Thankfully, Rafael’s street was pretty vacant so the walk to the kid’s house was without people who could spot Ghost Thing. The young boy led Ghost Thing up to a skinny home with a broken down porch and tears on the front door screen. The building’s periwinkle paint job had chipped off under ages of weather.

  Looking around, Ghost noticed the house was considerably less up-to-keep than its neighbours.

  Ghost Thing walked up the porch’s steps, following behind Rafael. “I guess that’s that. I’ll be seeing ya!”

  Rafael turned the old rusted doorknob but it didn’t open. He tried again. Nothing. He looked into the empty driveway. “I guess mom’s not home yet.” He walked up to the window and fanned a hand above his brow to peek into the house. “I don’t think my sister is home either.”

  A young boy being home alone? Ghost asked, “Can you say at a neighbours?”

  “No...” Rafael replied, pulling his head off the window.

  “When’s your mom going to get home?” asked Ghost Thing.

  Rafael gave a shrug. “I dunno!”

  Ghost Thing huffed and walked up to the door. The lock looked fairly new with a toothed keyhole like any other. Ghost put his hand up to the hole and let his hand melt down, a narrow extension of his body swimming through the mechanisms of the lock. The tiny tendrils flicked at the teeth, wiggling them around.

  “What are you doing?” asked Rafael.

  Ghost Thing got down against the door, his eyes wandering as his sense of touch navigated the labyrinth of steel and spring. “Trying to pick the lock.”

  “You can do that?” asked Rafael.

  Ghost wasn’t sure what he was doing. In the network of the lock mechanism, his body was splitting apart, like a series of small vines trying to manipulate the mechanism so it the lock gave way. “I’m not sure.”

  “Someone’s coming,” said Rafael.

  It was a girl walking down the sidewalk towards Rafael’s house. Ghost Thing didn’t have much time. He turned his attention back to the lock. The teeth: they needed to be in a certain order to unlock. At least, that’s how it felt. He couldn’t see inside it.

  “She’s getting close, Ghost Thing,” said Rafael, getting a little worried.

  Ghost groaned. “I know...”

  He tried a series of different configurations to get the teeth right so he could turn whatever was inside the lock but nothing worked. He was running out of time so in frustration he dug his mass deeper and tried turning a cylinder. There was a thunk.

  “Is that it?” said Ghost Thing, receding his hands out of the lock.

  The doorknob turned and the door opened. Ghost kept low to remain out of sight from the girl walking by but he was not low enough to escape the stranger’s eyes. She could see over the porch’s railing and got a quick glance at something as Ghost squatted and walked into the doorway. He opened up the screen and as soon as he was in the house, he hid behind the wall, bumping into a trashcan by the jamb. The girl only saw Rafael walking in the house, and turned her attention away.

  After making sure the girl saw nothing, Rafael shut the door.

  Ghost Thing looked around. The place wasn’t looking much better on the inside. To his right was a kitchen sporting wallpaper with big tears on it. There were holes in the floor’s wooden panelling. A bunch of dirty dishes stacked the counter and clogged the sink. Pots and pans were stacked on a round table with only one chair available.

  To his left, Ghost saw a living room with a bunch of tapes and books stacked on the floor. An old couch with holes in it. Dusty pictures hanging on the wall. Everything looked dusty.

  And there he was, in water mode in all this. It might have been the first time he had entered a domestic residence in that form. He felt so uncomfortable he could have turned into vapour. It was trespassing on a preternatural scale.

  “Uhhh...” Ghost could only gawk while looking around the house. He looked down at Rafael. “You good, then?”

  “Aaaaahhhhh!”

  Screaming was never good. Ghost Thing directed startled eyes into the hallway where a pre-teen girl with braided pigtails was staring at Ghost Thing, face in disbelief. Shakera was petrified for a moment, then noticed her younger brother standing beside the purple monster. Snapping out of her stupor, she ran up to Rafael and grabbed his arm to tug him away.

  Rafael, indifferent to the tugging, said, “Why was the front door locked?”

