My many young students are so curious about everything and ask a million questions about what really interests them. This is fantastic as learning is easier when students are excited by their specific interests.
Children enjoy their lessons with me because they learn English in a fun way. It helps that I have a wide knowledge of many subjects. For example, Mio, an enthusiastic 12-year-old Japanese girl wants to be an astronaut and is interested in space travel. Similarly, Afonso, a curious 10-year old Brazilian, is fascinated by dinosaurs and Chang, a very lively and excitable Chinese 11-year-old, plans to become an veterinarian and wants to know as much as possible about animals.
Dinosaurs, space travel and natural history are all topics I have written books about. What fun learning experiences we have!
Read the story and answer the following questions. (Scroll down for the answers)
Jackie was terrified from the moment she opened her eyes. Lying wide awake in bed with her heart racing, she stared up through the darkness, her fists clenched, afraid even to breathe. On her bedside table a clock was ticking loudly and she could hear the hiss of falling rain from the garden, but it had been a noise downstairs in the kitchen that had awakened her: the scrape of a chair-leg across the tiled floor, or the muffled thump of something heavy being moved. She wasn’t sure what. Just something…
A ghost.
Ghost. Out of the silence, that one word, that one awful word, leapt into her imagination and she knew with dreadful certainty that she wasn’t along in the house anymore.
Suddenly, she felt cold and her mouth was dry. All the strength had drained from her limbs. Some thing was in the house. Not Mom or Dad. She just knew that. Something else. Something that was going to be very frightening.
As her eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness, Jackie glanced fearfully around the room and the black shadows that had hung like cobwebs in every corner swam into focus. On the dressing table behind the door was geography book open at East Africa – homework she still had to finish – and next to it the small canvas chair, the type Dad said that film directors always used, was stacked high with all her dolls. On the floor next to it was her paint-scarred skateboard and a pair of hockey boots. Everything, which in the past had seemed normal and ordinary, was now suddenly scary. Perhaps the ghost was already in the room with her, playing tricks, waiting to jump out on her when she least expected it. If it was hiding in the darkness would it leave her alone, she wondered, if it thought she was sleeping soundly? She made a conscious effort to breathe in the gentle unhurried way of sleepers and tried to collect her thoughts. She didn’t know much about ghosts except what she had read in a book Dad had once got her from the library. Reading about them, getting Dad to explain what she didn’t understand, hearing him make fun of them had made them less frightening. But now, lying alone in the darkness she knew that ghosts weren’t like that at all. They were the spirits of dead people, evil things returned to the land of the living to do harm.
At that moment, there was another sound from downstairs: a muffled noise, a groan perhaps, or a snarl, then the sound of a drawer being opened followed by the rattle of cutlery. The thing was in the kitchen going through the cupboards. For a fleeting instant it crossed Jackie’s mind that this was all a horrible nightmare, but then she felt the blackness close in around her once more and she knew she was going to cry. With a huge effort she controlled herself. Crying wouldn’t help. Not now. More than anything else in the world, she wanted to be out of the house and with her mom and dad. But where were they? Why weren’t they here to help her?
Somehow Jackie knew the house was empty, but try as she might, she couldn’t remember where her parents had gone or even how she had gotten into the bedroom that evening. Then she remembered Mom collecting her from school.
The day had been rainy and overcast but just before school had ended the clouds had parted and the sun had come out. There was a lot of noise and confusion in the street as the children ran out of the school gates and Jackie remembered also how the windscreens of passing cars had flashed like mirrors in the sunlight. Mom was sitting in her car near a bus stop where some of Jackie’s friends jostled each other for places in the queue. She remembered getting into the car.
“You need a new school shirt,” Mom had said. “We’re going into town to get you one.”
Jackie had pulled a face. She had had other plans for the afternoon. Her friend, Suzy, had lent her a Mango Groove tape which she had been wanting to listen to all day. Now, she’d have to wait even longer.
“Oh, Mom, must we? Can’t we do it tomorrow?”
“No, we can’t! But we’ll be quick. The repairman is coming to look at the washing machine this afternoon.”
She glanced briefly over her shoulder, jerked on the steering-wheel and pulled the car sharply into the afternoon traffic.
Jackie knew it was useless to argue. Parents often had the habit of making plans without asking, but complaining didn’t seem to make any difference. Retreating into a grumpy silence she folded her arms and stared out of the window at the children darting past on the pavement. Everything else was just a blur.
There was another sound from downstairs, louder this time: the whish of the sliding door between the kitchen and the dining-room being drawn back. Some faceless thing was moving about the house.
Jackie felt the hair on her arms prickle and her hands go clammy. Her eyes filled with tears. She couldn’t understand why Mom and Dad had abandoned her? Surely they hadn’t gone away without saying anything? Not when they knew how much she hated being left alone in the house.
“I thought I could rely on you,” she whispered and slid silently from the bed.
On tip-toe she moved towards the window like a spy crossing enemy territory. Each move was an agony of indecision in case some careless act alerted the thing that lurked below.
Step…breathe…wait. Step…breathe…wait.
