Haunting Dorian

04 - Hello, little man

That day was the first day Dorian met the quirky neighborhood woman and it was raining. He was walking home from school and saw her trying to push her red bike under the roof of her terrace. It seemed to her like the bike had caught into the bush beside her drive-in while Dorian saw the real cause. It was her. He hadn't seen her for the rest of day after he told her to keep away from him but it was definitely her. She looked just as real and just as wet as the lady did but he knew for a fact that only he saw the girl sticking her foot between the bike to stop it from moving.

"Hey, stop!" Dorian called out before he realized that the lady wouldn't understand why he yelled at her. She looked at him with a troubled look and he furrowed his eyebrows. The troublesome ghost looked at him with visible disgust in her eyes but didn't stop causing the woman a hassle. Dorian felt a bit uncomfortable by his sudden outburst but still walked up the drive-in towards them. "I, uhh... Think you can get your bike free without so much trouble."

"I tried to, I swear. I just didn't seem to get it." They were both getting soaked by the endless rain-pour and he missed the comfort of his warm room. But he had to finish what he started. And if he had already started a conversation already – even if it was a completely different person – he couldn't just walk away from it. He could imagine just turning around and walking away out of the blue like he just mistakenly walked over there but he couldn't imagine it being socially acceptable.

"Well, uh, let me try?" He sounded too hesitant for himself and also Melinda, but it was because he wasn't completely sure if the ghost hanging onto the bicycle would let him help her.

Dorian dropped his bag from his shoulder to the pavement for a brief moment, careful not to set it somewhere too wet so he wouldn't have to take care of any damaged books.

He reached for the bicycle and with a grunt Melinda took a step back next to the bush. Dorian pushed at the branches that easily fell away. The branches were just nature's way of compensating for the force of the other side who seemed to be resolute to harassing that specific lady.

He pushed the bicycle towards the woman and she smiled in gratitude. "Thank you, young man. I don't know what this entire thing was but it seems to be over now."

"It's karma," Melinda snarled and crossed her arms over her chest. Dorian gave her no attention, but he did take note of what she said.

"Have a nice day ma'am." He didn't hang around for long – picked up her bag, put it on his shoulder and with a curt wave over his shoulder he headed back to the street. The woman didn't hang around for long either but pushed her two-wheeler under the terrace roof.

As soon as Doran was behind a hedge Melinda appeared again and this time she looked positively angry with him. "Who do you think you are?" She snarled. He continued walking and cast a look around himself in case any curious eyes were looking at him.

"I am a guy who saw a lady in trouble. But I also saw the ghost bullying her which is where I will come to ask you: what the fuck was that supposed to be? Do you have a need to use unearthly powers to bully innocent old ladies?"

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. She was walking backward in front of Dorian so she'd be facing him. "I have a history with that woman. Except when I knew her then she was about sixteen, not like this old dust sack right there. It's still her, though, she's still the same person," she answered poisonously.

"What did she do to you?"

"She bullied me, duh. This is only the rightest time to repay that."

And it was his turn to roll his eyes. "People change. She was a teenager then. Life changes people."

"No, no, no. Life does not change people. On the contrary, actually, people change lives and if you don't know that – the extensive grasp you have on peoples' lives – then you deserve to have that right taken from you," she taught smartly and Dorian frowned.