Page 49 of Grim

He can’t be more than ten, I think to myself, lost in the absurdity of this moment that feels so real.

That’s because it is real, Rue, I remind myself.This is your life now. Such as it is.

The fire from my previous exchange with Kane mixes with the confusion of facing the ghost who has haunted this house for generations, and my mind begins to spiral. I take a steadying breath, reminding myself that I don’t need to fix everything at once. Start small.

“What’s your name?” I ask the wide-eyed, hollowed-cheek boy on the opposite end of the living room.

“Haven’t got a name,” he replies matter-of-factly.

Well, this is off to a great start.

I glance over at Kane.

“Don’t look at me,” he says. “I just work here.”

“What do you mean, you don’t have a name? Everyone has a name. Mine is Rue.”

“That’s a lovely name,” he whispers. “Can I have that one?”

“What? No. You cannot have my name. What did your parents call you?”

“Haven’t got those either.”

“Everyone has parents, child,” Kane says only slightly dismissively. “It’s a bit of a biological necessity.”

“I never knew mine. Raised in an orphanage, I was. Managed to get meself on a ship headed to the ‘New World,’ they called it. The boat landed here, and I saw all these beautiful homes with these incredible chimneys. Thought to meself,Self, you’re small. I’ll bet you could make a bit of coin cleaning those chimneys. Provide a useful service on top.”

“How old were you? How oldareyou?” I ask, fascinated.

“They didn’t take great care with birthdays or recordkeeping at St. Stevens, so I don’t quite know how old I am. I think I mighta been nine when I came over and couldn’t have worked the homes more than a year before I met my end. Which turned out not to be much of an end in the end.”

“So, your age is unclear too. Wow.”

I think for a moment before the ghost boy interjects with more of his tale.

“Got stuck in the chimney I did. Got proper scared, but told meself it was just a little game of hide-and-seek and someone would come looking for me any minute. That helped with the fear, but didn’t change the outcome.”

“So, what are you still doing here? Why didn’t you cross over? And what is the deal with all the cabinets opening and plate throwing?”

“Oh yeah. I stayed because I’d never belonged anywhere before. Never had a home. It felt nice to feel like Iwas a part of something, tied to somewhere after a short life of wandering nowhere. Now I’m just a bit bored, I guess.”

“Shine wears off after a couple hundred years,” Kane mutters.

“I still feel a deep connection to the house that I can’t seem to shake, but I remember what it was like to disappear in that darkness, no one even bothering to look for me. I’ve been trying to get someone’s attention ever since. Been trying to play hide-and-seek for ages, and no one ever tries to find me. So, I make a bit of noise to make it easier for them.”

“Aside from being invisible to me until recently, you haven’t been that hard to miss,” I say, a bit awestruck at all of this.

“You two sure weren’t easy to miss with all the noises you were just making in here.”

I blush at the memory, and then my mind catches up with my mouth as I try to wrap my head around this specter’s sad story. “You never knew your parents. You never had a birthday. And you don’t even have a name. That’s awful.”

I look at Kane, who stares on, nonplussed. “Do something.”

“We all play the cards we were dealt, Mayday. Not everyone’s story belongs to the annals of time. Most don’t, in fact. Most do the best they can with what little time they have and are forgotten faster than their bodies can cool. If they’re even ever truly known in the first place. Which, it sounds like, this poor chap wasn’t.”

“That’s grim,” I reply. My feelings of pity and hopelessness overwhelming me.

“That’s life.”