Text: 

“So a long, long time ago there was a beautiful school. In the attic room lived a girl named Daphne. Living in hiding, she was cold and always hungry. She lived in hiding because her family had been disgraced, and as a result she was treated like she was nothing. Daphne dreamed of one day being a princess, even though she looked nothing like a princess and she was cold, fragile and skinny and scrawny and her dresses were as thin as — I don’t know — paper. She never really left her attic. 

Later, when the school finally, like, renovated, the attic was cleaned and painted and looked nothing like how it used to look before. At the time, there was no mention of Daphne being there — her existence wasn’t noticed. But, the new students after the renovation noticed one strange thing: no matter how warm the building was, no matter what the temperature the thermostat said, the top levels of the school were always freaking cold. 

As a punishment for disrupting class and talking back to her teachers, a girl was put up in the attic for detention. To try to distract herself, she drew pictures of her and her family as royalty, wishing she was a princess instead of being in detention. 

From out of nowhere, the girl heard a voice, but at first she was unsure. It spoke again, and it was old and gravely, and it said ‘I wished that I was one too.’ A pale figure sat right beside her wearing a faded crown that had cobwebs over her head, and her eyes were lonely and sunken. The figure held out her hand and told her ‘If you say it again, we can be princesses together.”

Cold, scared and alone, the girl bolted up from her spot in the attic and rushed down to the headmaster’s office. She was reprimanded for leaving detention, but after pleading several staff members went up to the attic and found a crown covered in cobwebs and a skeletal hand, just as the girl had mentioned.”

Context: 

The informant was told this story by her mother at a young age (under 10, but did not remember specifically) who had lived in a boarding school. To the informant’s knowledge, the boarding school was not well liked by her mother, and she did not have positive experiences living and learning there. The informant believed that her mother had made up the story to encourage her to appreciate school when she was younger. 

Informant’s thoughts:

“When I was younger, it didn’t really dissuade me, or like, make me dislike school, because I thought [the story] was kind of cool. I liked Harry Potter a lot when I was younger, so the idea of a super beautiful boarding school reminded me of Hogwarts. I guess the ghosts are kind of like Harry Potter too. When I got older, though, she would threaten me with boarding school when I was being bratty. And, every once and awhile, I thought about her story. I always thought it was fake.” 

Analysis:

The story reflects back a standard function of ghost stories: to teach children lessons. It is clear that the story’s originator — the informant’s mother — was influenced by the controlling nature of boarding schools that she attended while living in Nigeria. It is likely that the quality of her mother’s education was greatly improved by attending a boarding school rather than other options, but it came at a greater literal and figurative price. After her mother’s immigration to the United States, the informant was granted circumstances that the informant’s mother was not, and one of them was public access to a quality education. While likely both happy to allow her child these opportunities, the informant’s mother wanted to instill a level of gratitude for the difference in their educational experiences.