The York People Merchants
by Miley Dale
Once in an old, cobbled street in York town called The Shambles, something impossibly possible happened. It was a regular day in 1881 when the owners of the York Ghost Merchants shop, brothers Edward and Thomas and Thomas’ wife, Mary, were packing up to go home. They locked up, climbed into Tom’s car and headed back to their house. Once home, Mary sat down to weave a rug. Around an hour later when the rug was half done, she realised that she had left her handbag at the shop so she shouted to Tom who was in the kitchen, “Tom, I think I’ve left my bag at the shop – would you mind going to get it?”. Tom replied “yes, dear”.
Once again, Tom climbed into the car and started driving. After a lengthy detour, he reached The Shambles eventually. He got out of the car and walked towards the shop. But, before he could enter, the clock struck midnight and, in a puff of gloomy smoke, Tom and his car were back home! Confused, he walked into the room where Ed and Mary were sitting, then Mary explained, “my bag just appeared next to me in a puff of gloomy smoke!”.
Back at the ghost shop, the rest of the world disappeared in a thick, black smoke. A rickety bridge emerged over a small puddle that grew to a large, green swamp. The only light came from the large, pink moon, leaving the shop surrounded in a burnt, black sky. A figure pulled what looked like a light cord that turned the sign on the shop front that said ‘York Ghost Merchants’ into ‘York People Merchants’!
More and more figures appeared just like floating humans – some big, some small and some with work gear. Then, all of a sudden, the blurriness of the figures faded and it was clear they were actually ghosts! There were children, babies and parents – even mega-wealthy ghosts - and some with briefcases who were heading towards the shop. The ghosts heading towards the shop went inside and opened up their briefcases. Inside were all the things you would need to make York ghosts!
It was now 1am but, instead of the clock chiming, lightning struck over the shop and tiny figures of York people appeared in the shop window. Once this happened, all of the local ghosts queued up outside of the shop door, eager to buy their favourite York person!
As the lightning struck 6am, everything went back to normal - the ghosts disappeared and the sun started to rise. Ed, Tom and Mary were just driving to their shop ready to start the day’s work. When they arrived, Mary placed the completed rug on the shop floor. Before she stood back up, something caught her eye – on closer inspection, she saw it was a tiny figurine of a human! As Mary placed the figure into her handbag, she gave a wink to the ghosts on the shelves of the shop and smiled.