Stolen Ghosts (Flash Fiction Part 2)

Image by vishnu vijayan from Pixabay

Flash Fiction #139

“Here’s my idea. You know we Asians are really afraid of ghosts, but more than half of our students are American born and grew up here in New Jersey, who are not really afraid of ghosts like us. We grew up in Asia and we are afraid of ghosts, but these kids are not. I mean I heard that Americans actually enjoy ghosts sometimes.” Lulan says.

“How do you know what Americans like or do not like? You are just guessing.” Fei says.

“I know. I read somewhere that people want to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House just because they want to meet Lincoln’s ghost who haunts the White House, especially his old bedroom.” Lulan says.

“What’s the Lincoln Bedroom? Are Asians allowed to sleep there?” Ivy asks.

“I don’t know and that’s not the point. My point is that we can tell people that our center is haunted by Albert Einstein’s ghost, or probably well, who else is a famous academic figure? Thomas Edison for example, after whom our township is named.” Lulan says.

“What a good idea! And both of them lived in New Jersey, right?” Ivy asks.

“Of course. Right here. They probably stamped here before.” Lulan says and stamps one foot on the floor very hard to emphasize her point.

“Oh, you can’t just say Einstein or Edison comes to haunt your little training center. People won’t believe it. You need something… You know some images or sound or something to make it all plausible…” Tana says.

“Well, we don’t have those, but we can go around to tell people that this place is haunted by very friendly and famous ghosts. Can we throw in an Asian figure as well?” Ivy says.

The rumor is duly spread around. Ivy is so carried away by her own narration that she is soon unsatisfied by merely telling some boring tales–she becomes creative. She starts to tell people that Thomas Edison established his first lab on the spot where Ivy Training Center is located, from where he later moved away to Menlo Park. Here Edison suffered major setbacks, lab blown away, experiments failed, marriage in trouble etc. This is why his ghost often comes back to visit this troubled spot, where he learned all his skills for future adventures…

The student enrollment figure seems to rebound, which brings happy smiles back to Ivy’s face.

“Well, I don’t know if people believe the ghost story we feed them, but our figures look good. So it must have worked.” Ivy says to her team.

Her cell phone rings. Ivy’s friend is calling her.

“Ivy, have you heard this? Your competitor, ‘Step By Step Academy’, is hosting a Halloween party tomorrow night at their training center, inviting all the parents and students. It is said it is going to be a party in a STEM theme, with famous people like Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein haunting the place. I guess they probably would hire people who dress in the 19th century or early 20th century clothes or something…”

“No… That’s our idea and they are our ghosts. I can’t believe this. They are stealing our ghosts.” Ivy screams. People stare at her, not knowing what she is talking about.

(The End)