WELCOME TO

The Ghost at Barkley Elementary

by

Bill MacWithey

The previous year had been tough for Maxine and, as she walked into Barkley Elementary School for the first time, she realized that day was the fourth anniversary of Bob’s death. The realization made her eyes moist, and she wondered if she’d ever get over losing him. One of the reasons she had requested a transfer was to get away from the memories at her old school. Bob had done too much, helping her decorate the library there. Every time she saw one of the banners he made, urging children to read, her heart broke all over again.

Maxine had hoped going to a new school, away from the teachers and other personnel who had known Bob would take away some of the hurt. She sniffled slightly, took a tissue from her purse and wiped her eyes, as she walked down the main corridor in search of the school office. Her sniffle turned to a smile, when she realized that Barkley was from an earlier era and was plainly falling apart at the seams. The Library at Hanes had been that way until Bob stepped in and began fixing things.

By the time she reached the office, she was able to smile at the secretary and introduce herself. "Hi, I’m Maxine Perales, your new librarian."

The middle-aged woman at the desk didn’t bother to smile, only answered, "Welcome to Barkley. Hope you like it. We haven’t had a librarian since the last one suddenly quit without explanation or warning. You know where it is?"

"Uh, not really. This is the first time I’ve been here."

"Missus Merrill, the principal, is in the cafeteria having coffee. Wanta meet her?"

Maxine wondered if the personnel at this school were effected by the old, smelly plaster and stained walls. The secretary seemed a bit strange. "I’ve already met her, but I should say hello to let her know I’m here. Do you have a sign-in sheet?"

Without answering, the rather plump woman slid a clipboard across the desk with a thick stack of sign-in sheets on it. All the personnel were listed, with a place to sign in and sign out each day. As Maxine looked for a place to sign, the secretary said, "Like I said, we haven’t had a librarian for a while, so just write librarian in somewhere."

A few minutes later, when Maxine found the principal having coffee with a small group of teachers, Mrs. Merrill said, "Oh, hello Miss Perales. Have a seat. Ladies, this is our new librarian. I’ll let you introduce yourselves."

Maxine wondered why several of the teachers had an almost belittling, snickering, (as Bob would have called it,) look on their face. She soon found out why.

Mrs. Merrill said, "You’ll have to forgive them, Maxine. I don’t guess anyone has told you we have a ghost in the library. Well, not just in the library, but mostly in there."

Maxine had always been a good Catholic and a devoted Christian. Of course, she believed in life after death, and her Hispanic heritage gave her many reasons to believe in such things as ghosts, angels, fortune telling and almost witchcraft-like cures for many ailments. When told of the ghost at Barkley, she smiled slightly, understanding how the mostly Hispanic staff might exaggerate about something like a ghost. While she believed that such things might exist, she sure hadn’t ever experienced one firsthand. The movie, "Ghost" had made her cry a lot and wish it was her Bob coming back to see her one last time, but… well, she’d have to reserve judgment on any ghost at Barkley. One of the teachers went on to tell her it was the ghost of a small boy, maybe five or six years old. She swore on the bible, a teacher no longer at the school and the old librarian had seen him.

The librarian’s job began a full two weeks before the students came back to school after summer vacation, giving her time to get things in order. And, without a librarian having been assigned to the school the previous year, there was a lot of getting things in order to do. Also, since she lost her husband, Maxine spent much more time on the job, staying late in the evening many times to catch up on paperwork and update computer files. This late work habit is what brought her face to face with Barkley’s ghost.

It was only her second day at Barkley and, as usual, it got to be much later than she realized, working at the computer, inputting book information. When Maxine’s eyes began to burn from staring steadily at the screen for hours, she leaned back and rubbed them with the heel of her hand. When she turned slightly to look at the clock on the side wall, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. As she turned her head farther to the right, what appeared to be a slight wisp of smoke disappeared behind a bookcase.

