The Lantern Keepers

Pip was nine and three-quarters when she found out the lighthouse had a ghost, and she was not, as her brother said, scared. She was interested.

The ghost was sitting on the top step with his chin in his hands. He was see-through in the way that a window is see-through, so that Pip could make out the brass rail behind him and the dark sea behind that.

“Have you seen my hat?” he said.

Pip looked around. The lamp room was round and full of brass and smelled of oil. There was no hat.