do you know any good ghost stories, frank?
No, I don’t know any ghost stories as such, although I think I once had an “imaginary friend” in the form of this story:
A little boy was walking on a hot, humid day in summer. It was a nice day, but the boy was tired and hot and thirsty. He came across a lake, where the water was shallow, and splashing around in it was a little boy a year older than him, playing by himself. The older boy noticed that the other boy was thirsty too and decided to give him a drink.
The older boy got out of the water, and the young boy followed. The older boy said, “We need to sit somewhere shady to cool off,” and the young boy said, “What about those logs over there?”
The older boy nodded and the young boy sat down on the first log he found. They drank their drinks, but the older boy seemed even thirstier than before. The young boy began to notice that the lake was the same shade of green as the younger boy’s skin, which looked particularly pale and sickly that day. The younger boy seemed the opposite, looking more animated and well-hydrated.
The older boy said, “Look, I have to tell you something. You’re not supposed to drink lakes or wells. You’ll get sick.” Then he said, “I can take you down the waterline so you don’t get in trouble at school. I know this isn’t your fault. But, you see, you don’t know about this stuff, so if you told anyone at school, they would probably be mad at me, and I can’t have that. You need to understand how serious this is. I’m not going to lie to you or try to hide it from you, it’s just that it’s very important that you don’t tell anyone about this.”
So the older boy told the younger one that if he told anyone at school about the lake, the older boy would beat him up and not let him go out or see his friends anymore.
The younger boy got up and shook his head. He didn’t want the older boy to beat him up. But the older boy said that there was no other way. “You don’t need to be scared of your friends, you’ll be alright in a while,” he said. “I have to take care of you, okay? You can’t tell anybody or I won’t be able to take you to the waterline. It’s only fair.”
The young boy said, “I’m not scared, I’ll be fine.”
Then the older boy said, “I know. I know. Come on, I’ll take you to the waterline.” And so they went on.
“This story’s not scary,” the older boy said. “Not really.”
The younger boy said, “It’s not scary for me either. It just seems kind of mean.”
The older boy said, “Yes, well, it is kind of mean. I’m sorry. That’s the only way. I have to be mean to you.”
When they got to the waterline, the younger boy asked the older boy to come closer. “Take this thing off, this shirt,” he said.
The older boy smiled and did as asked, pulling the shirt off his back. The younger boy pushed him closer and started to rub his arms and face with it, and, “You’re really sweaty,” the younger boy said, “I have to get you some of that.” And so they ran off and went home.
Over the next few days, both boys felt better, but the younger boy started to notice that he still couldn’t see in his left eye. Then he noticed that the lake had the same shade of green as his eyes – he could see through them, but not his own eye – and that they now had a green film over them. When he tried to take it off, it stuck to his face. Then the film started to move like a head was swimming inside his eye. “What’s wrong?” the younger boy said, as the head took on a human appearance, and the head began to speak. “I’m sorry about what I did, I’ll go to the waterline now.” “No,” the head said, “it’s you, you’re in there,” the boy said. “You can get out.” And the head replied, “It’s a matter of life and death.” “I can tell,” the boy said. “What’s your name, anyway?”
“Your name is you,” the head said. And with that, the boy was able to get the head out of his eye and out of his life. The boy washed his eyes and face, and all was well again. The older boy was relieved, and after that, they became good friends.







