a ghostly love - wally clark

sweet on the inside & outside

The next day, we all sat in our usual circle in the gymnasium. Mr. Martin was talking to all of us as we passed the donut box around.

"There's an old cider mill off Route 47, and my parents would toss us in the Dodge Coronet. We'd each get a bag of warm, greasy donuts. That was my idea of nirvana." Mr. Martin says, thinking back to his memories as a kid.

I grabbed a glazed donut from the box before handing it to Wally who took it, making sure that he grazed his fingers over mine as he did so. He got a jelly donut out of the box and handed the box over to Rhonda.

"What's that about?" She asks. He looked at her confused. "You always leave me the worst one." Rhonda complains. I bring my hand up to my neck and rub the side of it. I don't know why but she has gotten on my nerves ever since I met her.

"What do you mean? It's lemon glazed." Wally tells her.

"Nobody wants a lemon donut." Rhonda remarks.

I mean she was right about that.

"Guys, the subject is nirvana." Mr. Martin says.

"No, the subject is entitlement." Rhonda retorts.

"Oh, okay. I'm entitled because I like anything filled with jelly." Wally sighs. "It's not my fault I like things with sweet stuff inside of it." Wally then adds, looking over at me and giving me a wink.

"Oh my god." I say, shocked at his constant boldness, especially in front of the others.

"Ew. Just ew." Rhonda says. "I don't even want that anymore. That's gross." She says.

"Guys, the subject is nirvana." Mr. Martin repeats.

"Excuse me, can I be excused? I just want to eat my donut in peace." Wally says.

"More entitlement." Rhonda puts her hand up in disbelief.

"It's not entitlement, Rhonda. Okay? It's about- it's about digestion." Wally tells her.

I can't hold back my laugh. Wally looks over to me and smiles after hearing my laugh.

"Oh, Lucia. I've just been reminded. I have a homework assignment for you." Mr. Martin tells me.

I blink a few times, "Homework?" I ask.

"Well, kind of. I want you to write your obituary. Everyone here has done it already." He says.

"I..." I trail off. I sigh. "Okay." I shrug. I didn't have the energy to complain right now.

There's a sudden weird sound and I looked over to see Wally slurping the jelly out of the donut. "Oh, my god." He says. enjoying the jelly.

"Um... I'll just.. start that now actually." I say.

"Yeah." Mr. Martin says, agreeing with me.

☠︎︎

I then spent the next day writing my obituary. Even if the last few months, or well, years of my life hadn't been that great, there were some core memories that I had. I guess writing it out was nice. I found Mr. Martin in the hallway after I'd finished so that I could give it to him.

"Mr. Martin." I say and he looks over. "I finished my obituary." I told him.

"Wow, thank you." He says as he takes the papers from me.

"You're welcome." I softly say.

"How did it feel? Writing all of that out." Mr. Martin asked.

"It felt... nice." I admit.

"Good." He smiles.

There's a few moments of awkward silence. "Well... see you." I say and he just nods before I turn around and walk away.

☠︎︎

I sit on the bleachers in the pool room with Charley as Rhonda sits on the edge of the pool and Wally sits in a float in the water, wearing only some swim trunks and sunglasses. Charley was applying some of Rhonda's sunscreen to his arms. Why? I don't know, there was really no point. But, you do you, I guess.

"Uh, easy with the coppertone, hun." Rhonda comments.

"Yeah, that bottle's got to last her another 60 years." Wally says.

I watch as she kicks her foot in the water, splashing some water at him, "Don't be a cube." She says.

I giggle at what she'd said. Yeah, she was definitely from the '60s. She looks over at me with a scowl on her face.

"I- I'm sorry." I say, not really meaning it. "It's just.. nothing. It's nothing." I say.

"You are such a bug." She says.

I twirl a part of my hair with my finger, "Alright." I dismissively say.

"I love this smell." Charley says, rather loudly, trying to get us to stop. "Coconut, verbena. You can be anywhere; Miami, Aruba." He tells us. "I miss a good sunburn." He says.

"I miss pussy." Wally says and everyone looks over at him. "What? I thought we were talking about stuff that we missed." He tells us.

I cover my face with my hands. I can't.

☠︎︎

"So, how have you been adjusting to the life of the undead?" Wally asks as we sit on the bleachers. It was nighttime and so it was quite pretty with all the stars and all.

"The life of the undead?" I ask, giggling at the way he phrased it. Wally smiled after hearing me laugh. "Um, yeah. It's... actually not been that bad. I think it's actually better than things were when I was alive." I say.

"Really?" He asks and I nod. "Why? Cause I'm here now?" Wally asks, smirking at me.

"No." I partially lied. I mean, honestly, I wouldn't admit it to him just yet, but... I was glad that I met him, even if we were ghosts and even if he was constantly making inappropriate jokes.

"I'll change your mind, don't worry." He says.

"Oh, really? And how exactly are you going to do that?" I ask.

He looks down at my lap before looking into my eyes again, "Well, I have a couple of ideas." He teases.

I gently push his chest, "You're a little too bold." I say.

"Nothing wrong with that." Wally shrugs.

"When it comes to you.. there is." I tease back.

"I can't help it when you look like that in your uniform." Wally tells me.

"So, if I wasn't wearing this then you wouldn't be like this?" I ask.

"Nah, you'd be fine either way." Wally says.

Was it so wrong that even if his boldness was a lot, that I liked it?