Love Like Ghost

seven

And I've been meaning to tell you
I think your house is haunted
Your dad is always mad and that must be why
And I think you should come live with
Me and we can be pirates
Then you won't have to cry

-

She was standing next to her father across the room from me while I hung behind my mothers leg staring at her. She had a smile on her face as she pulled her hand up to wave at me. I glanced up at my mother who looked excitedly down at me. "Go say hi." I looked at the girl again. My mother turned and bent down in front of me smoothing out my dress. "These business talks are so dreadfully boring." She nodded her head towards the girl. "Go. Be a child."

The smile spread as I walked to her her face warming the closer I got to her. "Katarina Karpov." I held out my hand.

"Evelyn." She took it, then pulled me closer. "But my friends call me Evie." She took off down the hall, and I after her childish giggling echoing around. We played hide and seek, and tag, and freeze tag, and when music wafted upstairs we attempted to dance. We danced with each other we sang with each, we rummaged through my belongings pretending to be school teachers and students and mothers. We pretended to be spies and robbers and secret agents.

We were the only two people to exist that night.

Finally we laid on the stairs, exhausted, her on the step above me. "Katarina." I looked up at her. "I heard my father mention that your father keeps a beast in your basement."

I sighed sadly. "Sort of."

Evie sat up. "Show me."

"I can't." I sat up too. "And he's not a beast. Just a man, but he does have a metal arm."

Her eyes widened. "A metal arm? I have to see this."

"I can't Evie." I urged again. "I'm not supposed to go down there. Father was furious with me the last time."

She grabbed my hands. "I'll ask to sleep over, and we can go down there later tonight while everyone is asleep."

"You can't even see him that well." I told her. "He's frozen."

"That's okay." She shrugged laying back down. "I mostly want to keep playing with you." She reached down and grabbed my hand. "You're my best friend." And even though we had just met I felt it too, so I squeezed her hand back. "And tomorrow we can go play outside we could pretend to be..." I let her imagination run.

She would sleep over, and we would go in the basement but get to scared to even open the door. She would come over again and we would get closer each time. We went down there a lot, too much spying on the frozen beast below my house.

It wasn't until I was 16 did I realize Evie didn't have any other friends. She didn't have anyone else besides me. I was the only one that called her Evie.

~

I sat there on the blanket laid out in the grass the sketch pad sitting across my knees. I looked up and then back down shading in the petals. 'They look good." Steve said rolling a small tomato in his hand. "Maybe the next batch will be bigger." I nodded. He groaned as he sat down next to me peering over my shoulder at my drawing.

What once was covered in snow and sludge was finally green and blooming. When spring finally began I asked Steve if we could plant things. Nothing crazy some flowers, some spices, a few vegetables. Figured it would be a way to keep me busy. I had to stay busy. Steve tended to it with me, neither one of us really knew how to garden. We read some books together about how to start it, a quick crash course on the basics.