The boy wanted to play a game but Rafael’s idea of a game wasn’t beholden by rules.

  He gave Ghost a bundle of soldiers and gave himself a bundle of soldiers and whenever Rafael said “Go!”, Ghost would have to swipe at his soldiers and knock them over. There wasn’t a logic to play but Ghost didn’t swat too many of Rafael’s guys and he let Rafael swat as many of his, letting the kid win the game the young boy had concocted. It was a way to kill time.

  Between a couple rounds, Rafael reached over to his toy bin, picking up an action figure. It was a superhero Ghost Thing didn’t recognize and neither did Rafael. Rafael gave the character different names each time he played with it. The doll looked heroic, though, with his stylish jacket and combat-ready pants. Rafael asked Ghost, “Are you a superhero?”

  The question hurt Ghost. It reminded him of his failure. He sunk his head. “No... I... tried. But I’m not strong enough.”

  Rafael put the action figure in the middle of his crowd of army men, playing with the legs. “Did you get in a fight?”

  Ghost raised his head back up, focusing on speaking clearly to communicate with the small child. “I got in a few fights. Fighting... it’s hard.”

  Rafael looked up from his toy, eyes serious. “Have you ever rescued anyone?”

  Ghost Thing shook his head, but then thought about it. Did he rescue that convenience store owner? Heck, it was only an hour ago that Ghost Thing got Rafael away from those creeps around town. “I don’t think so.”

  Rafael was eager to give advice. “Superheros save people.”

  Ghost’s mind drifted. He couldn’t think about the archetypal idea of saving people without thinking of Shanda. What a blow that was, though. Ghost sighed. “Yeah, saving people is very difficult, though. Things don’t always work out.”

  “Did you let someone die?” Rafael asked, the child blissfully without tact.

  “Nooooo...” said Ghost. “But I didn’t save them either.” He paused. “There was this girl and she was being chased by some bad guys. I...” Ghost drew a circle in the wooden floor. “I tried saving her. I tried fighting the bad guys but they were too strong and all I did was get my butt kicked.” Ghost Thing smirked at dropping the B-word.

  Rafael giggled at the ‘butt’ but then got serious. “That bites...”

  “Yeah,” said Ghost.

  “What happened to her?” asked Rafael.

  Ghost leaned back on his hands. “I don’t know. She got away by herself. Her mom took her and drove her out of the city. I don’t know where she went, but hopefully she’s safe.”

  A door towards the front of the house slammed shut and Ghost’s eyes went wide.

  Rafael turned over his shoulder. “Mom?”

  “Are you kids home?” called a woman.

  A door opened and Shekara ran out of her room. “Mom! Mom! Ghost Thing is here! Ghost Thing is here!”

  Rafael got up and dashed out of his room screaming, “Mom! Come meet Ghost Thing!”

  Welp, thought Ghost Thing, time to leave!

  He got up, leaving a film of water on the floor, and looked around for an exit. The window! He walked up to the window in Rafael’s room and looked around for a lever to open it. There wasn’t one so he reached at its bottom and pulled. It squealed but it only lifted the teensiest bit.

  “Is this thing stuck?” he said.

  There was a ruckus out in the halls. Rafael and Shekara were ecstatic to tell their mom about the water elemental in the other room while their mom repeated confusions. It was no time for Ghost to pay attention to how they were setting up his imminent introduction– he had to dash!

  Putting a foot on the sill, he took every watery tendril he could under the frame and pulled. The frame squealed more but didn’t give. Ghost looked around the frame to see if anything was jamming the window and there was nothing. The slide upward was completely unobstructed.

  The voices were getting closer and Ghost Thing was getting desperate. He compressed down into his slime form and tried digging underneath the window, hoping that the sliver between the frame and the sill would be enough for him to escape. He pushed as much form as he could through the narrow squeeze but his mass bundled up on the outside of the sliver and the farther he pushed inside, the tighter the bundle formed outside. He could almost reach the other side of the frame. The opening just needed to be a little wider.

  He snapped out and retook his humanoid form and tried against to pull against the window, desperate to open the way out. The window grumbled and something gave way. The barrier flew upward, revealing the screen behind the glass, cold autumn weather pouring in. Ghost was home free.

  “W-w-w-wha-yeeeaaagggh!”

  Ghost Thing peered over at the door to see Rafael and Shekara standing with an older woman having panic breaths. It was Justine, their mother. She stared at the water creature in her son’s room, not sure how to process the intruder’s presence.

  Ghost couldn’t help her on that. He stared back, just as paralyzed with fear. He turned his brain to think of a way to deal with this situation but nothing poured out.

