“I can see my aunt!” Amarillo called to his friends. “She’s waving to us. It’s tea time.”

The four boys had been cycling up and down the little hill near Amarillo’s aunt’s house. They went to the shed outside the house and got off their bicycles.

“Come inside everybody!” said the smiling aunt. “I’ve baked a gingerbread cake.”

The boys sat around the little table at which Blanca and her friends were already seated. Blanca was Amarillo’s little sister. Amarillo was nine, while Blanca was only six years old. The parents of the two children had gone off to see their grandmother who was ill. They had left both the kids at their uncle and aunt’s house who lived alone.

“Mm…! The cake is delicious, aunt!” said Amarillo.

“Thank you, my dear boy,” said aunt who was also very fond of the two children.

Amarillo, Blanca and their friends told aunt that they had never tasted anything as good as her gingerbread cake. As the siblings often came to aunt’s house, they had made many friends in the neighbourhood.

Shortly after the tea was over, the children’s friends went away to their own houses nearby. The siblings then enjoyed playing and passing time with their aunt. After dinner, aunt asked the two children if they would like to sleep with her in her bedroom for the night. Being the elder, Amarillo didn’t want anyone to think that he was afraid of anything.

“No, thank you, aunt,” he said. “Blanca and I will be all right. We have stayed in this house many times before, so you need not worry about us.”

Aunt smiled but apologised to the children that she could not ascend the stairs due to her joints’ ache. So Amarillo and Blanca had to go to the guestrooms, which were upstairs, on their own. She then kissed them goodnight.

They went up the staircase, which led to a corridor. It was quite dark. Little Blanca clutched her brother’s hand. The two children stepped into the deserted corridor. Amarillo strained his eyes to find a switchboard in the faint light which came from downstairs.

“Can’t we spend the night with aunt?” asked Blanca.

“Yes, we can, but I don’t want to be called a coward,” replied Amarillo.

Now Amarillo’s eyes had gotten used to the near darkness and he saw the switchboard. He approached it with Blanca still by his side. He flipped down the switch, but the light didn’t turn on.

“What happened?” asked Blanca worriedly.

“The light doesn’t work,” said Amarillo in dismay.

The two children knew where their rooms were. Blanca insisted that her brother sleep in her room so Amarillo did not even bother to go in his. They had only entered the bedroom when they heard a creaking noise. Blanca clung to Amarillo’s arm, who also jumped in fright.

“What was that?” whispered Blanca.

“The sound came from the next room.” Amarillo whispered back. “It’s the bed. I know it is. It creaked when I slept in it the last time we came here,” said Amarillo.

“You mean there’s someone in that room?” asked Blanca.

The bed creaked again, much louder this time.

“Let’s go back,” cried Blanca.

Amarillo was also very frightened now. The children made to leave the room but at that moment, somebody switched off the light on the stairs.

“Oh no!” cried Blanca. “Aunt’s gone to bed.”

“Let’s just sit down here,” suggested Amarillo.

“I don’t want to sleep,” said Blanca.

“Yes, we can spend the night by not sleeping and then go downstairs tomorrow morning before the ghost in the next room wakes up,” suggested Amarillo.

The two children sat down on the carpeted floor and not an hour had passed when the little girl was fast asleep, her brother’s arm around her.

‘Where is uncle, I haven’t seen him the whole day, he usually comes home in the afternoon but today...’ wondered Amarillo.

Minutes passed but Amarillo did not sleep. At around midnight, he heard a clap of thunder which was followed by rain spattering on the windows. There was a bad thunderstorm outside and it worsened gradually.

Again, the thunder rumbled and this time, Amarillo heard another sound: a groan! It had come from the next room. But the brave boy never made a sound. He sat in silently. Then there was a flash of lightning which came into the room from the curtain.

A couple of hours, the storm subsided and it was quiet all around again; Amarillo could not help but fell asleep. However, he was soon awoken by a click of a light in the corridor.

‘Someone was there!’ Amarillo trembled from head to foot. He knew it could not be his aunt as she has been suffering from joints pain. Could it be his old uncle?

A figure appeared in the doorway, it had candle in its hand, Amarillo saw who it was and oh .... what a relief!

“Mum!” he cried in joy. “Mum, you’re back!”

The exclamation awoke Blanca.

“My children!” cried their mother.

“How come you’re back so early?” asked Amarillo with a smile on his face. Seeing his mother, he had quite forgotten that there was someone in the next room.

“Well,” explained his mother as she turned on the light in the room. “We drove over to grandma’s house but we were told that she had been taken to the hospital the night before, so we went to see her there and she was delighted at the sight of us. We could not stay at the hospital for long so we came back.”

While saying all this, she was facing the children and wondering why they were on the floor. She was about to ask the reason when Amarillo and Blanca saw it at last! Somebody had just put his hand on the bedroom door and it opened wide behind their mother. Amarillo turned white and Blanca shrieked. The horrified mother looked around.

“Come to us, mum!” cried Amarillo.

“Why, oh, dear it’s your uncle!”

The person came into the light, and he looked very tired. It was their old uncle!

“Hello children!” he said. “When did you arrive?”

Amarillo and Blanca were looking at him with their mouths open. They were too shocked to say anything.

Their mother told him that they had arrived in the afternoon the day before. Then uncle explained that he had spent two days and two nights at his office doing some important work. He had returned just before the children arrived and had gone to the other guestroom so as not to be disturbed as he rested.

“You did give us a fright, uncle,” said little Blanca.

“Oh, really, I am sorry, kids,” apologised uncle.

The children smiled as they were relieved to see their mum and, of course, not a ghost but their sweet old uncle. It was still very early in the morning, so they were sent to bed again.

Published in Dawn, Young World June 10th, 2017