what was happening to me. The man took a couple of steps closer, the hint of a frown crossing his face.
âLaura, you do know who I am, donât you?â
I managed a tiny tip of my head. Yes, of course I knew who he was. All those years of wondering if Mum was right when she said that he was watching over me. All those years of wondering if he wouldever come back to see me. All those years of wondering if the thoughts that went around and around in my head made me a bit of a mental case. And yet, impossible as it seemed, there he was, standing in my bedroom, dressed in jeans and a blue and white checked shirt and looking almost human. My dad.
âOh dear! Can you speak? I havenât caused you to lose your voice? Shock can do that sometimes, canât it?â He peered at me in a worried way.
âNo, itâs okay.â
Was that raspy sound coming from my mouth really my voice?
âIâm okay.â
I didnât mean it. I was about as far from okay as Iâd ever been.
He clasped his hands to his chest and sighed. âExcellent! I knew you wouldnât be a wimp.â Another frown. His whole face rippled when he did that. âYou donât look very pleased to see me though.â
I shook my head. âI-I just canât believe it, thatâs all,â I stammered. âAre you real? Am I imaginingyou? Is this all a dream?â
âDonât I look real?â he asked, a bit indignantly. âIâm as real as you are!â
He touched his hands to his shoulders and wafted them down his front. As he did so his whole form rippled apart like lots of little trails through soapy water, before melding back together again.
âHmm!â he murmured. âMaybe youâre right. I can see this body issue might be a bit of a problem for you to take on board. Have you done the molecule thing at school?â
He didnât wait for me to respond.
âWell, you know that protons, electrons and neutrons combine to form atoms, which are the building blocks of molecules?â
âSort of,â I mumbled.
âThen the molecules combine to form chemicals, which are what the cells of the body are made of. Following that, the cells combine to form tissues and the tissues combine to form organs, and so on and so on, blah, blah, blah, and hey presto you have a human.â
My head was spinning now. What was this? Some nightmare of a physics lesson? Or just simplya nightmare?
âYes, I know all of that,â I replied, âbut youâre not human, are you? Youâre not solid matter and youâre sort of glowing around the edge.â
He looked down at himself and grinned. âSo I am. I donât know how thatâs happened. Cool though, isnât it? Anyway, to answer your previous questions â no, you are not imagining me, and I am most definitely not a dream or a nightmare. At least I hope you donât think itâs a nightmare because here I am, large as life.â He paused. âWell not that large. I do try to keep trim and the life thingâs a bit inaccurate, but you get what I mean.â
âSo,â I said, slowly, âyouâre a ghost?â
He threw his arms upwards and a waft of air lifted all of my clothes off the big, squashy chair underneath the window and deposited them in a heap in the middle of the floor.
âI do hate that word,â Dad said. âIt has such negative connotations.â
âHow would you describe yourself then?â I asked.
He stood up tall, squared his shoulders.
âIâm not that different to you,â he said proudly.âI am a cloud of molecules.â
âOh!â I replied. âI see. That explains everything.â
âI knew that youâd understand,â he said. âI told everyone on The Other Side that my Lauraâs as clever as anything.â
Actually Iâm not clever at all, well, not nearly as clever as Liberty, and I