A Haunted Dream

A young girl encounters a ghost in the woods near her new home, although she is not the one most changed by the encounter.

A Haunted Dream

If one was perceptive, traces of blood could still be detected on the day that a young lady planted flowers at a small glade in the forest. In addition to the unpleasant sight, the humidity was high, and mosquitoes buzzed about constantly, eager to find their next meal. But despite the inconveniences, the young lady never complained once, dutifully shoveling up the grass and dirt, planting the seed of one of a wide array of flowers, and refilling the hole. She was sweating, but did not mind. There were mosquito bites covering her body, but they did not faze her. She was silent; focused on her task.

The young man accompanying her was not so quiet. “Damn these bugs, damn this heat, and damn this forest. Coming out here on a day like this was a big mistake.”

The young lady answered without looking up. “I told you I could do this alone. You shouldn’t have come.”

“And leave you out here all alone? Not a chance,” the young man said as he swatted at a mosquito buzzing around his ear.

“I’d be perfectly fine on my own. What danger is there, all the way out here?”

“Well after the other day, I’m not taking any chances.”

“Fine. But if you’re staying, then do it without complaining.”

A few moments passed without a word between them, the only sound that of the young lady digging and the bugs swarming about. Finally, unable to stand the uncomfortable conditions any longer, the young man reluctantly walked over to the young lady. “Just let me do it, for God’s sake. We’ll be done faster that way.”

The young lady shook her head. “I need to do this myself.”

The young man sighed, and wiped the sweat off his forehead. “I don’t see why you’re so obsessed with this. Isn’t taking flowers to his grave enough?”

“I want there to be flowers here, too.”

Quietly, the young man muttered, “All this for that son of a b***h…”

The young lady dropped her shovel suddenly, and looked up at the young man angrily. “Don’t say things like that! He wasn’t…” The girl’s voice trailed off, and tears came to her eyes. “He may have done terrible things, but even so…I know that in his own way, he really did love me.”

 

On this day, she was a pirate. Wielding her sword dauntlessly, she plunged forward, jabbing at her adversaries. She was outnumbered three-to-one, and yet the foes still shrinked back at the sight of her, retreating from the blade they knew would end their lives if they weren’t careful. Emmy pursued, like an animal chasing its prey. This would end here and now. Never again would the evil Captain Ironclaw wreak havoc on the seas.

            “Arr, ye think ye can be gettin’ away? I think not!” she snarled at them, moving forward. Ironclaw’s pirates continued their retreat, although they soon found escape impossible. They had backed up as far as they could go, and were now standing at the edge of the ship. If any of them took another step backwards, they would plunge into the water, and risk drowning in the raging sea, or worse yet, being eaten alive by the vicious Kraken.

            And yet Emmy could tell by the looks on their faces that all three of them were considering taking those chances if it meant escaping from Captain Emmy, savior of the North Seas.

            “Now,” she growled as she approached, her blade unwavering. “Now, I will give ye scallywags until the count of-“as she spoke, she felt her foot catch on something, and suddenly her world was spinning. The pirates were gone, replaced with the sight of green all around her. She continued falling, shapes moving through her vision in a blur, and then all was dark.

            A tree root. She had tripped on a tree root, and for a moment it took her out of her imaginary world. Tasting leaves and dirt in her mouth, she picked her face up and rolled over, squinting her eyes as she stared up at the orange sky of a summer’s sunset. This was her first summer in the town of Grayknit, the place her family had recently moved to for her Mother’s job. The place they had moved into was on the outskirts of town, a small home that had gone uninhabited for many years. Still, it was cozy, although Emmy hated that she had to walk for ten minutes to reach her bus stop in the morning, and the nearest neighbor was a mile away.

            But there was one condolence. Not only did Emmy have a massive backyard to play in, but not far from her home was a forest, in which she spent most of her days. Going in there felt like opening up a new story book for the first time; there was a wealth of possibilities. One day she had chosen to be a ninja, creeping around and trying to sneak up on birds and squirrels. One day she’d been a hermit, collecting berries to eat (not really though, since her mother told her time and time again  never to eat strange berries or mushrooms) and sticks to make fire with for when it got dark. And today, she’d found a decent sized stick on the ground, and begun swinging it around, deciding she would be a pirate-

            “Captain Ironclaw!” she cried out in dismay, realizing she had forgotten about his crew. She had been on the cusp of defeating them, but had gotten distracted, and now she was on the ground defenseless as they approached, steel swords glimmering in the fading sunlight, their mouths twisted into cruel grins of triumph. They were convinced they had won.

            This angered Emmy, although she had to admit they had the upper hand now, and she would need to retreat and regroup with her crew if she hoped to challenge them again. With swiftness the likes of which no sea-farer had ever seen before, she leaped up, turned, and ran. Ironclaw’s crew were briefly dazzled by the speed with which she made her escape, and by the time they could pursue her, she had already jumped overboard onto a tiny raft she had prepared beneath the ship just in case, and was long gone.

            Emmy laughed as she ran, crashing wildly through the woods. “Let’s see them catch me now! By the time they know I’m gone, I’ll be all the way back to port!” Even though it was all in her mind, Emmy still felt adrenaline surging through her as she ran, as if she were in a real chase, and it felt good to just run, to forget everything else and just watch as the landscape flew by before her, trees and plants and bushes and squirrels and everything merging into one great blur as she escaped her pursuers. She felt like a bird, flying freely through this forest.

            And then, after running for a few minutes, she tripped again. But this time, instead of just lightly falling down on a pile of leaves, the added momentum from her sprint made her fly a couple feet forward as she came down, and she landed hard, her hand scraping against the ground as she tried to break her fall.

            “Ow…that hurt…” she moaned, her face and hand hurting. Picking herself up, she saw her hand had a bruise where it was rubbed raw, and she tasted some blood in her mouth. Upon touching her face, she found that it was the result of a bleeding lower lip. “They got me this time, those blasted Ironclaw’s. I never expected them to lay a trap like that.”

            Despite making light of the situation, Emmy was now ready to go home. She touched her fingers tentatively to her lip again, finding it still bleeding, and tried to stop herself from looking at the injured hand. That was enough for today. She hated to retreat, but she also knew the value in living to fight another day. It was time to leave.

            That was when she realized she didn’t recognize her surroundings. Normally, she didn’t go that far into the forest, making sure she could either see the exit or following a straight path so that it would be easy to get back. But in her excitement at the thought of running from Ironclaw’s crew, she had taken no such precautions. Adding to that the disorientation from her fall, and she had no idea which way she had come from.