  Ghost has a situation on his hands. Putting his hands up like he was pacifying a wolf, he said, “Now calm down. I’m not going to hurt anyone. I’m not evil.”

  Shakera shoved her brother behind her back. “You’re a ghost!”

  Ghost Thing sighed. “No, I’m not!” He shrugged. “That’s just what people call me.”

  Shakera had to gather will just to breath, let alone form words. She stood there, heaving in panic, before she was able to speak again. “Then... then what are you?”

  “I’m not a ghost,” said the tall stature of water, “Let’s leave it at that.”

  Shakera looked at the guy, just to make sure he was real. She picked up a dirty spoon from the dish tray and took a step closer to tap Ghost’s arm with it. Ghost scowled, even if he found it amusing. He said, “Yep, I’m real.”

  Shakera looked past Ghost into outside. There didn’t seem to be anything going on. She asked, “Why are you here?”

  “Your... brother–” Ghost regretted assuming they were related– “was being hassled by some guys around the block, so I wanted to make sure he got home safely.”

  Rafael tugged on Shakera’s shirt and repeated, “Why was the door locked?”

  “Uh, uh....” She was able to take her eyes off of Ghost for a second to address her young brother. “I guess I forgot to unlock it properly.”

  Ghost Thing wiped his hands with a wet clap. “That’s that, I guess.” He was ready to say his farewells but then he looked at Shakera and wasn’t sure she was old enough to be left alone, either.

  “Are you kids okay being home alone?” asked Ghost Thing.

  “Yeah,” they both answered.

  Looking at Shakera, Ghost Thing asked, “How old are you?”

  “Twelve,” said Shakera, her voice curved with the affect of insecurity.

  If her voice didn’t tremble for a split second, Ghost would have believed her. But the voice did tremble so Ghost figured she was lying and he didn’t feel good about leaving her alone. He grabbed the door handle, thinking what if something happened to them after he left? They needed an adult to guard over them before their mom got home. Or a near-adult, at least.

  “I’ll stay here until your mom gets home,” said Ghost Thing, taking his hand off the knob.

  “We can stay home alone,” said Shakera. “Our mom let’s us do it all the time.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Ghost looked out into the streets. The darkness of night was setting in. When was their mom going to get home? It couldn’t have been long– Ghost Thing could spare a half hour to wait.

  “Just to make sure,” said Ghost Thing, stepping further into the room. “As soon as your mom is here, or any other adult, I’m gone!”

  “Guess that makes sense,” said Shakera. “I’m going to make myself a pizza pocket.”

  The girl walked over to the sink of dirty dishes and with careful hands peeled a plate out to take to the other sink where there was more room for washing. She had to push some other dishes aside to fit some room under the faucet to wash the plate. She looked over at Ghost Thing. “Hey, fountain-face! Do you think you could clean this? You being water ‘n’ all...”

  “Fountain-face?” Kids would think they could call anyone anything. Ghost Thing brushed it off. He walked over to the sink, Rafael following behind to see what was going to happen.

  Ghost took the plate from Shekara and looked at it. It was covered by some kind of gravy or something like it. He grimaced as he took a hand down the surface, digging his watery body around the sauce and scraps of meat. The forceful water of Ghost Thing’s body got under the stains to pull and break them off of the porcelain. Ghost wiped his hand across the dish, cleaning the plate to absolute pristine.

  “Wow!” said Shekara, big smile on her face.

  “I wanna see!” Rafael got a stool and pulled it up beside them to see what was going on.

  Ghost checked the plate’s bottom side and slid his hand down a mar of ketchup or something. “Here,” he said, holding the plate out to Shekara, “Clean.”

  Shekara looked at the shimmering white. “Thanks!”

  Ghost held out his hand, gravy and garbage floating inside, squinting with discomfort. Such foulness inside him! He looked around. “Where’s you garbage?”

  Shakera pointed at a large plastic bin at the edge of a counter. “There.”

  Ghost walked over, holding his arm like he hurt it or something, and hovered his hand over the bin. He concentrated on the food and gunk inside his hand and it pushed out the bottom of his hand, falling into the garbage. He looked at his hand. It looked clean but having garbage inside you that touched strangers’ mouths was not a discomfort one could shake easily.

