Page 28 of Ghost
“Oh man, I love lasagna,” Paul said, rubbing his belly.
“Me too.”Mitch stood up, keeping the toes of his injured foot off the floor.“Owie, owie, owie,” he complained as he hobbled towards the back door.“Can someone bring that chair?”
BysomeoneMitch meant Mason, seeing as Paul was already out the door, with Nick right behind him.“Sure, Hopalong,” Mason snickered.“Don’t get used to this.I ain’t yor momma!”
Nick hung out for a bit, making sure everything was good, which it was.Fantastic actually.By the end of lunch, they were all so full, they could hardly move.
“Damn, that was good,” Paul said, stretching, his legs out in front of him.“Hell, I need a nap after all that food.”
“Yeah, I hear ya,” Mitch agreed, yawning.
“Come on, guys,” Mason said getting up.“We don’t have time for naps.There’s a shitload more work to get done.”
“Slave driver.”Mitch took the bag of ice off his foot and examined it.
Mason stood and looked at Mitch’s foot.“Man, it ain’t even bruised.”
Mitch scowled at him.“It still hurts, ya know.”
Paul laughed.“Wimp.”He pulled up his pants, his bit of belly keeping them from staying up.Knowing that he’d get a rise out of Mitch, he added, “Get your skinny ass up.”
Mitch stood up.“I keep tellin’ ya, I don’t have no skinny ass.”He smiled brightly.“And Mason here thinks I’m beautiful.”
Mason sighed dramatically.“I’m regretting saying that already.Come on, let’s try and get this wiring finished.I’ve already got the inspection scheduled, and the power company is coming right after to put in a new meter.”
They all worked hard the rest of the afternoon.Mitch was feeding wires down from the main level of the house, Mason pulled them, then pushed them out to Paul who was doing the wiring in to the panel box.
“I’m going to leave plenty of open circuits for when we do the kitchen,” Paul said.“We only have a little bit of wire left and I don’t think there’ll be enough to even start on the kitchen.”
Mason grunted, pulling down some of the wiring.“That’s okay, I guess.Won’t have the funds to do anything up there anyway, just so long as there is enough to get a little kitchenette down here.”
“Yeah, we got enough for that, but just barely.”Paul stuck his head inside the door from outside.“I gotta run over to my truck and get that box of breakers.I’ll be right back.”
“Sure, no problem,” Mason said, untangling some of the wire.“I’ll go check on our invalid.”
Paul laughed as he walked away.“Damn wimp.”
Mason turned to go up the stairs, only to be met by the angry woman ghost.She was standing there, her arms raised, but she didn’t charge him this time.
“Listen, lady, I’m here to stay, so you might as well get used to it,” Mason said, sighing.“And just to let you know, you stink!”
That set her off.She screeched and came at him, but Mason was ready for her.As she got close, he dodged and squatted, and she passed right by him.That seemed to piss her off even more.She came back at him; her hands were now throwing punches in his direction.Mason shook his head and dodged her again.
“You know, you could just go away.”Mason looked behind himself, the backdoor just a few steps away.“You ol’ stink pot.You smell like something dead, which you most certainly are!”
She screamed again and charged.
Bingo, Mason thought as he quickly stepped back and out the door, keeping his eyes on the old hag.
When she’d reached the doorway, it looked as if she’d hit a wall, even though the door was open.He had suspected as much, not that he knew why he knew.She was trapped in the house and couldn’t get through the door.She howled with frustration, while Mason stood just on the other side.
“Hmm, I guess you’ll not be able to enjoy any of this wonderful sunshine,” Mason taunted.
She stood there or hovered or...whatever it was she was doing.The look on her face was pure evil fury.
“Who the hell are you anyway?”Mason asked, looking at her up close for the first time.“Why not just tell me?I know you can talk.Hell, you sure can scream!”
The woman appeared to be breathing heavy, which made no sense to Mason.She screeched again, and then disappeared.
