16 – Haunting

When Randy was 6, he swore up and down that their long gone pets had taken to haunting his bedroom.

Brad had provoked it, encouraged it, having just reached the age of 8, where torturing little brothers was of intense appeal. Tim had gone along with it, laughed and grunted, and trundled off to the garage to work on some lately released mechanical device, that doubtlessly needed the input of one Tim Taylor.

Jill however, failed to see the humour in such an affair.

Her baby boy, (when Tim had asked what Mark was then, she told him to shut up), her baby face Randy was seeing the undead. She was not a superstitious woman by any stretch, but explaining the implausibility of zombie goldfish and budgies was harder then it sounded. Boogeymen were easier.

But finally, after sleeping with him on the sofa for three weeks, he started to see the light.

"Maybe they gone now, Mama."

And she'd agreed furiously, of course. Quite happy that this chapter of her life was apparently over.

Randy doesn't tell anyone, but even now, ten years later, he still believes that Bubbles the ghost-hamster lives under his bed.


Next up: 17 - Rituals