  About the only thing he could do was utter, “Hi...”

  “You see, ma?” Rafael said, hopping and pointing at the watery fellow. “It’s Ghost Thing!”

  Justine stared swords at Ghost Thing and once she got enough of a grip, she looked down at an umbrella hanging in the corner of her son’s room. She grabbed it and marched towards the liquid intruder.

  Ghost Thing put his hands up. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! You’re son was in trouble so I helped him.”

  Justine stopped. “In trouble?”

  “Some men got in my way on the way home,” said Rafael.

  “He cleaned the dishes, ma!” said Shekara. “He’s cool!”

  Justine wasn’t convinced the liquid creature wasn’t a threat. But she still had to contend with the fact that a talking water being was in her son’s bedroom, anyway. How was she supposed to handle this? Ask him questions? She stood there, unsure what the next step was.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The room was getting cold with the window open. With her free hand, she pointed at the window. “Could you close that window?”

  Ghost Thing looked over at the window. It was still open. His foot was still on the ledge. He lowered the window, and took his body off the sill to stand proper.

  Feeling like he had some leeway to explain himself and calm the situation, with his voice soft he said, “I’m not here to hurt anyone. I was waiting for you to get home and then I was gone.”

  Justine gazed at the translucent individual. She reached out a hand to tap his face, with Ghost Thing accepted with a squirm of discomfort.

  Justine took her hand away. This needed an explanation!

  Justine sent her kids to their respective bedrooms and brought Ghost Thing to the kitchen, kicking out a chair for him and getting him to sit in it like it was an interrogation. With just a single light on and the room bereft of daylight that the night stole, it wasn’t dissimilar to a shakedown from some police.

  After Justine got a grip on the situation– that she was chatting with a real life water being– the mother had some questions about who Ghost Thing was and the water lad gave enough information to assuage her concern. The conversation turned towards how Ghost found Rafael, though.

  “That’s when I heard Rafael and the guys fighting,” said Ghost Thing, so nervous he was hand-talking like nobody’s business. “I scared them away but I didn’t know if they would be back.” He shrugged. “So I escorted Rafael home.”

  “What did they look like?” asked Justine.

  “Uhhh...” Ghost couldn’t remember well. They scattered so quickly. But he tried his best. “One of them had a camo jacket on and had sideburns.”

  Justine dipped her eyes. “That must be Pete. He got laid off so he’s filling time by walking the streets– trying to keep us all safe.”

  “Oh,” said Ghost Thing. They weren’t doing anything bad, then. Maybe Ghost Thing went too far by spooking them.

  “They’re a ‘neighbourhood watch’,” said Justine, pacing around her kitchen. “With all the gang violence around the city lately, people are taking upon themselves to guard the streets.”

  “They we’re being pretty rude to Rafael and I think they scared him, too,” said Ghost Thing, pleading like he was defending himself in court.

  A neighbourhood watch didn’t seem like a bad idea. Heck, it wasn’t that different then what Ghost did himself. However, Ghost got a bad feeling about those guys. Even if their goal was to protect the community, they were very forceful and they upset Rafael.

  Justine crossed her arms. “They like to think that they are the cops. I oughta call the cops on them!”

  “So...” Ghost Thing rubbed a foot across the floor, a sheen left behind by his foot’s touch. “Th-that’s all I was doing. I didn’t want to intrude but I didn’t feel it was right to leave the kids alone. Shakera said she was twelve but I didn’t believe her.”

  Justine smirked then giggled. “No. She’s eleven.”

  Ghost cracked a smirk, saying nothing but letting out a laugh.

  Justine gazed at the water elemental. He had an innocence about him and talked like any kid she could meet at the grocery store.

  “You’re a human, aren’t you?” asked Justine, looking over him some more– at his posture and demeanour. “Or... you were?”

  Well, the lady got him. She hit the nail right on the head and Ghost’s disposition to deny quickly withered out of him. A sorrowed look took his face but his posture relaxed and his shoulders slumped. He got ready to admit but before he mind slammed on the brakes. There was no way he could actually reveal the truth to someone.

  But she already figured it out. It was a consequence of getting too close to people. Look what happened, Ghost thought. He worried that people would intuit he was a normal guy deep down if he stuck around them too long and got too personable. He figured that was the case and his prediction was spot on. It was a mistake he had to make sure not to do again, but with Justine– right there in that old kitchen– the damage had already been done.

  “Yeah,” said Ghost Thing. He could have left it at that, but he went further. “I can transform into this body,” he said, raising his arms to gesture at himself.

