The Write Dream (Storage Ghosts)

Storage
Ghosts

The Write Dream

Chapter 1

“And
here we have Grace, my younger sister, cleaning the shelves of our shop. She’s
eagerly preparing them for our new stock. You can see the excitement in her
face as she scrubs that glass.”

Grace
looked up from the shelf. “Are you talking to me?”

“And
over here is some of our existing stock, these tables and chairs are prices at
reasonable amounts.”

“Frankie!
Who are you talking to?” Grace asked.

Frankie
hissed at her, “Shhh! I’m filming. Just get back to your cleaning.”

“Filming
what? I don’t want to be filmed,” Grace said with a frown.

Frankie
sighed and tapped the record button on his phone to ‘off’. “I’m filming our
shop so my followers can see what my day to day life is like.”

Grace
gave a little smile and folded her arms. “Followers? What followers?”

“I
told you that I’ve set up a website,” Frankie began.

“You
did. Is it live yet? Don’t tell me you’re posting video clips on it? Am I in
any of them?”

“Calm
down. The site is live and I’ve had 2 visitors.” Frankie gave her a proud look.

“And
the video clips?” Grace prompted.

“I’m
putting them on my social network site. I’ve got 5 followers on there. I think
they would like to see how my business works. How I cleverly bid at auctions
and get the best items. Then they can see where the items end up, they could
come and visit our shop.”

Grace
narrowed her eyes at her brother. “That’s quite clever, did you think this up
yourself?”

Frankie
fiddled with a button on his phone. “Sort of, Big Bob suggested it. People like
videos. And do you know what else I thought of? If we get a good item we could
do our own auction through the website, get a good price for it. I’ve already
listed some things.”

Grace
nodded. “That is a good idea. Have you made any sales yet?”

“It’s
early days. Can you move out of the way, Grace. I want to get a shot of that
old teapot.”

Grace
held her hand up. “Just a minute, I want to know if I’m in the videos or not. I
don’t want to be in them.”

Frankie
grimaced. “Too late, I’ve already posted a few. You don’t look that bad on
them, but to be honest, Grace, you could do with some more make up.”

Grace
threw the duster at him. “And you could do with some more manners! Why are you
filming the teapot?”

“You
know why,” Frankie said. He started to record again. His voice had a serious
tone as he said, “Here it is, the infamous teapot. The very one that was used
in an attempted murder.”

“Pah!”
Grace called out.

Frankie
continued, “The attempted murder of a vicious loan shark called Eddie Tominski.
If you’re not aware of what happened I’ll fill you in. The evil Eddie tried to
poison my sister, Grace, but she whacked him on the head with this very
teapot.” Frankie zoomed in. “If you look closer you can still see specks of
blood on the bottom. Grace! Get out of the way!”

Grace
glared at Frankie and put her outstretched hand towards the camera. “I don’t
want you videoing that. It will attract the wrong sort of customers. I want to
forget all about Eddie Tominski. Please, Frankie.”

Frankie
gave her a pleading look. “Come on, it’ll be great publicity.”

Grace
shook her head. “I’ve had enough publicity to last me a lifetime. Eddie’s
locked up now, I’m still struggling to deal with the fact that he killed Mum
and Dad. I want to put it behind me. There must be something else you can
film.”

Frankie
studied her. “Okay, I understand. It would make a good story though. You look
tired again, didn’t you sleep well?”

“I’m
getting better,” Grace admitted.

Frankie
put his phone down on a table. “I’ll make us a cuppa. Are there any biscuits
left or have you scoffed them all?”

Grace
tutted. “I’ve only had one.”

“One
biscuit or one packet?” Frankie said with a grin. “If I see a safe at an
auction I’m going to buy it and lock the biscuits up! Won’t be a minute.”

Frankie
walked towards the kitchen.

Grace
looked at his phone. Did she really look tired? And did she need more make up
on, or was Frankie being his usual cheeky self?

She
heard Frankie whistling in the kitchen. She picked his phone up and played the
videos that he’d just recorded. The first one showed her polishing the shelf.
No, she didn’t look that bad, a bit puffy eyed but that was to be expected.
There would come a night when she didn’t cry herself to sleep.

The
second video gave her a jolt. It showed the teapot on the table.

But
there was someone standing behind it.

Someone
who Grace hadn’t seen with her naked eyes.

It
was the ghost of an old woman. Only the top half of her was visible behind the
teapot.

The
woman grinned at the camera as if she knew she was being filmed.

Grace
looked around the shop. She couldn’t see anyone.

Since
the car accident that had claimed her parents’ lives, and nearly her own, Grace
had been able to see ghosts. But she couldn’t see this one.

She
had been helping ghosts that she’d met at storage locker auctions and the last
ones had told her that the ghost of an old woman was hanging around Grace.

It
was the old woman who had whacked Eddie Tominski on the head on that horrible
day.

Grace
looked closer at the teapot and whispered, “Please show yourself, whoever you
are.”

Chapter 2

The
old woman never appeared.

Later
on, Grace wondered who the old woman was as she gazed out of the van window.  Had
the woman lived at the shop when she was alive? Was she somehow attached to the
teapot? And why wouldn’t she show herself to Grace?

Frankie
was driving them to a storage locker auction. Frankie had made her watch the
storage auction programmes on TV. They were set in America and different to the
ones she’d been to. The Americans seemed friendlier, the bidders that she’d
come across in England looked sour faced, as if they’d spent their lives
sucking lemons. Frankie had told her that they looked like that on purpose, so
that the other bidders never knew when they were excited about a locker.

Grace
wasn’t convinced. Some people enjoyed being miserable.

