Letty & Rick
Once upon a time there was a little girl, named Letty, who lived with her parents in a small house at the edge of their village. They were a happy family until the girl’s mother died. Some years later, the father married another woman. This woman did not like the little girl, since she resembled her mother so much. So she made fun of her and the dead mother and treated Letty as badly as possible.
Years later, the family had problems, since the father could not afford to feed them all properly.
So his wife schemed a plan. One day, she took Letty by her hand and led her to the forest.
"Stay here while I collect some herbs. I’ll be back soon.",she told the girl and went away.
Letty obeyed her mother. She had no clue were she was and just sat there in the silent, lonely woods.
She waited. And waited. And waited.
No one came.
"Mother didn’t forget me, did she?" she asked herself. Frightened by this thought, she started to search her way out. It was already dark.
"I have to get out soon… but I can’t."
The girl got desperate.
"I will never see father again." she cried a little. Why does mother hate me that much? Tears ran down her cheeks as she turned left and right to look for someone or something that could help her.
"My, what are you doing here?", a voice asked. Letty jumped out of surprise. She did not expect someone so near.
"I’m sorry, I did not intend to scare you!", the voice said.
The girl finally looked at the person who talked to her. It was a boy, probably her age. Surprisingly, he resembled her with his white hair and the violet clothes.
"No… I… I just didn’t see you come." She shyly took a step back.
"Oh, that’s it. Well, I thought I heard someone, so I took a look. Are you alright?"
"Uhm… I’m kind of lost, I guess. Do you know how to get out of here?"
"Sure, just follow me!" Letty was relieved when he said that. "I won’t die here", she thought.
"Let’s go!", the boy told her. She nodded.
"Erm…", the girl hesitated a bit, "may I ask your name?"
"My name? It’s Rick!"
"Nice to meet you Rick, I’m Letty"
"Nice to meet you, too, Letty!" Rick smiled brightly.
"Now, we should really head out of this place." Letty nodded again.
"May I?" The boy stretched out his hand to ask for hers. Letty grabbed it without hesitating. They both found their way out of the forest hand in hand.
Letty’s step-mother was not pleased when the girl came back safely. Her father, on the other hand, was relieved when he saw her. Although he was confused by the story his daughter told her.
"This is Rick, he helped me to find my way back!", she introduced the boy happily.
Unfortunately, no one seemed to be able to see him. Only Letty saw him and talked to him.
"I wonder why it is like this" the girl thought. But she never asked the boy.
They both started to spend much time together. Where Letty was, there was also Rick. Although people could only see the girl. But it didn’t matter as long, as Letty could see him and talk to him. They shared the same interests and the same hobbies. They shared their love for sweets. Sometimes, they imagined to find a house, made out of chocolate so that they finally had enough to eat. “Father could stop worrying about feeding us all!”, Letty said. “But then… the house would disappear”, she tought.
One day, the step mother found Letty talking to Rick again. She was annoyed by the girl who was more loved by her husband rhan she was. And furthermore it was a girl who talked to phantoms.
"Letty, what are you doing?!", she yelled.
"I’m playing with Rick!", the girl answered.
"Stop being ridiculous. There is no one."
"That’s mean, he is right here!" Letty poimted at the place on the bench. "See?"
"No I don’t see anything. You are talking to no one. Stop imagining things. Just grow up, Letty." They often had this kind of discussion. But this time, Letty seemed even more upset. "Don’t say this in front of Rick. You are hurting him!"
"Oh, I’m hurting a phantom, I’m so sorry" the step-mother said sarcastically.
"He. Is. No. Phantom." Letty glared at her.
"That’s it young lady, you musn’t talk to your mother like this. Go into your room." Letty let out a sound that sounded like a supressed swear. "See you later, Rick" she murmured and went away. Her step-mother shook her head. "What should I do with this girl?"
Letty didn’t get out of her room for a long time. It was not like she did not wanted to, but she was not allowed to. Her stepmother tried to make her stop meeting Rick.
"You have to understand. He does not exist." Letty didn’t listen. She was just worried that Rick would be upset, since she couldn’t contact him and inform him about her situation.
The girl got more and more angry and upset the longer she was trapped in her own room.
"Let me out!", she screamed like mad. Her father tried to convince his wife to let their daughter go out. But she did not listen. "We have to make her realize how ridiculous her behaviour is. Just let her be, she’ll be alright."
But she wasn’t. Letty got nearly crazy, locked up in her room. “I have to meet Rick.” she thought desperately. “Talk to him… about everything…”
One day, she searched for again for a way out. All she found was a box of matches. “That’s it. I guess I have no other choice.”
As it went dark, the girl used one match. It immediately went off. “Damn, hopefully I have enough.” She used another one and another one. Finally, she was able to get a proper flame. “Let’s do this.” She close her eyes and moved the match near her blanket. It immediately went into fire.
"Ok, now let’s call them" She stood up and while hammering at her door he screamed: "Help! Father! Mother! Let me out of here! It’s burning! Help!" After a few minutes, she heard steps approaching. "Letty! What happened?" her father called as he put the key into the keyhole. "Help me!", the girl just yelled.
The fire was already in the whole room. It started to get really dangerous. The door opened and Letty stumbled through it. “Quickly, get out of the house!”, the father ordered. Letty ran out. The fire seemed to stretch out even faster. “How is that possible?”, she thought, “It way just a little bit”
She arrived outside and turned around. Flames were all around the roof she couldn’t see her father or her stepmother. Suddenly, she heard footsteps approaching. She turned aroung again and saw Rick running tiwards her. “Rick!” she screamed and ran into his arms.
"Letty, what happended?!"
"I tried to get out, but now…" The fire was already eating up the whole house. No one came out. No one could get in there either.
"It’s awful" Letty cried. She cried out loud, tears running down her face. Rick tried to support her. He held her until she stopped crying. Until the fire ceased.
