TV is Ellie’s escape
after a long day of work;
she likes slipping into lives
she’ll never have, losing herself
in foreign places, giving her heart
to fictional characters.
The British sitcom Ghosts
is her favorite because she adores
the ridiculousness and loveliness
of this found family of dead souls.
Of course she knows ghosts aren’t real,
but she can’t help envying Alison’s kinship
with the afterlife. Plus Ben Willbond is hot.
TV is Marcella’s escape, too;
a break in the lonely monotony
of her days haunting Ellie’s apartment.
She despises Ghosts, but
it’s not like she gets a say,
and watching anything
is better than watching nothing.
Perhaps she should find the show aspirational;
maybe one day she’ll find someone who can
see her, speak to her, befriend her,
but she doubts it. Such powers are nothing more
than a collective mortal hope that the afterlife isn’t
the terrible wasteland it actually is.
But when they get to the episode
with the flashback of Robin
the caveman ghost wandering
the grounds of Button House alone,
before Sophie comes along,
Marcella finds herself crying
in recognition,
and when she looks over,
Ellie is tearing up, too,
and for a moment they are just
two girls watching TV together,
engrossed in this world
that’s almost theirs.
2024-01-01