            “Not only did they place a trap, but they broke my compass, leaving me with no way to navigate,” she said, though her arms were shaking a little, and her lip quivering. The quivering hurt and she resolved to stop, though she found it difficult. It was ridiculous, she thought. She was ten years old now. Too old to get lost. Certainly too old to cry about it. She would just have to figure out which way to go by trial and error.

            But just as she started to walk in one direction, she doubted herself, and started walking the other way. Upon finding herself feeling that was wrong, she turned again, and suddenly had no idea where she had even thought to go the first time. Standing there, her body in pain, her surroundings utterly foreign, and frustrated at being helpless, her lip started to quiver even more violently, but she suppressed it.

            “I am a big girl now. Big girls don’t cry. I am a big girl now. Big girls don’t-“She heard a sound next to her and jumped, before realizing that it was just a chipmunk scurrying through the leaves beside her. A small part of her was happy about this, as she rarely saw anything besides squirrels and birds in these woods. Chipmunks were a rare treat.

            Her thoughts soon turned darker though, as she wondered what else might be lurking out there. If there could be birds, and squirrels, and chipmunks, what was stopping there from being wolves, and lions, and bears?

            “No!” she shook her head violently, purging the thought from her mind. “You only see lions in zoos! And wolves only come out at night, and-“Her heart sank as she realized. Soon, it would be night. The sun was getting progressively lower, and the light was getting progressively dimmer. In another hour, it would be completely dark. Emmy would be alone in the woods with whatever strange animals might stalk the night, too far in for anyone to find her easily. She would be stuck there all night, cold, hungry, injured, alone…

            That was the final straw. No longer resisting it, Emmy lowered herself down against a nearby tree, pulled her knees in, layed her head down on them, and started to cry.

            “Follow me”.

            A man’s voice suddenly stopped Emmy’s tears in their tracks as she jolted up in shock. Could there be someone else out here, so far into the forest? “Hello?” she called out, looking around but not seeing anybody. Could she just have imagined the voice? “Who’s there?”

            The glimmer of hope she’d felt at hearing a voice was just starting to melt back into despair when she heard it again, and this time she saw a distant figure beyond her. “If you wish to leave, then follow me.” With this the man started to move forward, and Emmy hastened forward, scared of losing sight of him. She had been taught not to trust strangers, but she also recognized that following this strange man was her only chance of escaping these woods, and resolved not to lose the opportunity.

            She tried to get a good look at the man as she ran after him, although she found it difficult. No matter how quickly she moved, he seemed to stay one step ahead of her, far enough away that it was difficult to make out anything specific about him. He seemed to be well-dressed, wearing a black dress shirt and pants that Emmy figured must be terribly hot in the summer heat. Even with the sun setting, it was still nearly 80 degrees.

            There was something else about him to, although Emmy couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It was true that he was far away, but Emmy also found that whenever she tried to focus too hard on him, to make out specific details, her eyes began to ache as if she had accidentally looked right at the sun, and her vision began to blur like her eyes were unfocusing. Maybe it was because she was just getting tired from running so much that day, maybe it was just the dimming light playing tricks on her, or maybe-

            Without warning the man was suddenly gone, and Emmy felt a brief moment of panic. But in his place, she finally saw what she had been seeking: the exit. She had made it back. Although the man who had led her was gone, as if he’d vanished into thin air.

            As she was just about to cross the boundary out of the forest though, she heard the voice once again. “Now, do not return to this place. It is not safe for a child such as yourself”. Emmy turned her head rapidly, searching for the man, yet she saw nobody, as if the voice had just floated by with the wind.

            Emmy wanted to find out just what was going on. Where was the man who had saved her? Why did he tell her not to come back? She wanted answers, but it would be dark very soon, and she was still shaken up from her experience. Tomorrow, she decided. She would come back the next day and see what she could figure out.

           

Graham was irritated when he saw Emmy in the woods the following day.

            “What an insufferable girl…one would think she’d have learned her lesson after yesterday,” Graham muttered to himself, watching Emmy cautiously walking forwards. If nothing else, it seemed she was being much more careful today, paying attention to her surroundings, instead of just blindly running. Still, Graham was irritated.

            “Wander about, if you must,” he whispered under his breath, turning his back on Emmy. “But if you should get lost, I shall not intervene again.” Unseen, unheard, Graham retreated, walking a path that he knew so well he could have done it blind. His route led to a small glade deep in the forest, and it was the one place where Graham felt at peace. It was a rare spot where sunlight and rain were able to pass through the thick trees overhead, and in the center of it stood a patch of flowers, glowing healthily in the morning sun.

            Roses, tulips, sunflowers, hydrangeas, daisies and more were clumped together, the reds and yellows and blues and pinks all seeming to merge into one and create a blur of color that Graham found enchanting rather than sloppy, more like the mix of colors at the end of a fireworks show than the ugly smudge created by combining multiple paint colors.

            Graham stood beside the flowers, gazing at them wistfully. The flowers soothed his mind when he was troubled, and he could pass hours just staring at them, letting his mind wander and reflect as he did so, remembering the best days of his life. It was for this reason that he loved the summer months so much, for the flowers were in full, majestic bloom.

            Getting caught up in the flowers’ beauty, he had even forgotten about the young girl wandering through the woods, until he suddenly heard the shuffle of feet getting closer and closer.  Graham hid himself, newly irritated that he was being interrupted by this girl. “Despite telling her not to return, she has just ventured further in. How insufferable.”

            Emmy was clearly transfixed by this sudden break from the dense foliage of the rest of the forest, and Graham watched as she wandered about, exploring the little area. In particular, she seemed to be interested in the very same flowers that Graham was so transfixed with. He had intended to just wait for her to get bored and move on, but suddenly he was forced to take action.

            “Do not touch those!” Graham yelled, coming out of hiding and causing Emmy to fall backwards in shock, just before she could pluck one of the flowers. The young girl stared up at Graham in surprise, and Graham cursed himself silently. He hadn’t wanted to make his presence known, yet he had been unwilling to watch her disturb the flowers.

            Graham was hoping to make his escape while Emmy was still surprised, but her stupor did not last long. She quickly stood back up and looked over at him. There were a few seconds where she squinted as if confirming that he was real, and then she smiled. “I finally found you! I’ve been looking all over!” Emmy began to walk towards him, but Graham backed up, not wanting to get any closer.

            “I told you not to come back here, child. Why are you seeking me?”

            “I wanted to thank you for helping me! Thanks to you, I made it home!” Emmy smiled brightly once again and tried to come closer, but once more Graham backed away.
            “I do not need, nor do I desire your thanks. I merely saved you because it would have been troublesome had people entered the forest to look for you. For that reason alone I offered my assistance, and I do not intend to repeat it. Go home now, before you get lost.”

