Some Weird Thing

INTRODUCTION: One of a set of two "essays" which I likely wrote as some sort of school project. (See "An Interesting Place" for the other.) They have no grades on them, so either they were never turned in, or they were informal and were not meant to be graded. I doubt I wrote them just for the fun of it, seeing as they are dated and written neatly within the margins. These are on three loose sheets of paper which I probably found folded somewhere upstairs.

These two essays are dated February 26, 1991, which places them in the eighth grade, I believe.

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Rachel H. [last name omitted]
February 26, 1991

"Some Weird Thing"

I don't think I've ever seen a ghost but I sure would like to. I really want to go to the Tower of London. It's said to be the world's most haunted historic site. [Note--please see the story Doppleganger for more on this.] I remember I told you a long time ago about my story, "Doppleganger," which takes place there. [Note--*note to self--read ahead* As for the "you" referred to here, I have no clue. I'm guessing it's the teacher, but which teacher, and why did I tell him/her about that story? Plus, seeing as I only ever had teachers for one year, how could I have told them this "a long time ago"? Hm...] Once that story's finished people who read it will know how much I love ghosts. [Note--wow--I actually thought I'd finish that thing! And that people would read it!]

Some pretty strange things have happened, though. Sometimes our chairs begin to rock by themselves, even when the cat isn't in sight. And there's no breeze big enough to move our heavy rocker!

I have a notion that ghosts live in my house. You can tell that I made them up, but when I create things, I have a talent for bringing them to life. [Note--bigheaded much?]

One ghost is female. I call her Martika. She talks with a "with-it" slang accent. [Note--the "Valley girl" accent. I didn't know what it was called back then. In my fiction, this was not Martika's "real" voice, but rather a phase she went through.] The other two are male. I can hardly describe them because they're so weird. I call one Fresh Prince and the other one Jazzy. All three are talking dogs from ancient Egypt (yes, I know this is weird), who were killed when sledding down a hill. [Note--see Jazzy for more on that.] They ran headlong into a tree, and that was it.

Then there's the poltergeist. I call him--it--Harvey (I honestly don't know why. I dubbed him that years ago). [Note--likely named after the giant invisible rabbit from the movie of the same name. NOT related to the little boy Harvey of the D Is For Damien stories.] He's the one whom I suppose rocks the chairs and misplaces things. As you know (I hope), that can be annoying.

I think that, in all, there are probably about twelve ghosts in my house. [Note--why twelve--? Sounds kind of arbitrary...] I never see them, but they talk a lot. And that can be annoying, too! [Note--good GOD I hope the teacher never saw this. No wonder people think I'm nuts. Needless to say, no, there are NO ghosts in my house.]