Food For Thought

I can't get enough of autumn. It's always been my favorite season. I watched the leaves fall around me as I biked to work, stopping for a moment at the church along Liberty Street.

It had a layer of decorative rocks covering the ground around the bushes. I knelt down, looking them over. I'd recently learned that the decorative rocks sometimes have fossils, thanks to the little neighbor girl who kept leaving them on my lawn. I began to examine them.

A guy from the ambulance building across the street came over.

"Lose your phone?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"Nope."

He frowned. "Then what are you looking for?"

"Fossils," I said.

He shook his head. "You're never going to find fossils in there. Those are just garden stones; they order them from some landscaping company. There's no fossils in there."

I spotted one of the right kinds of rock, picked it up and looked it over. Then I held it up.

"Found one," I said, and left.

"Dad," Paul called,"Someone at the door."

I turned down the chili I was cooking and went to the door. Rosie and Butters were going crazy, as dogs will. It turned out to be Tim and Devaughn, waiting for me.

"Hi, guys," I said. "What's up?"

Devaughn handed me a jacket. I looked it over. Nice, black, waterproof. With the Swartz Paranormal logo on the back.

"Thank you!" I said. "That was a fast turnaround. You just asked me about this yesterday."

"We have a screen printer," said Tim. "Vince has been getting a lot done before we head back to the haunted Foodapalooza."

"I've been sending documents about that."

"I saw," said Tim. "You are brilliant, my friend. I just open my phone and there's all these old maps and stuff."

"I found the map and worked backward," I explained. "I found out who owned the property in 1868, a family named Eyer. When I dug into where they were buried, I discovered that several of them died young. And, get this, they're buried in a small abandoned cemetery....Right around the corner from the Foodapalooza."

Tim nodded. "That's cool. We'll have to check that out."

"Well, we'll get our chance. Sunday night."

"Sunday night."

The kids had a stand out on the sidewalk, and were trying to sell stickers and bracelets. I set my bag down. "I'll be home probably after bedtime, little man. But if I get home late, I'll stop in your room and say goodnight, okay?"

Paul nodded. "Okay, Dad," he said.

"I wish we could go," said Love.

"This one's mainly for adults," I said. "I'll take you on an investigation soon."

She smiled. "Okay!"

The van pulled up on the street, with Vince driving. I said,"My ride's here. Gotta run. You guys have a good night."

I piled some stuff from the salad bar on my plate, because I have to watch my blood pressure. Then I added some meatballs and liver and some other stuff, because it looked good, and I sat back down with the team. We had me, Tim, Devaughn, Vince, Petey, Millie, and a new girl, Kristy.

"We'll split up again," said Tim. "Millie and Kristy, I want you two over at the restrooms. Vince, back in the kitchen. We'll be back here in this room. Lou, you supervise the restroom area and roam the dining room at large---You had some success with that last time."

I nodded. "It was pretty active."

"I'll have Brittany, our new psychic, on the phone doing some readings as I walk around," said Tim.
"Tim," I said.

"I know how you feel, Lou, but give her a chance. She hasn't seen any of your research yet, and I'll keep her clear of you."
I nodded without saying anything.

"You got anything?" Tim asked me.

"Not a whole lot. Planning my haunted tours in October," I said. "Of course you're all welcome. In fact, I think I'll see if they'll put up a flyer here."

"The staff says they went out to the abandoned cemetery you discovered the other night, Lou," said Tim. "In fact, they really enjoyed it. They never knew it was there before you found the records."

"How did they not know that? It's practically around the corner."

"When we're done with dinner, we'll talk to the staff," said Tim.

I got up to go get more meatballs.

We gathered in the dining room with the staff after closing. A couple of the waitresses were rolling silverware in napkins for tomorrow.

"Want some help with that?" I asked.

They glanced at each other. I got the distinct feeling that it wasn't a question they'd been asked a whole lot. "Sure," one said,"If you want."

I started rolling some napkins for them. After a couple of tries, I found myself getting pretty decent at it.

"We never knew that cemetery was there," said the manager. "We went and looked it over the other night, and we might just start helping to clean it up a bit."

"And you guys never knew it was there," I repeated.

"Nope, never heard of it before you turned it up. We might go on out there after work and explore."

