A Ghost Story [69]

A little dust glittered in the sunbeams that shot through the cracks in the boarded up windows.

"Did you hear that?" Billy, the resident expert on the invisible and the intangible prodded his friend.

"I didn't hear anything," said Jack. While he'd expressed a healthy skepticism at the outset, his eyes now darted to every crack and nook as if some creature might shoot at them like a missile. So far the house had been devoid of any creature, living or dead.

"I heard on the news that there's a stuffed grizzly bear that comes to life during the full moon in one of the rooms." Billy stated.

"The news?"

"Well, my cousin's blog." Billy intentionally avoided Jack's eyes and the judgement concerning the less-than-authoritative source. "Well, he was right about the UFO."

"It was a balloon and--" Jack froze. "Did you hear that?

The two boys slowly swiveled their heads as if they were owls locating prey. Both boys' heads shot in the same direction when they heard a scuff coming from above them. Then came the screaming.

It started above the boys, but they joined in soon enough. The two made a comical scene running for the door and grabbing at furniture, door frames, and each other as if that would hasten their exit. In what would have been filmed in slow motion in any eighties comedy, the boys tumbled out of the house, picked themselves up, and ran down the street now too scared to scream.

Their story spread like wildfire among the other kids - a ghost at the old abandoned house? How could this news be suppressed? The truth, of course - two raccoons in a nocturnal tango - was never discovered.