Christmas Ghosts

The Problem Child

Sad Tale of Haunted Boy Nobody Wanted

by Tom Slemen

 In 1990 a childless couple in Merseyside, England jumped at the opportunity of fostering an 11-year-old boy named Gary. The authorities told the couple that Gary had been put up for adoption two times before, but had been returned to the care of the social services for being 'unusually hyperactive'. The couple took Gary home a fortnight before Christmas and spoiled him rotten. The child said he wanted three Christmas stockings and was given them. The couple put up a huge Christmas tree and laid bundles of presents for Gary under it. The child opened some of these presents, but the couple didn't scold him, they just laughed about it, and allowed the boy to take the gifts - a box of antique tin soldiers and a little drum up to his room.

At 3 a.m. the couple were awakened by the sound of a strange racket which was coming from Gary's bedroom. The foster-parents jumped out of bed and barged into Gary's room, and were shocked at the bizarre sight which greeted them. The drum was beating all by itself, and all the little tin soldiers were hopping along the floor in a single file to the drumbeat. A sleepy-eyed Gary was sitting up in his bed, giggling and clapping his hands as he surveyed the eerie spectacle. The couple - who were very religious - took the poltergeist-like phenomenon as a manifestation of the Devil and promptly decided they didn't want to adopt the child. During the journey to the social services department, strange knocking sounds were heard on the side window's of the couple's car. Once again, Gary spent his Christmas without a mum and dad, because he probably possessed the psychic gift of telekinesis: the ability to move objects by the power of the mind. The 'problem child's' fate is unknown.

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