"It's private property," said Tim. "Legally we can't encourage you to go out there. There could be injuries or trespassing charges."

"But you're all adults," I said. "So technically we can't exactly forbid you to go out there, either." And I winked. I kind of like having Tim in charge; it gives me a chance to be the rule-breaking rebel again like I used to. You can't really do that if you're the leader.

One of the waitresses grinned at me. "You're welcome to come along, if you'd like."

"I'd love that," I admitted,"But I have a little boy at home who doesn't really like to go to sleep if Daddy's not there." I showed her my wallet photo of Paul, and she smiled.

"By the way," I said,"I brought you guys something." I handed over a copy of two of my books---One a compilation of local haunted stories, and the other a manual for paranormal investigation.

"Let's get started," said Tim.

"I'll suit up," I said, and threw on the hood, gloves, and bandolier.

"Staff can split up and join us at our stations," said Tim. "We have some paperwork to fill out, and some extra equipment."
"I have a laser thermometer and and EMF detector," I said.

Two of the waitresses claimed my extra stuff. The manager turned down the lights, and we spread out throughout the restaurant.

I walked around with my EMF detector. It went off near the salad bar, and I checked the fluorescent lights. One of the waitresses asked,"Is that a problem?"

"Not now that I know what's causing it," I said. She shut the lights off.

I drifted around with the detector. I got a lot of random EMFs, just like last time we'd been in the place. Flickers and bursts, which would then disappear.

Millie was stationed over at the door to the restrooms. I drifted over in that direction.

"Your eyes match your shirt exactly, did you know?"

Millie looked down at her green uniform shirt. "I guess so! My eyes are green; I forgot."

"Doing okay?"

She nodded. "Just tired. Been on a new medication."

"Yeah, I get that. You know they're headed out to the lost cemetery after this? In the middle of the night. Wasn't too long ago I'd have gone with them."

"True. Remember Cedar Hill?"

"I remember Cedar Hill."

"You climbed into a mausoleum."

"I was there."

I'd remembered the gumball machines from last time around, and brought along a pocketful of quarters. I picked up a couple of superballs and a mini-Rubik's cube for Paul, who was going to love them.

There was a scream from the women's room. I moved over to the door and called in,"Everything okay in there?"

Two of the waitresses came out. "Yeah, we're okay," one explained. "One of the other people startled us in there. How do you guys stay so calm?"

"My stock answer is that it's not really scary," I said. "I realize that in the movies, it's always some terrifying ghost that's out to kill you, but that's because otherwise nobody would watch. In real life, it's usually much less frightening than that."

Tim walked by with his phone, scanning the room. I could hear the psychic on the line: "I'm getting a name....Anna or Annabelle, maybe Angela....."

I decamped for the kitchen. Two of the other waitresses were there, and I joined them by the sink.

"I'm getting more spikes on the EMF," I said. "What the hell?...."

"Could it be the microwave?"

"Let's see...." I moved the detector over to the microwave, and it spiked. I unplugged it, and it went down. But several feet away from the microwave, I was still getting flickers for no reason.

"Maybe have something paranormal here."

"So you're the guy who found the graveyard," she said.

I nodded. "You guys never knew about it before now?"

"We had no idea. Who knows that kind of thing?"

"I mean, I know every cemetery within five miles of my job, so....."

"Well, I thought it was pretty cool how you found that."

"I do a lot of research. It's important to be able to document your work." I was still steaming about the goddamn psychic.

"Do you think it was part of the farm that was here?"

"I think it very likely was; a lot of the people who lived on this property seem to be buried there. I was able to track some of the headstones."

The EMF detector spiked again, rising high and then dropping. I said,"It shouldn't be doing that. What the hell?"

"This is where we get a lot of activity," she said. "The ladles hanging there are always moving around."

"Well," I said,"Maybe we got a ghost here."

It was after eleven when I walked in the kitchen door and set my backpack down. I dropped my equipment bag on the floor as Butters came running up to greet me. I was thirsty; I poured myself a glass of water.

I heard little footsteps come running down the stairs, and Paul burst into the kitchen and hugged me.

And this is why I don't get involved in reckless stuff these days.

"I missed you, Daddy," he said, his face buried in my shoulder.

"Missed you too, little man," I said.

Best part of my night.