The Ghost of Oak (3 page)

        
Mrs. Smith scrambled a couple of eggs for herself, and sat
down at the table. "Katie, you look very tired." She commented,
noticing bags under her daughter's eyes.

       
"She Does" replied Mr. Smith. "Katie, did you sleep well?" he
asked, sounding concerned.

       
Katie shrugged. "I guess so." Was all she said. She brought
her plate to the sink, and carefully placed it in. then she stalked
out of the room.

        
She went upstairs to her bedroom, and grabbed some clothes
from her drawer. She looked at the selection. Underwear, a pair of
jeans, her favorite T-shirt, and a pair of socks. Good enough. She
opened her closet door, and pulled out a pair of sneakers. She
thought that she heard a loud squeak, and it frightened her
greatly, but she decided that she didn't hear anything, and she
went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. Once in the
shower, she felt a lot better, as the warm water calmed her down,
and made her think peaceful thoughts. She was enjoying the feel of
the water so, that she nearly forgot to bathe. Realizing that she
had been in the shower for a while, she washed her hair and body as
quickly as she could wash herself, and actually be washing herself.
When finished, she got out of the shower and grabbed a towel. She
dried off, and wrapped the towel around herself. In doing so, she
caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, seeing not herself, but
the face of another young girl. This one was about her age, but she
looked as if from a different time. Then, the girl's face changed
into that of an elderly woman. Katie looked away. She had to be
imagining things, again. And, besides, she saw the "girl" in such a
quick flash, that it simply could not have been
real.

      
Katie grabbed her clothes from the counter, and
dressed quickly. Then, she ran down the stairs, and into the living
room, where her parents had been waiting for her. They asked Katie
why she had taken so long, and she shrugged as she had earlier that
morning. They just laughed, and led Katie out of the house and into
the car. Then, they explained to her that they were going to take
her shopping for some mew summer clothes, as she had gotten taller,
and outgrown her old ones. Although she could care less, she was
quiet the whole ride to the mall, and did not make even the
slightest complaint about anything.

After nearly a half-hour, the
Smiths' car pulled into the mall parking lot. Though she liked to
look somewhat decent when she had to, Katie wasn't big on fashion.
But, since her mother was, she didn't say anything when her parents
dragged her to the mall at the start of each season for new
clothes, even though it was quite unnecessary to do so. Katie
didn't see the big deal with wearing worn out jeans that had little
holes and frays, and that showed her socks. Stores even sold jeans
that were meant to look worn. Katie's parents urged her to get out
of the vehicle, and she knew she had to be sensible, so she
obeyed.

      
She dragged her sneakers across the pavement,
making a scraping sound, not much different than then the one she
had heard the previous night. However, it wasn't long before her
mother began to pick up on the fact that her daughter was
dawdling.

      
"Katie, you have to be reasonable." Mrs. Smith
replied. "I know that you don't care for fashion, but your clothes
are very old and worn. You simply cannot wear those clothes that
you've been wearing in public. People may think that we are
neglectful parents, and you don't want that. Do
you?"

      
"No" said Katie, softly. She loved her parents,
and she didn't want them to get into trouble, and have it be her
fault.

     
When the Smiths got inside the mall, Katie began
to look around. Most of the stores had all the latest fashions in
stock, but Katie led her parents to the athletic shop where she
always shopped. She wasn't really very athletic, but that was the
only place where she could buy good quality sweats and tees, and
big brand sneakers, and all the other tomboyish clothes that she
wore. She chose clothes very similar to what she always chose. Two
sweat suits, a few pairs of jeans, nearly a dozen T-shirts,
baseball caps, a new pair of sneakers, and zippered sweatshirts as
well as hooded ones. But since it was summer, she followed her
mother's advice that followed the usual speech on "weather
appropriate" clothes, and grabbed a pair of jean shorts as well.
Katie wasn't very fond of shorts, but it was true that jeans could
be uncomfortable in hot weather. After paying for the items, the
members of the Smith family left the store, each of them carrying a
bag of clothing.

      
Afterwards, they stopped at the food court. Even
though Katie wasn't a fussy shopper, she had still taken long
enough for it to be noon time. They treated themselves to
cheeseburgers, fries, and strawberry milkshakes. How delicious!
Even Katie, who thought it important to eat nutritious meals,
enjoyed the sweet, salty, and greasy repast. Mr. Smith, who loved
junk food, inhaled the aroma of fast food. He took great delight in
it, and he requested that they order a pizza and soda once they
were finished. The one meal had been enough for her and Katie, but
Mrs. Smith ordered the pizza and soda regardless. Though stuffed,
they each took a slice of pizza and a small cup of the cola out of
respect, but left the rest to Mr. Smith.

    
Since it didn't take long for him to finish his
"second meal", the Smiths headed back home about twenty minutes
later. They didn't have any other plans for the day, so they
ordered pay-per-view flicks until, and after dinner. It was overall
a fun, and happy day for the Smith family. Katie even enjoyed the
weekend day so greatly, that she completely forgot about the
strange things that had happened to her the night before, and
earlier that day. Well, at least she had forgotten for the time
being. At least she had forgotten until it was her bedtime yet
again.

Katie should have known that,
sooner or later, she would have to go to bed. But, she had
forgotten until her mother spoke the dreaded words:

  
"Time
for bed, Katie."

      
She knew that it was foolish to be afraid of
being alone in the dark, but she just was. What was strange was
that she had always been afraid of many things, but never like
that. She could not comprehend why she was like this all of a
sudden. It was the most ridiculous thing, to be going into fifth
grade and still be so afraid. And, her fears were unrealistic. It
was one thing to be afraid of burglars, but being afraid of the
boogie man or monsters under her bed was something different,. That
was more than just silly. It was absurd, and Katie knew that. So,
for that reason, she put her best effort toward forgetting the
whole issue, yet again.

