Friend
The
little ghost, Ava walks solemnly and sighs mournfully. She's lonely and wants a
friend. The sound of children’s laughter breaks through her self-pity and she
looks up, her face breaking out into a smile.
A
group of children are playing in the field with a battered Frisbee. Ava
enthusiastically floats over and tries to join in. A child throws the Frisbee
with all his might and Ava flies up to catch it. To her dismay the Frisbee
merely passes through her body, unaffected by her mass; and smacks another boy
in the face.
The
children cackle cruelly at the boy but poor Ava sinks to the ground as though
they were laughing at her. She turns her back on the children laughing at the
boy and goes on her way.
She
floats past a busy road, one with cars moving so fast it frightens her; as soon
as she is accustomed to the noise and the speed, she begins to formulate a
plan.
A
little girl, no older than Ava herself, is waiting patiently to cross the road.
Ava sneaks closer for a better look; a van is speeding its way towards them and
Ava sees her chance. 'If this little girl dies, her ghost could keep me
company.' she thinks to herself. And with that she puts her little hands at the
small of the little girl's back and gives one al-mighty PUSH.
Her hands pass straight though the little girl
as if in slow motion and nothing happens.
Crestfallen she moves on, letting the little
girl cross safely.
She moves on to an older haunt of hers, the
old theatre, in which she hears a voice. A man bellows to no one in particular,
his eyes drift aver her for a second or two and she smiles gleefully, 'Finally
someone who can see me!' she spins bashfully in the air and her hair curls
around her. She waves with a little smile at the man who ignores her.
Realising he actually can't see her; Ava
unwinds from her hair and floats directly in front of him.
Frowning at him she reaches for her hair and
in one fluid movement floats round and round, wrapping her hair around the
man's neck.
She pauses and pulls her hair tight, but her
hair simply floats gently through him to the ground.
She signs forlornly and sinks in the air,
following her hair.
Her last attempts increase in desperation,
from attempting to drown a swimmer in the local pool, to pulling an oxygen mask
off an old woman in a hospital. Each attempt is more futile than the last.
Finally a man stands atop a bridge, nervously
looking down; she half-heartedly pushes him with one hand whilst barely even
looking. He falls forward and careens toward the river below.
Completely shocked at her eventual success,
Ava looks at her hand in excitement and awe, it is only when the man springs
back up that she realises he was merely bungee jumping. Disappointment taints
her frown and she half stomps, half floats off.
She finds herself sitting alone on the steps
of an old mental asylum. She sighs unhappily and rests her head in her hands.
A polite cough makes her look up and before
her stands a little boy with a shy smile. He's holding a red balloon, which he
holds out to her, blushing crimson.
Ava blinks; it dawns on her that he can see
her and she springs up. She floats around him, studying him with excitement.
'He's living, but he can see me!' she thinks happily.
He hands Ava the balloon and as soon as he
lets go of the string it passes through her hand and floats off.
The little boy smiles and she smiles back,
finally she has a friend.
Backstory
of Ava
Ava
is a little girl of about eight who is one of the deceased of our world. She
was murdered several decades ago and was left alone to die. As a result of this
heinous and unsolved crime, Ava is lonely; trapped only half in this world as
an unseen ghost because of her unfinished business. She’s still only young and
has no understanding of how her actions (if they were impacting at all) could
cause consequences for herself and those around her. Because of this she does
not think twice about the lives of those she decides to kill to have as
friends. However she is ineffective in this world so all of her attempts fail,
which is upsetting to her. In the end she is a little girl on her own looking
for someone to give her the attention and emotional support every human needs.
Personality
development exercise
We were given the task of writing
a short story about how our character would react to stepping on a worm. This
was quite irrelevant for my ghost character as she floats and makes no impact
on the living world around her; but I could see the point of the exercise so
ignored the elements of my story that were conflicting with this plot and wrote
it regardless. As a footnote - I enjoyed the task, and found it fairly easy to
do, as I like writing creatively like this. However I’m not sure I quite
demonstrate her lack of consideration of lives in this excerpt.
The
little girl skips carefree down a dirt path in the forest. She hums happily and
swings her arms with a huge grin on her face. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a squelch
shudders through her little shoe and she stops. Ava looks down and lifts her
foot, underneath lies a mangled worm still wriggling. Her fingers reach up to
cover the small ‘o’ of her mouth.
“Oh!”
she cries in terror, “Oh no! I’m sorry!”
The
little worm lies silent and Ava’s lip trembles, “I didn’t mean to this time.”
After
a moment of silence a small blue glow emerges from the worm and Ava drops the
carcass. The worm’s spirit floats before her and she smiles shyly.
“What
did you go and do that for?” the worm huffs moodily.
Ava
opens her mouth to explain but before she can make a sound the worm harrumphs
once more and vanishes into the great beyond.
“Take
me with you?” she whispers to the now empty space before her, but no one is
there to hear her. Solemnly she turns and continues her journey quietly, secretly glad she hadn't just made a friend of such a grumpy worm for eternity.
No comments:
Post a Comment