Solangelo Oneshots

Ghosted

"Okay, guys. Go play!" Will's students ran off in all directions, jumping into slides and swings and other playground equipment. Will loved being an elementary teacher. He loved his students. Sometimes it could be hard, if a kid was a dick or if, even worse, their parent was a dick. It was hard when kids needed help and parents denied it. Just because they wanted their kid to be "normal." It made Will feel sick.

But other than that, he loved his job. He loved the kind of things children would say. He had this student who had a really high pitched voice and called the other kids feather-brains. His name was Jordan. He had a group of mean girls who followed him everywhere.
"Come on, girls," He would say. Will found it interesting that cliques could form so early.

"Mr. Solace?" One of his students asked.
"Yes, Avery? Is everything okay?"
"There's a strange man standing over there. He's scaring me."

Will looked over to where she was pointing. In the graveyard next to the school. Will had no idea why they would put a school next to a graveyard. Maybe they wanted to teach the young children about death. Maybe the land there was really cheap. Maybe whoever built the school was supposed to build it somewhere else, and just messed up a little bit on the placement of the building.

Will looked out onto the graveyard. "I don't see anyone. What does he look like?"

"He looks scary."

"Okay, but can you describe him more? Use adjectives."

"He's short and and whiteish and angry and creepy."

Will didn't see anyone. "Are you joking, Avery? I don't see anyone?"

"He's really there! Ugh!" Avery stormed off.

The next day, Will did see something. A man, standing in the place Avery had pointed to yesterday. He was short and pale. And he was definitely creepy.

"Excuse me, sir. What are you doing here?"

The man looked over to him.

"The cemetery is closed on weekdays and you aren't authorized to be by the school. What are you doing?"

The man looked around before raising his eyebrows and pointed to himself in a 'who, me?' kind of way.

"Yeah, you. What are you doing here? I will call the police."

Will blinked, because that's something people do. People blink. That's a fact of life, readers. You have to learn to except this at one point or another.

Will blinked, and the man was gone.

The next day or Saturday. While he would normally never spend a Saturday in a creepy graveyard next to the school, today was not a normal Saturday. Today was a Saturday in which Will would get to the bottom of the mystery. Who was the man standing in the graveyard, watching the children? Maybe he would be there today. Maybe he was only there because he was not allowed to be, as the cemetery with only open on weekends. Even if the man wasn't there today, Will might be able to find a granola bar wrapper or a soda can that the man may have left behind.

"Can I..... help you?" A voice from behind Will said. He turned around and saw the man. Will was not at all ashamed to admit that he screamed.

"Woah. Calm down, pill."

"Pill?"

"I died in the twenties. This is the most recent slang I know."

"Died?"

"Is there an echo here? Yes, Mr. Solace. I died. I'm a freaking ghost."

"A ghost?"

"Wow, there really is an echo. Wouldn't have guessed. Yes, a ghost."

"How did you know my name was Mr. Solace?"

"I've heard your students talk about you. The world has progressed so much in the last 100 years. Benito Mussolini has been killed. Did you know that people of color can go into the same places as white people? It's amazing!"

The ghost looked Will up and down, scanning him with his eyes.

"Well, I guess you probably knew all that. But I only found out a few years ago when the school was built and I overheard some history stuff."

"Yeah, the world sure has gotten better. And that's only elementary school level history."

The ghost shook his head slowly. "Horsefeathers. That's so great. I wish I could learn more about the world. About how it's changed."

Will didn't expect himself to say anything to this. He certainly didn't expect himself to say what he said. "I could teach you. Can you leave this graveyard? We could go get some ice cream or something and I could tell you all about the world."

The ghost smiled sadly. "I can, but.... are you sure? I don't want to be a bother or an extra responsibility you have to take care of."

"It's no bother. You seem like a nice person. Er, ghost."

"If you're sure.... Then I'd love to."

So far Nico had gotten excited about how many cars there were (he kept calling them automobiles), how much money ice cream costs ($6.75 isn't as much as it used to be), and how you could legally buy liquor at every grocery store.

"If it's easy for you to leave the graveyard, why haven't you left before?"

"How did you know I haven't left?"

"You obviously haven't seen modern civilization in a long time. You screamed when the door opened itself."

"Because it was scary!" Nico waved his arms around frantically. "Doors shouldn't do that!"

"You're a ghost."

"Yes, this has been established. I am a ghost who is afraid of self opening doors."

"I'm going to try not to judge you. But anyway, how did you not leave the cemetery for 90-something years?"

"Didn't have a reason to. I felt like I got enough information through the kid's jabber. So what do you know about how the world has changed?"

So what do you know about what's changed in the world?"

"Wow." Nico said an hour or two later. "That's..... Wow."

"Yeah. The world has never been a perfect place."

"It's getting better though, I think. People have more rights than they did when I was alive."

"That's true. Did you like your ice cream?"

"It was the berries, thank you."

"Didn't you get chocolate?"

"It's the berries is a phrase from the twenties that means it was good. The ice cream was good, thank you for buying it."

"Oh! Great! Well I, um, I think you're the berries."

"Thanks. I think you're the berries, too."