            “But I won’t get lost this time, I promise!” Emmy pointed in the direction she had come from. “I was really careful on my way here, so I know exactly how to get back! I won’t ever get lost out here again!”

            Graham sighed, and now really took the girl in for the first time. She was still just a young girl, no more than nine or ten years old if he had to guess. Her blond hair was cut short, and she wore a loose shirt and shorts, as if she had come out preparing for some sort of adventure. And her eyes had a certain look in them that Graham thought uncharacteristic of most children. A sort of determination. Or perhaps even bravery. Certainly, she did not appear to be frightened of him, even though she was alone with him in an unfamiliar part of the forest.

            “It is true that you will no longer get lost here. That is because you will not be coming here again at all. This part of the forest is dangerous, child, and-“

            “Hey! My name is Emmy Fidella! What’s yours?”

            “It is of no concern to you,” Graham said, annoyed that he had been interrupted. “As I was saying-“

            “But I wanna know what your name is! It’s impolite if you don’t refer to people by name!” Emmy blurted out, interrupting Graham for the second time. It was as if she was determined to force him to give up telling her to go home.

            “If it is that important to you, then you may refer to me as Graham. Now, for the last time-“

            “What kinds of flowers are those, Graham?”

            Graham sighed once again. He realized that getting this girl to listen would be like trying to get a dog to fly. “There are many different kinds, from sunflowers, to daffodils, to roses. But they are mine, and I will not have you tearing them out of the ground, as you were about to do.”

            Emmy looked up at Graham with an ashamed face. “I’m sorry. It’s just that they look so pretty…” Emmy’s voice trailed off as she stared at the flowers wistfully. “Can’t I just have one? I promise I’ll take good care of it.”

            “I’ve told you, these flowers are not to be disturbed. Now go home.”

            “But…I just want one…” Emmy’s voice trailed off once again, and she looked at them with even more fervor. Graham sighed, wondering why these flowers meant so much to her all of a sudden.

            “My Mom used to plant flowers like those red ones there,” Emmy said, pointing to the roses. “But ever since moving here, she’s been so busy that she can’t, even though we have so much room where a garden could go. I thought that maybe if I brought her one back, it might make her happy, since we can’t plant our own.”

            Graham knew he had no obligation to keep Emmy or her mother happy, and yet looking at the sadness in her face, he felt his heart soften just a bit. Even if he had no obligation, he had no desire to see her cry again, as she had the day before.  “If I give you just one of these flowers, just this one time, do you promise to leave this place, to never return here, and never speak of where you obtained it, or what has happened here today?

            Emmy looked up at Graham eagerly, nodding.

            “Fine. Have one, if it means so much to you. And then remove yourself from my sight.”

            Emmy nodded again, and carefully plucked a rose from its resting place. Now that she had gotten her wish, her cheerful mood was returning. “Hey Graham, do you always just stay here in the forest?”

            “You said you would leave, child. That is what we agreed upon. I have no interest in speaking with you.”

            “But are you always just here, looking at these flowers? Don’t you ever go home?”

            Graham averted his eyes at the question. “This forest is my home. I have no need to leave it.”

            “But don’t you get lonely out here, all by yourself?”

            He didn’t have to explain himself. And yet, he found that he was. “So long as I’ve got these flowers, I shall not get lonely. I’ve enough memories associated with them to keep me happy. That is why I do not like it when children come here against my wishes and defile them.”

            Emmy glanced at the flower in her hand, a bit guiltily, but the look quickly passed. “How come they’re so important to you?”

            Instinctually, Graham tried to clench his fist. It was something he had not tried to do in a long time. “Because they were planted in honor of someone who died here, a long time ago…” Graham suddenly realized what he had said, and instantly regretted it. It was foolish to tell the girl these things. It was foolish to talk to her in the first place. “Now then, go home, child. You say you know the way, so there should be no need for me to assist you. And remember; do not speak of this place, and do not come here again.” With that Graham once again hid himself from view, disappearing right before Emmy’s eyes. He watched as Emmy stared at the place he had been just seconds before, looked around bewildered for a while, calling his name in confusion, before finally leaving.

 

            Emmy was hurt by how angry Graham was when she returned to the glade a few days later. He was glowering, his bright green eyes almost appearing to shine as she approached. “Why are you here, child?! Did I not make it clear that you were not to return to this place?!”

            “I just wanted to-“

            “Your reason matters not to me! Go home!”

            The sudden cruelty that she now faced tempted Emmy to just turn and run, to leave the glade and never go back. But she had come for a reason, and she was determined to see it through. In a quiet voice, she said, “I just wanted to bring you something to say thanks for helping me, and for the flower you gave me.” She held up her hands towards Graham, in which a round chocolate chip cookie lied. “I figured you must be hungry since you’re out here all the time…”

            Graham’s anger seemed to taper a bit at the thoughtful gesture, but he did not take the cookie. He turned his head to the side, avoiding Emmy’s gaze. “Regardless of your intentions, you still should not have come here. I do not desire your food.”

            Emmy picked up on Graham’s shift in attitude, and walked closer. She observed that with the drop in his temper, he was looking pale, although she had to refocus her eyes a few times to get a close enough look to make this observation. This was something she found herself doing a lot when looking at Graham, although she didn’t understand why. “I promise it’s good though! I made them with some help from my mom. She hardly ever has time to do things with me, but I finally got her to help me, so you should eat it.”

            “I do not need your food. Eat it yourself.”

            “But I made them so I could give one to you!”

            “Give it to somebody else. I do not want it.”

            “But Graham…” Emmy said, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She didn’t get it. It’s not like it was some sort of yucky food, like peas or spinach. It was a cookie, and to her knowledge, everybody liked cookies. So why wouldn’t Graham take it? Even though she worked so hard on it, even though her Mom helped her…

            “Please Graham? You don’t have to eat the whole thing if you don’t want to. If you don’t like it I’ll finish it. Just try it. Please?”

            Graham still wouldn’t look at her, although she saw that he was gritting his teeth, his nose wrinkled up as if in anger.

            “Are you mad because I came here even though you told me not to? I only came so I could thank you for helping me,” Emmy said, choking up. “I was just trying to be nice! So why won’t you eat it?!”

            “Because I can’t!” Graham finally yelled, swatting his hand at Emmy’s. She watched in shock, thinking that Graham was going to knock the cookie right out of her hand. But there was never any impact. His hand came closer and closer, but instead of making contact, the hand just kept going, gliding through her own as if it were a mere projection, a hologram with no real mass.

