louder than anything else.

Day 24106
There are bolts on the door now. Bolts and hideous, gaudy new locks.
How dare they-

Night 24112
I was going to fill the night with terrors. But he woke up screaming before I began. She came running from the other room. They sleep right across the hall from each other, with the doors on a crack.
…they are young, are they not, to be living on their own. Was I ever so young?

Day 24129
She has fixed the squeak in the door at the top of the stairs.
It never squeaked when I still lived.

Day 24121
The noise of the doorbell scares them. But they get so many deliveries.
It is a good bell. It has worked all these years-
I can see one of the men coming now with his packages, trudging up to the door.
…perhaps if I knock before he is here, they will come and look before he can sound the bell.

Day 24114
He is planting flowers in boxes on my windowsills.
I always wished I could have some flowers.

Night 24137
She is afraid of the dark. I could see it in her eyes when she got out of bed.
…I lit the lamps for her.

Day 24142
They have moved the couch to the sun spot a little to the right of the window.
That is where I used to have my armchair.
It is the only sensible place for it.

Day 24163
Sometimes the noises of the world are suddenly too much for him. He winces and tries not to sway his head.
This is my house.
…I can keep it calm and quiet for a while.

Day 24178
She just got a phone call and now they are both laughing.
Laughter is a good sound, isn’t it.
They said this house has been good luck…

Night 24205
They are singing in our kitchen.
He found my cookbook in the gap at the back of the kitchen cabinet and now they are trying to cook.
They wanted to start with the soufflé. They don’t even know how to make béchamel!
I turned the page to the casserole instead.

Day 24236
This is my house.
These are my boarders.
I won’t allow anyone to harm them.