  “Neat!” said Shakera, walking up to the freezer to get a pizza pocket.

  Ghost looked at Shakera carrying the plate that he had just cleaned. Was it safe? “Hold on...”

  “What?” asked Shakera.

  Ghost took the plate and looked at it, closely. He wasn’t sure about the residue he left, if he left any at all. Was it safe? Was it just water on his body? He could never be sure. He knew he was made of water but was that all that there was? Was there some other chemical inside his body?

  “It might be poisonous,” said Ghost.

  “Really?” asked Shekara.

  Ghost tried smelling the plate. He didn’t have the ability to smell. He handed it to Shekara. “Does this smell poisonous?”

  Shekara took the plate and sniffed it. And licked it. “It doesn’t taste poisonous. It tastes like... plate!”

  Maybe Ghost was overreacting. He couldn’t think of any time where someone actually tasted his water– and that very concept made him uncomfortable– but those guys he sprayed down at the loan agency... they didn’t die of poison. They were fine, except for the whole jail thing. But maybe Ghost Thing was actually made of regular old water.

  Shakera went to the freezer to open a box of pizza pockets and put one on a plate. She walked up to a microwave and stuck the plate inside, having to press down on the buttons hard to make them click.

  While the microwave rumbled, Shakera walked back over to the sink and looked over the mound of dishes. “You know, you could do all the dishes that way...”

  Ghost Thing raised an eyebrow. “So you don’t have to do any chores?”

  Shakera giggled nervously. “Nooooo...”

  The house could have used some help, though, and Ghost Thing was thinking he had expert dish washing skills. He took another plate and let his mass wrap around its form, consuming all dirt and grime. He put it aside in a tray and then looked down at a pot in the sink. He stuck his hands upon it and sucked up whatever sauce was being stirred in it the night before. When his hands left the pot alone, its inside was spick-and-span.

  “It’s clean!” said Rafael, watching with amazement.

  To his side were two children amused and wowed by his powers. It felt... good. Ghost’s nonexistent heart glowed.

  He picked the pot up and flipped it upside down the wash the outsides with his hand. Perfectly clean, he put the pot on the rack. He drowned the remaining dishes in the sink– cutlery, a stack of plates like the one Shekara picked up, a pair of tongs, and a few other utensils– and they came out of Ghost’s slime-ball wash looking spotless. Ghost wiped down the sink and then went to the sink beside it to deliver the same fate to that one’s hoard of dirty dishes.

  Ghost’s arms filled with gunk from all the dishes, but the need to clean things overtook his disgust. Storing waste inside his body was revolting, but what was more revolting was that counter of unwashed dishes. He attacked grime like a hunter to prey. With a single swirl of his arms around the basin, the dishes were clean.

  Rafael jumped on his stool. “Cool!”

  Shekara giggled.

  Ghost looked over at the big pile of dishes and got curious. He shifted closer, bringing himself up on the counter and letting his body melt as it came over the mound. His form broke down into a puddle, glazing the heap with his form; his slimy self sinking into the cracks and crevices between plates and pots. The porcelain clattered as Ghost Thing took over it, shifting around inside of him.

  Shekara giggled and Rafael screamed, “He’s cleaning it all!”

  Ghost’s lifted off the ground and sunk into the big blob as it trailed through the pile of dishes– turning dirty wares into clean ones, although leaving it a disorderly mass. Ghost Thing got to the end of the counter and fell to the floor, reforming his body and getting up. The microwave dinged. There. Dishes done in just over a minute.

  “Woooow!” said Shekara, walking up to the microwave and opening it.

  Ghost Thing looked at his body. There was gunk floating all over inside of himself. He tried not to look, instead just shifting over to the garbage can and holding out both hands. He concentrated and the abnormal mass inside him drained down his arms and out his hands, falling into the garbage. He concentrated some more and the stuff that was floating around his legs, torso and head all filtered down his arms, shooting through his body like bullets of gross. The garbage spewed from his body.

  Once all of it had been ejected, he looked at himself again. He seemed clean. He hoped that was the case.

