My favourite ghost.

Many moons away, my family moved, lock, stock and barrel, to a new house in the same town. It was new simply because we lived there for the very first time. It was, in fact, an old hardstone maisonette, much resembling an old forsaken stronghold. I had just turned to my teenage years at the time.

One of the bees in my bonnet had always been that of becoming a respectable fireworks craftsman. This was something easier said than done because all the odds were against me, namely, being too young, my experience in the art was next to nothing and my chemical knowledge in its very infancy. But still I managed to mix with the much older craftsmen of the community, who, though practically illiterate in the 3R's, were successful pyrotechnicians, who made their fellow countrymen stare with awe and marvel at the display of colourful catherine wheels and fancy patterns on festa day. 

Three elements enrich my experience at the time. My favourite ghost, my first attempts at making fireworks and my studies in Latin.

Our new house was a three storey building, but only the ground floor was of any use because to reach the upper storeys one had to climb a very narrow spiral staircase. It was indeed very narrow, so much so that carrying objects larger than a chair or a small table was next to impossible. At the time mechanical machines and lifts were still on the drawing board of engineers.

By a stroke of luck I convinced my parents to let me have the spaces above to use as my study and sleeping quarters.
"Thank goodness ! We at least can manage to take you out of the way and have more space for the rest of the children !" poor mother innocently explained.
The far from it all rooms gave me all the chances to do wathever I felt like  without any interference.

These same upper rooms were reputed to be haunted. Every night  a clergyman, was believed to  appear and disappear at will. I learnt this the moment we took residence. Luckily the spectre only roamed the upper rooms. To put mother's mind at rest I solemnly declared that I befriended the ghost so much that we practically chatted during every night. But it was his deep knowlege of Latin that helped very much in my study of the language. So much so that the monthly tests showed a marked improvement.

The situation was very suitable and convenient because staying away from the rest, besides my Latin, I also worked hard at the first attempts of my fireworks. With nobody ever noticing anything unusual I had field days mixing gunpowder and other chemicals to make fireworks. This, of course, was highly dangerous, but touch wood, there were never any accidents which could have given me away and face mother's music. She was a strict disciplinarian, making the practice of discipline a very different matter from what it is to-day.

Exhibiting my firework pieces to my peer group, I gained some notoriety. And that was when my favourite ghost disappeared once and for all, and when my Latin marks stopped improving.

A neighbour who spied on me without my noticing learnt about my goings  and told mother what was taking place.

From then on my study and sleeping quarters soon found highly supervised quarters. I shall always remember the scene that accompanied my transfer to a secure ground floor allocation.


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