Ghost of You

I closed the door of the game room quietly behind myself, the brightness of the hall hitting my eyes hard. Georg had fallen asleep halfway through a James Bond movie.

I tiptoed down to the end of the hall, peering in Sarah's half-opened door. She was playing dress up with her stuffed elephant.

“Oi, hello Tom!” she cooed, spotting me through the mirror on the inside of her closet and turning around.

She was dressed in a pink, frilly tutu with a green top. Her hair was put up in lopsided pigtails.

“Glad you could join us!” she called, extending her hand.

I slowly came in and took it as she pulled me over to her three-story dollhouse.

“It's time to play dolls!” she announced, handing me one of her Bratz dolls. Jade. Why did I always have to be Jade?

I smiled at her as she picked up her Yasmin doll. “Is she your favorite?” I asked, motioning to the doll in her hands.

Sarah shook her head, her hair flopping around and nearly smacking me in the cheek, tickling my nose. “Nope, Jade is.”

I frowned at her. “Then why do you always let me be Jade?”

Sarah smiled her shiny smile up at me. “Why do you think?”

I smiled down at her, leaning in to kiss her cheek. She blushed up at me, twirling part of her hair around her index finger. Sarah got up and plopped down on her pink-sheeted Disney bed. The headboard had a picture of Ariel the mermaid and her fish friend, Flounder. At night, you could press the 3-D shell Ariel was holding, and the headboard would light up as a small nightlight.

Sarah patted the bedside beside her and I got up, plopping down next to her. She snatched her brush from her nightstand and crawled into my lap, handing it up to me. Gently, I slid her scrunchies from her hair, tossing them beside my leg as I pulled the brush through her hair.

We sat like that silently for a while; me brushing her hair as she sat in my lap, staring down at the floor. I never realized how long her hair actually was.

When I was finished, I grabbed her dark green scrunchy from beside me and slipped it over my wrist, but she shook her head, her brown hair bouncing around her shoulders. I frowned at her as she twisted around to look up at me.

She put her hand in mine, tracing circles in my palm. “Tom?” she whispered.

“Yeah?” I asked, looking down into her chocolate brown eyes.

“Will you tell me about Bill?”

I pursed my lips together as she studied my eyes, reaching up to press her palm against my cheek. I closed my eyes against her touch.

“What do you want to know?” I whispered, my voice hoarse.

Sarah shrugged and I opened my eyes to look at her. “Everyone is always talking about him, but I don't know who he is,” she whined.

I started to smile. “That's because he died before you were born, back when Georg was still a kid.”

She pushed her lips into a thin line, thinking a moment.

“What did he look like?”

I laughed, truly. “Like me,” I said, poking her nose. “We were twins. Except, Bill never liked his blonde hair, so he would die it black.”

I wrapped my arms around her tiny torso, watching her think. “What was his favorite food?”

I smiled. “Hamburgers.”

“What did he want to be when he grew up?”

I laughed again. “A wizard.”

Sarah cracked a smile. I studied her, though, as I watched it fade away. “How did he die?”

I looked down at the floor as she snuggled into my chest. “He drowned,” I whispered. “Fell off the cliff.”

I could see it then: the rainy night, the storm lashing out at us, Bill losing his footing, all of it.

“Cracked his head on a underwater rock. Drowned.”

I pulled away from my dark memories and focused on Sarah. Tears were shining in the corner of her eyes.

“That's terrible,” she whispered.

She placed her head on my chest and shut her eyes. I caught a tear as it slipped down her cheek, wetting my index finger.

“Yeah,” I whispered back, “it is.”

Outside, the fire whistle blew through the air.