Guess What's Coming To Dinner?

I walked into the small bistro and looked around. The girl at the counter said,"Welcome to Jumangi Bistro. Can I help you?"

"I was wondering if the owner might have a moment," I said.

She called into the back room. "Can you talk? It's the guy from historical---"

"Oh, yes! Send him back!"

I walked back into the little office to find a pleasant-looking woman sitting there. I said,"I got your message this morning, and since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I'd touch base."

"Thank you for coming! I don't want you thinking I'm crazy...."

"I hear a lot of that. Don't worry."

"We've had some things happen here, and I'd like you to check it out. I've seen some ghosts, and a woman saw a little girl. She won't eat here anymore."

"I'll be happy to talk to my team and schedule an investigation. We can keep it as confidential as you'd like...."

"Oh, I don't mind. Will you be writing about it? It could be good for business."

"I've known that to happen. I will say, a few years ago I investigated the apartment building across the street, and the parking lot over there has really high electromagnetic fields. It can make a hunted place seem worse, and make people really anxious in a non-haunted place. Right now, with the streetlights coming on around four-thirty, that could be having an effect."

"Oh, that's interesting. I've had some things happen at my house, too. Will you come and check that out?"

I smiled. "Sure. I'll talk to the team."

"Name a time."
"We usually do Saturdays."

"This coming Saturday is Valentine's Day."

"No, not this one. I was thinking the next one. Seven PM?"

"We'll still have customers in here. Is that okay?"
"We'll work around them. Could be good for business."

"I agree. Can I advertise it?"
"Don't see why not."

On my way out, a man at a table called over. "Hey! We had the house out on Great Island. Remember that one?"

"Oh, it's been a few years! I remember investigating that one. How have you been?"

I can't go anywhere.

"Babe, can you set the spirit box to seven point seven?" Jay called from the kitchen. "I'm grating the cheese."

I love being able to hear things like that.

I was at Lex and Jay's place. We'd decided to get together and have some time before the investigation. I'd gotten bored and come down a couple of hours early, and I'd been around long enough now that a couple of their seventeen or so cats were taking turns on my lap.

"Chloe can't make it tonight," I said,"But Ashlin will be here after work. We'll head over to the restaurant in time to investigate. I've been advertising it to the public; I get people all the time asking about coming on an investigation. If we don't get a crowd, I'm gonna be pissed."

"Well, we have people who are going to be there," said Lex. 

"I'm hoping we can bring some business in for them."

"What do we know about the history of the place?" Jay asked me.

"The property used to be the Keller Hotel. It was built in 1863. By the early 1900s, it had changed to the Russell Hotel and was run by Frank Bowes. He died in the 1930s at age fifty-three, so he's a candidate to be haunting the place. Of course, with a hotel, you can't always tell who may have checked in and died there---Unless I stumble on anything in the newspapers, there's no record of that."

"Yeah, that makes sense," said Lex.

"So we'll go down tonight, and see what we get."

"I love these ones we can walk to,"Lex said as we headed down Main Street. "Together in our uniforms. I feel so badass."

I grinned. "There's the ice cream," I said.

We walked across the street. In the middle of the sidewalk was an embedded marble shape that resembled a block of ice cream, with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. Lex grinned. "Oh, yeah, I see it."

"This was an ice cream place once. The owner loved it so much he put this here as a little monument." 

We walked down and around the corner, to the restaurant. Through the front windows, I could see a crowd inside. I smiled.

"Let's go in."

"Okay, guys, get photos, get some EMF readings, get a baseline," I said. "Photos from every angle. Let's document this."

I turned to the assembled crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for coming tonight. We're the Lock Haven Paranormal Seekers, and we're here or do an investigation. To those of you who expected us tonight, thanks for coming, and to the rest of you, we apologize for interrupting your dinner. Please feel free to ask questions and talk to any of our team."

"What's that you're using?" one guy asked me.

"This is an EMF detector. It measures electricity and magnetism. Now, you have to be careful you're not getting something from cables or outlets or something, but this can be a sign that something paranormal may be going on."

