Margret finally had a day off and wasn’t sure what to do. Unable to sit still anymore with her father Margret decided to walk the streets. Mazurka skipped happy beside her, glad to be out of her father’s presence. Margret dragged up Polaski and turned on Main Street. Her mind wandered to work and what was in store for her the next day. Suddenly Mazurka took off, running quickly behind the tall building.
“Mazurka, you dumb dog,” Margret muttered. Margret turned into the dark ally to find Mazurka pinning a child to the brick wall covering the child’s face with his wet tongue. “Shit Mazurka! What the hell are you doing?” Margret quickly grabbed the dog’s collar jerking him down from the child. “Oh ya, sorry for the language. Not used to children.” The boy stayed shrunk to the wall eying the dog that was the same size as him. “Its ok. Mazurka just really likes people. Especially little people ‘cause it’s easy for him to kiss you.” Margret gave a nervous smile to the boy. She noticed his eyes were filled with tears and he seemed to be hyperventilating. “Its ok, I promise.” Margret patted the boy on the shoulder, trying to get him to move. His stillness bothered her. He continued to stay frozen in fear. She leaned down to eye level with the boy. “Are you ok?” He shook his head. “Was it my dog?” He shook his head. Relief. “Are you lost? Not to many ten year old boys wandering around here.” He shook his head. “And your name is…?”
“William.”
“That’s a nice name. Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“And home is where?”
“Jupiter.”
“Jupiter? Oh, duh, the apartments. Oh ya! I live there, too. That’s right around the corner. Where you coming from?”
“School.” The boy started to loosen up. He began looking at Margret and straightening from his slouched position.
“Well, listen. I don’t think it’s a good idea for a boy your age to be wandering the streets, especially around here. I’ll be speaking with your parents about that…”
“I don’t have parents.”
“Oh, well, be glad. They can be a pain.” Margret gave a sympathetic glance. The boy wiped his face and took a deep breath.
“Ok lets g…”
“No! No, no, no. I don’t think it’s a good idea to go that way.” The boy grabbed Margret’s hand. She looked back startled.
“Oh, ok. Why?”
“Oh, omm,” William blushed.
“Its ok.”
“You’ll laugh.”
“No, I won’t. Try me.”
William shuddered and giggled slightly. “Well, I think that I might have seen something.”
“Something? Something as in…?”
“Well…omm…well…a ghost.”
“Told you I wouldn’t laugh.” Margret said. William smiled shyly while Margret tried to keep a serious face. “Ghosts are serious. Where did you see it?” William glanced up. “Oh ok William. You saw that thing up in the top of that abandoned building.” He nodded and moved closer to Margret.
“My sister said there was one up there. I think I saw it.” Margret peered down at the boy the same size of her dog. She had heard similar stories in the neighborhood with all different types of phantoms haunting the top floor. She heard of a murderer, an insane woman, and a famous retired prostitute. The only common thread seemed to be that what ever it was it was in that particular building. But every story was different and varied on a huge spectrum. Margret thought it was wish-wash.
“You’re sister said that, huh?” He nodded. “Don’t believe her.”
“I left her money she gave me in the building and she’s going to kill me.”
“What? Why where you in there?” Margret asked sternly. William shrunk back and shrugged.
“I wanted to see it.” He wiped his nose on his sleeve.
“Oh fu…sorry. Ok, lets go.”
“No! Please no.”
“We don’t have a choice. If I had some money I’d give it to you but I don’t. There is a better chance of you sister killing you than any ghost.” Margret advanced towards the door; William clung tightly to her side. They slipped into the first huge room. Large crumbling columns holding the ceiling stood stately over their heads. The paint on the walls slowly peeled melted away. Debris from old reports and trash from years before were littered under their feet. Margret and William scuffed on toward the ominous cement staircase in the corner of the room. Margret walked quickly, dragging William behind her. Mazurka sniffed every bit of the floor, searching for any sort of danger. “Ok, what floor did you leave it?” Margret’s loud voice echoed.
“Third,” William whispered. Margret stamped up the staircase trying to get to the top of the building as fast as she could. Margret slammed the door to the third floor open and stepped inside.
The bag lay in the middle of the room and Margret walked over to grab it. They began their walk back down stairs when Mazurka began to bark loudly. “Shut up, Mazurka.” Almost to the door but something was in their way. Margret pushed William behind her. A young woman stood in the doorway between the inside of the building and the outside.
“Are you Coppel?” The young woman asked. Her voice was low pitched but pretty.
“Why?” Margret was suspicious.
“Oh. Just wondering. I was looking for a Coppel.” The woman continued to linger in the doorway. William whimpered and grasped onto Margret tightly. “You are Coppel. You look just like her.” The woman gazed at Margret’s face.
“No. We need to go.”
“Ok.” The woman stepped to the outside letting us slip by. Next she waltzed into the building.
“That was weird. Told you, no ghost. You tell your sister that too.” Margret whispered. Both gazed back into the empty building. “Ok, time to go home.”
William’s sister didn’t seem to pleased with Margret’s objection to walking home but William seemed to have warmed up to her. She at least liked one person in this town. It was getting late and she had to run to the food mart. Mr. Walker knew what she needed. There she heard to latest news on poor Ms. Lewis and her husband.
She was in for a surprise when she returned home. “Dad?”
“What?”
“What’s going on?”
“You’re brother decided he has the room.”
“Oh.” She looked around. The room was a mess but all of his cloths were shoved into a suitcase. “Ok. When do you leave?”
“As soon as I can. I can’t stand this stink hole.”
“Ok. So when is as soon as you can?”
“Tonight.”
“Tonight!”
“John’s on his way.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll be out of your hair and you can leave that heater on so high that you die of heat stroke for all I care. I’m done here.” He gave a small smile towards Margret.
“Good. Thank god.”