The Ghost Next Door

Unfinished business. According to conventional wisdom, spirits, or ghosts, exist in their current form because something is keeping them from moving on.

There was once a boy named William. He was named after his father, who went by Bill. His parents called him Willy or Will or William if he was in trouble for something.

Will’s parents moved when he was in second grade. They went from living in a modest condominium, to a large Dutch-Colonial in a wealthy neighborhood. Will was only aloud to travel on his bike to the end of the neighborhood. He met a few local kids, and they became friends. His closest friend was a boy named Jerry. There was another boy named Jerry, a boy named Tim and a girl named Emily.

The other Jerry was a bit younger, and kind of an awkward, quiet little guy, which is why they referred to him as “the other Jerry."

One day, Will and Jerry set out to help the ghost that supposedly occupied the house next-door to Will’s. According to Jerry, the ghost of a young boy had been haunting the family that had been living in the house, and it caused them have to move. Will had seen a small, glowing spirit in the bedroom facing his window on multiple occasions, which thoroughly creeped him out. So he was eager to help.

The two boys snuck into the house one afternoon. Will told Jerry which room he had seen the ghost, and that is where they started looking. The room was empty. There were no drawers, nothing in the closet, nothing at all. While scanning the floor, Jerry discovered a loose floor-board. Underneath was folded up piece of paper. The two boys quickly exited the house, and met up with Tim, Emily and Other Jerry.

The paper was a note that was written to a girl named Jessica. Jessica was the name of the girl who had lived in the house with the ghost-boy. The message basically said, “I know can be a pain, but you are my only sister, and I love you.” The group figured out that the letter was probably written by the ghost-boy to his sister, before he died.

They called the phone-number on the for-sale sign in front of the house. They were able to find out the forwarding address of the family. They addressed the letter to Jessica, found an envelope and a stamp, then put it in the mail. A job well-done.

About a week later, the group was hanging out on an especially hot day. They all went into Will’s house to ask his mother for something to drink.

“Mom, my friends are here, can we have some lemonade?”

“Sure,” his mom responded, “how many of you are there?”

“It’s me, Jerry, Tim, Emily and Other Jerry.”

Will’s mom came into the room with five glasses. She looked down and only saw four kids. As she passed out the drinks, she looked confusedly at Will.

“There’s only four of you?” she stated.

Will looked around and only saw Tim, Emily and Other Jerry.

“Where’d Jerry go?” Will asked his friends.

Emily rolled her eyes and pointed to Other Jerry. She explained to Will’s mom, “This is Jerry. Will calls him Other Jerry because he’s friends with the ghost-boy from the house next-door. His name was also Jerry. At first, we thought it was Will’s imaginary friend.” Will's friends snickered.

Needless to say Will was at a loss for words. Thankfully, his mother was not very interested in what Emily was saying. She just took the extra glass of lemonade for herself, shrugged and walked back into the kitchen.

Will never saw Jerry again. He did eventually run into Jessica in high-school. She told him that she had been deeply depressed because she thought Jerry had killed himself because she was being mean to him, even though his death had been ruled an accident. Getting that letter fixed her broken heart, allowing for Jerry’s spirit to move on.