We arrived at a ginormous, oak tree, with a quaint little sign that read ‘2022 Woody Meadows.’ written on it. Hopefully this was the correct address, otherwise this would’ve been a complete waste of time. The sun was breaking through the trees, as we waited for one of us to go up and knock on the door. I expected Minnie and Mooey were gonna go up, I mean I sure as hell wasn’t, though after standing here in silence for a moment, it didn’t seem like either of them were gonna go up to knock on the door.

“Are… are you gonna go up and knock?” Kumoto asked, cautiously, as neither of us were sure what to think of this situation. We turned to the side, looking at the unnaturally long necked dogs, standing behind us. They both crossed their arms and shook their heads in a rather comedic way, that made me laugh a little inside.

“No, it might blow our cover.” Mooey said.

“You two will have to do it. We’ll go hide in the bushes while you ask him if he’s a ghost, and tell us what you found out when you’re done.” Added Minnie. Me and Kumoto looked at each other before we both made a sigh of exhaustion. Well, I guess it was up to us.

We walked up to the door, Kumoto first, as Minnie and Mooey ran and hid behind a nearby bush, to watch what would happen. Kumoto knocked on the long wooden, semicircular door. We waited a few seconds, then somebody, who I assumed was Charlie, opened the door. He had short, white, slightly messy hair, and was wearing a white, rugged sort of gown. I assume this was Charlie, but we had to ask to know.

“Hi, are you Charlie?” Kumoto asked, as I was too shy to say anything just yet, so I just stood slightly behind Kumoto, in order to not draw any attention to myself.

“Yes, I’m Charlie.” He responded, not quite sure what to gage of us, looking us up and down, trying to make up his mind.

“And who are you?” He added.

“Uh,” Kumoto hesitated, trying her best to come up with a sane reason as to why we’re here on the spot.

“I’m Kumoto, and this is Kura.” She took a slight step to the side, so he could see me. “We’re new in town.” Kumoto continued. “We’d like to get to know our neighbours, and we were told about you.”

This was a lie. I mean, aside from this whole damn operation being a lie, we’ve lived here for five years. Though I guess if he doesn’t know us, he wouldn’t know how long we’ve lived here for, thus making the lie that we just moved in more convincing. And it was indeed convincing, because it seemed to work, shown by him then coming outside.

“Ah okay.” He shut the door behind him, stepping outside onto the grass. Though I guess not stepping maybe, because I don’t know if he has feet or what. Also, unrelated, but what’s up with ghost-phobic people being obsessed with feet? Like, am I the only one who’s noticed that? Who cares if they have feet or not?

“Nice to meet you. Where do you live?” Asked Charlie. I guess there’s no point in lying with this one, so instead of saying a random number, Kumoto just gave our real address.

“20069 Woody Meadows.” He nodded, contently. The two of them started talking, with me butting in every now and again to say or add my own thing. Then, eventually, I felt confident enough to be properly a part of the conversation. A few moments went by, with me occasionally checking to see if Minnie and Mooey were watching. Sure enough, they were. We could see their long necks sticking pretty visibly above the bushes they were sitting in. I had no idea if Charlie had already guessed if we were with them, because it’d be pretty hard to not notice them, sitting in the background, acting weird as ever, but if he did he sure was a nice person because he kept talking to us.

Despite our long conversations though, we were getting no closer to knowing if he was a ghost or not. Eventually, after finishing up one of our conversations that was about the nearest village, we were invited inside, only to realise his small, quaint house was a lot bigger on the inside. When we entered, the interior was similar to Minnie and Mooey's place. The room was an oval, with there being a cute looking oval shaped table in the middle, with cushions around it to sit on, and all the cabinets and sinks being right in front of us when we entered. The only difference was that the hallway was on the right side upon entering Minnie and Mooey's house, whereas here it was on the left, and once we entered the kitchen, there were no windows. An odd choice, if I do say so myself, but whatever. I’m not here to judge.

By the time me and Kumoto were inside, we had been talking for so long that the sun was almost setting. I had no idea what time it was, and felt too shy to ask Kumoto for the time, but I’d guess it’d be around five o’clock.
There was a warmness to the air, as we walked in. Me and Kumoto sat on the cushions, with Charlie looking through his cupboards to see what there was to eat. I was looking up at the wall, examining the few items it contained. I stopped when I noticed a photo that appeared to be of a woman holding a baby, with someone next to it whose face was scribbled out. Was that his parent? Who was the person whose face was scribbled out? Perhaps a sibling. I was curious, but despite my lack of social skills, I knew my boundaries, so I didn’t ask.

Eventually, Charlie came back with a packet of gluten free biscuits, which is great, because I happen to be gluten intolerant. He sat down across from us before opening the packet of biscuits, and offering us as many as we’d like. We started talking again, this time he was telling us about a story that happened a while ago, about one of his pets he used to own. It was a rather engaging story, about how his pet kept eating dangerous food, yet somehow survived. Then, when he finished and we were all laughing, Kumoto asked him what we’d come here to ask him.

