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- Our ghost struck again
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- Our house isn't very special. It is quite big, seven floors high. We had an
- intergalactic zoo in it. One day we were just about to receive an animal
- shipment...
-
- The shipment arrived at the 27th of October. It was brought from the planet
- Junglion, where we had been visiting a year ago to get to know the local
- animals. When the shipment package was opened, we found inside a couple of
- gorzans, a Gigantosaurus child fed with buzzers, and a school of opera fish in
- a soundproof aquarium. We got the animals quite easily to the zoo. Only the
- Gigantosaurus child caused trouble. It had eaten all the buzzers and was making
- noise, until we noticed to feed it with dingoes, which taste just about the
- same.
- After getting the animals to their cages we wrote in our diary "Animal
- shipment from Junglion received 27th October 1991", and wondered why we had
- circled the 11th of November. But far away from here was somebody, who knew it
- all too well. He was a ghost, though at that moment on a vacation.
-
- We lived happily for some time and paid for the shipment the 8th of November to
- the planet Zomem, whose colony planet Junglion is. On the 9th day the night
- beetles stopped buzzing. On the 10th day the opera fish also looked afraid. At
- 19:45 o'clock our technic, Jehm Merkpork, got two scared dogs in his lap. At
- 20:07 I, animal expert Jeemi Bilisdo, got a swarm of iron beetles in my lap. At
- 20:20 o'clock a crying tiger crashed into the lap of our janitor Jyssa Nirdam.
- I gave the iron beetles some papapalm to eat and Jyssa cleaned the tiger's
- cage. Then we went to sleep.
-
- In the morning our ichtyologist Jirme Ihegis was thoroughly wet. The opera fish
- had screamed so high, that the aquarium class had broken. Jehm went to fix it
- and went pale with fear. In front of him floated a ghost just as pale. It had
- come to celebrate the 880th anniversary of his forefather at 11:11 o'clock.
- His forefather had been the old ghost of the house in the 12th century. He
- had come here 11.11.1111 at 11:11 o'clock and scared the staff that lived in
- the brewery that had been here in that time. The brewery was demolished on the
- 3th of December after being empty for 20 days.
- Our ghost had decided to do the same now, 880 years later. But it wouldn't
- do, for on the 7th of December the baronling Jera Typrewam with his nephew Jyhi
- Rijimöga was coming to visit us. We couldn't just disappoint them with a
- demolished zoo. So we had to chase the ghost away.
-
- We went straight to work. Jyssa armed himself with a silver broom, Jehm
- installed ghost-locks on the doors and I prepared myself for negotiations. The
- ghost was coming. I sat at the table and welcomed him. He said in a scary
- voice: "What is the meaning of this?" I replied in a voice just as scary: "We
- have negotiations to make."
- I invited the ghost to sit down, but he just slid through the chair, so he
- had to float in front of me. I asked him: "Didn't your forefather haunt this
- place enough?", and he replied: "No. We have to celebrate his anniversary
- every now and then. And now is his 880th birthday." I insisted: "But it won't
- do! We have guests." The ghost asked: "When can I come, then?" so I replied:
- "Come on the 888th birthday 11th November 1999." The ghost agreed to hat. He
- left saying: "See you in 8 years!"
-
- That was that. We cleaned the place up quickly and prepared the state visit for
- three weeks. When Jera and Jyhi came at last, Jyhi sighed: "These animals are
- so boring! I wish you had ghosts!" We heard ourselves sigh: "Oh no!" and Jirme
- suggested: "Couldn't you come back here in the year 1999?"
-