Chiefly Speaking

FFM 2024, Day 5 ... flash fiction month, July ..641 words.

Contrary to popular belief, there are not many human ghosts who wander the world, or even a city, trying to scare complete strangers who live there. Also, contrary to popular belief, not many ghosts stay home, either, to stand in silent tears by the stairs and wear only nightclothes.

The first statement I made here is true because most ghosts generally stay close to whatever is familiar to them. The second statement is true because not many ghosts label "home" the same way living humans do. I can say this with authority after, well, after more than a life-span spent as Chief Ghost, which is admittedly an unearthly thing few ever see, much less discuss.

For those interested in the way things really are after death, please allow me to explain my simple statements about ghosts a bit more. Or just stop reading.

About the first part I said, about ghosts who wander - they generally wander close to things and places that feel most familiar to them. Those things can be self, or maybe family, or perhaps a school - almost anything they spent most of their attention on while they were alive. The ways that seem familiar to them can include sitting, dancing, studying, teaching, crying, shouting, creating or destroying - you see. And the places where they stay as ghosts might be a car, a barn, a tree house, a playpen, an office and so on. A ghost can wander pretty far in one place.

These are simple generalities that show the limits of wandering most restless ghosts can do.

About the second part, what I said about the ghosts who prefer to stay home. The meaning of "home" can vary pretty widely, but is most easily defined as comfortable, like another person or type of people. Or of course, it can also be a place, whether a country or a countryside, whether it's inside each ghost or outside them. And their ideas of "home" can even seem rather small, like a well-loved book, pet, tool, problem, color - all the little things that can be imagined by the living. These all apply to human ghosts who like staying at home.

There you have more generalities to show the boundless interests of ghosts who stay home.

Keep in mind, if you still have one, these are only two types of ghosts among a great many.

There's one more type of ghost I'll mention at this time. It's an odd one, sort of odd. Sometimes a human ghost will be so confused about life after death that when their body lets go of their spirits, those spirits land on the hard rock of eternity like dropped mercury. Have you ever seen what happens to mercury when it's dropped that far? What once looked like a beautiful little puddle of silver turns into many, many tiny silver droplets, each one a little mercury bead thinking that it is the whole one.

In many of mankind's ways, this kind of ghost needs a good talking-to. If I were a human, and alive, I might tell them, "Pull yourself together" or "Go with the flow" or maybe "Straighten up and fly right." It's a good thing I've never been remotely human, or alive, isn't it?

Sometimes it's better to let these kinds of ghost just find a catacomb, any catacomb, and let them see what they may like in there. There is a taste to dank and humid air, sometimes like ice cream, sometimes like brandy. And ancient enclosures such as these can almost make a spirit feel stoned in an excellent way. My word is not the last word on the subject, but I did spend ten thousand years in a catacomb once, lost in the labyrinth you might say, and it really was okay. A pretty good way to spend the day.

Author's Note

7/05/24 - FFM, Day 5 - "Chiefly Speaking" - word count = 641