John Wolfstone-The Book

A Ghost's plea to see her child

When John entered his house, he felt someone grab him. It was Julia.

“Am I an orphan?” she asked, with a sad puppy dog look in her eyes.

John looked at her and said, “No Julia, you are not. You have an uncle who loves you so much; he spent years searching for you. Your aunt Clara finds you adorable. Also, you have me. Besides, as long as you have someone who cares for you, you’ll never be an orphan.”

He then picked the girl up and hugged her.

Then, John saw a flash of white light and saw a pale translucent older version of Julia.

“Please mister,” the woman said. “Can you let me see my daughter? It’s been so long since I’ve seen her. I have so much to say to her.”

“How do I know you are the girl’s mother and not some trick? For all I know, you could be some fiend that likes to mess with young girls’ minds, and make them suffer horrid things, before you kill them.” John said.

“Mister, I’ve been searching for my daughter for ten long painful years. I have seen things that no mother should ever see. Please mister, I’m begging you, let me see my daughter,” the woman said, with tears in her eyes.

John looked at the tears, they were no trick or illusion of magic, and a ghost couldn’t cry unless it really was, on the inside, as if its heart was breaking in two.

John looked at Julia, who was looking at him with an expression that said, “Who are you talking to?”

“It’s your mother,” he said. “Her spirit is here and she wants to talk to you.”

Most spirits could not be seen, or heard, unless one had known the person, or knew someone who had known the person.

Then again, most spirits that stayed behind were those who felt that they had some sort of unfinished business, whether it was for revenge against the person who had killed them, some sort of guilt that they had felt, like if they thought that they had been an unfit parent and wanted to make up for it, and a wide variety of other strong reasons.

The only way for them to cross over was to see that the job was finished, although one could call up and hire a demon to get rid of the restless spirit. Of course, those guys didn’t come cheap, wouldn’t take money, but they would take one’s favorite human as payment.

Then again, it was something of a wonder that John didn’t see more ghosts on a daily occurrence. However, he could always sense them, especially around those he felt ate too many people as meals. Then again, he had always felt as if he was haunted after certain events in his life.

He had even known that there was, at least, one ghost around James, though he never asked why, because if he knew the person, then he would end up seeing that person’s ghost. However, with the Realization that he had practically forced Tawna and Justian to go through, he knew that they had seen the ghosts following them, if only briefly, before they had passed on, forgiving them.

However, the ghost of Julia’s mother wanted to see, and be seen and heard by, her daughter.

John then looked at the poor woman and said, “You can see her. After all I did tell someone close to you that you could.”

“Yes, that would be my little brother Jimmy. You have no idea how long I have waited for this day sir,” said the woman, as John put Julia down.

The woman then touched Julia’s shoulder, so that the girl could see and hear her.

Julia looked at the woman and asked, “Are you really my mother?”

There was a pained look in the woman’s eyes when she heard this.

“She’s been through a lot,” John said.

“I know,” the woman said. “She was only two years old when I and her father were killed. It does stand to reason that she wouldn’t remember or recognize me.”

Then the woman looked at Julia and said, “Yes child. I am your mother.”

The woman then put her arms around Julia, as if trying to give her a hug, as most ghosts would just pass through the living, or end up possessing them, if only temporarily.

“There is so much that I want to tell you, but I don’t think I’ll have the time to,” the woman said. “So, instead, can you just give your mother a hug?”

Julia then put her arms around her, being careful not to touch her.

However, it was awkward for both of them, so John said, “Miss, how about I let you posses me, that way you and your daughter can feel each others’ touch.”

The woman looked at him and said, “Thank you kind sir.” The woman then touched John and took over his body and held her daughter, for a good long while. Then, she was gone, having crossed over.

As John came back into control, he sensed that the woman trusted him enough to let him take care of her daughter.

“Well,” he said, looking down at Julia, “That was different.”

“Why did you let my mother posses you, so she could give me that hug?” Julia asked.

“Well Julia, I wasn’t there when my parents died, and I didn’t attend their funerals. I couldn’t give them a hug and kiss good-bye. However, with your mother, I could let her have that, at the very least,” said John, as tears fell from his eyes. “She loved you, you know. Even now I can feel the love she had for you.”

“How much did she love me?” Julia asked.

“She loved you so much, she gave her life to try and protect you," John said, as a tear fell from his eyes. "She even stuck around, so that she could find you, so she could tell you that she loved you, with all of her heart. She knows that I can, and will, be able to take very good care of you.”

With that, John picked Julia up, so she could cry on his shoulder.

He then saw Tawna and Justian, who had been watching the whole thing. John looked at them and said, in the low voice that Julia couldn’t hear but they could, “Give us some alone time. The girl did just see the ghost of her dead mother. I’m sure you can understand, especially now.”

With that, the two students nodded and left the room.

When Justian and Tawna got to the living room, they sat down on the couch and looked at each other. What they had seen was very strange, as no self-respecting person would willingly let a ghost posses them, normally, not even humans would do that.

For a non-human to let a human spirit to posses them was something that was unheard of, far more than non-human spirits that just possessed others to carry out their revenge, or whatever. Once again, they wondered the question of why would their teacher do something that wasn’t normal.

After a while, John and Julia came into the room, John still holding onto Julia.

John looked at them and said, “If you are wondering why I let Julia’s mother posses me, so she could give Julia one last hug before she passed on, think about this, if someone you cared about was dying, wouldn’t you want to pay them your last respects?”

Then he looked at them, with a bit of a sly smile. He knew what he had done was something that was practically unheard of.

In fact, he normally would not have let a ghost posses him, but the sight in that woman’s eyes, as she tried to give her daughter a meaningful hug, just made him feel some sadness for her, so he had offered her the use of his body, so she could give Julia a warm, and heart-felt, hug. He could sense that that was a gift that the woman would treasure for all eternity, or at least until it was time for Julia to pass on herself.