Poultrygeist

I knelt down on the front walk with a wrench, loosening the bolt on Tif's wheelchair. Behind me, she sat in the porch chair and watched.

"Are you going to be able to raise that footplate?" she asked.

"I should be. These bolts are tight; it'll take a little while, but it can be done."

"I think I saw my cat last night."

"You saw him?" Tif's cat had died recently at the age of twenty-one. At her request, we'd brought him up to the house and buried him in the backyard.

"I would swear I did. He looked like in his younger days. Could he be haunting the apartment?"

"I wouldn't rule it out," I admitted. "I've dealt with pet hauntings before. All mammals, I've noticed. If you look at the credible reports, hell, even if you look at the old legends, they're all mammals."

Tif thought that over. "That's true, isn't it? You don't hear of lizards...."

"Right, no lizards, fish, birds ever haunting anything. It's always dogs, cats, horses. I've had a lot of experience with that."

"Can you check it out for me? Can you come up sometime and find out?"

"I can bring up some of my equipment and take a look," I said. "Let me know when."

It was getting dark earlier and earlier as the days went by. I love autumn. I walked out on my porch and across to next door, knocking on the door.

The woman who was staying there came to the door---Little Serina's aunt. I said,"Hi, Twila. Do you have a moment? I wanted to ask you something."

"Oh, sure," she said, stepping out onto the porch.

"I saw the fundraiser online to raise money for the burial, when your baby died," I said. "I am so sorry. That's heartbreaking."

"Thank you," she said.

"You haven't gotten to know me very well, but I'm a tour guide," I said. "Sometimes I do tours to raise money for good causes. I wanted to ask if I could do one for you, and see about bringing in some money."

"Oh, thank you," she said. "Yes."

"I did one for a girl with cancer down the street, a couple of years ago," I said. "I raised a few hundred. I can't promise tons and tons of money, but I can get a bit for you."

"Anything will help," she said. "Even five dollars will help."

I smiled. "I think I can do better than five dollars."

I love giving tours of Lock Haven. Getting out there and walking around my city, showing people how special it is....It's the closest I come to really being me. 

I was waiting at the corner as everyone showed up. It was getting dark, and the moon was rising over the Bald Eagle Mountains. A car pulled up, and I was pleased to see Chloe get out with a friend of hers. She gave me a hug.

"Good to see you, kid," I said. "Thanks for coming."

"I love your tours," she said.

"How old are you now? Fifteen, sixteen in May?"

She grinned. "You got it. Fifteen, sixteen in May."

"When you turn eighteen, I want you to join LHPS," I said. "I won't take no for an answer."

"You won't have to. I'd love that."

"Well, let's get started," I said to the small group. "My name is Lou, and I'll be your tour guide tonight."

We walked down the street, me stopping to point out the haunted and historic homes along the way. A few minutes later, we were stopping in front of my house, and I was telling the story of Ida Yost, the way I always do.

"I always tell this one on my tours," I said. "This one is special to me....Because this one is mine. I moved into this house this month in 2003. I did the historic research, got back as far as 1905, and found Ida Yost."

We walked up the block, telling stories of an abandoned community, the Jersey Devil, the Bald Eagle Mountains, and the old Great Island Cemetery. Circled back around to the beginning point. As everyone started to disperse, Chloe said,"Lou, can I take you aside a moment before we leave?"

'Sure," I said, and we stepped off a bit down the sidewalk.

Chloe looked a bit nervous. "I don't want to seem like I'm trying to get attention, but...."

I put my hand on her arm. "Chloe, you're my apprentice and my friend. I trust you."

I genuinely do. Chloe is one of the smartest, most reliable teens I know.

"When we were at your house, I thought I saw a silhouette in the upstairs window," she said. "It looked like someone might have been up there."

"That's our bedroom window," I said. "I don't think my wife would have been in there while I was gone, but I'll check. Could be you saw something."

"It wasn't anything scary," she said. "It looked like a blurry sort of figure. I definitely felt a sense of security there....I'm not sure if I was feeling Ida, or if it's because I know it's your place."

"Well, I'm glad you felt safe," I said. "Could be that you're the first person ever to see Ida on one of my tours."

She smiled. "That's pretty cool."

It was dark when I got to the doughnut shop on Bellefonte Avenue. The kind of dark that happens in the fall, about five PM. Ashlin was waiting at a table for me. Paul and I sat down with our drinks.

"Thanks for meeting with me," I said as I sat down with my coffee. "Tim dropped me from SPI because I won't work with psychics, and Millie doesn't seem to be talking to me. I'm not about to go telling anyone to choose sides, but I won't compromise my principles, either."

Ashlin nodded. "I'm Team LHPS all the way."

"I appreciate that. Though Tim can remove me from SPI, leader of LHPS is an elected position. Which means that the only one who can take me out of LHPS at the moment is you."

Ashlin rolled her eyes. "Right, Lou. You're outa here."

