Seeing Fred

Meeting the ghost of...

The next morning, she felt better. She felt like a weight was lifted from her shoulders. The methods she was taught years ago to relieve stress before bed, truly still worked like a charm. She sighed happily as she stretched her arms above her head. She laid there in bed a while, just slowly waking up, taking her time since she didn't need to hurry off to work.

When she finally left her bed, it was almost 11 o'clock and she started to pick up her dirty clothes from her bedroom floor with one hand. Her room wasn't that messy, it was just filled with scattered clothes. So, once she tossed everything in the hamper, her room was clean. Her bed stood against the back wall, a small dresser on its right and a wardrobe on the left, next to the small window overlooking the city. And of course, a chair in the corner, next to the door where her pile of clothes usually started.

The bathroom that was adjoined to the bedroom, was about the same but mostly just towels on a heap in the corner. Her small bathroom had an old shower, one sink to her left with a mirror cabinet above it, and on her right a toilet, all in those awful green seventies colour, if she stretched her arms and twirled around, she had an inch to spare before she touched something. She stuffed her towels in the washer and pushed the on-button before she walked to the living room. A second-hand two-person couch stood in the middle facing the TV. Most of her furniture was from the thrift shop that she refurbished herself. The TV was stationed on a long 70's TV cabinet, next to it a vintage 1940's bronze floor lamp with ecru cap. A dark carved coffee table with glass top separated the couch and the TV. A 1960's cabinet with two slide doors and under six drawers was placed against the wall.

To her right was the half open kitchen, and small kitchen-bar separated the two spaces. Two barstools on the side of the living room and two in the kitchen. Next to the kitchen was her front door that led to the hallway of her building. It was a small and older building with only 4 apartments in total. The kitchen too, was outdated and she had to fix the cabinets doors on repeat. But this was her home, she'd been living there alone for 2 years since her last year in college. She poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat down on one of the barstools, looking out the kitchen window. On the far right, she saw the trees of Regent's Park and wondered. She shook her head and turned back to her bowl of cereal. After she finished, she took a painkiller and went to the bedroom to change. She changed into a navy-blue maxi dress with orange flowers on it, putting her jean jacket over it. Back in the kitchen, she made herself a bag with a large bottle of water and something to eat and headed out.

She just walked around the city, not really knowing where she was heading. About thirty minutes later, she stood in Regent's Park. Frowning, she looked around her. How did I get here? The park again was quiet, only a handful of people in sight. She walked the pathway and found her favourite place to sit near the lake. After putting her bag on the ground, she lowered herself on the ground and pulled out her notebook and wrote down her ideas for her game. An hour later, she was lying on her stomach as she scribbled down on her notebook when she felt like someone was watching her. She looked up from her notebook and looked around. Her breath hitched when she saw a mop of red hair quickly disappear behind a tree.

"No, no, no." She whispered to herself. "This isn't happening!" She was pounding her head on her notebook. Then a flashback from her and her grandmother crossed her mind. She groaned to herself and sat up, looking at the tree, he was hidden behind.

"Carrot top! Come here!" She called over. After a few seconds, he appeared from behind the tree nervously before he walked over slowly. When he was towering over her, hands folded behind his back, rocking on his heels as he looked anywhere but her. "Sit down."

His head snapped to her, looking confused. She patted the space next to her and he finally sat down.

"Who are you?" She asked, looking at him curiously.