            “Your hand…” Emmy muttered in shock, as she frantically tried to figure out just what had happened. Her mind was telling her to run, to escape from this unknown situation, but there was some part of her that compelled her to stay, that wouldn’t allow her to leave before she figured out just what was going on. The image of Graham disappearing the previous day replayed in her mind. And the time they’d first met, when he led her out of the woods. No, she couldn’t just leave. She needed answers.

            “Now you see,” Graham said, looking down somberly. “Now you see why it is I cannot accept your gift, no matter how much you want me to. I cannot eat food. I have no need for it, and no way to consume it. The necessities inherent in all human beings, nutrition, hydration, excretion, they have not applied to me for a long, long time.” For the first time since she produced her gift, Graham looked Emmy in the eyes. Looking at him, she was no longer afraid. There was no longer any anger or malice in his face, only a sad look, the kind you give after accidentally doing something wrong. “You may have misinterpreted my initial reaction to your gift as inconsiderate. Maybe that is true, but I assure you it was not by choice. If I appeared to be spiteful, it was merely because…because I did not want you to know the truth about me. No good can come of it.”

            “What’s wrong with you, Graham?” Emmy asked, having found her voice again. “Why are you like this? Are you…sick or something?”

            Graham shook his head, and brought his hands together as if to clap. But there was no sound. Only the sight of his arms crisscrossing, forming what should have been an impossible X shape. “Illness…pain…even death…those maladies have all been lost on me. I do not age, nor do I grow tired. I am not like you, child. I have not been for a long time, and I doubt I ever will be again.”

            Emmy’s mind tried to wrap around it, but just couldn’t. She had heard about people like Graham before, these things known as “ghosts”, but her parents had always told her they weren’t actually real, and besides, Graham didn’t look anything like the ghosts she knew of. He looked like a completely ordinary person; except for the way she sometimes had trouble keeping him in focus when looking at him, and the way he just disappeared sometimes, and the fact that on closer inspection his hair was oddly gray for someone who only looked to be in his 30’s…

            Okay, Emmy thought. So maybe Graham wasn’t your typical person.

            Before she could ask, Graham addressed the question that was on the tip of her lips. “You may wonder how I came to be this way…and you would not be the only one. I have many times wondered the same thing myself. I have long since come to accept that I may never get a definitive answer, and yet, if I had to venture a guess…I would say that it must be a curse, as punishment for my sins. You see, I have made many…” Graham glanced over at the flowers, “…many mistakes.”

            “But Graham-“Emmy began.

            “Go home now, child,” Graham said, although this time he did not sound angry or strict. It sounded more like a plea, like he was begging, not demanding Emmy to leave.

            Knowing now that he could not eat it, Emmy tightened her hand around the cookie, hiding it from view. “I don’t really get it Graham. But if you ever get better, I’ll make some more so you can try them. Promise.”
            Emmy turned to go, but then stopped, looking back over her shoulder. “I’m gonna come back tomorrow, okay?”

            Graham looked even paler, and his image almost seemed to flicker as Emmy watched him respond in a low voice. “Do as you wish, child. But no good can come from associating with one such as I.

            “Yeah, well I only got B’s on my report card last year, so I’m not that smart!” Emmy exclaimed, before laughing to herself, and starting for home. Unbeknownst to Graham, he had just become her first friend in this new town.

           

            At first, Graham found Emmy’s almost daily visits to be tedious affairs. He had not interacted with people for a long time, and even during his life he had not often dealt with young children. Emmy was an energetic girl, and Graham had trouble keeping up with her pace.

            “Hey, you wanna play a game?” she asked one day.

            “I have no interest in games, child.”

            “Come on, it’ll be fun!” she insisted, detailing her plans to set up a hide-and-seek game in the forest.

            “Were you to give it some thought, you would realize that this game is horribly eschewed in my favor,” he replied when she was finished. Emmy gave him a blank stare, prompting Graham to continue. “Should I so choose it, I can render myself invisible. Were I too seriously hide from you; you would never be able to find me. Thus rendering this game meaningless.”

            “So just play fair and don’t disappear! Come on, it’ll be fun!”

            “So insufferable…” Graham grumbled.

            Yet despite the irritation that he sometimes felt from Emmy’s visits, there was a certain charm in talking to someone again. For years, he had stayed isolated in the forest, alone with only his memories and his flowers. Emmy was a handful sometimes, but he appreciated the company nonetheless, even if he would not admit it.

            “Why is it that you come out here so often, child?” he asked one day about a month after they had met. “Do you not have friends to spend your time with?”

            “You’re my friend, so I spend time with you!”

            “And yet, should you not have friends of your own age to play with? And what of your parents? Do they not have problems with you spending so much of your time seemingly unsupervised here? I can only imagine what they must think of your activities.”

            Emmy’s face wrinkled at the question, and she said bitterly, “My Mom works all day, so she’s never around to see where I am or what I’m doing. And my Dad just…“ Here there was a pause, and Emmy’s dropped her face. “He doesn’t really mind. He never says anything about it at least.”

            “I see,” Graham said. He was sure there was more to this story, yet he did not intend to pry. Emmy’s family matters were her family’s business, not his. Even if he did know, there was nothing he could do about it.

            So as the days came and went, so did Emmy, never failing to show up at Graham’s glade with a smile on her face and some crazy new game to try and play or story to tell or topic to discuss. In the blink of an eye, a few months had passed, and summer was nearing an end. It hadn’t occurred to Graham until Emmy mentioned it in passing one day, but Emmy would soon be returning to school, and Graham believed this to mean that Emmy would no longer come to the glade as often. She would spend half of her day in school, and surely she would make new friends there. Why would she bother with a strange ghost in the woods any longer?

            And yet even as the days grew shorter and colder, Emmy still showed up, albeit later than before. Graham did not ask why she still came, and Emmy offered no explanation.

            Graham felt strangely relieved when he was sure that Emmy had no intention of letting school get in the way of her visits. He wanted to say he didn’t care if he saw her or not, wanted to say that while her visits were nice, he in no way needed them. Yet he was happy, and he couldn’t deny, even to himself, that the flowers were not the only important thing in his pseudo-life anymore.

 

            It was towards the end of winter that Emmy ran frantically through the woods, desperate to reach Graham’s location. There had not been much snow that year, and what little there had been was now melted, so she easily sprinted down the path that she had come to know so well, emerging in Graham’s glade.

            As per usual, Graham was there, looking at his flowers. With her arrival, he looked up, and noticed Emmy’s fatigue. “You seem out of breath, child. What is wrong?”

            She panted as she spoke. “Graham…they…they’re gonna…”

            “Slow down, and speak clearly. I cannot make out your words.”