"And, of course, this leaves you as the second in command."

She looked at me with some alarm. "Wait, what? We gotta recruit some new members!"

"I think we do. Not that I have any objection to working with you specifically. But we do need a bigger, more versatile team. I'm thinking between four and seven people. If you have any suggestions, I'm happy to consider them."

Ashlin shook her head. "I don't know all that many people."

"I want to vary the age ranges a bit, so you're not forced to hang out with old people all the time."

"Lou. I go to Bingo like six times a month. You really think I have a problem spending time with old people?"

"I have a couple of thoughts. Maybe a couple of the Teen Paranormal kids, grown now. And there's one kid I know....She's fifteen, and it's really too bad we have the eighteen-year-old rule, because she's brilliant."

Ashlin grinned. "Well, it's just you and me now. We can make our own rules."
I grinned back. "I guess we can, can't we?"

My phone rang while I was at work. Paul, of course. I picked up the phone and said,"Hey, kid. How's it going?"

"Can you pick me up at Sissy's house after work? I came down here because you and Mom aren't home." Paul had two days off from school, I was working, and Michelle was out of town on a business trip. 

"Sure, I can meet you there. Enjoying your day off?"

"Yeah. I went to McDonald's, and then Genevieve's house. And then Sissy took me to KFC. I think it's haunted."

"What makes you say that?"

"I saw a black shape while I was eating."

"Well, if you like, we can eat dinner there Wednesday and check it out."
"Yeah!"
"Tell your sister I'll be over after work. Tell her I can check her place for ghosts if she'd like."

Paul was on the couch when I got there, which is his usual position. I set my pack down and took of my jacket, and got out the digital recorder and the EMF detector.

"I'm just gonna let this run," I said, turning on the recorder. "Jude was a very vocal cat, so maybe we'll catch him yowling. I'll review the recording later." I turned to Tif. "Paul says he saw something at KFC. Might be haunted."

"Sure, by the ghosts of thousands of dead chickens."

"Poultrygeist." I turned on the EMF detector and walked around the apartment. "The property used to be the home of the Clinton County Times, so there are some possibilities there. They wrote articles about ghosts all the time. Not getting much. He liked to be on the bed, didn't he?"

"That and the wheelchair," said Tif.

I ran the detector around the bed. Paul pointed out,"It was always the old wheelchair." Tif had recently gotten a new one, and the old one was in the corner. I walked out and moved the EMF detector around the chair, not getting any readings. I switched to the thermometer and tried it again.

"This is interesting."

"You got something?" Tif asked.

"I'm getting a temperature drop. Four degrees, which isn't much, but your place is pretty warm and consistent. This might be something." I walked around the room taking readings. "It's consistently about seventy-five. But over there...." I tried it again. "Now it's gone."

"He used to jump off the chair and go hide in the closet."

"Maybe he's still here," I said.

I've always wanted to have a secret office in a basement or something. Working at the print shop, I'd achieved that. I had an office with a small desk, a computer, a recliner, a bulletin board, little red lights running the ceiling, and all the space I needed for whatever paranormal escapade I had going. I sat down in my chair and dialed Chloe.

"Chloe," I said,"Would you be interested in joining LHPS?"

She gasped. "I definitely would! I don't know how much help I'd be as just a fifteen year old, but I'd gladly do what I could!"

"You're not 'just' anything," I said. "I talked it over with my partner last night, and we agreed to bend the age rule."

"Thank you so much! What can I do to help LHPS?"

"You can help me with historical research,  help during investigations, and pretty much anything else you can think of to contribute. "And I couldn't wait to see what she could come up with.

"So what did you see?" I asked. Paul and I were sitting at KFC, which definitely did not sponsor this episode. We were eating our sandwiches, our last night before Michelle came home.

"I saw a little boy, over there, where they order. But Sissy and me were the only people in the place."
"Well, this was the site of a local newspaper. They reported on ghosts all the time, so you never do know. Before that, it was a gas station, and before that, the parking lot for a laundry building."

"Is this on your tours?"
"I hung a flyer up on the bulletin board over there. Sometimes I walk up this far, but I'm not sure about it this year."

I had my EMF detector out on the table. I said,"Maybe I should come in with the team sometime."

"And me."

"And you. You know, I've really been enjoying the last few days with you, buddy."
"Me, too," said Paul.

I stood up to throw out the garbage. I found my tour flyer on the floor---It was lying near where I'd hung it up on the bulletin board. 

I smiled as I picked it up.

"Maybe there is a ghost, after all."

That night, I walked out the front door and over to the porch next door. Knocked on the door.

Twila answered it. I handed her an envelope.

"Here you go," I said. "There's a hundred and forty dollars in there from my tours. I hope this helps."

She smiled. "I'm sure it will. Thank you. Can I give you a hug?"

"Of course," I said, and she hugged me. "I'm glad I could help."

"Thank you again," she said.