She shook her head and said softly, "Boy, I’m so tired I’m seeing things." Actually, she had put the idea of a ghost in the school out of her mind. But, she suddenly rose from the chair and walked toward the end of the bookcase, realizing that what she saw could have indeed, been smoke. Surely the wiring in the old school was as bad as the mold on the walls.

As she stood at the end of the bookcase looking around, she sniffed the air for the smell of smoke or fire. The only odor she detected was the familiar smell of books and old plaster. "Guess it’s time to go home." Maxine realized she was more superstitious than she had thought when, all the way home, she found herself wondering if the smoke had been real, or if she had imagined it. By the time she pulled into her drive, she had managed to convince herself the smoke had truly been there. Besides, if there were such things as ghosts, maybe Bob hadn’t really left her completely. Maybe he still sat across the dinner table smiling at her and she just couldn’t see him.

But, she saw nor heard anything strange for the next week, as she forced herself to leave at regular quitting time, along with forcing herself to eat regularly. It had been so hard to try to cook since she lost her husband. And, she realized the reason she worked so much was to avoid being alone. That was the hard part, being all alone. She had no family to fall back on for support, and though her colleagues had offered their support after Bob’s untimely death, ultimately, she was truly alone.

The children came back, and she was much happier once more. She had found solace to a degree in the children, doing a lot of extra little things for them not required by her contract. She and Bob had planned to have children, so now, she sort of adopted some of the young students needing extra help or supplies or clothing. She spent a good bit of money each year helping them, and the population at Barkley was no different than most of the inner city schools. Many of them needed help, and Maxine was willing to offer it.

It was nearly a month after school began, when she next worked late. About six PM, a young Hispanic boy appeared at the open door to the library. He startled Maxine, because she thought she was alone in the building, save the night custodian, who was sweeping the main hallway. She and the young boy stared at one another for a moment before she asked, "Why are you here? School was out three hours ago."

The boy didn’t answer. He simply stood with arms down to his sides, staring at her, a huge grin on his face.

Maxine asked again, this time, in Spanish, "What are you doing here?"

When the boy slowly turned and walked away from the door, she hurried to the hallway and looked in the direction he’d gone. The hall was empty. Then, the custodian’s voice behind her startled the heck out of Maxine. She whirled around to find the custodian looking at her strangely.

"Something wrong, Miss Perales?"

"Where did that boy go?"

He cocked his head to the side slightly and asked, "What boy?"

"That little boy, who was standing in the library door."

The custodian leaned on his broom, his chin resting on his hands and asked, "You actually see someone?"

Now, it was Maxine’s turn to stare. After a moment, she asked again, this time more softly, "You didn’t see him?"

"No. But, I suppose you’ve heard the stories, haven’t you?"

"You mean about a ghost walking around Barkley? This was a regular kid. Ghosts don’t… Tell me, Mister Chavez, what do you know about the stories?"

He sort of shrugged and seemed a little uncomfortable. "Well, I ain’t never seen him, but I know several teachers over the years have claimed to of seen ‘im. Was the boy you saw about so tall, light brown hair and eyes?"

My gosh, either he was lying about having not seen the boy in the doorway, or others had seen him. The description was exactly right. She was losing a bit of her self-assuredness and felt uneasy.

"Seems the first time that boy was spotted was about a week after this school was first occupied, back in nineteen thirty-eight. That’s when it was built. Over the years, as I understand it, he’s been seen from time to time, either sittin’ at a desk in a classroom, or hanging around the door of the library. Funny part is, they say it’s always been after regler school time. No one’s ever seen him during the day. ‘Course, I think ghosts are supposed ta run around after dark, aren’t they?"

"I’m not really up on the habits of ghosts, but it’s not dark out yet."

"Well…" He rubbed his chin, looking for an explanation, then smiled and said, "Maybe they said it was just after school, and not after dark. Stories git changed, ya know. I know one thing fer shore. I gotta git back ta my work. You see that boy again, you yell real loud. I’d like ta meet him, myself." He turned away without a hint of a smile.

