JoshuaVanderwillik

=Horatio=

Septermber 3

When Bernardo and Marcellus said they had a ghost to show me, I didn't believe them at all. Yet, that night, there it stood. I was astonished, and terrified too. I couldn't believe such a thing could actually exist. The next night, it appeared again. This time I dared to speak to it. I wouldn't answer me though, but it looked exactly like my dear friend Hamlet's father. His father was the king of Denmark. Well, before he was killed, anyway. Regardless, I knew we had to tell Hamlet right away, I mean, this was his father. Surely a father wouldn't ignore his own son.

When I found him the next day to tell him the news, he seemed quite upset by his mother's marriage. I missed the good old days. When we were kids, we had such fun together. We'd play games cause trouble. In some ways it didn't matter that he was the prince, we were still best friends. In other ways it mattered very much. We could get into so much trouble, and we wouldn't really get punished, because he's royalty. All that changed when his father died. He got so withdrawn and he wouldn't really talk to me anymore. Then his mom married his uncle a few short months after his father's death. I sympathized with that pain. It must be weird to have your uncle as your new stepfather.. He seems so sad, so I try to do what I can for him. I thought the possibility of talking to his father, his real one, would cheer him up. He seemed quite taken back by the idea, but he agreed to come along and check it out.

That night, while we were out on watch, the new king of Denmark started celebrating wildly. Hamlet seemed pretty bitter about all this. I don't think he accepts his uncle as the new king. While we were talking about it, the ghost of his father appeared again. Hamlet yelled for the ghost's attention, but the ghost didn't say anything. It just motioned for Hamlet to follow. We tried to convince Hamlet not to go, lest the spirit of his father turn out to be some sort of evil spirit. Hamlet didn't care very much by the looks of it though. He followed anyway. I said the encounter was in God's hands now, but Marcellus convinced me to follow along and make sure Hamlet wasn't hurt or worse.

As soon as they got to a darker area, the ghost told Hamlet that he was indeed his father, and that he had been murdered. He was murdered by none other than Hamlet's uncle Claudius! I couldn't believe my ears. Hamlet promised to avenge his father, then we all went home. The last couple of days has been really weird. I hope this is the end of all this. I can't wait for life to go back to normal.

Confused, Horatio