            Taking a deep breath, she almost yelled: “They’re gonna cut down these woods Graham! They’re gonna get rid of everything! The trees, the glade, even your flowers! They’re just gonna, they-“

            Graham’s eyes narrowed and he went pale, but his voice was calm, if a bit quieter than usual, as he spoke. “Once again, slow down, child. Explain to me what exactly is going on.”

            Emmy was nearly doubled over, breathing deeply, desperately trying to catch her breath. She had been in such a hurry to get here and tell Graham her news, but now that she was finally here, she was too worked up to even talk! Her legs burned with the strain of moving so quickly, but this was no time for her to be worrying about herself. “My Dad was reading the paper this morning, and he was complaining because they’re gonna bring in a bunch of noisy equipment and stuff and cut down the whole forest out here so they can make more houses! That’s what my Dad said!”

            Graham listened as she spoke, and Emmy thought that Graham would burst out in rage at hearing this, much like he had at Emmy when she first began coming to the woods against his wishes. But to her surprise, Graham made no signs of anger; rather he just lowered his head, like a child who was just told off by the teacher.

            “ Deforestation. I cannot say I did not expect something like this to happen, sooner or later,” he muttered, his voice so low that Emmy was straining to hear it. She wasn’t even sure if he was speaking to her or to himself, like her father did sometimes when he was worked up. “Yet even though I expected it someday, I cannot help but feel it has snuck up on me…”

            Graham glanced almost lazily at his flowers, and kept his gaze there for a long moment. Finally, Emmy stepped toward him as if to take his hand, but stopped upon remembering that she could not. “Don’t worry Graham; I think I know a way to help you out.” Graham looked over to her in the same way he had looked at the flowers, as if he wasn’t really processing what he was seeing. “Hey, come with me!”

            Emmy began running off, but stopped when she saw Graham was not following. “Hey, c’mon! I need to show you something!”

            “Now is not the time, child. Right now, I desire to be alone.”

            “No, you need to come see now! You’re probably really sad, but after you see this I think you’ll feel better, so follow me!”

            Emmy began moving again, and once more saw that Graham was not coming with her.

            “Graham!”

            “Leave me be, child. I am not in the mood for games right now.”

            Emmy stamped her foot on the ground. She was getting frustrated. “This isn’t a game, this is serious! And if you don’t come with me right now, I’m just gonna run all over the place until I get so tired that you’ll have to carry  me back!”

            “I cannot do that. I physically cannot.”

            “Then you’d better hurry up and come with me, because you know I’ll do it anyway!” Evidently Graham did know, as when Emmy turned around the next time, she was pleased to see Graham following, although his face was twisted into a scowl.

            “What a truly insufferable girl…” he said, and Emmy smiled. He could complain all he  wanted, just so long as he followed her.

            Moving at a brisk pace, it did not take Emmy and Graham long to reach the glow of light that signaled the entrance to the woods. Despite it still being early march, it had been a warm week, the sun shining brightly, warming the chilled earth. It was this recent good weather that had given Emmy her idea. “Just where is it you plan to drag me to, child? I do not like to leave this place,” Graham said distastefully as he saw she intended to take him out of the woods.

            “It’s not far, I’m just taking you over to my backyard,” Emmy said while plunging ahead, not giving Graham time to further protest. “See, my Dad said that he’d make sure they don’t mess with our yard, “or else”, he said, so I figured that it would be a good place.”

            “Good place for what, child?” Graham enquired, although Emmy was silent now, not wanting to ruin the surprise. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Graham’s face when he saw what she had done.

            And so as she approached the lone flower sticking out of the ground in her yard, Emmy turned expectantly toward Graham, only to find a bemused look on his face. The reaction disconcerted her.

            Graham walked over to the flower, and stared down at it, the look on his face not changing. Emmy walked over nervously. Was Graham upset? Did he not understand what she was trying to do? “My teacher told us a little while ago that if you dig up a flower and plant it somewhere else, it will grow in the new place. And that once the flower is there, it’ll keep growing every year. So this way, even if the one’s in the forest are gone-“

            Emmy’s explanation was cut short by Graham’s sudden laughter. It caught her so off guard that her mouth hung open mid-word for a few seconds, before she snapped it shut and started wondering what was going on all over again. So Graham was happy? So happy that he was laughing? That didn’t seem right. But people only laughed when they were happy, right? Except for when her Dad sometimes laughed while he talked to himself. He didn’t sound so happy then. But Graham wasn’t-, well, he had sort of been talking to himself earlier…

            “Graham? Why are you laughing? Are you happy?” she finally asked, unable to stand the uncertainty any longer. He sounded genuine, but there was something about the laugh that disturbed her. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

            “It is just that I find your thought process humorous, child,” Graham said, composing himself. “Just simply placing a flower in the ground will not cause it to grow year after year. To do that, you would need to dig up the roots, and completely replant them.”

            “Let’s do that then!” Emmy yelled, just about ready to charge back into the woods right away. “I know you can’t dig them up yourself, but if you show me how-“

            Graham shook his head. “It would be too difficult a job to dig them all up and transfer them here. Especially for a child such as yourself. Besides, this is the wrong time of year to plant flowers.”

            Now Emmy was shaking her head. “It doesn’t matter! I can do it! I’ll just get something from the kitchen to carry them in, like a big bowl or something!”

            “Do not concern yourself with it, child.”

            “But I said I could do it!”

            Emmy detected a hint of irritation in Graham’s voice now. “Even if the flowers could easily be moved, I would not want them to be.”

            “But Graham!” Emmy exclaimed, baffled. “I thought those flowers were important to you! They’d be better off out here and alive then in those woods and dead!”

            Graham shook his head once again. “If those flowers are moved, then the meaning will be lost. They must stay, regardless of the outcome.”

            Emmy had vaguely sensed it coming, but now was unable to hold it back as she started to cry. Graham stared, dumbfounded, as she blubbered, tears running down her eyes. “But the only reason I tried planting the flower in the first place was to make you happy, Graham! I thought that if I saved the flowers you liked so much you’d be happy, and you’d appreciate it!”

            Graham almost looked like he was about to speak, but then stopped. Emmy continued on, stomping her foot on the ground as she went. “And I thought that if I could plant this flower here than I could plant them anywhere I wanted, so that way you wouldn’t have to stay in those woods all the time! That way you could- that way….” At this point Emmy’s sobs became too intense, and she found herself unable to continue speaking.

            “Could what…child?” Graham asked quietly after a few moments, as Emmy’s sobs started to die down.

