There’s a ghost that lives in my room. I know there is because, sometimes, when I look away from where I think she is and I try really hard to to see her from the corner of my eye, I get a fleeting glimpse of her shadow swooping across the wall in that billowy nightgown she wears. Then, when I whip my head around, she’s gone. So I wait ... just stare a spot and suddenly she’ll move from where she’s hiding to another dark shadowy area. But I see her out of the corner of my eye so I whip my head around to catch her - but I can only hear the crackle of her petticoats as she zooms to another corner. I almost get a glance of her as I whip my head back around, but I can’t be sure if that was her disappearing through the crack in the door of the closet or just a shadow of my imagination.
She’s not in there. I looked. Nothing is in my closet. I mean nothing at all. I took all my clothes out and put it in the hall outside my room. We can’t have her having a place to hide, can we?
I call her a her because that is the impression I get when I see those flowing robes. I’ve never actually seen anyone wearing those robes, but I have seen robes like that. And touched them. Oh, yes. They do exist. At Sears. When I go to the Mall, I go to there. They have this room where there are all kinds of pretty clothes like that. Not only can you can look… but you can also touch! When no one’s looking I like to hold those thin, silky ones to my face and imagine they belong to her. They don’t have a room like that for men at Sears, so she must be a she.
I’m going to catch her. Oh yes, I am. I have taken all her hiding places away. There are no more chairs to hide behind. No more shadowy corners. I have removed all the furniture and put it in the street. People came and took it away. That was nice of them. I have floodlights plugged into all the sockets in the room, bright lights pointing in every direction. I will catch her. Just as soon as I can see again and all these bright colors in my head go away.
… and when I do
… I have my knife.