Maxine wasn’t sure if he was playing with her, or if he was serious about the past reports. She was well aware of how stories became embellished over time. At any rate, she supposed she’d better get on the road toward home. Her big cat, Tommy, would be waiting for his dinner. She would never have admitted it to anyone, having never been afraid of the dark, but she wanted to get away from the school before darkness set in. The idea of walking down the dimly lit corridor and into a dark parking lot gave her chills. So, she was on her way home before the sun went below the horizon.

When she walked in her front door, Tommy ran to meet her, just as he always did, but suddenly stopped and backed slowly away, the hair on his back standing straight up. When he was half way across the living room, Tommy whirled around and dashed under the sofa. Maxine tried everything, including offering him his favorite, fresh tuna, but he wouldn’t let her get near him. He never would come out from under the sofa that evening. The following morning when she awakened, there was Tommy, just like always, sleeping at the foot of the bed. Maxine passed off Tommy’s erratic behavior as his being a cat. Sometimes, cats could be weird that way.

After the strange incident of seeing the boy who wasn’t there, she was nervous about staying late again, so was always out of the school by four o’clock, official quitting time for the staff. Then, one evening, she was asked to stay for a staff meeting that started early and ran long. She had to rush out of the library to the meeting, with things left undone, and it was nearly seven when she returned to do the daily backup. As soon as she turned the computer on, Maxine sensed there was someone in the room. When she turned around, the boy sat across the room at one of the reading tables, that same beautiful smile lighting up his face.

This time, she sat and stared back without speaking to him. She leaned back, folded her arms across her chest and returned his smile. Finally, she stood and walked toward him. Maxine stopped short and gasped, when he disappeared before her eyes. As she looked at the empty chair, a giggle came from the other side of the room. She turned slowly around, closed her eyes and shook her head. This wasn’t really happening. This couldn’t be happening. My mind is playing tricks on me. I need to make an appointment with a doctor, or something. A psychiatrist, or someone. I wonder if the school counselor knows anything about seeing ghosts.

Finally, when she opened her eyes, the boy stood looking out a window. He seemed to know she was looking at him and turned around to face her. The look of sadness on his little face was so intense, it seemed to penetrate her soul and fill her eyes with tears. "What’s wrong? Who are you?"

Maxine followed, when the boy walked behind a bookcase, but he was no longer there. She stared at the empty place where he should have been for some time before turning back to shut the computer down and slowly walk from the library to her car. Something had happened. She felt something unexplainable, and she knew it wasn’t her mind playing tricks on her. Yes, the boy was definitely there. Yes, he had disappeared into thin air several times, now. Yes, she had felt the great sadness the boy felt. Why wouldn’t he talk to her? As she pushed the alarm control to open the car door, the loud beep-beep brought her back to reality. Now, she knew why the previous librarian had left abruptly. This was all too weird to handle. What was she going to do? She felt that somehow, the boy was pleading for something, even though he wouldn’t speak to her or stay put for more than a few minutes at a time.

She was glad it was Friday. Wondering what to do about the boy, the thought occurred to her that perhaps a priest could help. Then, she smiled and thought, He’d probably think I’d gone off the deep end. Who wouldn’t? I could go talk to a curandera, but most of them are quacks, just like the word’s English translation. Maybe I’ll go to the river and camp out for the weekend. Yeah, that might be a good idea.

She and Bob had bought a small plot of land on the Lano River and spent a good number of week-ends camping along the pretty waterway, even skinny dipping in the privacy of their own little Eden, as Bob had called it. Maxine knew being there might bring back painful memories but, on the other hand, it might be nice to relive some of the happier moments they had shared. She hadn’t dared go to the land since Bob’s death. Perhaps it was time.

After making sure Tommy would have ample food and water for two days, Maxine went to the garage and started loading the small tent, camp stove, lantern, porta-potty and all the paraphernalia Bob had thought necessary to live in the wild. With everything loaded, including the antique porcelain coffee pot, skillet and pans, matches and spare cylinder of butane for the stove, Maxine petted Tommy for a few minutes, washed her hands and drove toward Junction. She stopped at a restaurant and ate a quick dinner, wanting to get to the land before dark.

