Small Moments With a Ghost

Day 21: Day of the Departed

The only holiday that Morro ever really paid attention to was Day of the Departed.

At first, it was solely because it was the holiday closest to his self-proclaimed birthday. There were always plenty of pockets to pick and food to steal around this time of year too, and while cool, the weather wasn't quite yet cold enough to drive everyone inside. Young orphan Morro could always count on being full (and probably having way too much sugar in his system) on the night of Day of the Departed.

Then Wu found him, and he learned about the spiritual side of the holiday. He liked making and lighting the lanterns best; the idea of someone taking the time and effort to make one, and then set it so it could help guide a lost one...it made him feel less alone.

(He would prefer it, however, if the lanterns could float in the air rather than in the water. "When I die," he remembers telling Wu. "I want a lantern that flies. And I want it green," he added as an afterthought. "Green is better than orange!"

Wu had chucked and patted him on the head. "Hopefully, the day where I must light a lantern for you never comes," he said before guiding Morro towards the river to place their lanterns).

(Morro never imagined that Wu meant he'd never light a lantern for him, period).

Then Morro had died. And while Day of the Departed was one of the few things that broke up the monotony of his afterlife, it had lost a lot of its meaning for him. It was just a random day where he felt slightly stronger, more alert than normal. That was it.

(It was also a day where his rage at Wu grew, watching the old man tither about and not acknowledge his existence at all, like he had never been there in the first place--

Too full of anger and bitterness, Morro usually went off to a private corner to spend the rest of the holiday. The next day, things went back to normal)

(Sometimes, among the debris from last night, Morro would see scraps of lantern paper drifting in the wind. Some years, he swears he sees a few pieces of green among the orange, but he dismisses them. It's probably just candy wrappers..)

Then he met the others. And it shouldn't have changed much, it really shouldn't. And yet...

"Mwahahaha!" Lloyd cackled gleefully, running past Morro,in hot pursuit of a small gaggle of children. The kids screamed in frightened delight as the costumed Green Ninja chased them.

Morro was dead. He was only visible to a few people, and the rest could only see the bedsheet 'ghost' he had disguised himself as.

Despite all of this, he was smiling widely. He was enjoying himself.

"Booooooo," he moaned dramatically, floating off to chase a different group of kiddos. "I'm a spooky ghost coming to haunt you~"

It wasn't quite Day of the Departed yet, but Morro felt like this one would be the best one yet.

~~~~~

Little angsty, but ending on a hopeful note :)