The ghost a rumour created

Taken from TNP


The ghost a rumour created

THERE'S a ghost near the lift, JM told his 7-year-old son. 'I saw him myself the other day. Very frightening!'

'I don't believe,' the boy said. 'If you saw him, then I'm sure he saw you, and why didn't he suck your blood?'

'Because he's looking only for 7-year-old boys, especially the naughty ones who play near the stairs when their parents tell them not to.'

'I don't believe. Ghosts only come out at night.'

'This one comes out only in the day because he knows little boys don't come out at night. He even asked me about you but I pretended I never heard of you. Luckily, he cannot walk more than 13 steps away from the lift so as long as you stay away from there, you'll be OK.'

The boy's face turned white. When he had to enter the lift the next day, he held on tight to his mother's hand. When she saw the look on his face, she said: 'Have you seen a ghost or something?'

He answered with a blood-curdling scream that could be heard across two blocks.

The next morning, his mother rang the family doctor to report that her son had developed a sudden fever. She didn't think her doctor's expertise applied in this 'special case'. She whispered (in case the ghost was listening) that something 'unclean' in the lift had disturbed her boy.

'Mrs JM,' said the doctor. 'Those things disappeared long ago. Today's ghosts don't know how to operate lifts. Bring your son over. And have a word with your husband about this.'

'No point. JM doesn't believe all these things,' she said, and hung up.

One day, about a week later, when JM stepped out of the lift, he found his neighbour's aged father sprinkling some water in front of it.

'Somebody could slip on that wet spot and hurt himself,' he thought. So he said: 'Uncle, you better be careful.'

'Oh, so you heard about it too, didn't you?' the man replied. 'Somebody said he jumped off the building that's why his head is bloody.'

JM thought: 'Who let this lunatic out of the asylum?'

Then, over the next couple of weeks, things started to get really busy outside that lift.

JM found one old lady stacking a few cut limes, flowers, and incense by the side of the lift door. Some nutcase stuck a colourful religious icon next to the button on Monday which some other nut removed on Tuesday.

JM saw some cheeky teenagers trying to push their screaming girlfriends into it. One joker rode up and down the lift one night howling like a wolf until the NPC cops took him away.

At work, JM's colleague told him about how people had discovered a ghost living in a lift in a block somewhere.

'A lot of people have seen this ghost, including my own cousin,' he said. 'People in the block said the ghost is harmless, and that they have seen him there for over five years.'

JM had no idea that this ghost was a descendent of the one he had created. Until a couple of NPC officers knocked on his door to make routine enquiries about the goings-on around his landing.

He swallowed nervously before he said: 'Well yes, it's a bit of a nuisance to see people coming and going, but as for the ghost, I'm not worried. It's probably just a rumour started by some...some... silly idiot.'