It turned out to be a pleasant surprise, when with each chore she accomplished to "set up" camp, she smiled, rather than cried at the thought of Bob having done all this in the past. The land they bought was elevated above the river, and at the edge of the woods, where the steep trail ran downhill to the water, Bob had built a log bench to watch the sun go down. With everything in place for a week-end stay, including her bedroll unfolded, ready to climb into, she sat and watched the last rays of sun disappear and the first twinkling dots of stars appear. It was a beautiful fall evening, and when she thought about how she wished Bob was here to share it, again, she was surprised that she smiled at his memory rather than crying about his death. Yes, she had made the right decision coming here and felt better than she had in years.

It was in the wee hours, when she finally crawled into the bedroll and quickly fell asleep, to dream of her and Bob swimming nude in the river below, then making love under the stars on a blanket. It was a beautiful dream, filled with all the things she had so missed these last four years. And, when she awakened, she set about making breakfast, just as she had the many times they came here together. The happy feeling she had all week-end puzzled Maxine. She was even more puzzled that she was anxious to get back to school and stay late, hoping the young boy would finally talk to her.

She didn’t have to wait long. Monday evening, she was all done with her work, had made a new pot of coffee and sat waiting, coffee mug in hand. This time, the boy walked through the door as soon as Mrs. Merrill walked out the door after asking if Maxine was going to work late.

"Hello. Will you talk to me?"

"Si." He said it without the usual smile, but there wasn’t the intense sadness she had sensed before.

"Who are you? What’s your name?"

"Luis Trevino."

"My name is Maxine, Luis. Why are you here?"

His speech was a little English, but mostly Spanish. "This is my time."

As Maxine got up from the chair she asked, "What do you mean?"

"This is my time. I can’t come around when the others are here."

She answered him in Spanish. "I don’t understand what you mean. There aren’t supposed to be any children here this late."

"I’ve watched you. You take good care of the others."

Maxine wasn’t sure what it was, but she suddenly felt a shiver run down the back of her neck and continue down her spine. "How could you watch me? I don’t remember seeing you."

"No one can see me until all the other kids are gone."

"Why wouldn’t you talk to me before?"

"When I spoke to Senora Robinson, she left and never came back. Sometimes, people are scared of me. I’ve never done anything to make them scared."

Maxine slowly eased down to sit on the edge of her desk, as she said, "People are afraid of something they don’t understand, Luis. I understand. I didn’t at first, but now, I do."

"Do you know they’re going to tear this school down?"

"Yes. The new school is almost finished."

"I won’t have no place to be when it’s gone."

Maxine instinctively frowned, realizing exactly what he was saying. "Why do you have to stay here?"

"I don’t know. It’s just the only place I have." He shuffled from foot to foot, staring down at the floor, a sad expression haunting his beautiful face.

"Luis, can you tell me how you happen to be here?"

He stared at the far corner of the library and said, "Right over there. In that corner. When they were building this school, they had a deep hole with lots of iron in it to pour concrete in. They had boards going up high in the air over the hole to hold concrete. I climbed up the boards to look down in the hole and I fell. I don’t remember what happened then. I just haven’t been able to leave here since."

Maxine quickly calculated it had been sixty years ago, when the concrete was poured into that column. Her heart beat rapidly, she had a hard time breathing and her skin felt clammy. My Lord, was she imagining all this? Could she, a well educated, sensible, down to earth person really be talking with the ghost of a boy dead some sixty years?

"It’s okay, Miss Perales. I figured out a long time ago what happened. I know I’m dead. I just don’t know what to do."

Now, she got tears in her eyes. If this was all really happening, what would happen to Luis when the school was torn down? Boy, did she ever need some advice. What could she do to help him? "Luis, do you have any idea what you’re supposed to do? Is there any of your family still around?"

