They call her Boo the Banshee and why not? She screams at everything regardless of what it was. A beetle sneezes, she screams, a splat of rain falls on a window ledge, she screams. For Boo, screaming is as natural as a sneeze.

 

 

She was a pretty girl, as pretty as Gweena Madalaine (Ratgirl) but a complete bag of nerve, more than any of the others. What made her that way? All the children had worries, such as someday vanishing into nothing for all eternity. But none were as affected and ravaged as Boo. Perhaps she has a secret, or perhaps not.

 

 

One thing for sure, time had sloughed off most of her arms and nearly all of one leg. Surely she would probably be the first of the ghosts to disappear when the time came. Was that Boo's fate?

Time is running out for all ghost children in that limbo land.

 

Boo had a habit of drifting through the castle silently and her sudden appearance would startle the others who would in turn startle her and then she would scream to raise the dead.

One day someone thought to bell her like a cat, as a warning that she was drawing near, but when Patch (whom she fancied) presented a rusted old bell on a chain as a gift and tried to place it around her bony neck the tinkle of it frightened her so that her shriek that left Patch half deaf for a week.

That episode, one hundred and seventy five years ago, and the thought of the others and Patch plotting against her, with bell tricks and such, forced Boo into her own little solitude. Patch never spoke about it but he meant no harm.

 

 

Boo's paranoia and nerves grew steadily worse over the years and every little thing bothered her, even the innocuous 'snip snip snip' of Tinker's scissors as he went about the business of castle and ghost repair.

There is much more to Boo's story and will be revealed in time.

 

Boo will haunt you forever.