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“Six, I swear there’s a ghost in the walls!” exclaimed the 3rd youngest Haverly boy.
“Don’t be ridiculous, ghosts don’t exist.”
“But it’s true! I heard a murder or a suicide or whatever happened on this street, I don’t know, like centuries ago! They’re hungry for revenge.” Jacob was a year younger than Six and was trying to match her slow pace, but he was too fidgety and kept walking ahead of her.
“Aren’t you a little too old for an old wives’ tale?” Six stopped in her tracks, annoyed. She had just meant to terrorize the Haverly boys a little and then spend the day exploring the garden. It had worked with Jacob’s older brothers, but not him. He was still hanging around because his little fear of the “ghost in the walls” was eating up at him and Six looked like she would tease him the least about it.
A few days ago, Jacob woke up at a very early hour of the night. He was a moderately light sleeper, but this was rare. As he willed himself to go back to sleep, he heard it. He sat up in bed, anxious. There was a rhythmic thumping against his bed’s headboard. He propped his ear up against the wall to try to hear better. There was a low groan—a man’s voice. That freaked him out so much that he had jumped into the bed of his older sibling.
“Jacob what are you doing, go back to sleep.”
“No! I think there’s a ghost!” he had whispered, clearly spooked.
“Go back to your own bed.” His older brother wasn’t having it and kicked him out. Jacob was reluctant, but for the rest of the night, he had hid under the covers with his hands over his ears.
The following morning, Jacob brought up the ghost at breakfast.
“It’s probably just the old pipes. There’s nothing behind those walls except Mr. Mori’s bedroom. It’s nothing to worry about.” His mother had tried to reassure him.
But then his eldest brother had said, “Oh, but haven’t you heard? There’s a ghost that haunts Filigree Street. A long time ago, a man murdered a defenseless little boy in cold blood, someone around your age I believe,” Jacob felt chills along his spine, “and so as to not get caught by the police, he holed himself up in these very walls. Every so often, you would hear a banging coming from within. That’s him trying to get out, bloodthirsty for his next victim.”
“Harry, stop scaring your brother!” yelled Mrs. Haverly as she wacked her eldest son over the head.
And ever since then, Jacob hasn’t gotten a wink of sleep.
“The ghost is always thumping on the walls. What if they kill me in my sleep-”
Six accidentally nudged the young Haverly boy into the stream. “Stop being dramatic, ghosts aren’t real. Your brother is just trying to scare you.”
“Okay, if you don’t believe me, stay up tonight and listen to the walls.”
Six gave an incredulous look as the boy helped himself up. He wasn’t all that wet, so his mother won’t scold him again. Six didn’t believe him for a second, but she’ll humor him. She’ll stay up tonight, listen for the deafening silence, prove the boy wrong and tell him he’s probably going crazy. They walked back to their homes because it was almost time for supper.
When Six came in through the back door and into the kitchen, a basin of water and a warm towel was waiting for her by the sink. Whenever she came back from outside, Mr. Mori would always place these things for her so she could wash her hands and any other places she might’ve gotten dirt on before dinner. Her dad was setting up the table and Mr. Mori was finishing up the food. It was beef stew with a side of white rice tonight.
Six took her place at the table, moving Katsu to the ground in the process. After a few moments, Mr. Mori and her dad also sat with her. Her stomach grumbled and they all began to eat.
“Can you believe he had the audacity to just drop us like that? He knows how important the first chair is and everyone is still not getting the score down. We had like, what, weeks!”
Mr. Mori gave a slight smile. “Thaniel, he didn’t drop you and the orchestra, he got sick.”
“Just like everybody, he should know by now that his body has to be immune to all human flaws until we’re finished.”
Six could tell her father was clearly agitated by something at work, but his brows unfurrowed and his posture became less tense as he ate.
“Oh, when you go to work tomorrow, try to avoid the main street. There’ll be another protest and this one’s bound to end up violent,” Mr. Mori said. “And when you come home, can you buy more oranges? I’d do it myself but I’ll be held up by a very rude customer.”
Six was listening halfheartedly to her dad and Mr. Mori. She wanted to say how she thinks the Haverly boys are going crazy, but she didn’t want to sound so rude about the neighbors.
“And how was your day, petal?” her dad asked.
“I think Jacob’s gone insane,” she said through bites of her food. “He’s convinced that our home is haunted because he heard a ghost the other day.”
Her father chuckled lightly. “A ghost, you say?”
“Yeah, he said the other night he heard a thumping on the walls and a horrid moaning. I told him ghosts don’t exist. I would say he’s joking, but kids are so stupid.”
Six had quickly finished her dinner. As she got up to put her plate away, she caught a strange look between her father and Mr. Mori. They had stopped eating and had suddenly gone rigid with wide eyes. But that’s just adults being adults so she didn’t think they’d be spooked about it and retreated to the attic.
