The little girl who became a ghost

Rupert and his dad were driving their car when a girl suddenly ran out onto the road. His daddy braked but couldn't stop before they hit the girl. The collision was so hard that Rupert was pushed forward in his seat. When the car halted, Rupert's daddy rushed out to the lifeless body that lay bleeding on the asphalt. Luckily Rupert's dad was a doctor, so he could give the girl first-aid. But Rupert didn't think that would help. He sat without moving in the back seat thinking that the girl must be dead.

But she couldn't be completely dead. Out of the lifeless body the girl stood up like a little ghost. She was semi transparent and looked very scared. First he looked at her own body, that Rupert's daddy was working on. Then she stared at Rupert with big, frightened eyes.

Rupert smiled at her and waved. He opened the back door and whispered: "Hi, I'm Rupert. Will you sit here in the back seat with me?" The girl nodded and smiled sadly. She climbed in to Rupert and sat down beside him in the car. "My name is Mary," she said.

Rupert heard the ambulance approaching. He and Mary watched the doctors carrying Mary's body on a stretcher into the ambulance. Soon after Rupert's daddy came running and sat down behind the steering wheel. He looked pale and very serious. "How is she?" Rupert asked. His daddy started the car and drove after the ambulance. "She is very badly hurt," he said. Rupert could hear by his voice that he was about to start crying. "Maybe she will die," he said and sniffled. "Then it's my fault. Then I have killed an innocent little child."

Rupert looked at Mary. She seemed so sad and frightened that Rupert wanted to hug her. But he couldn't. Her body was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He didn't dare to speak to her until they arrived there. Rupert's daddy left the car and followed the stretcher with Mary's body. "He will do everything he can to save your life," Rupert said. "He is a very good doctor," he added hoping it would cheer her up a bit.

But she was just as sad when they left the car. "I've been here many times," Rupert said. "Come with me now, lets go to the operating theatre." Mary followed Rupert up the wide stairs and through some long corridors smelling strongly of disinfectant. At the end Rupert opened a door.

Four adults in long green coats stood bent over Mary's body. They could hear Rupert's daddy mumbling over and over: "Come on my friend, please come back to life. It's too soon for you to die now, you know." They worked hard and looked anxiously at the machines that monitored the little body's functions. Finally one of the doctors sighed. "I don't think it is working. She seems to have given up, as if she doesn't want to come back."

Then Rupert turned to Mary. "You must enter your body again, now at once. If not it will die, and you might become a ghost for ever." Mary watched him with her big, shiny eyes. "There is so much pain in my body now," she said and pointed. "There is only blood and broken bones all over. Would you want to enter that body and feel all that pain?" "No," Rupert admitted. "It looks terrible. But if it was the only way to come back to life, then I would have done it."

In the meantime the doctors were more and more desperate. Whatever they did, they couldn't bring the little body to life. "Hurry up Mary!" Rupert shouted. The doctors and his dad turned and hushed him, but he didn't care. "They will soon give up. Just think how boring it will be to wander about as a ghost for hundreds of years."

Rupert's daddy came to him and bent down. He was irritated and angry. "You must be quiet," he said. "We are trying to save a little girl's life here, you mustn't disturb us." He looked around him. "Who are you talking to?" "Mary," Rupert said and bowed his head. "Mary? Do you mean the girl we are trying to save?" Rupert nodded. His daddy stood up and stroked Rupert's hair. "If I could only make her live," he said. "I have tried just about everything."

His daddy went back to the lifeless child and continued his work, but nothing happened. Tears filled his eyes. "I have killed a child," he said while the tears dripped down on Mary's wounds. He shook the little body and shouted. "Please, please come to life again!" The other doctors took away his instruments and sat him down on a chair. They took off their green coats and covered Mary's body in a sheet, her face also, because now she was dead.

But when Mary saw the doctors putting back their instruments and tidying up the operating theatre she finally made up her mind. "I will go back," she said to Rupert. "But you must promise to hold my hand all the time." Rupert nodded and went with the little transparent girl to the operating table. She slipped herself under the sheet and melted back into her body.

Rupert held Mary's hand and urged the doctors. "You mustn't give in yet, she has just decided to come back to life again." His dad turned towards him. "She's dead Rupert. There isn't anything we can do for her now." But then they heard a sound from the monitoring machines. "Pip, pip, pip," it said. His daddy leapt up in the air and hurried towards Mary. He pulled off the sheet and listened. "Her heart is pumping," he shouted. Another doctor listened to her chest. "She is breathing also. I think we have her back again!"

Rupert's daddy was so happy that he took Rupert in his arms and danced with him: "She will be all right, she will be all right," he shouted. Then he looked Rupert in the eyes. "Was it really her you were talking to just now?" Rupert smiled and took Mary's hand again. "Yes it was her ghost, daddy. I had to persuade her to fight for her life. But I had to promise to hold her hand until she is well again." His father was even happier. "We will, my boy. We will make her completely well again."

© Martin Nygaard