October 30th 2004

     Dear Diary, today is the day of my grandmother’s funeral. It will be very sad. I will never forget how many desserts she made for us on the Christmas of 1999. She would always take me to parks and movies; I was never bored when she was around.
— Rachael Hanstworth

     “Rachael, time to go,” my mom shouted. With a tear in my eye, I closed my diary and prepared for the funeral. At the funeral, few people cried, me being one of them.
     There were games and snacks, but I wasn’t having fun. After the funeral, some kids invited me to go fishing in the river with them. I don’t remember what happened after that, but I do remember waking up soaked.
     I looked around and realized that the house that I was in was my grandmother’s house! I got up to look around. When I got downstairs, I saw a girl in my chair at the dinner table. The girl wasn’t at the funeral.
     “Who the heck are you!!!!?” I asked angrily.
     “My, aren’t we polite?” she said sarcastically. “I’m Olive,” she said. I looked around and decided that when the kids were fishing I fell asleep and got wet.
     I ran outside and looked around, but this wasn’t the small village my grandmother lived in. It looked more like New York! I ran back inside as fast as I could.
     “Where are my parents?” I asked Olive.
     “They’re not here, but your grandmother is at the celebration,” she replied. “You better get down there, too.”
     “Where is it?” I asked.
     “Down by the lake, it’s next to the biggest building in town,” Olive answered. Before she could say anything else, I was gone. I quickly got to the lake and started to blend in with crowd when someone shouted,
     “Look, it’s her!” Everyone turned around to look at me. I started to ask what was going on, but my grandmother came and took me to her house.
     “Are you going to tell her?” Olive asked.
     “She has to know,” my grandmother said sternly.
     “I was just at your funeral! Everyone thinks you’re dead!” I screamed.
     “And they’re right,” said my grandmother in a much softer tone then the one she had used with Olive.
     “But that’s impossible! I wouldn’t see you!” I shrieked.
     “We’re not the only ones dead,” said Olive. I finally realized what they were talking about. I started to sputter.
     “B-b-but th-that w-w-would m-m-m-make me…” I trailed off.
     “Exactly,” Olive and my grandmother said in unison. I sat down on the couch, my eyes wide with horror. I was nauseous, scared, surprised, and confused at the same time. I stood up.
     “No, no I’m not dead.”
     “If you don’t believe us,” Olive said, “Then look at your feet.” I looked down. I couldn’t believe it. . . I was floating!!!
     “B-b-but how?” I asked.
     “We found you on the shore of our lake,” my grandmother explained, “therefore you drowned.”
     “But how did the houses get here?” I asked.
     “Ghosts and ghost houses are made from concentrated energy,” Olive said, “When you have enough energy, you can make a ghost house.” She could obviously see that I was scared. “Relax, I died three days ago, do you think I had enough energy for a ghost home?”
     “Here, instead of money you are paid in energy. If you were kind to people in the real world, you start off with more energy here,” explained my grandmother.
     “I only started out with enough to buy a yo-yo,” Olive said. “I really wasn’t that nice of a person,” she added softly, her face down.
     “I provide Olive with enough energy to live,” said my grandmother, “and I can do the same for you until we figure out how much energy you have.” I started bawling.
     “I want my old body back,” I wailed, “I already miss my family and friends and pets. And what about all my stuff?” I asked.
     “Oh honey, you’ll get all those back, your belongings, that is,” said my grandmother.
     “But what about my friends?”
     “You’ll make new friends,” my grandmother said.
     “And my family?”
     “Well, we’re your fam’ly now,” said Olive.
     “I wanna go back,” I cried, “I miss my family.”
     “Sorry we’re not good enough for you,” said Olive.
     “Olive, zip it,” said my grandmother. Olive ignored her.
     “There is one way to get back, but it’s never worked before,” she said.
     “How?” I asked.
     “Olive, don’t give her ideas,” said my grandmother.
     “Tell me how!!” I yelled in the loudest voice that I could.
     “Olive, don’t,” my grandmother said. Once more, Olive paid her no mind.
     “You have to find your body and re-die,” she said.
     “Re-die?” I asked.
     “Yup,” she responded, “For drowning, we’d have to find your body. Then we put you in this tank that cuts you off air, and you sink to the bottom of the lake.”
     “Is that what you do for everyone?” I asked.
     “It’s suppose to only work on the ones who have drowned. Some think it’s only a myth. It has never ever worked. It may require a lot of energy, or the person to have led a good life, too,” said Olive.
     “And it also takes energy to accomplish,” said my grandmother. It seemed that Olive wanted to participate, too.
     “Please,” Olive and I said in unison.
     “Fine,” said my grandmother, “but if this fails, then we may have wasted more energy than we can afford.”
     “Thanks,” Olive and I said. After days of searching for my drowned body we only found objects discarded by other ghosts. After hours of searching and arguing with Olive we had found a watch, a book that was impossible to read, and a camera. We only had enough energy left for half a day of searching.
     Then I had an idea. I would get out of this world the same way I got in. I got my fishing rod and took a ghost-boat to the middle of the lake.
     I sat there for hours until I finally hooked something. I pulled it up. It was a piece of cloth, a piece of cloth that I recognized. It belonged to the shirt I was wearing on my death day.
     I started to concentrate on a miniature version of a submarine that Graham Hawkes built, but all it did was stress me. I tried again and again, but the same thing happened. I must not have enough energy. It was too tiring, so I just tried thinking up a glass bottom boat. That’s funny,’ I thought. I didn’t feel stressed at all. I must have had extra energy from my grandmother.
     I got the people we had hired to help us in the boat, the oars, and the rods. No sooner than we had left had we hooked the body. But it wasn’t my body. . . it was Olive’s!!! When we got to the surface I quickly found Olive.
     “Olive, how did you die?” I asked.
     “Well, I sort’a fell off a boat. Why?’ she replied.
     “Because we found your body,” I told her. Olive stood there in disbelief.
     “So I can leave?” She said, “This isn’t a joke?” I shook my head.
     We went to the place where they held the tanks Olive had told me about. The whole town gathered around the lake to watch Olive. Even though you could barely see her, you still knew what was going on. My grandmother and I got to go on an exclusive boat to watch as Olive’s personal guests.
     We watched carefully as Olive stepped into the tank, which was then lowered into the lake. Anxiously we watched the exact place Olive was lowered into, and then suddenly Olive popped up.
     We got her on the ship as fast as we could.
     “What happened?” I asked.
     “The <gasp> tank <gasp> disappeared,” she said, struggling to get air.
     My grandmother rushed to her side. Did we do something wrong? I thought. Does this mean I can’t get back home?’ I couldn’t think straight. The tank had to be down there. I didn’t know what else to do, so I dived into the water. I held my breath, searching for the tank, but it wasn’t there. I came up for breath and almost went down to search for more, but then I realized that our boat wasn’t there either. All of a sudden I saw a body with the T-shirt I was wearing. . .
     “There she is!” I felt someone pulling me to shore. I opened my eyes and saw . . People from the funeral!!
     “Are you all right?” a kid asked.
     “Ya, I’m fine.”
     “Good, let’s go inside.” Everyone went inside, but I stayed put. I couldn’t believe it. I looked down. I wasn’t floating anymore! I was alive! But what about the ghost world? I had to tell them. Then I remembered what Olive said about energy. I couldn’t make the trip back.
     I often think about the ghost world. If there even was one. If so, what had happened to Olive and my grandmother? Did Olive not have the right amount of energy to make the trip back? I hope Olive and my grandmother are doing OK, and I know someday I’ll see them again.