The Ghost in the Pub

The Black Swan is a very old pub in York, in the north of England. Many people say there is a ghost in it: a woman in a long gray dress.

Tom worked behind the bar. He didn't believe in ghosts. "It's just a story for the tourists," he always said. One cold night in November, the last customers left at midnight. Tom locked the door and started to wash the glasses.

Outside, it was raining. Tom was drying a glass when he heard footsteps above his head. He stopped. Nobody was upstairs. He was alone in the pub.

"Hello?" he called. Nobody answered. He walked to the stairs. While he was looking up into the dark, the lights started to go on and off. Tom's heart was beating very fast.

He took out his phone and called his friend Emma, who lived next door. "Emma, please come now. I think the ghost is here!" Five minutes later, Emma was standing at the door in her pajamas, with an umbrella in her hand. "Where is it?" she whispered.

They climbed the stairs together. The footsteps were coming from a small door in the ceiling. Tom opened it slowly. Two green eyes were looking at him in the dark. Then something jumped out and landed on Emma's head!

It was a cat: a big, fat, orange cat. It was living in the roof, and at night it often walked over the wires of the lights. That was why the lights were going on and off. "So this is your ghost," said Emma, and she laughed.

Tom gave the cat some milk, and it slept by the fire all night. Now the cat lives in the pub, and its name is Ghost. But sometimes, late at night, Tom still hears footsteps upstairs, and Ghost is sleeping by the fire.