GHOST TOWN

On a nice day Ponderosa ranch owner Ben Cartwright rode with his 2 eldest grandchildren Mitch and Pam (13) into a completely deserted town named Ghost Town.

“What is it here quiet”, said Mitch, the eldest of the twins.

“A town like this is called a ghost town. There is nobody who lives or works here”, Ben explained.

Pam asked a bit anxious, “We are not going to sleep here, are we?”

“I am afraid so. We put the horses in the livery stable and take care of them. After that we go to sleep in the hotel. I remain by you so that nothing can happen”, was the answer of the rancher.

He noticed that the twins didn’t have much faith in it but it was already getting a bit dark. Besides their home was too far away to get there before dark.

After the horses were being taken care of the Cartwrights inspected the rest of the town. First they came pass by the saloon. Windows were broken and the furniture didn’t stand there but was spread through the building.

“Uncle Hoss and uncle Joe must have been busy here for sure”, Mitch remarked.

The twins wanted to go inside but Ben said, “You are still too young to go into a ghost saloon.”

Disappointed Mitch and Pam walked along with their grandpa. All other buildings were also quite knocked about and damaged.

When the Cartwrights entered the hotel they first looked carefully and cautious around them.

Because the stairs was almost about to break down Ben suggested, “Shall we just sleep here on the ground?”

“Fine by me. I sleep just through anything anyway”, reacted his grandson.

His sister also didn’t object. Quite soon the Cartwrights were sleeping.

At 12 ’o clock at night suddenly all the church bells began to chime. There was also a lot of light to be seen. Hereby Ben and Pam woke up. The rancher crawled to the twins.

“What is the matter?”, Pam whispered not to wake up Mitch.

“It is now October 31 and I am afraid that it’s really ghostly here. Your brother really won’t wake up. So I think that we just try to sleep till early tomorrow”, answered Ben.

They went to lie down again and tried to sleep. But the haunting lasted all night so that Ben and Pam didn’t sleep much.

Mitch woke up when the sunshine came inside. The boy had to squeeze his eyes to able to see anything. He saw Ben and Pam lying to close to him and wondered how that happened. Mitch drew his revolver and fired a shot to wake them up. This worked a bit too well because Pam woke up screaming and Ben directly drew his revolver. When the rancher saw who had shot he put the weapon back into his holster.

“Slept nicely grandpa, Pam? I have”, Mitch said cheerful.

“Haven’t you noticed anything from those noises and those lights?”, Pam asked amazed.

“No, what have I missed then?”, was the counter-question of her brother.

Ben answered sighing, “You really don’t want to know that, Mitch. You really don’t want to know that! We go away very quickly. The sooner we are home again.”

Not much later the Cartwrights left Ghost Town to go home.

Underway Mitch asked, “Grandpa, do we sleep next time again in that hotel?”

“Never again. And I don’t want that you tell the others about what has happened last night”, answered Ben.

“I slept all night through so I don’t know anything about it”, reacted Mitch.

“Good for you”, said Pam.

They promised their grandpa not to say anything about the previous night because the threesome knew that they wouldn’t believed anyway.