  Justine took a heavy breath inside, shook by the news herself and needing to lean on the counter to stabilize herself. “So... did you fall into a pit of radioactive goo?”

  Ghost Thing wagged his head. “No. I don’t know why I have this ability. It... happened one day. I transformed and from then on I had the ability to transform. Out of nowhere.”

  Justine blew air, brushing her wavy hair back. “Just like that, huh?” She looked over at the stack of clean dishes on the counter. “Must make doing dishes easy.”

  “It’s about the best I can do,” said Ghost Thing, shrugging. “I tried to stop crimes– like a real superhero– but all I did was piss off a gang. Now they’re after me.”

  “Have you tried calling the police?” asked Justine. She lifted her eyes. “I’m reckoning that’s not going to work.”

  Ghost Thing chuckled, and shrugged. “I don’t even know who they are. I’ve been looking around this neighbourhood trying to find them.”

  Justine shook her head. “Don’t know any gangs around here.”

  Ghost Thing sighed, propping his chest on his legs. “All I want is to talk to them and... well, surrender, basically. I want to go back to my old life.” He leaned back and sighed again. “I wasn’t cut out for the superhero gig.”

  Justine took a hand to his shoulder, puzzled by the feeling of ‘solid’ water. Ghost looked up and Justine smiled. “If it means anything, you make a good dishwasher.”

  Ghost smiled. “I bet!”

  Justine walked over to the part of the kitchen floor with a hole in the panelling. She pressed a foot on the edge and wood creaked as it bent down. “Maybe you could have been a wooden guy instead and help me repair this home. My landlord only comes around once a year to make plans but never do anything.”

  Ghost smiled even wider. “I would if I could.”

  Justin slapped her hands on her sides, looking around, “Thanks for everything. Not every day a–” She brought her eyes over Ghost– “water fairy gives you a pleasant visit.”

  Water fairy? Ghost didn’t like that one!

  He got from his seat and walked to the door. Looking back into the hall, he asked, “Should I say bye?” He thought for a moment. “Maybe it would be better if I didn’t.”

  “Yeah,” said Justine. “Maybe it’s better to just leave.”

  Ghost opened the front door and walked out, stepping out into a world that felt transformed since he stepped in the house. The sky had only a few rays of light left. The street lights were turned on.

  He looked back at the house, able to see Justine’s silhouette in the kitchen light. Ghost Thing couldn’t have spent more than two hours in that house, but it felt like the world had changed completely in the meantime.

  A powerful sorrow hit his heart when he realized that it was better for him to never interact with that family again. Getting too close to them would dull his caution and maybe put them in danger, too, if the gang after him found out who they were.

  It was only a couple hours but it was a couple hours to form a connection. Ghost had been telling himself that forging connections was pointless, but as bittersweet as it was to walk away from that home, he was grateful to know them. He lost his breath at the beautiful sadness. He didn’t even need to breathe and he lost his breath.

  He walked under the streetlamp, the light beaming off of his purple form. For a second back there, he forgot he was in water mode. Before someone spotted him, he scrunched down into his slime mode and hopped up onto the street light, vanishing from the area.

  It was late and– oh god– he had completely forgotten about Philly! The fox was probably wondering where Ghost had gone! So the water lad went back to the place he stashed the backpack and then patrolled the northern parts of the neighbourhood to see if he could spot the fox. The fox that was an expert at hiding. Ghost worried a late night was ahead of him.

  As he explored around Queen St, he heard a peppy yip thrown his way and retreated to a back alley parking space to find Philly waiting for him.

  “Sorry,” said Ghost Thing, hopping down to meet his vulpine friend on the ground, “I totally forgot! There was this kid who was being picked on so I had to walk him home.”

  Philly wagged a tail. “What do you mean?”

  “I wasn’t watching for the shadow dude,” said Ghost. He crouched down and lowered his voice. “This kid was getting picked on so I brought him home but then his mom wasn’t there so I stay with them– uh, him and his sister.”

  Philly didn’t need an apology. “It’s no big deal. You got sidetracked is all.” He fox-shrugged. “It happens.”

  Guilt claimed Ghost, though, and he had to explain himself. “I did some patrolling so babysitting him only took half the night but I–”

  “Slick,” said Philly, arresting Ghost’s litany immediately. The fox smiled and chuckled, “It’s fine!”

  Ghost relaxed and then grinned.

  “So...” said Philly, looking up into the sky, “Want to head home?”

  “Yeah,” said Ghost Thing, turning his back to Philly and lowering the backpack.

  Philly climbed in and after making sure the fox was nice and secure, Ghost Thing leapt up into the air. Travelling across the fields of rooftops, Ghost headed home. What a day it had been.