The Ghost of the Handball Courts Part II

By Sean McVeigh

The handball courts had always been there. They were certainly there before the buildings. Before the idea of the buildings, even. The courts had once belonged to the Long Shore Surf Club — a seaside paradise back in the early days of the Point. The remnants of the Club were just west of the buildings. You see, the Club had been destroyed in Hurricane Donna. Now, the handball courts were in disarray. Cracks covered the grounds of the courts like spiderwebs, and weeds sprouted up all over the place. The walls of the courts stood like two tall headstones. Not etched with epitaphs but rather with years of hooligans’ graffiti. The courts were always there but never used. Yet there they stood.

“So it’s decided then, we’ll go tomorrow night,” Michael said.

“I don’t know, Mike,” Andrew said in a cracked voice. “I heard my dad talking last night and… and it sounds like it could be dangerous.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? They just ran out of money. That’s why they’re leaving. We’re just going to go check out those buildings and see if they left anything cool lying around,” said Michael.

“Stop being such a wimp!” Jimmy chimed in. “What are you scared of anyway?” It was a rhetorical question, but it made all three of them think. Should they be scared?

The three boys had decided that Tuesday would be the perfect night. It was October 31st — Halloween. Their plan was to tell their parents they were going trick or treating (which they would still need to do for a short time. What’s Halloween without some candy?) and then slip away to the buildings to do some exploring.

The buildings had been left lifeless for a few weeks now. The first few days after the news was filled with crews moving out equipment and then police putting some finishing touches on an ice-cold investigation that was leading to nothing. Finally, the area sat still. It was quiet as a graveyard and the boys were free to take a look around for themselves.

“Tuesday would be perfect,” Michael thought to himself on the way home from school that day.

“Let’s go! We don’t have all night, guys,” Michael barked at his two companions.

The three boys, dressed in their Halloween costumes, had finished a couple of walks worth of trick or treating and decided it was time to for the real adventure to begin. The boys went by Michael’s house and stashed their bags of candy under his front porch. They then headed swiftly down the Promenade and, when they reached the end, cut sharply up to the Main Road which they were able to take straight down to site of the buildings.

As they approached the buildings, they began to feel a chill in the air. Not from the cool October air, though. No, this was from something else.

“Are we sure about this?” Jimmy said.

“What happened to ‘Mr. Tough Guy’ from back at school?” Andrew said mockingly.

As they turned off the Main Road and grew closer to the buildings, they saw the handball courts.

“That’s funny,” Andrew quipped. “I wonder why they left those old ratty things. Seems like they got rid of all the other junk ‘round here.”

To be continued…