Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ My Ghost ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

My Ghost

-

Chapter 5

-

© 2008 Ohne Sie

 

 

After what seemed an eternity, Callie's first day of school was over. As soon as the bell rang, signaling the end of her Pre-Calculus class, and therefore the end of her school day, she darted out the door and across the street to the library.

 

The library was relatively deserted, with only a few schoolchildren inside, and one librarian and her assistant. Callie walked over to the librarian's assistant. “Excuse me,” she said, “But do you have newspaper records from, like, the 1920's?”

 

The assistant nodded. “Luckily, we have records going back to the nineteenth century, for almost every year since 1861. They're in the back room, here.” She showed Callie a room in the back of the library, where a computer and a stack of compact discs sat.

 

“Wow,” Callie said. “You put all of that on these discs?”

 

“It took a long time, but yeah. It's easier to keep track of everything this way, and we don't have to worry about the papers deteriorating.”

 

Callie nodded. “So are the discs labeled?”

 

“They're in this cabinet, over here,” the assistant said, opening a door. “They're organized by decade, and then year, month, and day. This is the cabinet you'll want. But you'll have to drop your bag at the door, because we can't afford to lose any of this.”

 

Callie nodded, removing her bookbag and dropping it by the door. “Of course,” she said. “So I just pop a disc in and that's it?”

 

“Yeah, that should be it,” the assistant said. “The articles were copied into separate documents, so it might take a while to find exactly what you need.”

 

Callie nodded, walking over to the cabinet and searching through it. She didn't notice the assistant leaving the room. “Okay. 1927.” She fished through the discs with that label. “July…” She grabbed a stack of discs from the latter half of July and plopped them down next to the computer. “July 17,” she read, placing the disc in the drive. She opened the folder containing the articles and searched through them.

 

“'Boy, 17, Missing.' I'm sure that's it.” She scanned the article.

 

William Johnson, a seventeen-year-old boy from Cedar Valley, was reported missing yesterday morning, at approximately 9:30. Police have no leads in the case at this time.

 

The article contained little additional information. Pouting, Callie put in the next disc. It contained no articles relating to Will's disappearance. She went through another week's worth of discs before there was another mention of Will.

 

Police have begun excavating the area around the house where William Johnson, a seventeen-year-old boy, disappeared last week. Johnson disappeared from his home the night of July 15, with no evidence of foul play. It is unknown whether he was abducted or if he ran away from home. Anyone with information about Johnson's disappearance should contact the local police.

 

“That's no help,” Callie mumbled, sighing. “You'd think this would be a bigger story.” She searched through a few more discs, but nothing came up. Finally, she put in a disc labeled “July 31, 1927,” which was at the bottom of her stack.

 

Police have ended the investigation into the disappearance of William Johnson.

 

“After two weeks with no leads, we don't have the funding to continue the investigation,” Police Chief Robert Stevens told reporters this morning. “There is no evidence that this isn't simply a case of a child running away from home.”

 

Callie stared at the screen in disbelief. “They stopped looking after two weeks?” She shook her head in disgust. “Wow, this was an epic waste of time.” She gathered the discs and placed them back in the cabinet, before looking at the clock. “Uh-oh…” She winced. It was 4:30. Her father was supposed to pick her up half an hour earlier. She ran out of the room, grabbing her bookbag on the way. “Thank you, bye!” she called to the library assistant before running out the door to her father's car.

 

“Sorry!” she said to her father as she opened the door. He shrugged.

 

“It's no big deal, honey. I just got here five minutes ago anyway. You must have been really interested in whatever you were researching, though.” He started the car and started to drive away.

 

“Yeah, it was mostly a waste of time, actually,” she said.

 

“Well, did you make any friends at school?”

 

Callier shrugged. “There's this girl in my chemistry class, Ashley. She seems pretty cool. She has a brother who showed me around the school, too. He's an office aide or something. He offered to let me eat lunch with him and his friends today, but I stayed behind in my English class to talk to my teacher instead.”

 

“Oh, really? What is their last name?”

 

“Johnson,” Callie said. An alarm went off in her head. “Wait a minute…” Her eyes widened. “No way!”

 

“What's that?” her father asked. Callie shook her head.

