�Ghost story!� the children chanted in unison. �We want a ghost story!�
�Oh no. Enough stories for tonight, it�s time for bed! Come along now.� The mother said, pushing the children quickly towards the door.
�Oh please mum.� Begged one child, a young girl. �It�s Halloween! Just one more story, please?� The mother sighed and sat back down, to much screaming and cheering from the children.
�Okay then, but just one.� The circled here: staring intensely and hanging on her every word. �Now this story that I�m going to tell you, it�s one that my mother told me when I was a little girl, no older than yourselves. It�s a tale of what happened to a friend of hers-�
�So it is a true story?� Gasped a little girl.
�Ah yeh, I�ve heard that one before!� Sighed an older boy. He didn�t believe in ghost tails, magic or any such things. Far too grown up for anything like that.
�I�m not saying you have to believe it Tom, I�m just saying what my mother told me. Now if you are quite finished with your bike ring I will begin�
This story begins on a stormy night on April 28th 2003 in a place not so far from here, a place called Holby. It�s the tale of one man and one woman whose love for each other is so strong that nothing could keep them apart, not even-�
�Snore.� Shouted Tom. �Just get on with the story will you?�
�Okay okay. It was late one night when the car pulled up outside the broken down old house. The lights were off and the whole of the street was deserted but inside the car a woman was wide away. She had just arrived back in the country from Germany where she had run to to try and block out the memories of a terrible thing that had happened to her. She had run and run, trying to forget her past and move on with her life but something, something deep down inside of her would never let her forget. And that was why she had come back. To try and confront her fears with the help of the only man she had ever loved.
�The only problem was that she hadn�t seen this man in two years. How would he react, would he still love her, would things between them be the same or would he have found someone else? All these questions ran around and around in the poor girls mind as she sat alone in her car. Her heart was thumping so loud that it would wake the dead. She was afraid and unsure of what to do but a voice deep inside her was telling her what to do, guiding the way. Quickly she tore a piece of paper from a notebook buy her side and grabbed a pen. She would write to him, ask him how he felt, whether he still loved her like she loved him. But no words came to mind, nothing could help her express the joy and safety that she felt in his arms and the fear and loneliness she had felt for all those years trapped away from him, trapped in her own mind. Her own fear. While she was thinking of all these memories her hand had begun to write down words she didn�t even know she knew. Lyrics to a song that her mother had sung to her when she was no more than a small child: but had stuck with her ever since.
�I'm coming home I've done my time
And I have to know what is or isn't mine
If you received my letter
Telling you I'd soon be free
Then you'd know just what to do
If you still want me
If you still want me
Oh tie a yellow ribbon
'Round the old oak tree
It's been two long years
Do you still want me?
If I don't see a yellow ribbon
'Round the old oak tree
I'll stay on the bus, forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don't see a yellow ribbon
'Round the old oak tree
Bus driver please look for me
'Cause I couldn't bare to see what I might see
I'm really still in prison
And my love he holds the key
A simple yellow ribbon's all I need to set me free
I wrote and told him please
Oh tie a yellow ribbon
'Round the old oak tree
It's been two long years
Do you still want me?
If I don't see a yellow ribbon
'Round the old oak tree
I'll stay on the bus, forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don't see a yellow ribbon
'Round the old oak tree
Now the whole damn bus is cheering
And I can't believe I see
A hundred yellow ribbons
'Round the old, the old oak tree
Tie a ribbon 'round the old oak tree
�She smiled as she gazed over the finished copy. Perfect. Quickly she scrambled out of the car and ran towards the house of the man she loved. When she reached the step she paused for a second, planted a delicate kiss on one side of the note and posted it through the letterbox. Sure that it would reach him and that once he read it he would know she had felt for all those years she had been alone. With a skip in her step she turned back to the car, ready to drive off towards the oak tree and wait for her love. As she did there was a huge raw of thunder that awoke the whole street. A great shout from the heavens at the injustice of the world.
�For he would not get the letter, this love of hers. He was gone. Gone to a place where no message would reach him and no note would ever be read. He was dead. No one had thought to tell her, the only woman he had ever cared for, she had been erased from history as if she never existed. She never knew and she could never mourn him. She could never forget and never grieve. Instead she was left hanging in the air, living in false hope and wondering about all the calls that never came and all the letters she never received. She could now never stop wondering what she had done so wrong or why he wanted to hurt her so much.
�Eventually she reached the tree. The only oak tree in the whole of Holby: right outside the hospital where they used to work together. She sat down on the bench opposite and waited for him to come with an expectant smile on her face. Slowly the minutes passed and her smile faded. The hours passed and the light grew dimmer. The days passed and the tears fell silently down her cheeks. Never did she leave that bench, never loosing faith that one day her love would come and set her free. Even when eventually her body could no longer cope with the waiting she stayed, hoping and praying for him to come. All she needed was him. It is said that even today you can see her walking the corridors of A+E searching in vain for the man she lost so long ago. If you listen in a quiet moment late at night you will hear her beating heart as it slowly breaks and her quiet sobs as she realises he�s not coming back.
�Go. Go and sit by the old oak tree and you will feel part of what they felt. You will know that no matter how far apart they are, how many years have passed that there will still be a bond between them that can never be broken. If you believe in the spark that all could see then you will know that each year on April 28th her cries will get louder and his thunder will reach further until one day they will reach each other and be together. One love forever more because the spell may be broken but the magic is unbreakable. Soon they will be together. When the yellow ribbon is round the old oak tree.