The skeleton that doesn’t know he’s dead returned last night. Months go by – sometimes years – but he always comes back. I saw him shuffling in the distance heading straight towards me.

It’s a miracle he can keep himself together. Each wobbly step shook off the dirt from his grave. The sound of his rattling bones broke the silence of the still night. He looked at me with the empty sockets on his skull and his jaw moved up into a twisted grin.

I first saw him many years ago when I was little and began to see things no one else could see. He was one of them. He wasn’t a skeleton at first, of course, and looked like an ordinary person. The skin and muscles rotted away through the years until only the skeleton remained.

He terrified me. I hated the way he stalked me from afar and dreaded hearing his footsteps getting closer. The scent of death lingered on him. I would wake up in the middle of the night and see his shadow outside my window. My childhood nights were restless.

But I slowly learned he wasn’t one of the bad things. No matter how scared I was, he never once attacked me and was always friendly. He was a gentle being.

That didn’t mean I liked him. As I grew older, I began to despise the skeleton. I cursed him out and threw things at him. I ignored him for a long time.

But time and distance didn’t matter to him.

That is why, at a later point in my life, I warmed up to the skeleton that doesn’t know he’s dead. One could say we became friends. I was old enough to know I didn’t have a reason to fear him and mature enough to appreciate his visits. Perhaps dead things need company just much as the living do.

So, when I saw him last night, I said to him, “Hey, welcome back.” He just nodded his head and stood next to me.

I took out a cigarette but clumsily dropped my lighter. Without hesitating, he reached down and grabbed the lighter with his bony hands. He flicked it and helped me light my cigarette. He then stared at the flame with the same curiosity as a child looking at an insect.

“I’m happy you’re here right now.”

He nodded because we both know that he only comes when I’m feeling lonely. And these past few weeks have been especially lonely for me.

He pats my shoulder before giving me a hug.

“I love you too, dad.”