He hunched his shoulders slightly and said, "I don’t know" as he walked to the opposite corner of the room and stared at the concrete column. Then, he turned back, and his eyes were filled with tears. "I’m afraid."

She wanted to hold him and comfort him, but something told her that was impossible. This just couldn’t be happening.

Instantaneously, Luis had moved from the corner of the room to the doorway. He stopped and smiled broadly at her, then disappeared.

If she had been a drinking person, this would have been an excellent time to get sloppy. Now, it was her turn to walk slowly to the concrete column and stare at it. When she touched it, the concrete felt cold and forbidding. Maxine moved to the next column and laid her hand on it. It was warm. But when she moved back to the corner, that column felt even colder than before. Something totally strange was happening here, and she somehow had to figure out what to do. Something told her to go to the computer and turn it on.

As the screen lit up, the thought occurred that she could read the local newspaper archives over the Internet. For the next hour, she scanned the newspapers from 1938. On the front page of the June 1, 1938 edition was an article about a missing boy.

A photo accompanied the article, and Maxine got a catch in her breath when she saw it. The photo was her little ghost friend. Now, she had to accept that he was a spirit being of some sort – a ghost. She sat back in the chair, totally confused. If she mentioned any of this to anyone, they’d have her committed, for sure. All the way home, Maxine asked herself over and over, "What am I going to do?"

She was disappointed every night, when Luis didn’t show up again, even though she stayed late, sometimes, until nearly ten o’clock. After staying late for several weeks, with no sign of Luis, she gave up and tried to get on with some sort of normalcy in her life. Maxine pondered long and hard how she might alert the people demolishing the building, or someone, that a young boy’s body lay at the bottom of that concrete column. She knew if she went to the authorities, they’d want to know how she knew about the body. Now, Maxine loved her position, and sure as heck, if she ever came up with the true story, she’d no longer have the job.

Once again, the school year was coming to an end, the destruction of the old, decaying building was but weeks away, and she was no closer to an answer than she had been months earlier. If Luis had to go away when the building came down, where would he go? Maxine wondered what the school district would do with this land when the building was gone. She casually asked the principal at lunch one day.

"There’s talk they’re going to donate it to the city to use as a neighborhood park."

"That would be a great idea. Is it for sure they’ll do that?"

"If you’re really that interested, you could call central office and ask."

"Yeah, I just might do that."

She figured if they were going to make a park of the land, perhaps they would want to rid it of all the below ground columns that supported the school. Perhaps they would find Luis, though she wasn’t sure of the significance of that. The first thing she did was call central office when she got back to the library. It was confirmed. They were, indeed, going to give the site to the city for a park. When she asked if all the underground concrete would be removed, the superintendent of plant management told her he supposed it would.

Maxine wondered if the construction people demolishing the building would think her crazy to stand and watch them dig the old columns out of the ground. So what if they did? If she could somehow give that beautiful, lonesome little boy a real burial, well, maybe her life would have more meaning. There had to be some more important reason he had spoken to her than just wanting company. She sure wished he would come back to see her. She’d stay late this evening and see if perhaps he would show up if she thought real hard about him.

Even though she knew Luis existed, knew she had spoken with him, she was torn between laughing at the absurdity of it all and believing it. But every time she smiled, thinking she had imagined it, an ache in her heart brought her back to what the poor little boy must have gone through all these years, sort of stuck in some kind of limbo. No, she had to follow through, as if it was real, whether it was or not.

She paced back and forth from the corner column to the library door, wringing her hands and wondering what to do if he never showed up again. She thought, Luis, sweetheart, if you can hear me, please come to see me. As she touched the column with her fingertips, then turned back toward the door, there he was, that beautiful smile in full bloom. Maxine rushed across the room, wanting to throw her arms around him, but something stopped her just short of her destination.

"Hello, Miss Perales."

"Luis, where have you been?"

His smile widened and he said softly, "I’ve been right here."

"Why haven’t you shown yourself?"

