I had waited alone in this house for nearly two centuries. As, what you now refer to as, a ghost, I have spent my interminable years overlooking the city’s skyline, watching my old, obsolete ways evolve before my fog-like eyes. My only company has been the numerous amount of rodents and insects that have taken lodging with me after my parents departure once they’ve discovered my hanging corps. I seated myself on my bed in my new wispy form as I watched my parents dispose of my body like if it were nothing but a pile of rubbish. They hadn’t ever muttered a word about my death to each other, but, instead,went about just as if they’d never bore an offspring. They left thereafter. And nevermore have I seen them. This house has been uninhabited since by another human being. A fair share of heart-beaters have set foot on this land, mainly for construction purposes. The aged and tanished walls, floors and ceilings have been stripped and refurbished to look anew. The construction men even added several attachments to enlarge the previously small abode. But they always left after completion of their tasks. It has been ten years since their last visit. As this house has changed drastically, so have the other buildings that have reached my line of vision. Gravel and mud formerly laid way as a path to the open world, but, with modernisation and complex machines and load vehicles, it morphed into a solid, sedimentary stone road. My home is no longer hidden by an abundance of foliage. The shrubbery and trees have been cut and transformed into beautifully modern domicile. I have watched many giddy young faces, adults and children alike, galavant one by one into the establishments. Yet this one persists on being empty.
Until one day, something rather odd rang in my ears. There was a clanging at the entranceway, a sound of rattling keys. Metal upon metal. And then voices…
“I really think you guys will love this place,” a feminine voice chirped.The woman’s enthusiasm sounded awfully forced. “It’s right in your price range too.”
Apprehensively, I stayed perched on the windowsill and listened further.
“I like the sound of that,” a deep voice said exuberantly.
“It looks beautiful,” said another woman, her voice slightly higher than the first.
Although I had only heard three voice, I sensed four souls amongst them. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the staircase across the threshold, but I was far too bashful to move forward.
“This remodeled Victorian style chalet bungalow definitely portrays beautiful. The house was built around the eighteen fifties and still holds it’s original structure.” The woman of deeper vocals spoke endlessly of the house’s “structural integrity” and “authenticity”.
Echoes of shoe soles on wood and ceramic reverberated through the house as the same three voices conversed cheerfully. Still, the fourth soul hadn’t uttered a word, not even the faintest of a whisper. Their vitalities grew stronger, and I knew they were coming my way. I was greatly aware that in my current state, I would gain little acknowledgement from the living, but the silent one… No words can illustrate the warmth this presence radiated through me or why I had the urge to hide outside in the autumn wind, to hover from behind the windowpanes. Its was so pronounced that I could’ve sworn I heard the inaudible one’s soul serenade. I’d yet to come across a presence so potent until that day.
“So this is the second floor,” the deep voiced woman continued.
I watched from the outdoors as the three mysterious figures emerged from up the stairs. The first to come up was a ghastly skinny woman who reminded me terribly of my mother. They looked rather similar, curly blonde hair that spread out hideously like a triangle past her shoulders, paper-thin lips and large brown eyes. She wore a yellow skirt, displaying her skeletal legs, and a white dress shirt. Then, there came a gentleman, thankfully looking nothing like my father who was tremendously overweight with ginger hair, green irises and freckles all over. Quite the contrary, this man was very attractive with sleek dark hair and large spectacles in front of his blue eyes, lean. He was dressed more casually compared to the lass, in --what I learned shortly after my death-- jeans and a plaid patterned turtleneck --another vestimentary trend that deputed beyond my end.
“I think this room will make a great nursery.” The skinny woman motioned forth with a hand in the direction of the room in which I’m hiding.
“A nursery?” I breathed quizzically to myself.
And that is when I saw it. A second woman emerge from bottom of the companionway, then held the hand of the male. Her features --sinuate locks of copper, deep ocean eyes and a heart-shaped visage-- made this woman positively picturesque. I could’ve easily called her beautiful. Around her midsection, there was an enormous bump from underneath her floral dress. The lieu from which the amazing aura had been radiating. I couldn’t muster up enough intelligence to do anything but stare at the mesmerizing growth. It sang and hummed and chimed and caroled. It was the most alluring thing I had ever seen or heard.
Hand in hand, the couple entered the room. The sickly thin woman followed close behind.
“This just seems so perfect! The room is huge…” The woman marveled as she gandered at her surroundings. “Can you just imagine it, Jer?” She let go of her lover’s hand to pirouette excitedly. “The peach walls… The crib… The diapers…” She sauntered over to Jer, then tangled her fingers in his as they gazed into each other’s eyes. “The little pitter-patter of baby’s feet…”
“I can’t wait for our family to finally be complete, Kate,” he sighed before leaning in to press his lips sweetly upon Kate’s. Jer lowered himself onto his knees, his hands caressing his beloved’s engorged stomach, and began to speak in a hushed tone. “Did you hear that? We can’t to see you. We can’t wait to start loving you more.”
The latent presence grew stronger at the sound of his soothing voice. I stared in awe meanwhile from behind the glass. I was much like the other woman, just watching in silence as Jer, Kate and their newest addition were having their moment.
“We’ll take the house!” Kate beamed, helping Jer to his feet once again.
“Are you sure?” the blonde woman asked in doubt of their abrupt decision. “We haven’t finished the tour yet.”
While Kate and Jer were reassuring the woman that the house was “the one”, I loomed back in, for I was unable to resist the young soul’s song and power.
