Oliver and Kallum's Winter Nightmare

In December last year there been a lot of snow for a brief period, and a great place to slide was in the churchyard. There was a long sloping path made up of gravestones, each about two metres wide and a metre long. They had been laid flat to form the path. There were edging stones about 10cm high all the way down both sides, so it made an absolute perfect place to slide. At the top of the path was a set of steps that went up to the footbridge, which went over the canal. This made a good place to push off. At the bottom, the path became a T-junction. Turning left here took you to the church entrance, which was only about twenty metres from this junction, and then onto the school which was around a hundred metres way. Opposite the church entrance was another sloping path, but this ended in a set of steps which came out on Oliver and Kallum’s road opposite the ‘Charging Lion’ public house. Turning right at the T-junction took you out of the churchyard and past the church hall where they had PE lessons. There was a streetlight at the top of the steps just before the footbridge, and the next streetlight was at the corner of the public house, so this made the path quite dark, and hopefully meant they were less likely to be seen. The church had some floodlights, but they were not always on, and only lit up the building, the light didn’t seem to spill over onto the path. Oliver and Kallum had a great time sliding on the path. The first few times compacted the snow, and then as they slid more, it became icier and faster. They both happened to be wearing old school shoes, so they didn’t spoil good ones. They had smooth soles as all the tread had worn off, which had the effect of making them even better for sliding. After an hour or so, they were becoming tired with all the running about, and it seemed to be getting colder and mistier; and they were thinking of going home. They stood panting at the top of the path near the steps, with their breath creating more mist in the cold air, when they suddenly saw something moving to their left from the corner of their eyes. They quickly turned and saw a figure moving silently through the graveyard. It appeared light in colour, almost glowing in the mist, and was carrying something long and thin. It was wearing what looked like a long cloak. Is that a ghost they asked themselves, and is that a stick, or a gun, he’s carrying. Perhaps it’s a scythe Kallum commented, and its death coming for us. They were so terrified they couldn’t move; they were frozen with fear and cold. The figure continued moving silently towards them. There was a sudden scream behind them, they turned quickly and saw that a little girl of about four had fallen walking over the footbridge because of the snow. Her mother was now helping her up and comforting her. They watched for several minutes, and eventually the mother and child went on their way, walking down the set of steps that didn’t come into the churchyard where Oliver and Kallum were, but to the right, which went down a path that ran alongside the church hall. There was a sudden, “What are you boys doing?” in a loud commanding voice. They turned to see the old vicar in front of them. He was wearing his surplus, carrying a walking stick in one hand, and a large torch in the other. He had a mass of grey hair that always looked a little wild. They didn’t say anything, but very nervously peered round him to see where the ghost had gone. “What are you looking at?” “Er, nothing.” They both replied. “Well, what are you doing?” They continued to stare into the graveyard, and said without thinking, “Er, sliding.” “Do you not realise how dangerous that can be. Some old person walking down here in the dark, could easily break a leg.” The vicar shouted. “Sorry, we didn’t think.” Oliver said. With the same loud voice he continued, “Well I don’t want to see you doing it ever again, or I’ll have stern words with your parents. I’m going to put some salt down right now, to make sure it isn’t slippy.” Oliver and Kallum were sort of curious to know where the ghost had gone but were certainly not going to go looking for it; and where did the vicar suddenly appear from. They walked home, and the next day found all the snow had been melted off the sliding path. The vicar had been true to his word. They had not really thought much about ghosts before, obviously people occasionally talked about them, and they had seen some scary movies with ghosts and haunted houses. However, this incident had suddenly changed their perception of them. For many weeks after, they almost had a phobia of ghosts, and this didn’t really subside until the spring when it was starting to get lighter in the evenings. The school assignment on ghosts had started to bring back some of their old fears.