Friends and Ghosts

They say that "Friendship is a building contract you sign with laughter and break with tears".It's so true,especially those who have been your childhood buddies.They also have a way of making your life pretty miserable at times playing all sorts of practical jokes.I have a friend named George who was a master prankster when we were in school.He was the guy who always envisioned a whole scheme and chose his victims carefully and played the whole thing masterfully that even if you were a victim you can't help but laugh at the end of the whole fiasco.I was a victim to one of his jokes the first I got to know him.

I had just moved to a new school and dad was offered a new home just near to the school as a part of his promotion and me(third grade) and my brother (fifth grade) were pretty excited about the whole thing.I also spent the next day telling all my friends about the location of the new home and that it was big and wonderful.George was right there listening carefully as I gushed about my new home and the swing in the front and wonderful big mango trees at the backyard.He later on came to me during the lunch break and with a very serious face said to me

George:Fuzzy,is the home you are moving the big yellow building just a couple of blocks from school?"

I looked up and with a big smile said "yes,that's the one"

George:hmm...it's the one with that big swing in the front and mango trees at the back right?

I nodded my head enthusiastically and said "yes,isn't that cool?I get to have my own swing too.

George: (continuing to sound very mysterious)hmm..Fuzzy,maybe you shouldn't really move to that house.

Me:Why would you say that?

George:well,you are new to this place and you really don't know about it much obviously nor does your dad

Me: why?what's there that I need to know?

George:How do I say this to you?That house is haunted,everyone knows,you know one of the girls at school who used to stay there before committed suicide hanging herself to one of those mango trees.

I was shocked and was now staring at him with wide eyes

George:You know at night you can hear anklet sounds near the windows and right around midnight the swing starts to swing all by itself and the person who lived there once even has seen a white figure of a girl moving around the house.

(Back in India girls wear silver anklets around the ankles which make tinkling sounds whenever they walk)

Me:oh,come on you are kidding aren't you?

George:I knew you would think that,so you don't trust me,I will call Mukesh and you can ask him,you know he doesn' lie

(Mukesh was another friend of mine and he was really silent and decent kid who never messed with anybody and a complete nerd)

He called Mukesh and another friend Chaitra and told the same thing and asked them whether its true.

Mukesh:Yes Fuzzy,its true,even I get a very bad feeling whenever I go near that house

Chaitra:Fuzzy,I have heard a lot of rumours about that girl who died there and I have heard that the anklet sounds which you hear at night is hers only.

I was totally stumped,they were all dead serious and now I was getting creeps about the scheduled moving.

I went back home and told my brother about the same,he didn't believe it but on my insistence he went and talked to George's elder brother Roshan who was his classmate.He came back with the same story and now we both were scared!Now our main aim was to convince our parents about not moving to the haunted house.

Both my parents laughed when we told them about it and said that there's nothing like a haunted house and that we should stop imagining things and get packing.All our pleading fell on deaf ears and soon the day arrived when we had to move.I got a lot of sympathy and advices how to get rid of ghosts and how to identify ghosts by looking at their feet and all the stuff from my friends.

The first night at that house I refused to sleep alone in my room and so did my brother,so my parents said you both can share the room for the night.And me and my brother braced ourselves to a night of terror and possible ghostly encounter and pulled the blankets all over the top and tried to sleep,as midnight approached we heard it,the anklet sounds!it was loud and clear and there was no mistake about it!it was as if someone was indeed walking near the window.I started whimpering and crying and my brother looked as if all blood was drained from his face.

My brother then tried to take a peek through the window and he screamed ,he said he saw the swing move by itself!Both of us started screaming at the top of our voices and my parents came running into our room worried.

They then told it was just the wind and even when we tried to explain that no,the house is haunted and we just had a visit by the ghost,dad really lost it and then asked us who fed us all this nonsense.I told him George told me about it and so did couple of my friends.He said he would like to meet George and my friends tomorrow morning.

I went to school and told them my ghostly encounter and how scared we were and how stubborn and pig headed my parents are being about the whole thing.And my friends kept listening to my tale with a amused look on their faces.When I told them about how we saw the swing move and how we screamed Mukesh couldn't control any longer and burst out laughing followed by Chaitra and last of all George.I still didn't get it and continued to ask them what's so funny about it.George was rolling over the floor by that time.Amidst of his laughter he told me it was all just a joke !!I was soo angry I wanted to kill them all at that moment.I chased them all around the room with whatever I found and they kept laughing.At the end of five minutes I was also sitting and laughing hard with them.This incident ended with George getting to be one of the closest friends I can ever have.Truly "FRIENDS" what would I do without them!!!

We always laughed about it whenever we used to play with that swing and climbing up that mango tree and picking mangoes.All of us cried when we had to leave that HAUNTED home!

P.S:The mystery of the anklet sounds were solved the next day when mom explained to me it was just made by a kind of nocturnal insect.