Literature

Jonathan the Ghostbuster

When Jonathan reached the age of five plus, his older brother Adam often babysat him when Ruth and I were doing other things. We only learned years later what mischief these two managed to generate during some of those sittings. Today I can only feel thankful that some of these sagas did not turn into total disaster; in a few instances they were extremely close to that.

Adam and Jon had several neighborhood pals that hung out with us a lot. Among Adam’s friends were Danny and Ben, the latter of which later in life became a policeman. One of the tales they now confessed to is one I call “Jonathan, the Ghostbuster”.

One of the nights when Adam was babysitting, Adam had arranged with Danny to sneak over to the house and pretend to be a ghost, white sheet and all, hanging around just outside of the house. He had set up poor Jonathan by telling him a ghost story somewhat like the ones I had told in to he and his buddies before. The story is told as being true, and it always ends with the ghost having appeared regularly in the very neighborhood where the story is being told. Shortly after the story ended, the ghostly sounds were heard in our side yard. Adam armed Jonathan with a weapon, which happened to be an old broken, short handled hoe. He then told Jonathan to hide under the kitchen table while he checked outside.

No sooner than he left the room, Danny, covered with a white sheet crawled into the room and headed for the table under which Jonathan was hiding, totally unaware that Jonathan had been armed by Adam. It is hard to imagine a five year old being sufficiently together under such a situation to whack a ghost with a old broken hoe, but that is exactly what he did. We are extremely lucky that this potential travesty ended only in a bloody, but survivable cut to the head of Danny.