FLAPPER GIRL | ❝All those people, all those lives, where are they now?❞
In all her ninety-something years of death, all Effie Connolly wishes for is some excitement in Button House... from anyone other than the fellow ghosts she's stuck in purg...
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CHAPTER ONE welcome to button house
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IN BUTTON HOUSE, there is no sure way to have privacy. Effie has learned that after ninety or so years haunting this place. Even for herself, she has found that when one is in the most peculiar situation where you're stuck in purgatory, for reasons unknown, with a few others from far-flung periods of time — all unable to understand one another, whether that be through culture, era or even linguistics — then you tend to be rather unapologetic.
Manners? Personal space? Basic rules of living? Who has time for that? If no one is going to punish you for it, then Effie could see no point getting hung up over boundaries that had otherwise constrained her in life — although she must admit, after about a decade of this, she was already getting a bit bored. It turns out even reckless behaviour can bore you to death after a while. Dare she say it, she might have even wished for some structure around here.
Either way, this lack of boundaries is why for the past ninety or so years (she stopped counting about twenty years into her death) she finds herself being bombarded first thing in the morning by an unwelcome visitor... that is, only after Lady Fanny's mysterious screaming at the exact strike of the clock every night.
It happens today too. At the crack of dawn, Effie watches the first trickles of sunlight paint the derelict ceilings of her room. This is all she can do most nights. Ghosts never sleep — at least, Effie Connolly never does. She doesn't know how to. This un life of hers might be just a little more bearable if she could slip into the ignorant bliss of a peaceful slumber every now and then. The closest she can get to dreaming is closing her eyes and reminiscing of a memory in her life, a long, long time ago. None of Kitty's overeager pestering, none of the Captain's commandeering words, none of Julian's egotistical speeches...
She hopes she isn't the only one, anyway. If the others have been snoozing for however long and haven't told her how, that would just be bloodybrilliant, wouldn't it?
Effie exhales softly and lets her eyelashes flutter shut. "Three, two, one..." she mumbles, and then performs a dramatic flourish of her hands.
"Rise and shine!!" Right on cue, the squeaky giggle of Kitty dances across the room to Effie's ears. She sits up on the bed, her bejewelled flapper dress shifting with a phantom-like silence. Sure enough, she is standing there with her fingers linked at her front, beaming from ear-to-ear at her. Doesn't she ever get tired of being this happy all the time?
"Good morning, Kitty," Effie sighs, swinging her leg over the side of the bed and rising. She sneaks a glance at the grandfather clock standing in the corner of her room. "Right on time, as usual..." In despair, she adds, "Bright and early at five o'clock."
