Little Al was going into grade 5 at Kew Beach Public School. Neighbours said his parents were always on his back for every little misstep, and they could often be heard chastising him with phrases like "Get in the house ..now!", "Get out of that tree ..now!","Pick up your things ..now!" . It's hard to convey how grating the "now" part sounded, punctuating each command with an annoying and disturbing "finger nails on the chalkboard" like squeal.
One winter when coming home from school, he and his friend Victor took a detour down to the boardwalk to check out the ice geysers that classmates said were forming from breaking waves along the shore. As the boys ventured close to one of the spouts Victor grabbed Little Al's lunch box - a Transformers box (one of these) with Bumblebee, Megan Fox and perhaps other things on it - and tossed it at the spout. Up and over it went, sliding out onto the ice. Rather than face his parents rage at losing the lunch box, Little Al didn't hesitate to march out onto the ice. And since these are ghost stories you know how it goes - boy crashes through ice, boy get stuck under ice, boy drowns. When they recovered his thin and rigid blue body he had the Transformers lunch box grasped tightly in his hands.
While the parents immediately regretted their treatment of Little Al, they soon were haunted by not only their own guilt but also by a little blue hued ghost who sometimes appeared in their doorway in the middle of blustery winter nights. While they could only make out a silhouette, it was clear from the box in his hand it was the restless soul of Little Al, trying to make amends for almost losing his lunch box. Oh, and from the moaning of "Mommy and daddy, I found my lunchbox and I'm going to bed .. nowwwwww !!!!
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