Ghost Story Review: "Harry" by Rosemary Timperley

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One hot summer day. Mrs. James looked into her backyard (or as they insist on calling in her neck of the woods, her garden) and watched her five-year-old daughter playing in the grass, making daisy chains. Just the sort thing to warm a mother’s heart, isn’t it? But the little girl speaks, for no apparent reason, to a bush of white roses: “Yes, I’m Christine … With mummy and daddy … Oh, but they are my mummy and daddy.” Mrs. James, almost not sure why, feels a growing alarm, and calls her daughter in. It’s getting too hot, she tells her. Again, the little girl turns to the bush. She explains that she has to go. Later, after much prodding, Christine explains that she was talking to Harry, her brother. “Harry can’t be your brother,” Mrs. James tells her. “Mummy and Daddy have only one child and that’s a little girl, you.” Mrs. James tries to talks to her husband about her concerns. He calms her down and explains it all for the little lady. There, there, honey. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it all while I’m at the office. Christine has an imaginary friend. It’s normal. It’ll pass when she starts school in a couple of months. But Christine was adopted. Adoptions were closed in those days and the James know nothing of her background. Mrs. James sets out to find out. This is a haunting, sad story, despite the far-fetched elements. I can’t imagine an adoption representative being as free and easy with information as this one turned out to be. But the ending is far from happy. And it speaks to grief. I can understand why this one is frequently anthologized. I could not find an online copy of this story, though it has been adopted for film and TV several times. Drat. _____ Title: “Harry” Author: Rosemary Timperley (1920-1988) First published:The Third Ghost Book 1955 Source: ISFDB