Ectophile

"Who is Darla talking to?"

Brandt, a loving father of three, voices his concern to his young wife, Kassidy. The eerie conversations between his five year old and an unknown presence started a few weeks after moving into the aged colonial near the Hudson River.

"She says his name is Nolan. At this point, it's beyond the innocence of an imaginary friend. I think he might be a ghost. Go ahead, you ask her.”

“Darla, honey, who are you talking to?”

She clumsily sets down her plastic teacup on the child-sized coffee table and answers.

“It's Nolan! This is his house too, daddy! He likes the picture I drawed of him... see!"

She holds up the picture. It's a smiling stick figure man wearing a brim hat.

"Very good, Darla. You draw so well. Is Nolan still here?"

"Yeah, daddy! He's right beside you!"

The hairs on Brandt’s neck stand at attention. He quickly looks all around yet sees nothing.

"Honey, can you tell him to leave? It's almost bedtime."

Darla nods her head and begins to whisper above and across her table. She shares the given response.

"Nolan doesn't like mommy. He said she cheated, and you are not my real dad."

Not really understanding the gravity of her words, Darla returns to scribbling clouds onto her picture. Brandt angrily stares at Kassidy.

“What! You don't believe this rubbish, do you? I’ve never even looked at another man!”

This was just the beginning of many secrets Nolan reveals.