"It made you unhappy. I like you. All the people I see here are nice people, but you care a lot. I didn’t want to make you unhappy."

"We have to figure out what to do. They’re going to tear the school down pretty soon, now."

"Miss Perales, I know now I’ll go somewhere else when they tear my school down. I don’t know where, but somewhere."

"Luis, do you know, can I hug you?"

His smile disappeared, replaced by that tragic look of sadness that had so affected her before. "That’s what hurts so much, Miss Perales. I never had a mama or papa. I’ve always wished I had a mama, like the other kids. If I only had a mama, it wouldn’t matter where I went when I leave here."

Maxine suddenly said, "Luis, I have to go. Will you promise me you’ll come see me tomorrow evening?"

"If you want me to."

"Good. I have an idea. Please smile, and don’t be sad."

When he smiled and disappeared, Maxine quickly retrieved her purse, locked the door and trotted toward the parking lot. As she drove the thirty minutes toward home, a plan was formulating in her mind. People would maybe think she was nuts, but what the heck.

She didn’t go into the house when she climbed from the car, but walked several doors up the street to a neighbor’s house. When Rick Cantrell opened the door, he got a surprised look on his face and asked, "You finally decide to take me up on my offer for dinner?"

She smiled and asked, "What kind of lawyer are you?"

"Well, heck, I’m a darned good lawyer."

"I mean, what kind of law do you practice?"

"Mostly family law."

"That’s what I thought. I need to talk to you about something I want to do. You’ll think I’ve gone off the deep end, but hear me out."

Rick smiled at her and said, "Look, whatever it is you want to do, can you tell me over dinner? We can go someplace close by, something simple. I missed lunch and I’m starving."

She folded her arms across her chest and tried to sound disgusted. "If that’s the only way you’ll listen, yeah, I guess so."

Rick had lost his wife to cancer a couple of years before Bob died in that horrible auto smashup. He hadn’t been a close friend, but was an acquaintance. Several times over the last year, he had asked Maxine to have dinner with him, but she was still grieving the loss of her husband and wasn’t about to start dating. She had no interest in that.

They drove a short distance to a neighborhood restaurant and sat in a corner booth. It wasn’t anything fancy, but the food was good. While they waited for their order, Rick asked, "Okay, what’s this crazy thing you have in mind?"

"I want to adopt a boy that died sixty years ago."

He nearly choked on his coffee. After coughing for a full minute, he asked in a strained voice, "You what?"

"I want to adopt a little six year old boy, who died sixty years ago without a mama or papa." Oh, boy, she should never have done this. He was going to think she was a real fruitcake. "Uh, maybe I shouldn’t have said anything to you about it."

Rick, somewhat recovered, quickly said, "No, no. I’m all interest. I have to hear this. What are you talking about?"

She couldn’t tell him the truth. She’d have to lie. "I was browsing through old newspapers in the local archives on the Internet. I came across this story about a little boy who disappeared sixty years ago, while the school I work at was under construction. He was an orphan, but his foster parents said the last he was seen, Luis… uh, that’s the boy’s name, Luis Trevino. He was seen crossing the street to the construction site. It seems he spent a lot of time watching them build the school. Well, now, the school’s going to be torn down." She stopped, trying to figure out how to tell him the rest.

"And, you think maybe he disappeared beneath the school under construction. You think he had an accident or something and might be buried under the school."

"Well, yes. It’s a likely theory, isn’t it?"

Rick leaned back in his chair and smiled. "It could be entirely possible, but what does that have to do with your adopting this dead boy?"

"Just think about it. He was an orphan, so there’s no one to bury him properly if they should find his remains under the school. The county would bury his bones in an unmarked, unidentified grave. That just wouldn’t be fair."

"And you want to adopt him, so you can give him a decent burial."

"Yes."

He looked at her with a kindness in his eyes and a slight smile on his lips, then moved his head slowly back and forth, as his smile grew wider. "I knew you were a special person, but I never suspected how special."

