Sunday, May 18, 2008

Seeing Ghosts

Well I have made it to week two.

This weeks prompt comes again from Mode Room Press. See their link to the side.

Imagine a man who has visions of ghosts
With a terminal illness
beyond the window is a Sylvan scene
the scoundrels line the wharves
while the insomniac holds a candle in the dark.











Download and listen to Audio for Seeing Ghosts


Seeing Ghosts.

Jacob has seen things all his life, but it was not until recently that he had known what they were. It was on his fifty second birthday that he was diagnosed with what he called terminal lung rot. As he walked out of the Doctor's office he saw something pass in front of him, just for a moment, and then it was gone. He followed it with his eyes not wanting to see anything in the real word, and it formed a few feet off and stared at him.
It was a man in a striped suit of the kind that was popular a few years before. He carried a briefcase in his left hand and had a ancient looking cell phone in his right, that until he has spotted Jacob he had been talking into.
"Damn thing gets horrible reception in the city," The man had said.
"They always do." It was then that Jacob saw it. There was a hole in the mans suit... No not in his suit, right threw him.
"Just got the Diagnosis did you?" The man said noticing Jacob stare.
"What?"
"You just found out about the impending end right? Am I the first ghost you have seen?"
"Yes," he answered not quite believing the conversation.
"Well you will see a few more of us. It always happens to people who are in tune to the universe. As soon as they know they are going to die things start to come into focus. But do try not to stare, I don't mind but there are those that find it very rude." He smiled at Jacob then and walked through the wall in to the office building.
That had been three months ago. It was hard not to stare at some of them, the ones that carried parts of their bodies around. The severed heads where the hardest. That was why he had to leave the city. Every where he turned there were more of them, men, women and children, all a with their particular method of death exposed to the world. He could not stand it any more. But the worst the absolute worst were the wharves. He made the mistake of going down there one evening to get some fish for dinner. There where the usual scoundrels until he looked closer and noticed that many of them had knife or bullet wounds. The sailors that had died at sea, skin green and fish eaten. The Slaves whose bodies had been dumped in heaps hanged or whipped to death, There were even a few men with bucket shaped concert around their feet. All of them seemed to know that he, unlike the rest of the population, could see them and so they spoke to him. He had to get out.
He had, had a hard time getting the financing, too many people already knew he was going to die and had nothing to leave behind. His real estate broker had even been able to see the dead as well, and they warned her about him. He thought at first this would be to his benefit having someone else that could understand his plight but she was as uncaring as the dead. In the end he was able to buy a house in upstate New York, out in the country away from most people. The scene outside his windows was beautiful, the farms and pasture land all around, but even here there was too much history. He did not see as many of the gruesome deaths, the killings or the maiming, but there were enough, the farm accidents and the older ones, from the fur traders and the native Americans before that. So long as he stayed in his home most of the time, he was ok, most of the time.
That was before the nearby farmer had come by. He was an older man, with a grey beard. Jacob was suspicious at first, but when he saw not obvious method of death, he let his guard down.
"Welcome to the area, my name is Brown, live down the road just a bit," He said holding out a plate of cookies. "My wife baked some cookies." Jacob reached his hand out tentatively and when his hand didn't pass right them he was relieved.
"Thank you."
"Sorry I have not come down sooner, but kind of a busy season. planting and all."
"I understand," He said relaxing quite a bit, he had not talked with some one in a while who was not a ghost.
"This land that your house is on used to belong to my father, but we sold off some of it a few years back and they split it up and built houses. At least it is not a subdivision."
"I certainly understand that. I have seen enough of those."
"Well listen I need to get back to work, but if you ever need any help around here, let me know. Oh and don't tell my wife about the cookies, she don't know I took'em and I ate about half of them on the way down here," he said smiling mischievously. "The doctor says I have to stay off sweets but I don't listen to them any more." Jacob watched the man leave, walking down the driveway and across the field. He ate one of he cookies and truly enjoyed it. It had been on of the best human contacts he had made in a while, and for once he was not seeing a ghost.
"Brown works for me," The voice behind him said. The plate fell to the floor and shattered as the spirit pushed his way through Jacob. "Surprised you didn't see that he was one of us, but the plate and cookies probably threw you off."
Standing before Jacob now was without a doubt death itself. He looked just as the stories had described him with one difference, the cowl was not totally covering his face and Jacob could see into it's eyes.
"Don't worry that you can see my face. Today is not your day, but it will be soon, so it is of no consequence. I use Brown to help me find people like you. People who can see the dead. I can use people like you. Think about it. have you ever seen another dead holding a solid object? I gave that to him. His weakness was the cookies... so I gave them to him. in turn he scouts for me. He finds the ones I can take early, the ones who will work for me and the ones who won't."
"What do people do for you?"
"What does death do? They kill for me of course. They take the walking dead like you and hurry them along and a few they refer to me, like you."
"He kills people?"
"He can't do that, not really, but he can interact with the living in ways that makes things happen."
"Why?"
"Because he does not want to be stuck in hell... All the other dead you see live for ever with the pain of their deaths. They take their pain with them to the grave. Think about it Jacob, but not too long, you can't decide once you are dead." He disappeared then and he stood alone in his hallway, shattered plate on the floor.
That night he said in his bed, the candle by his bed, not able to sleep. He could hear all the voices of the dead in the area now, and he could feel death. He knew that death would never leave him now. Sleep would never come. He held the candle tightly in his hands trying to ward off the dark, and cried.


Creative Commons License
Seeing Ghosts by Jeffrey Hite is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at greathites.blogspot.com.

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