Katie didn't like to clean so she was happy to let Aunt Margo do all the cleaning around her small home. But Margo had no sense of time so she could have the vacuum on at 3 in the morning or 11 at night. But what was worst was, Margo could make things disappear if it didn't please her. Two months ago, Katie's microwave went missing for a week before Margo told her she had given it to Katie's neighbor who needed the appliance since her stove didn't work and she couldn't afford to get it fixed. Katie didn't know how Margo did anything but she always had a good reason so Katie never questioned her actions. Not until Nick.
Nick, Katie's boyfriend of almost six months, came to her place for dinner. After Katie confessed she wanted to break up with him, he got furious and overthrown the table and then he started pounding on her until she was unconscious. When she woke up, Katie was in the hospital. Her neighbor had called an ambulance.
Katie couldn't recall what happened before she fainted but she heard a kerplunk and saw the edge of one of Nick's leather shoes and Margo's ghostly face up close. When she asked Margo what happened to Nick, she would only said he's gone and to forget him. Dazed from painkillers, a concussion, a fractured rib and a bruised cheek, she didn't ask for details.
When Katie was ten and her mother, Gina, died, Margo moved in with Katie and took care of her even though Margo wasn't Katie's real aunt. She and Gina had vowed to be sisters ever since they met at the orphanage. For twenty years, Margo was Kate's entire family. Before Margo died last year, Katie had never thought of ghosts not until Margo's ghost appeared in the livingroom the day after her funeral. Margo didn't know why she returned but she decided as long as she was here, she might as well do a little cleaning.
For three days in the hospital, the only thing Katie could do was think and not move because moving cause her pain.
On the fifth morning, her roommate, Mrs. Song, was watching the news on the small television mounted on the wall facing them when she exclaimed, "Oh my goodness. How do you think he got up there? It must be a miracle he didn't fall to his death."
Katie looked up at the television screen. They were showing Nick on the roof of an abandoned lighthouse. He had his arms and legs wrapped around the weather vane and face pressed to his hands. As the lighthouse was built unusually high at over 400 feet, the aerial ladder wasn't tall enough so they had to tie ladders upon ladders until they could reach Nick. After the firefighters got him down, a reporter asked Nick how he got up on the lighthouse. He cursed the reporter and rushed off.
Katie was relieved Margo didn't do anything awful after all. When she was finally home, she again, pressed Margo for details. But Margo was tenacious and no pleading would get her to change her mind. But she said, "It's best you know nothing so you can claim you know nothing." Margo grinned and went on to vacuum the entire house. Her aunt may appeared meek with her small frame and kind face but she could be a tiger when the situation needs her to be.
On the seventh day, two policemen came to see her. They asked her a few questions about Nick and where she was eight days ago. After they left, Katie knew she had to do something.
To start fresh, Katie sold the house and moved to a country she knew Nick would never go and hoped to erase him and everything relating to him from her mind. Once she was settled, she found Margo had moved with her. Katie wasn't sure Margo would come along since she rarely like new places. Once again, Katie didn't have to worry too much about keeping her new home clean. She just had to make sure Margo doesn't make anything or anyone else disappear.
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This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are posted here. This week's prompts are: kerplunk, erase, meek, plead, tenacious.

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