Lahat ng Kabanata ng I Came Home as a Ghost: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 9

I lowered my head, embarrassed. "I-I'm just a student. Studying is the only thing I'm good at."Ryan Chambers and his friends froze, then stared at me like I was an idiot."The job's easy. All you have to do is drink."The idea that I could earn enough for a ticket home just by drinking was hard to resist.I wanted to go home more than anything.The week before, Grandpa had walked all the way to the convenience store on the edge of town just to call me. He said he already put fresh stuffing in my comforter so it would be warm and soft when I got back.He also made several jars of the homemade pickles I loved. He told me to take them back to school and share them with my classmates and professors.Grandpa raised me by himself, and he was already 78.The year before, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Every visit could be our last.He was a thousand miles away, but home was wherever he was. I had to get back to him.I gripped the few hundred dollars in my pocket, then m

Grandpa turned and went back inside. I gently rested against his back, just as I had when I was little. I breathed in the familiar scent of soap that clung to him, not wanting to let go.I wished the moment could last a little longer.Grandpa put on his reading glasses and pulled an old box out from under the bed. He opened it carefully. Inside were three bundles wrapped in scraps of floral fabric.He unwrapped the first one and took out a savings account passbook.He smiled faintly. "This is everything I've saved over the years. Fifty thousand dollars. It's all for Logan. Someday, when he gets married, it'll help him and his wife get started. A young couple needs something to fall back on. This should make life a little easier for them."He was terminally ill and refused to spend money on his own treatment, yet he planned to leave every cent of his savings to me.Tears immediately filled my eyes. So ghosts could cry after all.He opened the second bundle. Inside was a g

Dad raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "What could've happened? Logan's probably hiding somewhere, throwing a fit because he thinks he can force me to back down. Well, it's not going to work! Until he writes that apology and admits he was wrong, I'm not letting this go."Mom started to say something, but one look from Dad silenced her.Grandpa grabbed the mayor's arm, his voice trembling. "Tell me the truth. What happened to Logan? Is he in trouble?"The mayor had just opened his mouth when the sound of police sirens came from outside.Two uniformed officers hurried into the house, their expressions grim. One of them looked around the room before turning to Mom and Dad."We need to speak with you about your son, Logan Meyer. Yesterday, he was found dead at a rental house near the train station.""That's impossible!" Dad shouted, all the color draining from his face."I just talked to him. How could he be dead? You have the wrong person! He's hiding somewhere. He's doing this to sc

Olivia spoke coldly. "What I remember most clearly about Logan was the day he moved in. "Nearly every other freshman arrived with their parents. He was the only one who came alone, carrying an old backpack. "He looked so thin and out of place in the crowd that a strong gust of wind could have knocked him over."Mom and Dad immediately remembered that Mitchell started kindergarten the same day I left for college. They said I was old enough to take care of myself. Mitchell was still young and needed them, so they told me to make the trip alone.It never occurred to them that I had barely traveled outside our small town by myself.They never stopped to think about how scared and overwhelmed I must have been, traveling a thousand miles to an unfamiliar city alone.Mom's eyes reddened, and her voice caught. "We failed him. We owe Logan so much."Olivia took them to the dorm room where I had lived.All three of my roommates were there. They stared at Mom and Dad as though they we

A week after I was laid to rest, Grandpa died of organ failure.We were buried side by side in the cemetery east of town. It was a quiet, open stretch of land overlooking the old millstone at the entrance to town.When I was little, I used to stand beside that millstone every day, waiting for Mom and Dad to come home.Later, whenever I went away, Grandpa would wait for me in that same spot.Mom and Dad never reopened their business. They used what remained of the family's savings, along with my scholarship money and the compensation from my school, to open a children's home in town. They named it Logan Children's Home. They took in children who had nowhere else to go.Unable to undo what they had done to me, they poured all the love they failed to give me into those children instead.They made sure none of them had to grow up feeling unwanted or alone. They gave them the safe, loving home I had always longed for.Dad, once so harsh and controlling, became gentle and patient.