   
All of a sudden, Katie heard a sudden whisper in her ear. It
sounded like the voice of a crone saying,

  
"Oh,
you shouldn't have, little girl." The tone of the voice made Katie
shiver. Goosebumps covered her bare arms, and she got pins and
needles in her feet. She pulled her yellow comforter over her head.
"Just Great," she thought. Now, she was hearing voices instead of
only sounds.

      
She wished that she could talk to someone about
this, but even her parents would laugh at her. And Jazz was
visiting her maternal grandparents in Talahassee, Florida, for
thesummer. Not that she'd be of much help. Just because Jasmine
Thomas was her best friend didn't mean that she always understood
Katie. And besides, Jazz wasn't like Katie at all. She was way more
grown up, and even though she always stood up for Katie when
bullies picked on her about being a "chicken", she would most
likely think that Katie was really overdoing it this time. Katie
planned on asking Jasmine about her first plane ride, when school
started that fall.

     
Just then, Katie's thoughts were interrupted by a
loud bang. Her parents came running into the bedroom to see what
was going on. They looked puzzled when Katie could not explain to
them, the cause of the bang, but were glad that their daughter had
not fallen. Mr. Smith glanced at the locket on top of Katie's
bureau (she had placed it there the night before) curiously before
following his wife out of the room, but did not speak of it. Katie
was really becoming weary, to the point of moroseness. She was
becoming very impatient, as she longed deeply for a refreshing
slumber.

     
She felt that way for what seemed like hours,
just laying there, trying her hardest to fall asleep. When she
could not take it any longer, she seemed to faint from exhaustion,
falling into a deep sleep. Mer slumber was so deep, that she did
not wake until the late morning. When she finally staggered out of
bed, her digital alarm clock read: 10:45 am!

     
Her parents had already eaten breakfast, and her
father was at work. After roaming the house for several minutes,
she found her mother in her sewing room, hemming too-long dresses.
Apparently, she was finishing, because she stopped, and put the
dress aside. However, when Mrs. Smith looked up, Katie realized, to
her horror, that the woman who sat at the sewing machine was not
her mother at all, but the same elderly woman that she had seen in
the mirror.

     
"Well, look who we have here." The woman said in
the same voice that Katie had heard the night before. "A bratty,
good for nothing, little girl."

Katie shrieked at the top of her
lungs. As she was screaming, the old woman's face disappeared, and
it was now clear that the seamstress was indeed Mrs. Smith. Katie
stopped screaming, and her mother rushed over to her.

   
"Why Katie, you didn't have to scream like that." She said,
in effort to placate her daughter. "Do you not want your sun dress
hemmed?" she asked.

     
Katie shook her head. "It's not like that. You
see, strange things have been happening to me the past couple of
days." Katie told her mother everything from the noises to seeing
the old woman in her place. There was a moment of silence. Mrs.
Smith kept a straight face, and thought of what to
say.

     
"Katie, my dear, you have always been the type of
child to be scared of many things, but this is abnormal, even for
you." Mrs. Smith continued on: "I am afraid that I will have to
make you an appointment to see a... She paused.

    
"To see a what, Mom?" Katie asked flippantly. "To
see a counselor, Katie. I am afraid that you really need to," Said
Mrs. Smith.

     
The young girl burst into tears. She didn't want
to see a counselor. Counselors were for people with problems in
their lives. Mrs. Smith hated to see her daughter cry, but there
was nothing that she could do about it. Katie needed help, and she
needed it very badly.

    
"Katie, why don't you go on and have a snack,"
said Mrs. Smith to her daughter.

     
While Katie went into the kitchen and helped
herself to some cookies, Mrs. Smith looked up Counselors in the
phone book. When she finally came across a family center in the
area, she called the number. A woman answered the phone. Her
sickeningly merry voice said:

      
"Hi, you've reached Dr. Jones' office, how may I
help you?" Katie's mother wished that she could reach into the
phone and backhand that ditsy secretary, but knowing that it could
never happen, she said:

      
"I'd like to make an appointment for my
ten-year-old daughter, Katie. She's been having some trouble
lately."

    
"What kind of trouble?" asked the
secretary.

      
"Oh, just hallucinations and that sort of thing,"
Mrs. Smith said.

      
"Well," began the secretary. "We have an
appointment available next Thursday at three, would that be fine?"
she asked.

        
"Sure," replied Mrs. Smith. The secretary marked the
appointment down, and hung up with Mrs. Smith. Just as Mrs. Smith
hung up, Katie walked into the living room, where her mother sat on
the couch with her cell phone in hand, as well as the phone book in
her lap.

      
"Who did you call?" she asked her
mother.

       
Mrs. Smith didn't want Katie to get upset all over again, so
she decided to fib.

      
"Who did you call?" asked Katie yet
again.

      
"Mrs. Case," she said. Mrs. Case was a friend of
hers that lived down a few streets over.

      
"Oh, you called Mrs. Case," was all Katie had to
say, before going up to her bedroom. Once in her room, Katie sat on
her bed, lost in thought. She still didn't understand why a
counselor was necessary. After all, she couldn't remember a time
when she wasn't afraid of one thing or another. But something else,
perhaps her conscience, was telling her that her mother was right.
This recent issue was extremely odd, even for a scared y-cat like
her. Perhaps something was messing around with her mind. No, that
was silly. It couldn't even be possible for there to be someone or
something who'd be able to "mess around with her mind." Or could
there be?