Part 2

In the first part of the story, Erin had just moved to a small new town with his father following the death of his mother.  We left him walking into his first day on a new job, and being told some odd news. 

“The ghost is acting up again,” the woman behind the counter said again.  The tag on her vest said “Randy.”  Erin stared at her, waiting for her to crack a smile and make it clear that she was joking.  She didn’t, so maybe she wasn’t…

“Wait—Randy?”  Erin started.

“Huh?”  she looked at him in confusion, then followed his eyeline down to her nametag.  “Oh,” she said.  “My name’s not Randy.  I’m Chantelle,” she said.  She didn’t offer any further explanation, but handed him a similar vest, this one with a tag that said “Ryan.”  He took it from her and put it on.  As he started to take the nametag off, she stopped him.

“It’s easier when you have a name.  We’ll make you one soon…Ryan!”  She finally laughed.  It broke the tension a little, though he was still weirded out.

“Ha,” he said.  “So, what’s the ghost you were—”

Chantelle cut him off.  “Follow me,” she said.

They tracked a course through the inside of the store, past stacked boxes of snacks and brake fluid and fishing supplies and who knew what else.  They went past the freezer storage and out a door that led to an alley that ran alongside the building. As they rounded a final corner, Erin suddenly stopped and let out a sound he hoped Chantelle hadn’t heard.

Once she started snorting with laughter, he guessed she must have.  

In front of him was a strange, translucent figure.  There was no other way to explain it than to say it looked like a ghost, slowly moving in the darkness and lighting up the area around it.  From this angle, he realized he must be looking at what had been an empty window in the front of the building.

“That’s Ryan,” Chantelle said.

Realizing that the “ghost” had been performing a loop of the same action over and over, he cautiously approached it.  Chantelle’s smug and distinct lack of terror also signaled to him that whatever was going on was not a mortal threat.

“It’s called a Pepper’s Ghost,” she said, as he approached the glass window.  The figure moved back and forth on its surface, and he reached out and tapped it.  No reaction, of course.

A projected light from behind him was blocked as he moved to the other side of the window, and he was briefly covered with the image of “Ryan.”  It was probably his imagination, but he felt a chill as the light passed over him.  

“The light reflects on to the window and looks like it’s in the room.  It how they do the Disneyland Haunted House,” she said, still chuckling.

“The Haunted Mansion,” Erin corrected.  

Chantelle rolled her eyes.  “Uh huh.”

As he came to grips with what the “ghost” was, he had more questions that anything.  Why did this convenience store have a ghost special effect anyway?  Why was it running in the middle of the summer, as opposed to say, Halloween?  Who had decided it was a good idea for a town of a few thousand people?  

“So…” he started, unsure which question to ask first.  He settled on the one that had brought them here in the first place.  “You said it was ‘acting up?’  What do you mean?”

Chantelle gave him a long look, then she walked over to a long cord nearby on the ground and held it up.  It was not plugged in to anything.  “This is the only power supply back here.  It hasn’t been turned on for weeks,” she said.

He instinctively moved back from the glass.  “You mean…?”  he started, unsure what he was actually planning to say of it came to it.

“I don’t mean anything.  Just what I said,” Chantelle grunted, kicking the projector with her size ten or eleven Hey Dudes.  Her kick demonstrated that the power supply cord was not currently plugged into anything.  Nevertheless, the projector was clearly shining out into the growing darkness.  

“It’s probably got a, uh, solar power backup or something,” Erin said.  

Chantelle managed to roll her eyes without even opening them.  “Sure,” she said. “It doesn’t matter that much.  That’s not even the real problem.”

“Ok,” Erin said.  The low thrumming of trucks on the freeway was constant, but a distinct carrier of that sound seemed to peel off the main bulk and move in their direction.  As headlights lit up the front lot, Chantelle sighed.  

“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said, heading for the entrance.  

“But wait!” Erin shouted.  “What’s the actual problem then?  You said—”

Chantelle turned as she opened the door back inside.  “That ‘ghost’ we’ve been calling Ryan isn’t the one on the projector.  Until the other day, we’ve never seen him before.”  She turned and went inside, leaving Ryan alone with his thoughts and the ‘ghost.’

Part 3 will be coming when space next permits!