Maxine could feel her face flush. "Can it be done?"

"I would imagine it could. That is, if there’s a body to adopt."

Maxine spoke softly. "I’m sure there will be. I wish I could tell you why I’m so sure, but you’d think I was unbalanced. Please, just tell me you’ll help me."

Rick chuckled softly and said, "I’d do anything for you. You know, you wouldn’t have to adopt the boy. I could get you appointed his legal guardian."

"No, that won’t do. Don’t ask me why, but I want to adopt him."

"I need to ask you a couple of questions. When is this school going to be demolished, and how will you convince anyone to look for a body?"

Again, she felt her face flush, this time from embarrassment over what she would say. "Rick, you’ll have to trust me, but I think I know right where the body might be."

He gave her a wide-eyed look and said, "Whatever you say."

Now, as the school year wound down, Maxine had two people on her mind, Luis and Rick. He really was a nice person, and she couldn’t help but feel she should get to know him better. Since their quickie dinner, they had spoken several times. Rick had talked to a judge friend, and though it was an unusual request, the judge said it would be no great problem to let her adopt a person dead for sixty years. Rick’s friend did ask him what kind of a kook Maxine was, but she didn’t care. Luis had to have a mama, and he had to be buried decently.

The day they started demolishing the old building, Rick came to the school with Maxine and explained their theory to the superintendent of the demolition company. The superintendent seemed to think them sort of wacky, but agreed to call them when the building proper was hauled off and they began digging the old footings out. When Maxine asked if they would please start at the rear corner of the library, he laughed and said, "Anything you say, lady. They all have to come out."

A week later, everything came to a halt at the site and the coroner was called to the scene. The workmen had indeed found the small bones of a child at the bottom of the footing. Maxine was there, but stood where she couldn’t see. She asked Rick to watch, but she couldn’t bear to see Luis that way. Needless to say, Rick was astonished when Maxine’s prediction panned out. When word came that the body was found, he walked over to her and stared, shaking his head.

The coroner’s people removed the bones to the morgue, with instructions from Rick that they were not to be buried in a pauper’s grave, that he was working on gaining custody for proper burial. Of course, this again brought a number of questions, but Rick just told him it would be the right thing to do to bury the young child in a decent grave. He offered no explanation of why they were looking for the body to begin with.

It took two weeks for all the proper documents to be filed and signed by the judge, then the body was released to Maxine’s custody. Rick was with her every step of the way, including buying the burial plot, arranging for a funeral and buying a headstone. Maxine didn’t know Luis’ birth date, so she simply had six years old, died in 1938 carved on the headstone. The burial was on a pretty Saturday afternoon, and Maxine stood by the graveside for some time speaking to Luis in her mind before Rick drove her home and spent the evening with her.

The following morning, something compelled her to return to the cemetery. As she looked down at the small mound of dirt covered with flowers, Luis walked from the trees, smiling.

She smiled back and said, "Hello, Luis."

Although he was smiling, tears trickled down his cheeks and he sniffed. "I know where I’m going, now. And, I’m going with a mama. I love you, Miss Perales. Rick loves you, too." As he spoke, Luis was bathed in a soft glow she’d never seen about him before. "If you married Rick, I’d have a papa, also. Your husband you used to have won’t mind. You are supposed to be happy, like me."

She broke down and cried, almost wishing Luis could move to her new school with her.

Luis came closer and reached his arms up to her. "You can hug me now."

When she knelt on the grass and wrapped her arms around him, he laughed that soft chuckle of a small, happy child and said, "If anyone ever asks you if you believe in ghosts, tell them you believe in spirits, and there’s a really good place for all of us if we look for it. Can I call you mama?"

"Yes. I’d like that."

He quickly wrapped his arms around her neck and said, "I love you, mama."

As quickly as he said it, he was gone, and Maxine walked back to her car, a huge smile on her face. So, Rick loves me. I’ll be darned. She looked back at the grave and said softly, "I love you, too, Luis."