Sam was a ghost. It took him a while to figure it out, but was indeed, dead. Yep. Dead all over. But being a young ghost, and in a rather peculiar circumstance, it took him some time to figure out where he was supposed to go - what he was supposed to do. He felt that there must be an eternity of good out there...waiting for him, longing for him. But the world is not a nice place for ghosts. In fact, the world wasn't really a nice place for him while he was alive.
What Sam knew is that he was in a place that wasn't home. Unfortunately, he didn't know where else to go, or how to get there if he did. His mother and father had been gone for a long time, but he couldn't tell know how long. He knew they were here once, a long time ago, or maybe a short time ago. He remembered that they were good people who loved him. He remembered their faces and held on to that memory with every fiber of himself. He thought of them often.
Sam the ghost didn't really do much. There wasn't much to do couped up in a hotel room. Mostly, he sat in the corner of the room he was familiar with and waited for something. He didn't know exactly what he was waiting for, only that he was waiting for something. Maybe he's waiting for his parents to come back, but it was hard to stay hopeful. Sometimes, it seemed like such a long time. Sometimes it seemed like no time at all. Maybe he was waiting for someone to come and tell him what he was supposed to do or where he was supposed to go or what he was supposed to be thinking about. When he thought about it, he could remember the last time he saw them, but he didn't remember how long it has been. He surely didn't know that has been 72 years since he saw them. In Sam's ghost mind, it might have been 72 years, or it might have been yesterday. What he doesn't know is that they have not been looking for him for 72 years.
72 years ago Sam's parents buried his small worn out body in an ordinary cemetery just outside their home town. It's a nice cemetery, but Sam has never seen it. He couldn't imagine it because his spirit had never been there. His parents spent many nights crying and mourning over the death of their son, but he didn't know that. He felt sure that they must miss him, that they must be looking for him. He hoped that one day or one moment everything will be understandable, but until that moment...he would wait.
Sam was also very strong in spirit. In fact, he is uniquely strong. He didn't really know that either. What he also didn't know is that when a person dies, their spirit usually leaves their body the moment it dies, and not days before as his did. Sam didn't follow the rules. He didn't know he was supposed to follow the rules. He didn't know there were rules about these things.
72 and a half years ago, when Sam was alive, Sam got sick. No one really knew what kind of sickness he had, only that his body was very weak and he would have to lay in bed for long days at a time. Then, toward the end, when Sam was only eight years old, his parents brought him to the city to see a special kind of doctor they thought could help. They hoped he could tell them why Sam was so sick and so weak all the time. In the city...in that hotel room where they stayed is the where Sam sat and waited, 72 years later.
The day before they were to take Sam to see the special doctor, his spirit decided to leave behind the small sick body. He lie in bed just wishing to be rid of it. He was sick of being sick and tired of being tired. He wished so hard that he just left his body behind. He came right out of it. I can't explain how, but this is how things happened. What is rather strange is that his body kept on living. Well, not really living, but it kept breathing and it's heart kept beating and it went on for several days. Though he was so strong in spirit, Sam didn't know that he would never be able to go back to his small, weak, and dying body.
During those days his body did not speak or eat or drink. It was kept alive with some needles and tubes and machines. The doctor finally said that they should not expect Sam to come back, and the doctor was right. So Sam's Mom and Dad spent several hours saying goodbye to Sam. And with great sadness, they let his body die.
What they didn't know, for how could they, was that Sam's spirit was still in the hotel. What they didn't know was that it wasn't supposed to happen that way, but that Sam's spirit was so strong, unlike his body, that it had left his body simply by choosing to do so. What they didn't know was that Sam, so strong in spirit, but so weak in body, had decided that he would just leave that small worn out body and venture out. Little did he know that he would not be able to go back.
For 72 years, Sam sat in the corner of room 816 at the Hilton hotel, waiting for something he could not understand. Sometimes Sam could feel people around him, but he could not see them or hear them. Sometimes, most times, he felt that they were good people. But sometimes, not nearly as often, he felt like they were not good people. But whoever they are and wherever they are, he was comforted to feel people around him. When he felt them nearby, he was less lonely. When he felt them, he was hopeful that one day one of these people would find him here and help him discover what it is he's waiting for.
Time is a difficult thing for ghosts to tell. What most people don't know is that time doesn't pass for a ghost like it does for the living. Ghost minds don't work the way living minds do, thank goodness. If a ghost sets his mind to think about something, as Sam often thought about his Mom and Dad, he might spend a week or two or three years thinking about that something as if only a moment has passed. This is why Sam isn't fully aware that he's been dead for 72 years.
What Sam thinks about almost as much as he thinks about his parents is Garrett. Garrett is alive. Sam is sure of that because he can see Garrett. So he passes the time. Waiting. Thinking. Remembering. And occasionally, visiting with his only friend and his big brother, Garrett.
We should go back to the time that Sam the Ghost first met Garrett. It was a memorable moment for both them.