  He looked at the dishes, though. He saved someone a good hour’s worth of work by using his powers. His newfound fans stared in amazement. Rafael picked up a saucer from the counter and looked at it.

  Ghost Thing grinned.

  With plate in hand, Shekara took a bite of the pizza pocket. “Ouch!” Too hot. She put it down on a counter.

  “Anything else you need me to clean?” asked Ghost Thing, half-sarcastic/half-boastful.

  “No,” said Rafael, putting the plate back down. “I’m going to go to my room. Did you want to see?”

  The answer was no, but Ghost Thing didn’t have the heart to say that. “S-sure.”

  Rafael led the way, walking into the hall. Ghost Thing followed.

  Ghost took a look at the pictures of the wall and saw Rafael and Shekara in the photos, along with an older woman he assumed was their mother. There was a father-looking man, too, in some of the photos. Ghost’s feeling of trespassing spiked.

  Rafael turned into his room, a small room with a picture of a basketball player on the wall. The light flickered when he turned it on. The wallpaper job was just as rugged as the kitchen. There was a window but it looked pretty old– made of wood; not a more modern metal one like Ghost had at home. The floor wasn’t carpeted– it was a kind of wooden tile. Must have made it better for play with army toys, as there was several around the room. There was even a toy watch tower.

  The room wasn’t very big so a lot of the floorspace was taken by Rafael’s blanket-shrouded bed.

  “Niiiice...” Ghost Thing said as convincingly as he could, and when Rafael asked, “Wanna see my toys?”, Ghost said “Sure” although less convincingly.

  Ghost didn’t know what to say. What opinion could he have on kid’s bedrooms? He wanted to be polite, though, and not hurt the kid’s feelings.

  Rafael wiped the field of army toys aside with a foot and then sat down. Not sure what to do, Ghost sat down, cross-legged just like his young friend. Shekara walked by the doorway and another door shut, probably the girl going to her room.

  Rafael picked up one of the soldiers. It was one of those old toy soldiers– made from green plastic with a plate at the bottom to hold them up. He said, “Grampa gave me these toys. Apparently Uncle Will used to play with them.” He said it without thinking if a stranger knew who this Uncle Will was.

  “I never had anything like these,” said Ghost, picking up one of the soldiers.

  “Oh?” asked Rafael. “What toys did you have when you were younger?”

  It was a bad idea to give personal details about his life– real personal details– but Ghost Thing looked into Rafael’s eyes and saw a child that was deeply curious about him. Ghost wouldn’t talk about his human self because it wasn’t safe to let details like that fly in wild. But it wasn’t often he got to talk about those things.

  “Yeah,” said Ghost Thing, putting the soldier down on the floor. “I got some legos from my cousin actually. When I was really young.”

  He looked around the room. There were stains on the walls– looked like water damage. It was a powerful reminder for Ghost Thing that for all the problems at home, he still lived in a nice place and had a mom and stepdad with decent jobs to support it. He might not have had a great computer, but he had a computer and it could at least run an SNES emulator.

  “That’s cool,” said Rafael, placing a soldier in the tower. “Legos are cool.”

  “I don’t play them much anymore,” said Ghost.

  Rafael straightened the soldier in the nest. “Did you get bored of them?”

  “I got too old to play them. I think I still have them, though. In my bedroom, locked away somewhere.” Okay, that was Ghost giving away too many details, maybe.

  Ghost Thing could almost forget he was in his water form. When he talked like that, when he mentioned his bedroom, it was hard to feel the water flowing through him. It felt like he had skin and bones.

  Rafael looked sorrowed at Ghost’s mention of growing too old for lego. Rafael said, “I’ll never stop playing with my toys. I’ll play them forever.”

  Ghost giggled. “Makes sense. I have an uncle who still plays with trains.”

  “Shekara never plays with me,” said Rafael, gesturing at his door indirectly at his sister.

  Ghost picked up who Shekara was. “My older sister never played with me either. At least... not very often.”

  The strangeness of a water being having an older sister was lost on the young boy, but maybe years later he would revisit the conversation and realize how absurd it was.