Lessons

Lessons

“Have you ever seen a ghost?” a small voice asked. Turning, Tim found a small boy standing there. He quickly looked around to find the parent, none in sight.

Kids often walk away at the park, sometimes exploring, or crying, or frantic. This one was looking at him as if he worked for the local news and was doing a feature.

“Where are your parents?” he asked.

“Around,” he waved loosely, “So… have you?”

Not wanting to leave a child alone, he decided it would be good to stay with him until the parent showed up, Tim put his finger on his chin as if he was thinking, then said, “A ghost… have I ever seen a ghost…”

“It’s not that hard,” the boy said, sarcastically…

He tried a question, “Are you asking this for yourself? Or are you doing a piece on TicTok?”

“What’s TicTok?” the boy asked.

Ignoring that, “So, you must be asking for yourself. Why about ghosts?

“Nobody in my family tells me anything.”

“Ever? Like even if you ask for some cake?”

“No, I mean when I ask questions like about ghosts and people.”

“Oh, so they think you’re too young?”

“I guess…”

“Why do you want to know if I’ve seen a ghost?”

“Well, because you’re a people. Do people see ghosts?”

“I’m gonna say, I’m not sure. I don’t remember seeing a ghost, but if they look like everyone else, I might have.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

“What?”

“That you don’t know we’re ghosts…” and the boy shifted, and suddenly became a little white cloud, “Thanks Mr.!” the cloud yelled, disappearing into the sky.

Eventually Tim’s mother showed up, “You were supposed to be home hours ago! What are you doing?”

Coming out of a fog, Tim murmured, “Apparently learning something…”