They
pulled in the storage facility and Grace got out with a bright smile on her
face. She called out a cheery hello to anyone who looked her way.

One
person did smile and say hello back. It was Big Bob, their friend. He had known
Grace’s dad, they had toured antique fairs together years ago.

Big
Bob walked towards them. He was wearing a brown fluffy jumper and reminded
Grace more than ever of a grizzly bear, a friendly grizzly bear.

“Morning,
you two. Frankie, how’s the site going? I saw the videos, great fun. You should
put some on your website too.”

Frankie
smiled proudly. Grace suspected that Frankie was beginning to look upon Big Bob
as a father figure.

Frankie
said, “I’ve had 20 visitors to my site now, and I’ve had 50 views of my latest
video. I think I’m becoming some sort of superstar!”

“Talking
of superstars, here comes your hero,” Grace nodded towards an office door.

The
door opened and the sun seemed to shine brighter as an older man stepped out.
He beamed a megawatt smile at everyone and held his arms wide to welcome them.
His silver hair was perfectly styled and the collar of his red satin shirt
pulled up. He looked like he was walking onto a stage.

Grace
smiled back at Sylvester Sylver. After watching the storage TV programmes she
now agreed with Frankie that Sylvester was the best auctioneer on the telly.
Though why he left sunny California for this land of lemon suckers was a puzzle
to her.

Frankie
grabbed Grace’s sleeve. He hissed, “Grace, I need a favour.”

Grace
frowned at him. “What’s wrong? Are you in pain?”

He
shook his head. “Will you ask Sylvester if I can film him for my website? Just
the opening bit where he tells everyone the rules.”

“Why
can’t you ask him? I thought he was your new best friend.”

Frankie
pulled her closer and said, “I can’t ask him that! I’d look like a right idiot,
like some sort of star struck fan!”

Grace
couldn’t keep her smile in. “But you are a star struck fan, I’m sure he
wouldn’t mind if you asked him.”

Frankie
let go of her sleeve and looked at the ground. “Please, Grace, I’m too
embarrassed to ask. What if he says no? I couldn’t bear it.”

Grace’s
eyes widened. She’d never known Frankie to be embarrassed about anything.
“Okay, I’ll ask him. Don’t we need to sign in at the office?”

Frankie
looked up and gave her a quick grin. “Thanks, Grace, I’ll sign us in whilst you
talk to Sylvester. Make him think it was your idea.”

Frankie
sped off to the office.

Big
Bob looked down at Grace and said, “I heard all of that. He’s still in awe of
Sylvester, isn’t he?”

Grace
nodded. “He is. I’d better go and talk to the great man.”

Sylvester
Sylver was more than happy to be filmed. “Make sure you don’t include anyone
else’s faces though, you’d need their written permission to broadcast the video.”

Frankie
almost burst with glee when Grace told him the good news. His hands shook as he
started to film the great auctioneer.

“Let
me do it, it’ll look like we’re having an earthquake with your shaky hands,”
Grace said.

She
took his phone and pressed record. Sylvester looked around the crowd and
treated them again to his Hollywood smile.

“Good
morning, folks! What a beautiful day it is. And what amazing lockers we’ve got
for you today! As always, you get 30 seconds to look inside the locker. No one
is allowed in, you will be thrown out if you do!” At this point Sylvester
flexed his muscles. There were a few laughs, the loudest came from Frankie.
Sylvester continued, “Whoever gets the highest bid gets the locker. It’s cash
only, no cheques, no IOUs and no running off to an ATM! Are we ready? I can’t
hear you! Are we ready?”

Frankie
almost deafened Grace with his cheers.

Grace
had kept the phone steady. It hadn’t been easy. As she looked at the phone’s
screen she’d seen ghosts wandering around the storage facility. The hairs on
her arms had lifted as some of them passed close by. She’d held her nerve as
some stared right at her, as if sensing that she could see them.

As
soon as she pressed stop on the phone the awful images disappeared.

She
had no idea that there were so many ghosts around. She shivered, it felt like
one had just walked through her.

What
were they all doing here? Were they all attached to items from the lockers? Or was
this the norm? Did ghosts roam around freely everywhere?

Frankie
took the phone and quickly looked at the footage. “Awesome. Can’t wait to post
this.”

The
first storage locker was opened.

Grace
wasn’t sure if she wanted to see anymore ghosts.

She
didn’t have a choice.

Chapter 3

Big
Bob said to them, “This is a good unit, look at all that furniture, looks
Victorian to me. Are you interested in bidding?”

Frankie
narrowed his eyes as he looked at the contents. “No, it’s good stuff but it
won’t fit in our shop.”

“I’m
planning to bid. I’m going closer for a better look,” Big Bob said.

“I’ll
come with you,” Grace said.

She
wasn’t bothered about the furniture, she wanted a closer look at the ghost that
was inside the locker.

Whilst
Big Bob examined the huge wardrobe and dining table Grace looked at the female
ghost.

She
was sitting on an upholstered chair, her skirt flowing down to her feet. The
young woman was smiling as she worked on a tapestry.

Grace
smiled at the scene. For a moment she wondered what it must have been like to
be a Victorian woman. To have everyone decide your life for you. Your only
concern was to find a wealthy husband. No worries about running a business.

Would
Grace like it? She closed her eyes for a moment and imagined all her problems
floating away. It would feel good.

Grace
opened her eyes and looked at the young woman again. The scene changed
slightly. The young woman began to age. Into middle age and then into a hunched
old lady bending over her tapestry.

Is
that what her life was like? Sitting on a chair and sewing while life passed
by? Grace gave a little shake of her head, she had her worries but at least she
was in control of her life, no matter how stressful it got sometimes.