For the rest of the evening, Six busied herself with filing down the miniature cogs and building her naval chronometer. It was actually going along quite nicely and she felt a swell of pride in her chest when it showed the beginnings of a functioning timepiece. When she saw that the pocket watch on her desk said 8, she expected her dad to come up and continue to read from the manual. She heard heavy steps climb up the ladder.
Six got into bed and passed the heavy manual to her dad as he sat next to her. “Please start from page 201. I’ve already read the other chapters myself.”
“Yes, of course petal, but before that, I wanted to ask you something,” her father started. His tone suggested concern but Six didn’t understand.
Six said, “I wasn’t trying to be rude.”
“What?”
“When I said that Jacob was acting insane. I thought it was just silly that he believed in ghosts.”
Her dad laughed a little. “No, that’s not what I wanted to ask.”
“Oh. Then what is it Dad?”
“Well, actually, it’s about that ghost thing.”
Six sat up. “Don’t tell me you believe in ghosts too!” She didn’t think her dad of all people would believe in such a childish superstition.
“No, no, I don’t believe in ghosts, petal. I wanted to ask you, have you been hearing anything also?”
“What?” Six was confused. Why would her father be worried about that?
“Like...I don’t know…Do you ever hear things at night? Sounds that wake you up?”
She thought about it. “No.” She was always a deep sleeper. “I don’t understand.”
“Right…” Her dad said after a brief moment of silence, like he had many things he wanted to say in his head but he just couldn’t pick which one to say. Mr. Mori was always so good at choosing words for her father. “Right, well, I’ll just read for you and then you’ll go to sleep, okay petal?”
So he did just that, and Six pretended to gradually fall asleep. She heard her father yawn and put down the book. He tucked her in and softly said, “Good night petal,” and he climbed down the attic ladder. Six laid there in bed for what felt like hours. She still didn’t understand why her dad asked her about hearing noises at night. Why should he be scared? He’s so tall and big, it would seem that he would scare the ghosts or whatever instead.
Well, maybe she would understand if she were older. Or if she asked Mr. Mori. He always knew things.
Six slowly got up, deciding it has been long enough. She checked her pocket watch. It was almost 10. She walked to the other side of her room. The attic spanned over her dad’s and Mr. Mori’s rooms. Jacob said that the ghost was in the walls of his room, which connected to Mr. Mori’s walls. Six bent down towards the left most corner of her room, putting her ear to the floor. All she could hear were snippets of Mr. Mori and her father talking.
“Thaniel, we can’t. I’m sorry. Not tonight.”
“No, no, I understand.”
“We have to control ourselves…”
“Or you have to be quieter.” Six heard her dad laugh.
“Well, I would be if you weren’t-”
“Weren’t what Kei?” She heard the heavy steps of her dad walk across the room.
“Your mind… It’s always... Thaniel, your thoughts never seem to take a rest.” Mr. Mori said exasperatedly.
Six leaned her ear in as close as she can get to the floor. She didn’t realize that this particular spot of the floor was creaky.
Mr. Mori continued, “Anyway, we can’t do tonight because...” There was a long silence. Either he started to whisper or they just suddenly stopped in the middle of their conversation.
Her dad spoke, “I could always just…”
“Oh...”
“Yeah.”
“Thaniel-” A gasp, then silence.
Six tried to listen for more, but they stopped speaking. It was just her dad and Mr. Mori talking like they always do. She had no clue about what they were talking about, but she was right. There was no ghost or anything. Jacob is so dumb for believing such a stupid story. Six went back to bed and slept.
Once she had finished her breakfast, Six went outside. Jacob was also there. It seemed he was looking for her because he ran to her and said, “It went away! It didn’t come for me last night!”
“Of course it didn’t you idiot. It never existed in the first place. I stayed up last night, and I didn’t hear anything.” Just her dad and Mr. Mori, but she didn’t think that was such an important detail to share.
“Why do you think it stopped haunting me?”
“Maybe because you tried too hard to prove that it was real, so it went away because of your desperation.”
The small Haverly boy didn’t know what that long word meant but he shook his head. “Well, whatever, it’s gone and I hope it stays gone. I was finally able to sleep in peace.”
Six sighed. Why were the neighborhood boys so dumb? She glanced back at the kitchen window which overlooked the garden. She could see Mr. Mori and her father. She contemplated whether she should just stay inside for the day or not. But then she saw Mr. Mori smiling. Her dad was saying something as he sipped his coffee. Mr. Mori broke out into a laugh and walked away from the window. The sweetest smile broke out onto her dad’s face when Mr. Mori’s back was turned. He looked so pleased that he was able to do what he did.
Six understood many things. Real solid things like science and engineering and not things like children’s naivety. But there were also other things, things that she didn’t completely understand, but she knew just worked. Like Mr. Mori’s extremely accurate and well-timed predictions and the way her father acted around him when he thought that she wasn’t observing. She’s just accepted these things as part of her life.
“Bet you can’t jump the stream without getting wet,” she taunted the boy. She decided she’ll stay outside for a little longer.