Panting like a tired runner, Jackie pulled gently at the heavy curtains, parting them a centimetre. There were burglar bars beyond which she tugged at for a moment. In the past she had always been glad that they’d keep people out. She’d never thought that they’d also keep her in.
Beyond the glass, rain was falling in a solid sheet from a sky of tumbling black cloud. The glistening driveway curved away from the house through the sodden lawns and past the swimming pool to the distant road. At the edge of the property was a wall of thick green foliage and a line of tall pine trees that stood like a sheaf of black arrows, pointing at the shifting sky.
“If only I can get into the garden…” she whispered. But the only way out was by going downstairs, a thought too terrible to contemplate.
As she stood there, another noise came from the floor below. This time the thing was moving about in the living room, making its way slowly towards the stairs…
Jackie hated the house. She’d always hated it. It was too big and too old and she felt scared if she was left there alone, even in the daytime.
Her parents had bought the house two years before, but Jackie still remembered clearly the first time she had seen the place.
It had been hotter that day than she had ever known and the air seemed to be shimmering in the driveway when she got out of the car. Dad had walked her to the front door which Mom had opened with a flourish. Both of them were smiling and were obviously very happy, but the house seemed to be holding its breath.
“This is to be our new home, Jackie,” Dad said.
“I don’t want to live here,” she answered.
She didn’t tell them there were shadows in the hallway where dark things could hide.
Dad had frowned and his eyes flashed for moment to Mom.
“But we’ve already bought the place, Jackie. We were very lucky to get it.”
“I don’t want to live here, Dad,” she repeated.
“You’ll love your new home, Jackie,” Mom said. “Soon you’ll love he place….”
After that they hadn’t listened to her anymore. When, a few days later, she’d gone to school and told her new classmates where she lived, some of them looked at her strangely. It had been break-time on the second day when Sammy, class loudmouth, had led a deputation over to her.
“Your house is haunted,” he said.
“Isn’t!” she answered sharply.
The crowd behind him stirred.
“Is,” he persisted. “Someone old died there.”
She clenched her fists and her eyes narrowed, made ready to fight him, but that was not his intention. “Haunted,” he repeated then smiling moved away.
“There are no ghosts in my house,” she shouted after him, but her words weren’t convincing.
The others, who had witnessed the argument with concern, watched her for a moment then turned and went after him.
She refused to believe in the ghost at first, but over the days that followed the full story unfolded. Suzy said her dad had told her that the old woman who lived in the house had been mad when she died and used to eat rats. Gloria said everybody knew the old woman used to call up the devil and n a secret ceremony on the day after she died, a priest from the church opened her coffin and drove a stake through her heart to stop her coming back.
Eventually, Jackie raised the issue with mother, who had laughed about the whole thing.
“Surely you don’t believe in silly old ghost stories, Jackie?” she said, disappointment in her voice.
The trouble was, Jackie did believe, so she didn’t know what to answer. After all, it was the kind of house that was just made for ghosts, which is probably why she never felt comfortable there.
Seeing the concern in her eyes, Mom explained.
“Mrs Johnson, the old lady who your friends keep talking about, owned the place before we bought it. A year ago she fell down the stairs and had to be taken to hospital. She passed away a week later. There was nothing sinister about it considering she was over eighty at the time. Accidents happen, you know!”
Her mother’s tone clearly indicated that the matter was now closed, but Jackie wasn’t so sure.
A whooping gasp of wind drove the raindrops against the window with a sound like gunshots and Jackie came to her senses with a jolt. She stumbled back from the window, careered into the chair and with horror on her face watched an avalanche of dolls slide to the floor. There was a brilliant flash of lightning and a tremendous clap of thunder that shook the house. Downstairs the door to the living room suddenly slammed shut like a cannon going off. Jackie felt her heart stop.
Even as she waited trembling with fear for the sound of footsteps running up the stairs, she stared down at herself in horror. In the lightning flash she had seen for the first time that she was wearing her school uniform. Why had she gone to bed wearing school clothes? And worse still, they were creased and torn and there were deep scratches on her arm. She also felt something warm and sticky on her forehead and when she reached up to touch the skin above her eye, her fingers came away covered in blood. She saw also that some of the blood had spilled down the front of her dress. She was cut and bleeding and Mom and Dad had just left her there. Nothing seemed to make any sense.
At that moment she knew she couldn’t stay there alone any more. No matter what was waiting for her downstairs, she had to get out of the room and find out what was going on. She went to the bedroom door and pressed her ear against the cold wood. Silence.
Should she stay in her bedroom or venture out? But the thought of staying in the room, waiting for the thing to find her, was even more frightening than the idea of going out into the corridor. Even so, the rush of courage she had so suddenly experienced, was evaporating almost as quickly as it had arrived. Before she lost all her resolve Jackie gently turned the door handle and slipped silently out of the room.
She stood with her back pressed against the door, wide-eyed and afraid and hardly daring to breathe. A dull glow seeped into the corridor from a window near the stairs. The rest of the house was in complete darkness. Why wasn’t there a light anywhere?
There was another flash of lightning and a tremendous clap of thunder, making the house shake. All the shadows in the corridor darted for a moment from the light then sprang back to their corners.
