Giving Candy to Ghosts

Caleb had heard many rumors about the cemetery and decided to check it out for himself. Since his friends were busy, he went alone. He packed some candy, his camera, and some water(in case he got thirsty). Some of the candy was for him but most of it was a gift for the lost soul of the little boy Caleb had heard about. He loved candy and hoped the boy did too. He was ready to start his adventure!

Once he was at the graveyard, he looked around for the tomb of Jude Beaumont. Right under the huge oak tree was where he found the grave. The poor boy, Caleb thought. "You died so young," Caleb said aloud, a frown plastered on his face. "Poor thing." He knelt down and looked through his book bag. "I brought you some candy. I love candy so I thought you might like it too. I know you probably can't eat it, but I thought I should bring you something anyways," he said out loud in case the boy was listening. He put a handful of candy in front of the grave. "I wonder what happened to you..." Sadness was in the third years voice, he was truly sad for the boy.

It was the weekend once more and Sawyer was left with nothing to do. Luckily it was the weekend and that meant he had the option of going to the village. Since there was nothing else that sounded at all appeasing he decided that was a good a place as any to spend the day. With luck he might come across some interesting event or place, or really anything that would make a good article for his club.

With that he walked down to the village and found a cemetery that he hadn't noticed somehow before today. He had heard rumors about a ghost there, he had even read an article about it Linette had written. He had heard lots about the place but had never actually seen it. Maybe he could find the ghost that Linette had been unsuccessful in finding, that sure would make a great article.

Once inside the dead quiet place Sawyer started walking around and found that he was not actually alone. There was a boy who appeared younger than him standing near a grave with candy in his hand. The teen walked around the back of the tree there and listened to the boy. This opportunity was too great to pass up. Sawyer pulled the hood of his cloak up over his head and walked around the tree with his head down so his eyes couldn't be seen. "Thank you for the candy." He said in a low tone trying to make it sound as mysterious as possible.

When Caleb heard a voice, a shiver ran down his back. He looked up to see a figure, which confused him. Wasn't the ghost supposed to be young? This figure was too tall to be the small child. He knew it was a joke, but he didn't laugh. It wasn't very funny to him because it was very sad that there was a ghost that was a child. "Ha ha," his voice was sour and he frowned. "Its not very nice to pretend to be a poor dead boy." He hoped the person felt bad.

He got up from his kneeling position and dusted his hands. "You can stop pretending your a ghost." He wasn't up for games in such a sad place. He turned and started walking towards another grave. He pulled the rest of his candy out of his bag and laid one on each grave he passed. He didn't want it for himself anymore, he thought the people that were buried there would like a present.

How disappointing, the boy didn't even jump a little. Was Sawyer starting to lose his touch, was joining the paper and becoming involved more in school life ruining him? It hardly matter this boy was of no concern to him. He said it wasn't nice to pretend to be a poor dead child as if the teen was supposed to feel bad about doing so. He had to admit it was probably not the funniest of the things he's done before but he surely didn't feel bad about it. It wasn't like he was making fun of the child or anything, in fact he had probably said exactly what the child would've said if he were around.

Sawyer dropped his hood and followed the boy at a distance. "You know I could be wrong but I don't think they are gonna have much use for that candy. In fact squirrels or birds are probably going to eat it and get really sick. If anyone is not being nice I think it's you trying to hurt those poor, little, unsuspecting animals." He said following the boy as he placed a piece of candy on all the graves he passed. What an odd child, what kid just gives away his candy, especially to people who can't eat it?

"I don't see many animals come in here," Caleb stated, he was still putting the candy on the graves. "Even if they can't enjoy the candy, they might enjoy having the present. They do people put flowers on graves? The dead people can't use them. Its all about the act of giving. You see, by doing this, I might be making them happy and I like making people happy. Candy makes most people happy and could bring back good memories. I like knowing that I might have brought a smile to someone's face."

Once he was out of candy, Caleb sat beside a grave. "Its sad to think about the deaths of these people. Some were children and its always sad to see a child die." He couldn't recall a death in his family so he couldn't begin to imagine how the relatives of the dead must feel. "It must be sad to be apart of a family where someone close has died."

Sawyer listened to the young boy talk about the dead as if they were still around, saying they would smile or remember good things with the candy. He wanted to make them happy but they weren't around anymore to make happy, you can't make them happy they were gone. "They are dead they can't smile anymore, they can't laugh or remember you or help you out when you're having a hard time, they can no longer hold the ones they love or enjoy that candy." He said simply not sure why he was so set on telling this boy to stop this. He hadn't realized that the stuff the dead can't do were things that he wished his mum was still around to do, so he was confused as to why he wanted those words said.

The Montagnard knelt down next to the grave the boy was sitting at. "Sad is an understatement for what the family feels. Imagine you have a bag of candy and you only have one of each kind. One of them is going to be your favorite, even if you don't admit it is or want to choose favorites. Now imagine a stranger coming over and taking your favorite one, it was your only one and your favorite and now its gone. You can never have that piece of candy anymore now no matter how much you ask for it back. That's kind of how it feels." He said solemnly. He then jumped up from his place on the ground. "Well then enough of that have fun giving them all some gifts." He said and started to walk away slowly.

Caleb frowned at the boy's words. "Why can't I pretend that they're going to enjoy my gifts? Even though they're dead, its nice to pretend they'll enjoy their gifts. And what about ghosts? They can smile. Not everyone turns into a ghost though, but still. I can make the ghosts happy."

He felt tears come to his eyes, not because of the candy but because the boy knew a lot about this thing. "You poor thing!" He pulled the older boy into a hug and began to cry for him. "You must have lost someone, huh? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bring up the subject! Please forgive me." His tears were for the boy and he couldn't imagine how the boy must have been feeling. Even if he didn't know the boy, it still brought him to tears.

Sawyer felt a tiny bit guilty for having to insist the dead didn't want this boy's candy. Guilt was a relatively foreign feeling to him but the poor kid had done nothing to him and just wanted to help, even if it did him no good. He lost all feelings of guilt though when the boy wrapped him in a hug and started crying. He surely did not need some little kid crying all over his cloak and feeling sorry for him. He hadn't told him that stuff to make him empathize with him he told him that so that he would understand, he had been trying to and Sawyer helped him. "No I'm just really poet with candy metaphors. Yeah I've lost someone but it's none of your business and I sure as hell don't need you feeling sorry for me." He said brushing the boy off of him and standing up to walk away. "Like I said enjoy giving presents to these guys." He said motioning to all the graves around him. He walked a bit quicker so this kid wouldn't see the tears that had started to well in his eyes from talking about his mum. He had tried to ignore those thoughts for awhile and coming here had been a bad idea.