Charlotte Gaspel: Demons and Ghosts

XIV: Lamb

The bench at a bus stop is cold, mainly because no one attaches sentimental value to it except for the homeless; however, Charlotte felt that the bench she was sitting on was a victory, or at least an opportunity. She didn't know the city, so her most viable option for finding shelter was to walk all over the place.

As Charlotte relaxed and regained her energy, an unwelcome child appeared beside her, humming a tune. The infant looked significantly untidy, wearing an orange T-shirt and brown shorts. Charlotte looked around and saw no sign of another adult who might be his guardian, which made her think about the possibility that this mysterious child was an orphan like her; however, nothing connected them enough for her to be friendly towards him. In any case, the boy began to spit words out of his mouth without any restriction or hesitation.

"Can you guess the song that's in my head right now?" he asked suddenly. Charlotte didn't know how to react to that question. She was just on high alert; you never know what an unknown body would do to your defenseless body. The mysterious boy kept talking: "I've listened to a lot of songs this week, so you probably won't guess what's in my head right now!" Charlotte, without looking away, narrowed her eyes, thought for a few seconds and then replied, "The Orangutan Exit".

The boy was remarkably impressed by Charlotte's accurate answer. He then asked her, "How did you know, do you read mind?" She replied, "No. I tried to remember the most popular songs in this area that you can get your hands on and the most frequently played on the public loudspeaker, then I tried to remember the easiest nursery rhymes to remember, and Orangutan Exit was the first one that came to mind, so it was the most likely. Also, you were humming it earlier."

The boy, thrilled by Charlotte's great deduction skills, said, "Wow, so you can read minds."

Charlotte still couldn't take her eyes off the mysterious boy, and in order to control the situation, she decided to start a conversation.

"Say your name," Charlotte ordered him.

"My name is Danny," replied the boy as he extended his hand.

Charlotte, away from shaking his hand to greet him, looked at his outstretched limb and moved it up and down gingerly, hoping that he would leave her alone. Unfortunately for her, the one now known as Danny kept talking.

"What song are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking of a song called: Children Who Ask Questions Are Fools."

"And how's that one going?"

Observing that Danny wasn't taking the hint, he knew he wasn't even close to being dumb, but thought he might be suffering from some mental disability. He didn't look that ignorant in terms of his age, but had the appearance of having eight years of experience existing; however, he didn't seem to get the basic sarcasm.

Seeing that Danny was still waiting for an answer to his question, Charlotte decided to indulge him for once, perhaps out of pity, or perhaps because it would be much easier than explaining to him what sarcasm meant. Danny asked her how the song she had just invented went, so she came up with the most creative melody her soulless essence could conceive: "La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la." If you wonder what this melody sounded like, you'll be happy to know that you don't need to know music theory to imagine it, as it was the repetition of the same note, specifically the note B. It wasn't creative, but it was brilliant. All over the world, any song is hummed using those two letters in conjunction with each other; moreover, because it has no predefined tempo, it can be played in an infinite number of ways, so Charlotte had just created a masterpiece called: Children Who Ask Questions Are Fools.