To celebrate the wonderfully spooky time that is hallows eve, the talented Charlotte has written us all a short story called A First Ghost Story, we hope you all enjoy!
Ghostie was a little ghost. Sometimes a little ghost, and perhaps sometimes a little child. When he was a little ghost, he thought it was fun to fly. Wouldn’t you? The great thing about flying is that you can see everywhere as long as you are not in a cloud. When Ghostie was in a cloud, he dropped, - plop, plop, plop until he was underneath it. Then he could see again. He never flew into anything because ghosts don’t have bodies like we do: all the same, he didn’t much like finding, say, that a bird was cruising along inside him. Would you? Not that it ever went on for long: this is because birds are scatty things and usually dart off somewhere else.
Owls, however, are different, being wise. Ghostie always said to himself that if he was ever tangled up with an owl, he would plop quietly to ground and become a little boy. Then the owl couldn’t be inside him because he would have a body.
Ghostie liked his body. When he was a boy, he was nice looking. He had pale skin, with dark, dark eyes, and hair black as night. His smile was light and cheerful, and this was the real reason he couldn’t be a ghost all the time, for ghosts have a sadness or a Past and Ghostie was far too cheerful to be a proper ghost. He wasn’t much interested in the past, and thought the future might be much more exciting. I know what happened in the past, he said, but I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.
“Ah,” said his mother, if only you were more interested in the past, you would understand the future too. Some people think that’s true anyway, for it is why children go to school to learn history. But little ghosts are lucky, they don’t need to learn history to understand the future. And they don’t have to write doctorates to understand the past. Ghostie thought about this for a moment: “Mum,” he said, “I would like to go to ghost school, but not to learn history, I would like to meet other boy ghosts, and we can play football in the clouds at night and frighten everyone!”
That night there was a wonderful night sky. People looked up and wondered at the clouds racing about. But they weren’t clouds, were they? Would you be frightened?
To have a look at Charlotte Sebag-Montefiore's published works, check it out here!
