A Girl and Her Ghost Bro

A Short Story

When she relocated to the older house she fully expected the work that would need to be done so that she could make it the place she wanted. In the days before she moved in she already had renovation plans laid for the entire basement as well as a budget and a timeline to completion. When she was done with that place, it would be lovely.

What she didn't expect were some of the weird things that happened. An incessant and irregular tapping (that wasn't her dogs), the of settling and groaning that shouldn't be coming from her well maintained house, and things being not where she put them. By and whole she ignored them, pretended she didn't hear a thing.

☼

As the months passed and the seasons changed she finished the basement. She grinned as she took another look at the empty but completed area. She was damn proud of herself for getting this far, she'd known she could do it.

"Phew. Looks good, huh Mojo?" She looked down at her long haired deer-head Chihuahua, who was rather large for the small bread, and grinned when he huffed at her. "Let's go find your brother." She turned on her heel right as a loud bang resounded against the door that went into one of the spare bedrooms. She startled before sighing.

"And I suppose you're upset by not being asked for your opinion?" She looked at the door, the dark hairs rising on her tawny arms. Mojo sat primly at her feet, unbothered by the presence.

This wasn't the first time she'd addressed the sounds in her house directly. A few days after moving in, a loud tapping in the walls went on for a full six hours. Exhausted from work and needing sleep she finally yelled, colorfully cursing out, to what she had come to fondly call her "neat little poltergeist" or NLP for short. The tapping stopped for her and didn't resume for several days, even though her keys, hair brush, oven mitt, and host of other things weren't where she knew she left them. The silence even felt a little sulky but she refused to apologize and said so to the house at large. After that the tapping only occurred every so often to accompany a question or statement she voiced aloud.

Another tap, which she took to mean yes, came from the opposite side of the room.

"Okay, then, weigh in your opinion, NLP." She paused but when there was nothing else she nodded and moved upstairs, Mojo shooting ahead of her. "Wanna pick out lunch takeout?"

Once upstairs her listless eight-month old Collie/Dalmatian puppy trotted up to her, tail wagging. She rubbed his head and looked at the counter where a menu for a Mediterranean restaurant slid across the counter.

"Looks like it's gyros. Good choice, man."

With food delivered and settled in on the couch she grabbed for the remote and fired up Netflix.

"NLP, what are we watching today? More of the Reno Brothers? Or you feeling some K-drama? Maybe a little bit of superhero saves the day?" She waited a long quiet moment, glancing at Mojo and da Vinci who seem to like their house ghost but both of them were focused intently on her food. "NLP?" She looked around, the quiet becoming oppressive. The house was never as quiet as it was then and it was weirding her out. She took a moment to reflect on what her life was when a quiet house was more worrying than a haunted one. She wrapped up her gyro and set it on the table.

"NLP?" When there wasn't another sound she did a cursory look around the upstairs but nothing had been moved, and the lack of sounds continued to feel like a weight on her ears. She hummed, went back to her couch with her food, and played a movie she'd seen a million times, so she wouldn't have to concentrate.

☼

The silence went on for five days before she broke.

"Okay! That's it's. I know I promised I'd never use this to chat up ghosts but it's happening. She went into her bedroom, kneeled, and opened a panel in the wall, revealing an altar. Half melted candles, animal bones, various herbs, and numerous organic materials littered the ancient wooden structure. She clapped her hands together and looked around her room, Mojo and de Vinci laying on her bed.