            Making a gargantuan effort to keep her voice steady, Emmy began to speak. “My Dad is an artist, but nothing he makes ever sells well, so we’re always moving around so he can get what he calls “inspiration”. But now he’s not making anything at all, so we moved out here so my Mom could get a job. Now my Mom says we have to move again, only this time, we can’t take Dad with us, because Dad’s getting really mean and lazy lately and doesn’t know how to take c-care of m-m-…” Emmy once again found her sobbing overcoming her, reducing her words to a mere babble.

            “So in other words, they are…” Graham began, but then stopped. He looked uncomfortable.

            “She says I’ll still get to see my Dad during summer vacation, but he’s really mad anyways, and he’s really mean sometimes. He doesn’t act like my Dad anymore. It’s like he’s not even the same person. Mom is the same way, only she’s not mean. She’s just so busy that she hardly ever has time to talk to me anymore, and when she does, it’s just to tell me that we’re leaving for my sake, or that I’m going to thank her later, or…” Emmy looked down at the flower she had tried to plant. “And Mom says I have to switch schools again, because we’re moving a little too far away for me to keep going to this one. So I’m gonna lose all the friends I was just starting to make. Every single one of them…”

            Now Emmy’s eyes snapped back up to Graham, and he flinched away. “I always have to move right when I get used to someplace. Even if I make a whole bunch of friends, we move and then I never get to see them again. But I figured that if I saved your flowers, and maybe planted some new ones where I’m going…” Fresh tears flowed down her face now. “I thought maybe you’d come to visit me sometimes. Then I’d get to keep at least one friend.”

            Graham was about to speak, but got immediately cut off by the sight of a car coming towards the house. Quickly turning himself transparent, he watched as Emmy stared at him, tears and pain and most of all loneliness in her eyes, staring right through him even though he knew for a fact that she couldn’t see him, before she finally turned and walked back toward the house as a balding, disheveled man in his mid-30’s exited his old, rusted car, muttering to himself as he went inside.

            And just before Graham turned to leave, he noticed that the flower Emmy had tried to plant had been crushed by the car’s tires.

                               

            Graham had left the woods only three times since becoming a ghost. The first had been in bewilderment on that first day as a specter, in which he stumbled about aimlessly, still unable to control the abilities that he had been granted, or rather cursed with, desperately wondering why nobody could see or hear him. The second had been some time later, when he had gotten it in his head to try and blend in with people, to see if he could somehow try and lead a semi-normal life. But he soon found he couldn’t stand the way that people squinted at him as if he was flickering in and out of their vision, even though he was allowing himself be seen. And after a man fell right through him after tripping on the street, Graham knew it had been a bad idea.

            The third time had happened that very day, when Emmy dragged him out to view her little project. And now, for an unprecedented second time in one day, Graham found himself exiting the woods that he called “home”, stalking out like some kind of burglar, moving slowly and reluctantly, not wanting to leave the protection the woods provided. The difference was that whereas the burglar was in the woods to hide from other people, Graham was hiding from the isolation he would be forced to face in the outside world.  

            No, Graham thought to himself. No time to think about that now. He had a reason for exiting the woods that night, and that reason was right in front of him. Emmy’s house. Casting a glance around the yard, he could see even in the dim light provided by the moon and stars that the flower that she’d planted was now gone, apparently shoveled up sometime after being crushed.

            Walking quickly now, Graham approached the house. He didn’t want to go in, and yet he had to. He had to see the state of affairs.

            Graham hesitated for only a brief moment at the front door, before continuing on, walking straight through it. He hated his non-physical body, but had to admit that it had its uses.

            Graham’s first observation upon entering was how messy the home seemed. Shoes were strewn about by the door haphazardly and the carpeting was covered in rocks and dirt and had clearly not been cleaned recently. To his right was what appeared to be the living room, which had empty food containers littered on the floor here and there, unable to fit in the overly full trash can. There was a coffee table in the corner of the room, but it was stacked to the brim with random objects from bottles to shoe boxes to books to magazines.

            Graham was preparing to investigate further when he heard voices. Even though they were coming from upstairs, they were loud enough that he could hear them quite clearly.

            “…maybe if you’d actually do something about your “job”, I wouldn’t have to!

            “I told you, I’m just taking a break. As soon as I get some inspiration-“

            “I’ve heard enough about you and your “inspiration”! You’ve dragged us around for years now all for your “inspiration”, and how many paintings have you made? Two? Three? And how much success have you actually had with the few you have made?”

            “What do you want me to do? You think I want to put us in this position? You think I want to be a failure?!”

            “No, but I do think that you want to be a lazy a*****e now that it’s happened! It’s over, Ron, you gave being a painter a shot but it just isn’t going to happen, and you refuse to get that through your thick skull!”

            “Don’t gimme that bullshit! If you had any idea how hard I worked for this, you wouldn’t have the goddamn audacity to just tell me to give it all up because of a few difficulties-“

            “A few difficulties?”

            Now Graham heard footsteps, and the voices were coming down the stairs. Graham ensured that he was hidden from sight, and watched as the same man from before came down the steps, a skinny woman also in her 30’s trailing behind. She had the same blond hair as Emmy, although it already seemed to be greying at the edges, and her face was wrinkled.

            “So things haven’t been easy. But what about Emmy? Are you really gonna force her to deal with this? At her age?”

            “What would the difference be, Ron? As is she barely sees me, and I know for a fact that you just sit on your a*s all day and never bother with her. What kind of father just lets his ten year old daughter wander off into the woods by herself for hours on end?”

            “Don’t try to change the subject! You know what divorce can do to a kid!”

            “I’m more worried about what this is doing to her! It may look like she’s sleeping, but I bet she hears every single one of these “conversations” we have.  This can’t go on. I know it, and whether you want to admit it or not you do to. If I take the job in Kentish than I’ll make enough money to support us, and my Mother has agreed to look after her while I’m at work. And maybe once I’m gone, it’ll finally sink in that you’ve got to do something with your life.”

            The conversation had been carried into the living room, but with this final line the woman turned and walked out, back towards the stairs. The man followed.

            “You act as if all of this s**t is my fault, Sarah! But I’m the real victim here! I work my a*s off for years to follow my dream, and then just because I’m having some trouble I find out that my wife is gonna just up and abandon me, and take my kid with her! You tell me who’s got problems now! Come on, go ahead!”

Throughout it all the woman just kept walking up the stairs, not so much as turning her head to acknowledge the man’s yelling. After waiting about thirty seconds and not getting any answer, the man kicked the wall next to the staircase, swearing as he did it. And then, after waiting another few seconds, he prowled back to the living room, whispering to himself.

