“Why would anyone want to write a love letter?”
I looked across the table at the Ghost who was sitting there glaring at me.
“I never said you of all people should write a love letter,” I told Nigel, the Ghost.
“So answer my question Juliette aka Vampire Maman,” he said with a snarling mean spirited sort of smile.
“Why are you such an asshole? Oh right, you’re a Ghost.”
“Fuck you Juliette.”
“Excuse me?”
“I want an answer.”
“One writes a love letter to seal the deal, or at least to sweeten it. You don’t write a love letter if you admire someone from afar. That is just creepy and stalkerish. You write a letter if you know there is a connection.”
“Explain.”
“Say you meet a woman. You like her. You talk for hours. There is a strong connection. But there are complications. You’re not sure if you’ll see her again. You don’t run in the same circles, or something like that. You might be dating her boss, or something stupid like that. Anyway, you send her a note telling her that you enjoyed the conversation and meeting her. You tell her that you’d like to see her again. Send a blank card that you have to write in, with a pretty picture of artwork or a bird or something. Don’t write anything suggestive. Don’t write anything that sounds like desperation. Just say you enjoyed your time together and leave your contact information.”
“What if I’ve, hypothetically speaking, have been dating her for a while and I know she is crazy about me and I want to take it the next step. What if I want to seal the deal.”
“Then you write a real love letter.”
“When I was alive I thought about it a few times.”
“Why didn’t you do it?”
“Because I’m an asshole and I wasn’t in love like that. I was only 26 when I died. And now I’m in love, but no need for love letters.”
“No?”
“We’re both Ghosts.”
“And?”
He laughed an uncomfortable laugh.
“She knows I love her.”
“Does she?”
“You’ve seen us together,” said Nigel.
I had seen them talking close, or dancing slowly in the woods. They were a 18th Century Ghost and a 20th Century Ghost, finding love in the unexpected world of spirits. They found out they’d both been murdered while in their 20’s and from there they feel in love and fell hard. That love didn’t lead them to the light but it made their existence as Ghosts bearable.
“Yes, I’ve seen you together Nigel. You and Mary are beautiful together.”
“I couldn’t write a love letter if I wanted. I couldn’t even paint a picture,” said Nigel who was once an artist. “What I can do is tell her and show her every single minute of our Ghostly existence.”
“That is true love. That is your love letter.”
Nigel shrugged. “Little did I know that when I was murdered in 1986 that I’ve fall in love with a woman who’d been dead for 300 years. Maybe being bludgeoned to death by some unknown party has its rewards. Then again I never imagined in 2021 that I’d still be 26 and pouring my heart out to a Vampire.” Then he blew me a kiss and vanished in a wisp of blue and green smoke.
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
Vampire Maman 