charlie & george
I went to a building event tonight. It was an outdoor movie on the amenities deck. It was the new Top Gun movie. It was fun. Also Tom Cruise has totally stopped aging. I don’t know how. I so want to talk to his dermatologist.
I don’t usually mention ghosts to other people here. Not people who live here. Not people who work here. I know there is a ghost. I just haven’t brought it up with anyone else because people often look at you very sideways when you say “ghost.”
I didn’t have to say “ghost” tonight.
A neighbor said “ghost.”
So I asked.
All of these grounds I live on are The Alamo. The original grounds of the fort and battle. But this isn’t a soldier. Or even an adult. I know that. And then tonight I found out about the kids.
In 1912 there was an orphanage here. Saint John’s Catholic Orphans Home. And it burned. The fire took five nuns’ and three children’s lives. One of those kids was George York, 12. One was Charles Matloch, 9.
I figure my ghost is one of them. Or maybe both. [Do ghosts hang out with each other?] It’s definitely a kid ghost though. These are things a kid would think is funny. Like locking the new lady out on the loading dock in her short shorts at 1 AM.
I say “good night Charlie” every night when I turn off the Charlie picture spot lights. I wonder if he thinks that is me saying good night to him. It will be now. I will say good night to George too.
These kids have been here for over a hundred years. That is a LONG time.
I don’t think ghosts do time like the living though. I do not think ghosts are constrained by the time dimension like we are. Einstein’s fourth dimension? So these guys have been somewhere for what in my time is over a hundred years. That doesn’t mean it has been a hundred years for them though. Also, that “somewhere” just happens to be sometimes my apartment right now. Also sometimes my neighbor’s. Sometimes the elevator. Sometime the loading dock.
I think I’ll leave that blind up from now on for Charlie/George so he (they) can look out the window without making a scene tossing that damn shade pull around any more.
We’re going to have a talk about sliding things around on the floor making noise when I am trying to sleep though.
Love and Kisses,
Your The Shade Stays Up Adams Girl
9 Responses to charlie & george
I think you are braver than me.
They’re just kids. That’s not scary. It is sad though. They never got to grow up. Poor kids.
When my sons were little we moved into an apartment for a bit before we bought our house.
My youngest son started to go to bed ealier and I thought he was coming down with a bug. What he told me was that there was a little boy playing with his toys at night and that he didn’t care but sometimes he made to much noise.
A little while after that I was cleaning when a little kid ran right by me and into my son’s room and when I went in to find out which of his friends had just wandered in, his room was empty.
After we moved, I still wonder about that little ghost who used to play with my sons toys and I do hope the family that lives in our old home has toys for him to play with.
Aw, jeez, Anita, now I’m spooked out about the little kid running by and sad he was so young and worried the new people might not have toys for him.
Plus we had Wolfgang at the time. I really do feel sorry for him. But maybe Wolfie went back to keep him company. Our house was only a block away from the apartment complex. Oh. Did I mention that the property the apartments were built used to be one of the oldest farm houses in the county? Oh, Yes. It gets better- or spookier depending on how you look at it.
You took all the ghost tours in New Orleans, didn’t you?
Yes I did. Plus the cemetery tours and I intend on going again!
lulz, you know that is horrifying to me right? I avoid ghosts. You tour for them. Funny girl.
Ghosts are memories just looking to be remembered.