There was a grunt of pain from downstairs.
It was, Jackie realised, a very human cry and for the first time since she had woken up, considered the possibility that the intruder might be human and not spirit. It was a moment of relief quickly suppressed. Humans could be evil too.
She moved swiftly to the head of the stairs and stood gazing down into the darkness below. She heard another sound from downstairs, this time something falling and breaking in the kitchen. The noises were clearer here. Someone was moving about once more in the kitchen. A stranger, she could tell that, opening and closing the cupboards. But where were Mom and Dad? Why weren’t they here to help her?
If only should could get to the front door and escape, she would be safe.
She began to creep down the stairs, carefully testing each step before placing her full weight upon it. She sensed again the house holding its breath, put her foot down a little too sharply and the woodwork gave a shriek of protest. She froze, shrinking against the bannister. In the same instant, the door at the end of the hallway burst open and a dark outline, much larger than her father stood framed in the doorway. The intruder was holding something that looked like a club. For a long moment she stared at the stairs where Jackie was hiding, the slow rasp of his breathing deafening in the silence. She caught also, in the gloom, the glimpse of a thin face, deep-set eyes and dark, swept-back hair. For a moment his eyes seemed to bore right into her, then there was a twitch of movement in his dangerous expression and he moved back into the kitchen.
So there was no ghost after all, only a burglar. But for Jackie there was little relief: burglars could be dangerous too.
She returned silently to her parents’ room, gingerly picked up the telephone and tried to dial the police. The phone was dead. What should she do? Hide or get out of the house? But the voice in her head kept saying, ‘Get out of the house, Jackie. Get out of the house while you still can…’
Back on the landing, she ran to the window when she heard a car turn into the driveway. She watched her father’s car pull up at the front door and relief washed over her. Then, from the hallway, she heard the kitchen door open and saw the man standing in the doorway. He still had the club in his hand. He was going to attack her parents! She had to warn them.
Downstairs in the driveway Dad was already helping Mom to the front door. Both of them had their heads bowed against the pouring rain. Mom seemed to be limping and underneath her raincoat there was a bulge as if one arm was pressed tightly against her chest.
She tried to open the window to call to them but the catch seemed to have jammed and she couldn’t get her fingers to grip. She tried to bang on the glass with her fist but the noise was drowned by the rain. The intruder was already moving down the hall.
The door opened and Dad entered the house with Mom holding on to his arm. It was then that Jackie cried out to them.
“Mom! Dad! Look out, there’s a strange man waiting for you!”
But neither of them even so much as glanced up and now the stranger was helping Dad off with his coat. Mom’s right arm was in plaster and her face was badly bruised.
“Mom…Dad…?”
What was going on? Why weren’t they paying her any attention? She was hurt too.
“The storm tripped out the electricity and I’ve made a bit of a mess in the kitchen looking for some batteries for this thing,” the man said, holding up the torch, but Dad wasn’t listening.
“I let myself in an hour ago with the keys your wife gave me at lunchtime,” the man said. “But because of the blackout I haven’t had a chance to have a good look at your washing machine yet.” Then realising finally that no-one was listening to him, “Are you alright, sir?”
Dad shook his head. He looked older and more haggard than Jackie had ever seen him before and Mom was unkempt and her hair seemed suddenly to have gone grey.
“Has there been some kind of accident? Is everyone alright?”
It all came to Jackie at that moment.
Mom had been driving faster than usual that afternoon. She was in a rush to get home after they had been to the shops. The repairman would already be at the house, she said. They had gone across the lights at the Main Road on amber. Jackie had seen the van speeding towards them a moment before they swerved. In the frozen second before the two vehicles collided she had looked up at the shocked face of the other driver. There had been one terrible jolt then…nothing.
Jackie left her hiding place and began walking down the stairs.
“My daughter…” her father began to say.
“I’m alright, Dad,” she said but heard him give a long drawn-out sigh. For the first time he looked up at her, but his expression was empty.
“Mom? Dad?” Still they didn’t acknowledge her.
“My daughter passed away in the hospital twenty minutes ago.”
Jackie looked at her mother’s eyes. They she stood in front of her father, staring at him, trying to get his attention.
“I’m not dead, Dad,” she said, “I’m here. Look. Right in front of you.”
But he didn’t hear her. Instead, he turned and began to make his way up the stairs. Jackie, taken by surprise, staggered back, unable to get out of the way in time, but he never saw her, not that it mattered because he passed through her body like it was smoke.
That was when Jackie suddenly realised that she was the ghost. What a strange feeling indeed, she thought. But how was she going to tell Mom and Dad? She sat down on the stairs to give the matter some thought.
The repairman turned to leave, but on the front step he paused for a moment.
“I’m very sorry about your loss, Ma’am,” he said gently, trying to console. “But I’m sure your daughter had gone to a much better place…”
For a moment Jackie raised her head and glared at him. “No, I haven’t!” she said sharply. “I haven’t gone anywhere!”
But, of course, no-one even heard…
She heard a noise in the kitchen
Her mother (Mom)
He said that her house was haunted (by a ghost)
She was involved in a car accident.
Yes – Jackie was a ghost.