"In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts. But we create them, we haunt ourselves."
- Laurie Halse Anderson

~~~~~~~

One of my favourite things about Adele is that she talks to her cat as if he's human. She has full conversations with him and it's easy to pretend that she's talking to me.

Occasionally I forget that I have to speak quietly around her and she jumps, looking around the room wide eyed.

This fascinates me as I've never met an adult who can hear me.

I'm fairly certain that she can't hear my actual words like Matthew could, it's more that she senses that I've spoken.

I want to push it, shout loudly and see if she can hear me but I daren't. I don't want to scare her away.

At first I was a bit over eager and I tried to help her unpack and did a bit of rearranging for her, but she didn't seem to like that. It freaked her out so I stopped. I could see that she'd eventually convinced herself that she'd done it, but I had to be careful.

We've fallen into a routine in the two weeks that she's been here. She leaves through the week to go to work and I spend the day with her cat, Mr Tiddles, making dust balls for him to chase or trying to help him catch that rat that Adele doesn't realise is living in the kitchen.

On nights she comes home and I sit beside her as she watches TV, occasionally talking to Mr Tiddles about her day.

She spends all weekends alone in the house and that does confuse me a bit. Even Matthews mother would have friends visit, or leave the house sometimes on evenings, Adele seems completely alone. I'm not complaining though.

Adele is always losing things and I often have to retrieve her car keys from the wash basket and place them near the door so that she won't be late for work, or set her alarm so that she wakes up in time.

One night she scares me.

I've spent all day playing my new favourite game. I pretend that Adele is my wife and Mr Tiddles is our extremely ugly, hairy baby that we love anyway and we are just waiting for her to return home from work.

My heart lifts as I hear her car in the drive and I quickly clean her favourite mug and put it next to the kettle. Before I can do anything else I hear the door slam loudly.

She's come in from work in a foul mood and Mr Tiddles and I try to calm her down. Mr T, as I like to call him, is extra affectionate and I find the TV remote under the couch cushions and place it on the coffee table and make her slippers appear before she enters the living room.

She storms into the room clutching a glass of wine, shoving her slippers on and grabs the TV remote. I wink at Mr T, pleased with my forward thinking.

She flicks angrily through the channels before turning it off. I'm sat beside her, longing to reach out to comfort her.

She turns to me and Mr T. He's sat purring on my lap. Well, it would be my lap if I had one.

"Do you know what happened today?" She demands. He just gazes at her uninterestedly.

I shake my head, using my powers ruffle Mr T's fur in the way I know he likes.

"That bitch Andrea arranged a staff night out. She invited everyone in the office except me!"

I'm not entirely sure what all of the words mean but I smile sympathetically at her.

She takes a long glug of her wine.

"They've all gone out tonight and I'm sat here with my bloody cat!"

And me.

She sniffs loudly and pours another drink.

"And she told them all that I slept with Danny from the IT office! I didn't! He tried it on but I turned him down!" She gestures wildly and runs her fingers through her hair.

I know what this means. When Matthews mother would do what she did in the bedroom with her various boyfriends she would always refer to it as having 'slept' with them, although it didn't sound like much sleeping went on to me.

Me and Mr T listen as Adele rants on, drinking her wine and opening a second bottle.

Suddenly she stops.

"God. I'm so pathetic." She whispers. Her voice is strange and I can tell she's a bit drunk. I hate it when she does this, it worries me. Suddenly she laughs and I jump.

"I'm talking to a bloody cat! I'm 20 bloody years old and I've not got one friend... if I wanted to go out tonight there isn't one single person I could call."

I watch as she downs another drink, her bright blue eyes filling with tears. She turns towards us and I wish I could cup her perfect face in my hands.

"I'm just lonely." She whispers as tears roll down her face. "So lonely."

I know how that feels.

But you've got me Adele.

~~~~~~~~

Later that night I walk up to her bedroom and gently push the door open. It creaks loudly and she shifts in the bed, sighing softly.

I pause before slowly gliding across the dark room towards her.

Adele mutters in her sleep, her hand curling into itself and I just stand and watch her. I notice the way her eyelashes brush the tops of her cheeks and her hair curls wildly, looking black against the white pillow. Her full pink lips open in a whisper.

I don't know why, but watching her sleep makes me feel warm inside.

For a fleeting second I wish that she was aware of me, I want her to know that she's not alone, someone does care about her. I stop the thought before it's fully formed though.

The last thing I need is Harry on my case about this.