            “I work my a*s off…I do it all for her sake…” The man paced the room, running his hands through his hair, bunching them into fists, and muttering to himself the whole time. “She’s the one who’s screwing up this family…can’t blame me for all of this s**t…” There was a reclining chair sitting in the room, and just like the wall he kicked at it viciously, making it swing back and forth, coming precariously close to tipping over.

            The man’s anger reminded Graham of something from long ago, of another man who had fallen into a fit of grief and rage, of a man who had been so absorbed by it that he had hurt someone whom he loved very much, so gone that he had done it and even enjoyed it a little as he saw the pain in her eyes, and the disbelief that he would hurt her…

            “Nothing I do is ever good enough for her…she doesn’t even care how I feel about all this…”

            A man who had come back from war to find that his lover had moved on. To find that she had not expected him to return, and that she was already engaged to another man. Come back to have his heart shattered, his dreams ruined…

            “Wonder how she’d like it if I pulled this s**t on her…give her a taste of her own goddamn medicine! Leave her all alone!”

            A man who had lost control of himself in his anger and despair and done terrible things. A man who found himself so stricken with grief that he could no longer live with himself after realizing what he had done.

            “What the hell is the point anymore…if she wants to leave so badly, maybe I should give her a reason to do it right now!

            A man who chose death over facing his sins.

            “Do not do something you will come to regret.”

            Emmy’s father had been moving towards the stairs, but now he suddenly stopped, wheeling around to see where the voice had come from. “Who’s there? How the hell did you get in my house?” The man looked in all directions, but saw no one. Graham was still hiding himself from view, although his words could be heard loud and clear.

            “If you allow your grief to take hold of you, it will only serve to make you further harm those you love.”

            “What the hell is this? Where are you?!”

            “I can sympathize with what you are going through, and that is why you must take it to heart when I say that lashing out now would only serve to deepen your pain. Do not spend your time lamenting that which you will be forced to live without. Instead, spend that time appreciating what it means to be alive at all.”

            “Where the hell is this goddamn voice coming from?!”

            “Because so long as you are alive, you have an infinite number of opportunities to seize at. It is a vast world, with many people in it. It is your privilege as a living, breathing human being to take advantage of these opportunities. For you see, so long as you are alive…you will never truly be alone.” At this Graham ceased talking, leaving Emmy’s father to look around in bewilderment, unable to comprehend where the voice had come from.

            And then a few minutes later, still bewildered and unsettled about the voice he had heard, Emmy’s father set his trembling body down onto the recliner, cupped his hands over his face, and cried.

 

            Although he could not feel it himself, Graham surmised that it must have been cold on the morning Emmy was set to leave with her mother for her new home, as she was shivering as she came to meet him at the edge of the woods. The deforestation process had already begun, and Graham now had few qualms with getting away from the noise of the machinery, sound of the men talking, and more than anything else the sight of the forest that he had called a sort of home for so many long, long years being destroyed.

            Since the night he had spoken to Emmy’s father, Graham had spent much of his time, unbeknownst to Emmy, standing vigil over her home. Even though he had never again felt the need to intervene, it made him feel better to be sure that things were going, if not well, at least manageably. Nobody had gotten hurt, and that was enough for him.

            And now, roughly eight months after their first meeting, it was time for Graham and Emmy to say their goodbyes.

            “You look chilly, child. You should have worn a jacket. It is important to take care of yourself.”

            “You don’t even get cold! What would you know?” Emmy said with a grin, looking up at him. Graham felt a twitch of sadness shoot through him. This would be the last time…

            “Even though it has been many years since I have felt cold, I still remember it as an unpleasant sensation. As I said, be sure to take care of yourself, child.”

            “I will, Graham,” Emmy said, the smile fading from her face. Graham figured that she was also feeling melancholy.

            Following this brief exchange there was a moment of silence between the two, in which Graham scavenged about for what to say. There were plenty of things he wanted to express, but how could he say them? In the end though, it was Emmy who broke the silence, speaking so quietly that Graham could hardly hear her. “Is this really the last time I’ll ever see you?”

            The question gave Graham more pain than he had felt in a long time, because he knew what the answer was, and he also knew how badly he wanted it to be different. But he had made up his mind, and could not back out now. “It will be the last time, child. I am…sorry.”

            “But Graham!” Emmy suddenly exclaimed, tears in her eyes. “I don’t get why it has to be! I’ll be gone for a while, but I’ll come back sometimes! I’ll be here the whole summer with my Dad, so why can’t I see you then? Even if you don’t want to stay here without your flowers, you could visit me once in a while, right?!”

            Graham shook his head gravely, the very action taking every ounce of his willpower. “It is not that I do not wish to see you again, child. Please, do not take it that way. I would like nothing more than to come back, and talk with you in the woods as we always did. You may think me completely stoic, but that time meant much to me, more than I was ever willing to admit.”

            “Then why…?”

            “It is because…I do not think I shall still be on this Earth when you return.”

            “But Graham that…that doesn’t make any sense!” Emmy wailed, stomping her foot on the ground. “You’re a ghost, right? You said it yourself, that you never get hurt or get sick, so why would you die, Graham?! Shouldn’t you live forever?!”

            “And yet, am I really “living”? Am I alive simply because I can stand here and talk to you? Am I alive because my mind still functions? Am I alive because I can see the world around me?” At this, Graham smiled bitterly. “Despite all these things I can never truly interact with your world. No matter how long I “live”, I will never again know the touch of a human being, never feel their warmth…I will never be able to contribute to this world, to leave my mark on it. That privilege has been stripped away from me.”

            “And most of all, I cannot form lasting relationships. For even if I could keep my unworldly nature hidden, even if I was accepted as a human being, it would not change the fact that I would be forced to watch as those around me slowly aged and died, while I stayed exactly  the same. I would be all alone, those ties severed…and I could not handle that. So while it is true that I could technically “live” forever, why would I want to, when I am doomed to be so terribly, terribly alone?”

            Although she was not sobbing, tears ran down Emmy’s face as she spoke. “You’ve got me at least, Graham…I’m still just a kid, so it would be a long time before I got old and-“

            “I cannot keep you tied to me, child. Do you still not see? As I said so many months ago, no good can come of caring for one such as myself. You have gifted me with your kindness, your consideration; and I have nothing that I can give in return. Only my apology, for stringing you along and allowing you to grow close to me like this. And, of course, my gratitude.

            “You don’t have to apologize! I had a lot of fun this past year! You were my best friend, honest! If it hadn’t been for you, I would have been so lonely that I wouldn’t have been able to stand it!” Emmy wiped some tears from her eyes, sobbing quietly. “You don’t have to go for my sake. I still want to be friends!”

