Whisper

17

Whisper continued to get stronger, as each day went by, and by the middle of December, it was evident that my life was changing forever.

Opening doors was now a daily event and one I encouraged, since it was one of the ways I actually knew where she was. The unfortunate part, was now, she had also learned to close them, often very loudly, which was always followed by Ghost and Spirit running to hide and Whisper apologizing.

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"Sorry Will."

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She was also beginning to move more things. First it was books and my records, but now she was getting more adventurous and was attempting larger and heavier items like bowls, plates and even chairs. More often than not, the attempt was followed by the sound of crashing, the cats running to hide and, once again, Whisper apologizing.

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"Sorry Will."

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I quickly bought a large amount of plastic bowls and the such and put them all together in one of the lower cupboards in my kitchen. I informed Whisper that these were her dishes and she could play with them all she wanted, but she was not to touch the glass dishes any more, unless I was there with her.

Picking up all the plastic dishes and putting them away, quickly became the new part of my morning routine.

But at least the doors were now all closed.

All I had to do now was teach her to put the dishes back when she was finished.

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"Sorry, Will."

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Whisper also learned to change channels on the television which immediately prompted me to put security locks on all channels except her children stations and if I did not want to hear the Beatles singing Get Back at 2am, I had to remember to hide the remote to the stereo system.

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"Sorry, Will."

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It was like having a child that was growing up, but in this case, it was an entity that was discovering herself.

The only sad part about it, at least on my part, was that I could not see her.

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There were brief moments when I thought I could see an outline of a little girl, but they were so brief that I was not certain if it was Whisper or just my desire to actually see this little girl, who by now, had completely stolen my heart.

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"Maybe one day I will be able to be seen, Will. But I can see you and that must mean something."

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At least every day, now I would feel the unmistakeable feather touch that always accompanied the fact that she kissed my cheek or sat next to me holding my hand as we watched cartoons.

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As Christmas neared I started to get excited, for the first time in my life. It was to be my first Christmas, in my new home, with my new family. And the first Christmas that I actually looked forward to the celebration.

My ghosts of Christmas past were always accompanied by heavy drinking and my Christmas dinner was usually a pot of Kraft Dinner or some fish and chips I put in the oven.

I was so happy that part of my life was long behind me.

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But my new Christmas was in front of me and quite honestly, I did not have a clue what to do.