Jay was setting her bell up behind me, and she had her spirit box out. The guy asked,"What's that thing?"
"Jay? You wanna explain?"

Jay stepped forward. "This....well....It's a spirit box. It gets sounds and radio waves, and sometimes picks up on voices."

"Are you a member of the team?" someone asked Ashlin.

"Yeah, I'm just real quiet."

"I want to check out EMFs in the parking lot across the street," I said. "A few years ago, we had an investigation over there, and it turned out there were really outrageously high EMFs when the streetlights came on. That seemed to be affecting the family there. I want to see how far the EMFs reach. Who wants to come along?"

"I could step outside," said Ashlin.

"I'll go along," said Jay.

"Lex, you hold the fort here," I said.

"But I'm a menace."

"I have every faith in you."

We walked outside. As we crossed Grove Street, Jay said,"I see you trying to push me out of my comfort zone there."

"Well, I wasn't sure that was out of your comfort zone. But you did fine. We do public appearances sometimes, but I do most of the talking. I think Ashlin's said like three words at these things."
Ashlin grinned. "That's about right."

The parking lot was lit up, and the second we approached, our EMF detectors spiked high. MOne began beeping urgently. Jay said,"Whoa."
"Yeah, see what I mean? This has to be affecting the people who live in that building. If they can reach across the street, it might affect Jumangi, too."

We walked back. The levels dropped as we went back across. I said,"Okay, let's get back inside and provide the night's entertainment."

The bell went off again, Uner Jay's supervision, it had been somewhat acrive all night. Jay was at a nearby table, talking with a couple of the customers. Ashlin was on one side of the room, taking EMF readings, and I saw Lex kneeling by a table, talking to a little girl and her mom. I was circulating the room, taking readings and photos and pausing to answer questions from the customers. 

It was past eight PM; that had snuck up on me a bit. It had been an active night---We'd gotten fluctuations in temperature, EMF readings, and audio. 

"Have you ever faced anything....Well....Malevolent?" a man asked me.

"Well, kind of," I said. "We've checked out the old jail, which has criminals, and there's no reason to think death has made them any nicer. But what I get asked a lot is things like demons, but my stock answer there is that we're not, scientifically, there yet. You can't classify things until you can prove they exist, and we haven't yet done that with ghosts."

Jay came up behind me. "JJ is outside. Want to talk to her?"

"Yeah, I probably should check in."
We walked outside together. The owner was sitting in the passenger seat of her car, taking a smoke break. I said,"How's it going?"

"It's been crazy, but that's a good thing. Thanks for coming tonight. How's it going with you?"

"Good investigation. I'm prepared to classify your place as a Class Three haunted location."

"Will you be posting the results on social media?"

"With your permission."

"Oh, yes. Go ahead. I'd like to have you come to my home, too."

"I'll be in touch to arrange that. We'd be glad to."

"I got a call from my uncle tonight. He saw you through the window and asked if I needed help. He's a lawyer. He thought you were ICE and waving a gun around."

I cringed a little. "Jesus. That was my laser thermometer. I even changed my outfit so I wouldn't look so much Ike an ICE agent. Sorry about that."

"It's okay. I told him we had ghost hunters in the building."

"Well, it's been a good investigation. We're glad to be here."
"Would you be willing to do something like this again?"
"Sure we would."

When I got back inside, I saw the little girl with her mom at the table. I knelt down and said,"Having a good time?"

She nodded. "Yeah!"

"Good. I'm glad. How old are you?"
"I'm eight."

"Oh, yeah? You go to Robb Elementary?"
"No, I'm home schooled."

"Oh, okay. Cool." I pulled the ghost patch off my bandolier and handed it to her. "Well, take this. I now declare you to be an official ghost hunter. Put that on something."
She smiled and put it in her pocket. I said to the mom,"Thanks for coming tonight."

It was dark and cold when we left. Carrying our equipment, we headed back over toward Jay and Lex's place. As we walked, Jay said,"That was great."
"It was a good night," I agreed. "I'm going to have trouble getting to sleep for a while."
"Me too. I'm not even going to try."

Lex grinned as we walked down Main Street. "You know, I can't think of anyone else I'd rather do this with."