            Graham, unable to console her in any physical way, had to settle for crouching down in front of her, and speaking softly. “It is not just for you, child. It is for the both of us. Unlike me, you still have the gift of life. Take advantage of that, Emmy. There are an infinite number of people out there, never forget that. Even though there may be some that you cannot get along with, do not get discouraged. You do not need a ghost to your friend. In time, you will have many others.”
            “Do not let yourself be tied down by thoughts of me. Do not forsake the wonderful, vibrant living world for me. Allow these days we spent together to fade into nothing more than a pleasant dream. Something you can look back on when you’re lonely and need strength. That way, maybe I can provide something for you, and I won’t need those flowers anymore to memorialize my life. Just knowing that that my memory remains, alive somewhere in your mind is enough.

            “So go now, Emmy. For now, wake up from your dream. For I too need to wake up. I ended my life on terms I was not proud of, committing deeds that I despised. I could not rest in peace given those terms. Even if it meant living a hell of isolation, I could not let that be the end. I find it ironic, looking back. Only when I stripped it away from myself did I realize how much I truly valued my life.” Graham stood up now, and stepped back. Emmy had stopped sobbing, and was now rubbing her eyes with her sleeve again. No doubt, she was trying to be strong.

            “You gave me one last chance to act like a human being, Emmy. One final chance to do something with my life. And for that, you have my total, and sincere, thanks. And yet,” Graham said, bringing his hands to his eyes, “I do not even have the means to show how deeply I appreciate it. Instead, all I can do is this.” Graham bowed, and said: “Thank you”.

            Holding back her tears, Emmy started to yell. “You don’t have to say that Graham, because you’re the one who helped me! Even though you got annoyed and upset at me a lot you were still there every time I needed you! Every time I went into the woods you were there and willing to talk! You paid more attention to me than my own parents! So I have to thank you! I’m the one who has to thank you!”

            “Emmy…” Graham said, a peculiar blurriness coming into his eyes. At first he did not know what was happening, and he wondered why after all this time his eyes were acting up on him. But then, he remembered. It was a sensation that Graham had not felt in nearly 300 years, and yet he remembered. It was the sensation of having eyes clouded with tears. Upon realizing it, he could nearly feel the water welling up in his eyes, and then falling, rolling down his cheeks, proof of his emotions that he had so desperately wanted to show Emmy.

            It was the last thing he felt before passing on.

 

As the young lady approached her soon-to-be home with her fiancé, she felt a fleeting sense of sadness. The place she had known was gone. Surely the new homes, all freshly constructed and painted, just waiting for their new families to move in and start lives in them were nice, but to see the place that she had once so cherished changed so completely was depressing for a moment.

            “Remember how I told you I used to live here, years ago?” she said to the young man with her. “Well, back in those days, this whole area was a big forest. I always loved to come out here and play around in those days. You know, pretend to be a pirate and the like. Kid stuff.”

            “So this is your first time here now that they’ve finished cutting the forest down?”

            The young lady nodded. “That’s right. After my parents divorced I was supposed to visit my Dad during summer vacations, but he died of a stroke before I could. I have to say, being here is kind of nostalgic.”

            She told him about the days she spent in this town, in these former woods. And yet there were things she did not tell him about, such as the days she spent talking to a ghost named Graham. Nor would she tell him about the time she had spent meticulously piecing together the town’s history over the years, all in the hopes of finding out who he truly was. Just as Graham had told her, with every year that passed, those days seemed more and more like an impossibility, something that must have been out of a dream. This only propelled her to try harder, determined to prove to herself that her memories were real, that those days had actually happened.

            His full name had been Graham Stoark, a general in the American Civil War. Before joining the army, he had been in love with a woman that lived in the town, but upon returning at the war’s end, found that she had moved on, and gotten engaged to another man. Filled with pain and rage at what he saw as her betrayal, he had attempted to abuse her before her fiancé showed up and drove him away.

            Fleeing into the woods, Graham still felt rage, only it was now directed at himself, at what he had done. Even if she no longer had feelings for him, even if she had betrayed him…he had hurt the woman he loved. Faced with living a life of sorrow  over what he had lost and regret over what he had done, he decided it would be easier to just take his army knife, the one he had used several times before to kill people during the war, and just-

            “Emma? You alright?”

The young lady snapped her head up, coming out of her reverie. She nodded. “I’m fine. Sorry about that.” She smiled, and pointed to a patch of ground a short distance from the house. “I was just thinking, that would be a really nice place for a garden.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Kelsey Schadt]

What a compelling piece. You have a creative premise with dynamic characters. The first line drew me in. I wanted to know what caused the blood on the grown. Then I was continually compelled to read on to figure who/what Graham was. Well written. I have a couple suggestions.

1) For a site like this, I would suggest breaking your writing almost into chapters. I know you normally wouldn't, but my experience is that people tend not to read longer pieces here.

2)And today, she’d found a decent sized stick on the ground, and begun swinging it around, deciding she would be a pirate----I almost feel like, based on your whimsical word choice describing her imagination, the word deciding is too blunt and ordinary. What if you tried, "transforming herself into a pirate"

3) She held up her hands towards Graham, in which a round chocolate chip cookie lied ---lied should be lay unless your talking about fibbing desserts.

4) Is the young woman in the opening scene supposed to be Emmy? I would assume not, because of the existance of blood. I am under the impression that it is Graham's former lover. If this is the case, I think the use of italics in both the beginning and the end confuses the reader. I think Emmy in the future needs a different font.

I enjoyed reading your work and thanks for reviewing mine!

[pancake_monster]

Thank you for the review, you raised some very valid points that I'll definitely give some thought to.

[teanami]

The opening is very intriguing. I want to know who she was planting flowers for and why there of all places?

At first I was confused but then reading on I realized it was a girl playing in the woods. I like this character. You are very descriptive and I can imagine everything that is going on while I'm reading.

Oh my gosh I knew she'd go back I'm kind of scared for her now lol.

The relationship between Emma and Graham is compelling.

Aww I love this story! the ending was really beautiful. I loved it!

I do agree with possum that breaking up your chapters would have been better as people tend to look at a long piece and turn away.

[pancake_monster]

Thank you very much for the review, it means a lot, and I'm glad you liked it. And yeah, from here on I intend to split my stories into chapters. After spending some time on here, I've seen that most writers tend to use that approach.

[Katherine P. Haley]

This was really good! The imagery was absolutely fantastic and you chose your words well. You also did a very good job with the characterization of both Emmy and Graham, I could really understand who they were. Overall, great job! I really enjoyed reading this

[pancake_monster]

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!