“Um, hey, can I ask you a sort of personal question?” She began, sounding rather nervous. Maybe this was too much of a personal question. As I said before, I do know my boundaries, but it only now occurred to me that for some people this might be a question that would make them uncomfortable. But, I guess we’re too deep in now, so there’s no getting out of it.

“Sure.” He replied, nonchalantly, as he took one of the biscuits from the bag and bit it. I was just hoping this wouldn’t be a personal question for him.

“I don’t wanna like, assume anything.” She stuttered.
“But, are you a ghost?” Kumoto clearly felt very awkward when asking this, but as I turned to Charlie, awaiting the answer, it didn’t seem like he reciprocated.

“Uh, yeah, I am.” Charlie confirmed, sounding somewhat confused as to why we’d make such a big deal out of it. That was good though, at least we didn’t offend him.

“Oh… Okay.” Replied Kumoto, unsure as to why he was taking this all so casually. Charlie tilted his head slightly when she said that, unsure of what to think.
“You sound nervous. Is everything alright?” Kumoto was having a hard time trying to puzzle together what to say, so for once, I decided to say something instead.

“Well, to put it simply.” I began, thinking of what to say next without sounding weird as fuck.

“We were actually asked to come here. You see, there are some other neighbours who really wanted to know if you were a ghost or not, but they were too shy to ask themselves.”

Kumoto gave me a dirty look, and I didn’t understand why. I mean, what I said was true, and it’s not like I said anything bad.

“Uh-huh.” Charlie nodded cautiously.

“And who were these neighbours?” He inquired. Before I could stop myself, or before Kumoto could chime in, I found myself replying.

“Minnie and Mooey.” Charlie sighed upon hearing their names.

“Of course it was them.” He exhaled.

“They used to be my old neighbours,” He said. “but when I tried to make friends with them, they just seemed off. Then when I moved towns, I could tell they were following me.” I was unsure of what to think now. First I felt fine with asking this question, then I felt nervous upon realising not everyone’s comfortable with such a question, then he acts like it’s no big deal, and now I guess  he feels upset because Minnie and Mooey are involved.
“Maybe they were just scared if you were a ghost. I mean, some ghosts are pretty scary.” Said Kumoto. Even I felt uncomfortable when she said that. It’s such a negative stereotype that I didn’t know she believed.

“Yeah, some ghosts, but not all.” He rested his head on his hand, rightfully fed up with what was going on.

“What does that mean?” She asked. Charlie continued.

“I just hate that, whenever one person who’s a ghost does something bad, all of a sudden it’s ‘all ghosts are like this’.”
I looked at Kumoto as he spoke, and I could tell Kumoto regretted what she’d just said, but she didn’t say anything else, even though I think she should have.

We said our farewells, as I skipped happily out the door, excited about the fact that I’d just made yet another new friend. I turned to Kumoto to see her head held low.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, though I think I knew the answer. She hesitated, but before I could say another thing, we were interrupted. I noticed a shadow appear, and as I looked up to see who it was, I saw Minnie and Mooey, who must’ve appeared from thin air, standing there, looking smug, with their hands on their hips.
“Hello, you two.” Mooey said, calmly. However, Minnie was the exact opposite of calm. She leaned over, rapped her arm tightly around Kumoto with their heads next to each other, before asking like she was in some sort of secret club talking about it in public;

“So… What’d ya find out?” She interrogated, trying to look as intimidating as possible, I assumed. Though she wasn’t doing the best job, because it came off as rather goofy instead.

“Uh, yes he is a ghost.” Kumoto said, feeling as awkward as ever as the life was being squeezed out of her. Minnie rather aggressively put both paws on her shoulders, then, as she got so close that their noses touched, she whined rather loudly;

“WHAT? REALLY?” Kumoto, taken aback by the events that were transpiring, whilst also being squeezed to death by this furred beast huffed out a small;

“... Yes…” Minnie stood up tall, whilst hugging Kumoto with one arm, and putting the other in the air and making a fist.

“Yes…” She whispered. Minnie then began to monologue, as if she were some sort of anime protagonist.

“Finally… After all these years of searching… Searching for an answer… With light fading at each corner… After thinking this case was going nowhere… After all my bullies back in high school told me I was a weakling, someone with delusions of grandeur, the runt of the litter. After years of working hard just to prove them wrong… After years of getting no cases assigned when I decided to become a detective… After having to find my own case to solve… After putting in all this effort, only to just keep failing… I finally did it… I finally have the answer… He IS a ghost.” Mooey sighed, as he rubbed his temple and put his other hand on his hip.

“Minnie, no one bullied you in high school, it only took us a few months to solve this, and I was the one who did all the work, you just sat there watching TV all day.” Minnie interrupted.

“I have humble beginnings, okay?” She argued. Who needs TV when you’ve got these two?
“Still, now that this whole thing is solved, what do we have to do now?” Mooey inquired, in a rather melancholy way. Despite everything that’s happened, despite Minnie's clear anger issues, and other various problems, these two were fun. I knew I wanted to be around them more, and something told me that Kumoto did as well.
“Well…” I smiled.

“If we find any more adventures, we’ll tell you.”