She was the only one in the house, and this was a
pretty strange occurrence to her. The ball slowly rolled until it
lightly touched her feet. Becky gently kicked the ball in fun back
down the hallway. A while later, the ball came rolling back."
"Weird," said I. "Yes." said Frances. "And then, Becky began
testing what she could only assume were ‘ghosts’. She would hide the
ball weird places, like on top of the coffee bar, this also when she
was the only person at the office...the ball would turn up someplace
really bizarre, like the middle of her chair." One day, the ball came
rolling up to her from down the hallway, and on it were written the
words, in arcane handwriting, in old-fashioned ink, "You fun ball well,
Rebekka." Then the word "fun" was crossed out, and "play" was written
above it, again in the same childish, old-fashioned hand.
This really freaked Becky out. First of all, how did the "ghosts"
know that her real name was Rebekka, spelled the old fashioned,
biblical way. One day, the Architect’s mother came to visit the
studio. She came breathlessly in, saying, "I just had the strangest
experience as I was coming up the sidewalk. A little boy in old
fashioned clothes asked me if I was his grandmother, and if I was,
was
I here for his birthday, and if so, could I bake him an apple pie for
his birthday, because he really loved apple pies better than
anything." Becky assured her there were no little boys that lived even
nearby, most of the Victorian homes in the area being turned into
professional offices."
"Wow." I said. Frances continued, "I don’t think my friend Becky’s
going to go back over there any time soon, though." "Why not?" said
I. "Well, the architect began restoring the basement, and when they
started digging in the basement? They found the skeleton of two little
boys, one grade school age, and one pre-teenage, buried in the
basement, together. Their skulls were bashed in. The architect did
some researching, and it seems perhaps their own father murdered
them." "Poor things," I thought. "Yep. ‘You fun ball well, Rebekka.
R-E-B-E-K-K-A. Her given name. Imagine." said Francis. "Oh, yeah.
I can." said I, with a knowing grin.
