The Girl Who Was Buried in Her Ball Gown

Why was he still in the hospital bed? It had been a month, since the accident, surely, he should have recovered.

“How long will this take?” I saw his mother asking the burly doctor. She was red in the face and breathing shallow, exhausted, like she had just run a mile on a hot day. Her voice was hoarse and tired, and it looked like she had been crying. The doctor was blonde but balding, with silly wisps of hair wafting about his head in the currents, created by the air conditioning. Martin’s mother was watching them blow about. They seemed to distract her and help to calm her nerves, perhaps. Her face was grim. She looked stressed and devoid of hope.

“With this type of injury no one can tell. It could be a few more weeks, or longer. The impact he took has put him into a state of holding, or unconsciousness. All of this equipment is keeping him alive, nothing else.” I could tell he was frustrated with her, yet compassionate all the same. “Look, we have to consider, he may never recover.”

“How can you know he won’t recover?”

“I didn’t say that, he might. No one can tell. Look, the best suggestion I can give you is to keep talking to him. He can still hear you, he can feel your touch. He just can’t make his body respond. And get some sleep yourself okay.”

“Hey there gorgeous. About time you came to see me.” Ooh, Martin was talking to me. “Can you scratch my nose please? I hate just lying here. I can’t do a darn thing.” I tried to scratch it, but my fingers simply passed through his beautiful, serene face.

“Can you see me?” I felt a flush run over my face. How could this be?

“Oh, that is cute, blushing for me.” Oh my God! Now my face was really burning up. I bet my face was the same colour as my stupid hair.

“How... how?” I must have sounded like a stuttering rooster as I began blurting out everything. “Oh Martin, I miss you! I miss everything! Things are just so confusing. I’m dead, and you’re not and she’s…”

“Hey calm down girl. Wow, you’re beautiful when you’re panicky. So why has it taken you so long to come and see me?”

“I stayed with you for a few days, before I realised things had changed. Can you see me, and hear me?”

“Of course, I can’t see much else though – I suppose my eyes are closed. I must be dreaming. Are you an angel, coming to take me home?”

“No, I’m not an angel, although I thought I might be by now and yeah, your eyes are closed… and no, I don’t think you’re dreaming; unless I am too.” That sort of threw me a bit, but I recovered quickly enough; I wasn’t dreaming. “Your Mum is here; she sounds pretty stressed.”

“Yeah, I can hear her, and all the annoying beeping going on and some other noises too. How come I can see you though, if my eyes are closed? Are you sure I’m not dreaming?”

“No no, you’re not dreaming, I am here, but I’m not… uh human anymore.”

“What do you mean? Are you a zombie or something? I knew there was something odd about you.” He said jokingly.

“Yeah, something like that. I’m dead Martin.”

“Dead? You mean like, buried?”

“Yep. I’m gone, yet still here. I don’t know what to make of it actually. I’m a ghost, I think.”

“Oh, that’s bad. Well, if you’re a ghost then what am I? A freak? A freak in love with a ghost! Now that is odd.

“I can see you and hear you, but I can’t move anything. I can’t – touch you.” Oh, the thought of Martin’s touch made me tingle. I could not answer the question, of what he was. If only I could.

“I don’t know. But you’re more here – in this world I mean, more than I am. But I don’t know how. You’re in hospital, on life support.” I had a flashback... “Remember when we had the accident, when all this craziness began? You were taken to the hospital in the ambulance. I was with you then and I thought I was okay. Well, you were talking to me, on and off. But I wasn’t okay, I just didn’t know it. I stayed with you for three days, not realising I wasn’t really there and you did talk to me, sometimes. Hey, maybe you were unconscious like you are now. Oh, I don’t know. So much has happened.” I just wanted to hold him, I tried but couldn’t. I just stayed there with him and felt like I wanted to scream, or cry, I didn’t know which.

“Well, I’m glad you came. It’s good to hear you and see you again. So… if you’re dead, then what are you doing here? I mean, on the earth? Shouldn’t you be – you know – outta here. On your way to heaven, or something?”

“Well, I have seen some people disappear into flashes of light, who knows where to. I don’t know why I’m still here.” I was totally at a loss to give any answer. “Your Mum has just left now.”

“Yeah, I heard her leaving. She gave me a kiss before she left. She’s taking it really hard. Dad hardly comes to see me. I think he’s given up on me.” I could sense Martin was about to cry, if only he could. His mind’s voice betrayed him. “Tell me then, what’s it like to be a ghost?” So I did, I told him all about my new, strange reality. It seemed even stranger now that I was talking to someone alive, or nearly dead. I needn’t make any intense smoky appearances here; it was just as easy to talk to Martin as it was to talk to Adrian. Finally, his silent voice became tired and slurred; he had to get some sleep and so I eventually left him.