 

“Nothing, Dad. Just thinking out loud.” She frowned. But Johnson is a very common last name… She decided to do some research that night.

 

Her father pulled into their driveway, and Callie hopped out of the car.

 

“Don't forget to do your homework!” he called after her.

 

“I know!” She ran into the house and into the office, where the family computer was kept. Without even looking around for Will, she logged on to Soshnet, a social networking site that was very popular among teenagers. Then she searched for the name “Ashley Johnson.” Of course, many people matched that name, but fewer matched in Cedar Valley. She found Ashley almost immediately, requesting her as a friend. Then she did the same with Aaron. “Now I have to go back to the library, though,” she said. “To see birth records…”

 

“For who?” a voice asked. Callie whirled around in her chair to face Will.

 

“These kids at school, Aaron and Ashley. Their last name is Johnson.”

 

“So you think they might be related to me?”

 

“Yeah, maybe they're your great-great niece and nephew or something.”

 

“It's a popular name, though. Even in the twenties, there were a lot of Johnsons.”

 

“It's possible, though. I can see a resemblance. Aaron looks a little like you, but his hair is darker.”

 

Will frowned. “Yeah. Maybe they're Ed's great-grandchildren. His hair was darker than mine.”

 

“Really? Then maybe they are related to you. Ashley was saying that she's always wanted to see a ghost.”

 

“I don't think she could see me, though. No one but you has.” Will shook his head. “Anyway, you went to the library, right? What did you find out?”

 

“Nothing.”

 

“Nothing?”

 

“I found out that the search was called off after two weeks because the police had no evidence to suggest that you hadn't just run away.”

 

“Because I would totally do that.” Will rolled his eyes. “Two weeks?”

 

“There was no funding, or something.”

 

“That's pretty pathetic. But it coincides with what I remember of the time immediately following when I became a ghost, I guess.”

 

“Oh, yeah, about that,” Callie said. “When did you become a ghost?”

 

Will frowned. “What do you mean?”

 

“Like, your first memory of being a ghost. What was it?”

 

“Um…seeing my mom crying and not knowing why. And trying to comfort her and my arm going straight through her.”

 

Callie looked at him for a moment and turned away. They were silent for a moment.

 

“But, you know…that was over eighty years ago…”

 

“I'm sorry,” Callie said. “I can't even imagine…”

 

“It's not your fault. You don't need to be sorry. I'm okay, and I'm sure my parents recovered, and lived full, happy lives.”

 

Callie nodded, still not looking at Will. She turned back to the computer, wiping a tear from her eye. “Um, so…Ashley approved my friend request.”

 

“What is that?” Will asked. He stood next to her, staring at the screen.

 

“It's…on this website, you can become friends with people and send them messages and stuff. Basically. Anyway, Ashley approved me.”

 

“Are you going to ask her about her parents and grandparents and everything?”

 

“That's kind of creepy, so no, not until I'm pretty sure that she is related to you.”

 

“I guess that is a little bit strange, asking someone about their ancestry when you first meet them.”

 

“A bit,” Callie said. “I'll just send her a comment.” She began typing, reading it out loud. “Hi, Ashley! It was pretty awesome talking to you in chem today. You're pretty cool. Smiley face.”

Will was studying Ashley's picture. “She looks kind of familiar,” he said.

 

“I told you, I think there's a family resemblance.”

 

“No, I mean, other than that. She looks really familiar.”

 

Callie clicked on Aaran's page. “How about him?”

 

Will laughed. “Okay, he definitely looks a lot like Ed. I'd be amazed if he wasn't Ed's great grandson or whatever. But his sister looks remarkably like Nora.”

 

“Nora? The girl your brother married?”

 

Will nodded. “Between the two of them, I definitely think you're right about them being my great-great niece and nephew.”

 

“Well, I'm going to the library again tomorrow, to search for birth records. Hopefully they're in there. If not, I'm just going to have to be creepy and ask outright.”

 

“It's not like it would make much of a difference, though. I mean, it's nice to know that Ed had children and I still have family somewhere, but other than that…”

 

“Well, maybe they can help in some way.” Callie shrugged.

 

“How? They won't be able to see me, and they'd think you were crazy if you told them you could.”

 

“I don't know. They might believe me. It's worth a try.”