Creepy Tales

THE GHOST STORY

by Alois Mikulka

Once there was a ghost who spent his time sitting on a wooden box in the attic, sadly gazing into space., patiently waiting to scare anyone who came in. But nobody did. So the ghost just sat there, dozing, wrapped in a white sheet.

Then one day a chimney sweep appeared and saw the ghost sleeping.

"Hello!" the sweep shouted.

The ghost woke up with a start, his chin trembling with fright. The chimney sweep laughed so muh he nearly split his sides.

"Imagine me scaring a ghost" he said. When he calmed down he gave the ghost a sweet, and as the little ghost sucked it, his fears melted away. The chimney sweep swept all the chimneys and went away to have some lunch.

The ghost soon became bored again, all alone in the attic, so he decided to go for a stroll. He went into the streets and people stared at him.

 "Who on earth could that creature be, with those skinny legs and a white sheet"? they asked each other.  But the ghost just gave them all a lop-sided grin and went into a hairdresser's shop.

  Now the hairdresser was expecting a client, so he said to the ghost,

"Do sit down, Madam!"    But ghosts have no hair, and when he took off his sheet the hairdresser discovered a bald head. So shrugging his shoulders the hairdresser sprayed the whole of his head with Eau de Toilette and polished it as shiny as a shoe. The ghost looked terribly nice as he strode through the streets smelling like a rosebed.

He stopped suddenly when he came to a notice which read. "Cross over to the other side please."  - for the pavement had been freshly tarmacadamed . Unfortunately the ghost couldn't read so he walked on leaving deep footmarks in the sticky tarmac.  

He also didn't notice the watchman on duty nearby , with a whistle in his hand and a deep frown on his forehead. When he saw the ghost's footprints, he frowned even more and blew his whistle loudly. The ghost simply smiled at him innocently and walked on. The angry watchman ran after the disobedient ghost. Unfortunately he ran so fast that his braces snapped. This was all to the ghost's delight, for he liked nothing better than a came of "Catch me if you can" so he ran even faster enjoying himself enormousely. The watchman kept blowing his whistle and clutching his pants as he ran after the ghost as fast as he could.

They came to a fence, which the ghost climbed over with great ease. The fence surrounded an enormous tower, which was so high that the top disappeared into the clouds. The watchmman clambered over the fence, puffing madly and still blowing his whistle. Next thing the ghost had tucked his sheet into his pants and began to climb the tower.

The watchman's eyes followed him up. his eyes and mouth were both open so wide in amazement that he swallowed his whistle. The whistle ended up in the watchman's stomach. It was very dark in there and the whistle was so afraid that  it went on whistling.

    By now the watchman was really furious, for the whistle was brand new, he glanced up at the ghost once more and spitting on his hands he began to follow the ghost up the tower.

The column seemed never ending and the ghost became more and more frightened as he climbed on and on. The watchman climbed on and on too, because he was still ver cross about his whistle. They both climbed higher and higher until the ghost reached the sky.

   He was very surprised to find that the sky was made of blue glass. He trod on it carefully and was even more surprised to find it would take his weight. The watchman was much heavier than the ghost and the moment he put his weight upon the glass, he smashed right through it. He fell down, down and landed with such a big bump that his cap was knocked right over his eyes and his new whistle flew out of his mouth. he put his cap back in its proper place and blew the whistle just to make sure it was still working.

He sadly went back to the tarmac, shook hs head when he saw the damage the ghost had caused and immediately began to write out a report to explain what had happened.

Meanwhile the ghost was having a wonderful time, whizzing along the sky of blue glass, whereever his feet trod, they left black footprints. Then suddenly he saw a magnificent white star. The ghost went upto it and saw that it was made entirely of icing sugar. The ghost had a sweet tooth, but he didn't have any money to buy sweets, so he was delighted. After all the star was free. He tucked into it quite happily, but as ghosts are quite small and stars are rather big, I think it is going to take him an awful long time before he finishes eating the star and comes back to earth. I also think he will be a very fat ghost.

     Do you think this really happened children?   You don't!

Well, didn't you notice  only the other day, how the white clouds were cleaning up the black footprints in the blue glassy sky.  And when they had finished that job they were so dirty they had to wash themselves thoroughly.

That was when the people below had to put on their raincoats and put up their umbrellas and looked up to the grey, rainy sky.

Perhaps when the ghost has stopped eating - hopefully it will stop raining.

This story was translated into English by Vera Gissing - I hope you enjoyed it.