Ghost Sweepers The XXX that only I can understand

Meeting a Ghost Snake

"Jay. Let's stop here. I need to sleep." Alfie said suddenly and placed the board game on a shelf.

"Huh? It's still early." I stated, unlike Alfie, I was pretty energetic. I couldn't sleep. Wait. Do ghosts need to sleep?

Alfie sat down on his bed and explained, "I need to wake up early tomorrow to go to school. I don't want to fall asleep in class."

"School? What is school?" I questioned, hearing an unfamiliar word.

"School is a place where you learn new things and knowledge with a bunch of students. Today is the last day of my summer vacation. Starting from tomorrow, I need to go to school every weekday."

"That sounds interesting. Hey, Alfie. Can I go with you tomorrow? I'm curious about that place."

"Err....I'm sorry, Jay. There are lots of people in school, it will be a big problem if they notice me talking to you. It is not like everyone can see ghosts."

"Don't worry. I won't talk to you at school. I just want to take a look at it. It is boring if I always stay at home."

"Umm...err....emm...."

"Alfie, why you don't want me to go to school?"

"Huh? I didn't say that. I simply thought school would be boring for you..."

"Well.....ok. If you say so, I'll stay at home." I replied. Alfie must be hiding something from me, he seems weird when I ask him about school. Well, if he doesn't want to say it, I won't force him to.

The next day, Alfie woke up early in the morning, he carried his schoolbag and set off to school, leaving me behind alone in the house. Alfie's parents didn't come back home last night, they had all gone out for work. The house was empty, quiet and still. I sat down on the floor and decided to wait for time to pass by. I gazed at the alarm clock near Alfie's bed, it was 7 o'clock. There were hours until Alfie came back home. I stayed in the room, doing nothing. There was nothing I could do anyway, I couldn't touch anything. So, I just stared at the alarm clock, staring at the long ticking second hand, I watched it as it moved every second, counting the numbers.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

Ten.

Eleven.

Twelve.

Thirteen......

Argh!

I give up!

I can't count anymore! Why time is always so slow when you are not doing anything while it is fast when you are playing board games with others?!

If I keep on staring that clock, I will soon be bored to death!

If only there is something to do......

All of a sudden, an idea popped in my mind.

"Ah yes! Although Alfie doesn't allow me to get inside the school, I can still wait for him at the school gate. It is much better than waiting at home. I wonder what Alfie's face will look like when he sees me?"

I stood up immediately, got out of the house and eventually started wandering in the streets, but I took less than a minute to realize a very important thing.

I don't know where Alfie's school is.

"Argh! Am I stupid? How can I go to Alfie's school when I don't know where it is? I can't even ask for anyone on the street!" I cried and scolded myself, it looked like going to school was simply a dream.

"Perhaps, I should go home?" I sighed and looked back towards the direction of home. But unexpectedly, something caught my eye. There was an electric lightening post standing along the sideways, on it, there was an enormous black snake crawling on the lightening post as if he was hugging it. The snake was extremely obvious! But none of the people walking near him seemed to notice anything strange, no one ever screamed. I took less than a second to realize what it was. It was a ghost!

A ghost snake? Why is it here?

Ah yes!

Although I can't talk to humans, I still can talk to ghosts!

Wait. Can snakes talk? Well, basically it is not a snake, it is a ghost snake.

At that moment, I was desperate. I didn't think much about whether ghost snake can talk. I mean, I won't lose anything even if I talk to a snake.......err....ghost snake.

With bravery, I walked closer towards that black snake and asked him politely, "Hi, there. I'm Jay. You see, I am wondering if you know where School is?"

Soon, the snake wiggled his body and lent his head near me, saying, "Hissss...."

"Err....hello? Do you know where School is?"

The snake lent his head even closer and licked my face with his long black forked tongue, his hissing was just beneath my ears which creeped me. "Hissss?" The snake asked as he slightly moved his head leftwards.

"I mean School! Do you know where it is?"

"Hisss?"

Looking at him, I understood that I shouldn't waste my time on someone who didn't know the answer, I turned around and gave a huge sigh, deciding to leave.

All of a sudden, the snake slightly moved.

".....school."

My shoulders shook a little when I heard someone speaking, I looked back and asked, "Did you just say something?" But that snake ignored me and started to mumble other words from his mouth.

"Hiss..........school." He spoke softly, with words one by one. He turned his head to gaze above the sky and slowly raised his hand and pointed at a building far away.

"That's School?" I asked to confirm. The snake nodded his head and answered. My face lightened, I thanked that ghost and hurried my way.