In a dream this morning
I’m pushing a little unpowered vacuum/sweeper
like you see them use at Denny’s
or maybe Cracker Barrel.
And then I look up
and see two young girls
and they’re singing a pretty song.
I ask what the song is
and they giggle a little,
and one asks the other
if they should tell me,
and she says yes.
So they tell me that there’s this
old abandoned house
and sometimes when they go by it
they see an old woman pushing
a sweeper like this.
Although they stop talking
I can tell the girls haven’t
finished the story,
so I ask,
is there something else to the story?
They look at each other,
trying to decide if they should tell me,
and they finally decide it’s okay,
and they tell me the old woman is a ghost!
I say, oh my, isn’t that scary?
And they say, yes it is.
But I tell them it’s a very pretty song.
And then they tell me they learned it
from the old woman!
So I say,
well, isn’t that wonderful?
She’s not a scary ghost,
is she?
And they say
no, she’s not.
I tell them that’s a wonderful story
and I appreciate them sharing it
with me.
And then they say
they have to go.
I say, yes,
I really should get back to my sweeping,
so we say goodbye,
and as I turn my head
they fade away.
I didn’t have the heart to tell them
they were ghosts, too.
books by alvin
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