#14 Scout

He met the girl behind the tuck shop at school. She had dimples when she smiled though it was a rare occasion when she did. She cut her hair short, and wore a blue uniform dress and hat that came with a navy blue belt, scarf and band slung across her torso, dotted with embroidered badges – a girl guide uniform.

She asked him what year it was. The girl guide's mouth did not move when she spoke. Then she told him that she was born in 1964, but she looked as though she was 14 at most. It had been the first time anyone could actually see her, let alone speak to her. She asked the boy if they could be friends.

Everyday after that, the boy would buy fishballs and toast with condensed milk (her favourites) from the tuckshop and bring them to her. She couldn't actually eat them, but she could almost taste them. And that was enough for her.

The last memory she had was that she was burying a time capsule behind the tuck shop after school, and craved the exact same snack, when she turned around to find a man who strangled her. When she woke up again, her body was gone and her ghost was chained to the spot behind the tuck shop.

*****

We don't have girl scouts in Hong Kong (I think?), we do have girl guides, which is a similar youth outreach programme. Also schools are literally the breeding ground of ghost stories. What ghosts did you hear/talk of when you were in school?