“Are you doing alright?”
“Yes. But what about you mum- are you doing alright?”
“Yes, I’m doing fine.”
“If only I had been nicer to dad…”
“If only I forced her to do her homework, maybe things wouldn’t be this way.”
“I hate myself.”
“I bet she hates me…”
“Mum, are you alright?”
“Yes, of course, love. Are you alright?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes. But what about you mum- are you doing alright?”
“Yes, I’m doing fine.”
“If only I had been nicer to dad…”
“If only I forced her to do her homework, maybe things wouldn’t be this way.”
“I hate myself.”
“I bet she hates me…”
“Mum, are you alright?”
“Yes, of course, love. Are you alright?”
“Yeah.”
It wasn’t that the house had ghosts. Oh no, never that. It was more that the house remembered the only family it had ever had. It had been built for them. The ground had been broken open for them; a man and a woman and a little girl. There were pictures of them somewhere. They day they had brought a camera had been a bleak one, gray and cold and the foundation had just barely been broken.