I walked, floated, out into the corridor and moved about the rooms. Again, it was the really badly beaten up ones who saw me and the odd one who tried to talk with me. I wasn’t much fun to talk with at that moment. My mind was exploding with all of this, this confusion! I jumped through the staffroom mirror to go looking for Adrian.

Oh no! Stupid! He was back to haunting Jason. Jason looked a mess. His dull eyes had black bags under them from lack of sleep. He was shaking and rolled up into the fetal position, pleading and crying aloud.

“Go away! Leave me alone. I can’t change what’s happened now!” He had nearly lost his voice completely, it was crackling and hoarse.

“You’re such an asshole Adrian, leave him alone.” I couldn’t stop him, I had tried several times before, but he was too strong and stubborn.

Someone else was there in the room too, and then I saw her... that Maori girl. She had transformed into me again, and was taunting Jason, “Hey Jason, are you still in love with Michelle, hot–shot? Still shagging her, hmmm? No, I didn’t think so.” She was laughing wickedly, “You won’t be anytime soon either, not if we’ve got anything to say about it. You’ll be a madman before this week is out, locked up with all those other losers!

“Hey Jason, do you want to give me one, like you did with Michelle? I hear you’re pretty good!” Jason was thrashing at the air, trying to push the Maori girl away from his face.

She continued taunting, “Remember when you invited me to the ball, and that sleazy Martin had already beaten you to asking me? Well he’s brain–dead now; this is your chance Jason! Loser! Come on, give me one. I’m sooo horny.” And she was flaunting herself – myself – in front of him, with provocative hip-hop dance moves, with a gyrating pelvis and then she was hitching up my ball gown!

I hated her, I hated her laugh. She was cruel! Until then, I had not realized, but I understood now. Her friendship with me was all just a farce; a hollow, manipulative facade.

“What the hell are you doing to him? Leave him alone!” I ran at her and my energy smacked into her to try and knock her away. A guttural scream spewed from her mouth and she did fall backwards, her appearance suddenly morphed between me and herself. Her eyes glared with contempt.

“Oh, you’ve come back eh? Fool!” She raised herself up with billowing–imploding smoke and transformed into a massive black spider. She looked like a tarantula on steroids and I was shocked; I was screaming and careening backwards. I saw that Adrian, my other ghostie friend, was stunned also. Then all hell broke loose. I staggered backwards as the spider approached me with dripping fangs ready to bite into me. Adrian reached out to try and grab her, he was suddenly less interested in haunting Jason and more interested in wrestling with a forbidding spider, but she was too strong and pulled away from him. She tossed a long exoskeleton leg around and whacked him across his head. He took flight at the impact… right through Jason and then crumpled into a heap on the other side of the bed.

“What are you? Who are you?” Adrian screamed. She shot across the room like a flash and stood over him.

I yelled at her. “Stop it! Get out of here!” She went flying through Jason’s wardrobe and the wall too, then fell out of sight. Adrian jumped up and followed her through the wall and I followed him. I could hear Jason’s sobs and howling behind me, as if he were in intense pain. I looked back and caught a glimpse of him while he rocked back and forth, moaning incoherently.

Once outside, I could see that she had transformed back to being the Maori girl and then she suddenly morphed again, as if she were an image on a TV screen, which went off signal and then back on again... this time she took on the form of Michelle, the girl Adrian had been taunting, after her little affair. The freaky Maori girl, come spider–girl’s hair was still black; I remembered that Michelle’s was lighter in colour, than this freaks. And the raven locks still tunneled upon her shoulders, as it had always done since she had appeared to meet me in the hospital.

This chameleon-girl – whatever the hell she was – propelled herself away from us backward, as if a strong wind was blowing her along, and she was power tripping and carefree about this whole deal. She was shouting curses at us as she moved along, like the spectre she was fleeing the ghostbuster. “You ain’t seen the last of me! You think I’ve finished with you? Ha, I’ve only started! Whawhai! Ha ha – whawhai, stupid girl! Hey, guess what? I’m going to go looking for a stupid boy now!” She chuckled an evil laugh and rose into the air and twisted around, looking intently for something, I had no idea what.

My brain was running at 100 kilometers per hour, Whawhai? To fight! Why? Why does she want to fight with us?

I turned and asked Adrian, “Do you know, who the hell this girl is?” He gave me a panged look, shrugging his shoulders and then a terrible thought entered my mind. She must have read it.

“Martin!” She screamed, “Where are you Martin? I’m coming for you!” and then she laughed and plummeted down into the ground, disappearing. Martin? What did she want with him?