Friends and Foes of Ghosts

"Do you wanna play?" Liwayway asks the girl on the top of the stairs. She had noticed that the girl had been watching her as she plays the ball downstairs. She doesn't know what does it want so she tries to communicate with it. It's a ghost, she thought. The blood stains on its white dress and its messy hair speaks so much spook. Yet, she isn't scared. She had always been seeing ghosts ever since she had a mind of her own. However, she's still a little girl so she doesn't realize what dangers could a ghost have. She stares back at the girl and smiles at her. "Let's play!" she says again. "Play?" said the girl in white dress in a raspy voice, tilting her head like as if wondering what she said despite the reaction on her face being the same. "Yes! Like this," she demonstrates how to the ball works. She dribbles it like a pro but it slipped her hand and hits her head. Because of the impact she falls on her butt. Touching her forehead out of embarrassment, she turns back to the girl whose now nowhere to be found. She sighs picking up the ball, she doesn’t have any friends. It was hard for her. Many kids had seen her played with an invisible being during kindergarten and scared everybody so she ended up being hated and having no friends. But its too much to overthink for an 8 year old girl so she went to her mother’s room. She want to at least just talk to her mom. She was so bored already. Eventually, her Mom wasn’t in her room that’s why she went searching through the huge mansion. She found her at the pool with a visitor. It was her Aunt Carol and she’s with his son, Three. She doesn’t like him but she doesn’t have a choice. No one else plays with her but him. So she came closer to her mom as she was happily talking to Aunt Carol. “Oh, Wayii! How are you?” Aunt Carol cheerfully asks her as she took notice of her being a foot away from her Mom. “I’m okay, Auntie. How about you?” she asks back after doing a ‘mano’ (A Filipino way of respecting older people.) “I’m also okay,” she says softly while looking at her intently. She’s really sweet. “Three! Come here! Play with Wayiii!” she calls out for her son. Liwayway couldn’t help laughing when she heard mother react to Three. He’s been floating with his butt above water. He looked like a dead person. Though, she’s sure that he isn’t because she can see his soul being intact to his body. “Hey, stop laughing now. He’ll get mad,” her mom whispers to her ear, giggling. “But you’re also still laughing!” She shouts in a whisper. Her Mom looks at her and they both burst out laughing. “I’m sorry,” her mom ,whose now crying from laughing, says to Three whose pouting while looking at her. Aunt Carol is also holding back her laugh as she dries up Three with towel. What a character, she thought. “Do you wanna play?” she asks Three. Taken aback from Liwayway’s smile. He nods happily. He has a crush on her, and it’s something he can’t help himself. Wayii is a beauty. He’ll be troubled when they grows up for sure. “I’ll just wait for you at the garden,” she tells Three whose nodding like crazy again the runs off inside the house. What’s wrong with him? “It’s rare for you to ask Three to play with you,” her mom says as she brushes her hair with her hands. “I agree, you must be really bored right now,” Aunt Carol. She sighs. “The girl at the stairs doesn’t wanna play with me,” she looks down at her feet looking really disappointed. Silence happened. Then a smooth breeze of air passes them. The two older woman looks at each other with concern and then laughs. “What’s wrong?” Wayii asks. Looking at the two woman curiously. Weirdos. “Nothing, hun,” her mom says while still laughing , “ It’s just that, you can never ask a ghost to play with you.” “Why?” she curiously asked. Looking intently at her mother, whom also a person who can see ghosts. A person, with sixth sense or third eye. “Well, because they are already ghosts; spirits. They can’t do tangible things anymore. They’re like just a smoke of people who use to be alive and hasn’t , at the moment, reached their destination. Meaning they are not capable of playing with kids, kiss or hug or anything that concerns with touching the living. They can only watch us or scare us.” “Hmp. Boring,” Wayii said grumpily that made the two woman laugh again. “Silly,” Aunt Carol commented but was cut off from Liwayway’s on going rants. “What’s the point of being able to see them? You even told me that this is power but its so useless. I can’t even make friends with them because it’s either they won’t talk and just stares at me the whole time. It’s so useless even seeing them. The once that I tried playing with caused shattering your favorite vase because the ball passed through them. And…” “And?” her Mom asks. She doesn’t continue it. It will hurt if she does but she too young to have such control over her thoughts. “And I can’t even see Dad. He’s dead right? So I should at least be able to see him right. Or maybe your lying Mom.” She said in a low voice but everybody heard her. Silence followed. Aunt Carol looked at her Mom, Dahlia who became speechless. She didn’t know Wayii could not see her father. “But he’s here,” her Mom says. “What?” shock filled Wayii’s cute face. She can’t believe what she just heard. “You’re lying!” the hurt filled her heart so she can’t help but cry. It made her feel so sad. Why can’t I see Daddy? Her mom looked at her with so much worry. And as there a kid crying, her mom could only hug her and look at her husband whose also watching them. She didn’t know this. She just thought that Wayii is just not interested in her father. Like she just sees him as a normal spirit and had already accepted that her dad can no longer be with them. Worry is also visible in his face. For years that he tried showing himself to Liwayway was nothing but a series of moments that Wayii would not look at him. He didn’t that it was her daughter’s power that neglects his presence to her. On the other hand, Three is in the garden. It’s been an hour since he came there. He thought that Wayii just went somewhere and she’d come back somehow since she told him she’d wait for him there at the garden. So he waited. Even though he’d been feeling something weird since he came there. Yet, he’d been keeping his cool because he doesn’t want Wayii to think that he’s a scaredy-cat. Sitting on a bench somewhere at the garden, he heard a sound. Thinking it was Liwayway, he went there. And he sees a bouncing ball and there was a girl. “Wayii?” he calls out. Then the girl turns around. It’s not Wayii, he thought. He took a step back but the girl smiled at her. So he got stoned. Fear creeps all over his body. He doesn’t know what to do. The blood on her dress drops on the floor that made his eyes goes wide open. He wanna scream now but he can’t find his voice. The girl takes a step closer….. Another step closer….. And closer….. And… Three passes out.