The Wealthy Ghost (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
“The Wealthy Ghost is this kid who died in the 1800′s. Or maybe later, like the 1920′s. The way it works is, you bring some nail polish to the old gas station, and if the ghost likes it, it’ll use its powers to make you beautiful. Like your face. No, not actually change your face, but change how other people see it, I guess. You ever see a really bizarre looking person, but there’s something about them that’s beautiful somehow? Like that I guess. Anyway my brothers were convinced the ghost was fake. Like back when we were kids. Teenagers. So their plan was, they were going to leave some nail polish there, then wait to see who came to take it. That’s what they thought was happening, was somebody who lived in the neighborhood was getting all of this free nail polish. So they took some nail polish from our sister and then they brought it down to the gas station, made a mark with the nail polish, and set the nail polish in the grass, and then climbed up onto the roof of the gas station to wait there for the ghost, with sleeping bags and everything. The mark? You’re supposed to paint a mark on the gas station before you leave it. I don’t know why. I think maybe that’s what tells the ghost you were there. Anyway, my brothers sat up there all night, in their sleeping bags, peeking over the edge of the roof, flashlights ready, but nobody ever came. When they climbed down though, in the morning, the nail polish they had left in the grass was gone. Completely vanished. No, I don’t think that means the ghost is real. My brothers were ugly then, and they’re just as ugly now.” — Randy M., Grand Rapids, MI
