Ghost Who Rocks

My niece celebrated her birthday recently. I managed to be present for the occasion though it was a weekday. To say that my niece was surprised is an understatement. Whatever it be, she was overjoyed and decided to spend the rest of the evening climbing all over me and generally behaving in a very affectionate manner which involved pulling my cheeks and kicking me about. She insisted on playing throwball to the chagrin of everyone present; every consecutive throw getting more and more violent till the offending article had to be put out of action.

Interested in my niece's progress in life, I decided to ask her what she wanted to be in life. On her last year she had maintained that she wanted to be me. Impossible it may be, but flattering nevertheless.

This time however, her answer was quite different.

'A Ghost', she noted cheerfully.

'A Ghost?', I asked incredulously.

'A Ghost?', her parents echoed?

My dad just looked up from the ToI he was reading (we subscribe to HT at home so he doesn't get to read ToI anymore). Mom was too busy in the kitchen to observe her grand-daughter's newest career option.

Till date, ghosts had been used in varying degrees by her parents and her grandparents to cajole/coax/threaten/frighten her... depending on the task at hand. It could be used to prevent her from wandering too close to the pool in the evenin, or simply to make her stay quiet for a while. Fear factor.

All of us demanded an explanation.

It was quite simple really. I, for one, should have guessed.

'Well', said the lil thing, 'Mama can be seen at night and he dissappears in the morning. So he must be a ghost. And if Mama's a ghost, then I wanna be one too!'

Such a darling.