A Ghost Of Regulars

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1:00Kachava keeps you fueled and satisfied wherever your day takes you. Plus, it actually tastes delicious. No fillers, no nonsense. Just the good stuff, your body craves. And for the times you feel like switching it up, you've got seven flavors to choose from, all with the highest quality ingredients. Treat yourself to the flavor and nutrition your body craves. Go to kachava.com and use code fitness. New customers get 15% off their first order. That's k-a-c-h-a-v-a-dot-com code fitness. You wondering? He asked me, for what? I replied. He smiled and pulled back a chair with his cane then tapped the seat with it. His in-lips potted and he said to the regulus club. His cyboros went up and down like doing a little dance and the bespect gold eyes beneath them twinkled. I'd been stopping at Morning Bell for coffee every morning for a little over a month,

2:01same time every Wednesday. I'd noticed the two tables pushed together and surrounded by a group of old agentemen all beyond retirement age. They were all there every time I ordered my 16 ounce of mercano, but I'd never really paid any mind or attention. Apparently, they must have noticed me, though. Oh, you'd fit right in with them, said Chrissy, the boss. Half joking, I asked her, Luddly enough for the old guys to hear is this a club or an occupation. Oh, it's an occupation for sure. Christy replied at equal volume. The old guys went into an uproar. Hey, we're paying customers. I've been coming here since before you were born, sweetheart. Nobody's ever asked us to leave, have they? Christy smiled at them all. I paid for my coffee and wandered toward the seat which had been designated for me. I usually took my coffee out to my car and drove to work where I would sit in the parking lot and listen to the news while I sipped until I felt properly electric so I could survive my office where the most interesting thing was the contrast between the great cubicle walls and the fluorescent lights above, like Kevin and Hell. I suppose I could stay out of the snow for a bit longer as said, sliding into the seat offered me.

3:01So, let me guess, this is the real city council, right? Don't you know it, said the man who'd invited me over. He patted me in the back with a hand that had once been very strong. The name's Stan Kessinger. Alan, I replied. Alan Persel. Are you already retired, Alan? Asked a thin student's looking man across from me. Oh, get out of here, Wesley said another. He's not even 40 yet, I bet. I smiled. I'm 42 and no, I'm a data analyst. They still need that with all of today's advancements, asked Wesley, the thin man, I smirked, shrugged and said, well, that's sort of up for debate, I guess. But they keep on paying me so. This professional ambivalent seemed to resonate with a few of the men who raised their coffers and took joeville sips. Mine was still too hot. A man standing outside the group walked away. I felt bad for a second, thinking maybe I'd accidentally stolen his seat. I expected him to pull up a chair from another table, but he walked far past the table's nearest and moved out of my line of sight. As others began to introduce themselves, I began to wonder if the standing man was just shy.

4:03I said, so you guys come here just about every day, right? Don't you ever run out of things to talk about? Part left, Stan. We've probably got 500 years of lived experience between us all. It's going to be a long, long time before we run out of subjects. He or her sit a man exactly westless opposite in size, demeanor, and position at the table. His name was Trevor. There was also Henry, Neil, James, Baron, Johnny, Gordon, and a couple of others whose names unfortunately escaped me. So what was today's subject before I came in, I asked. The joeville group suddenly quieted. The men all looked amongst each other, but none at me. My coffee smelled strong and rich, and I wanted so badly to sip it in that brief, uncomfortable moment, but alas, it was still too hot. You know, looking back, the awkward silence probably only lasted three seconds, even though it felt much longer. Stan broke it. How do you, Alan, feel about ghosts? Ghosts? I asked it surprised. Stan nodded. I looked around the table at all, the expectant faces looking back at me.

5:04Wesley said, telling ghost stories was all a friend Bruce's favorite tradition around Christmas time. He passed away just over a week ago. This will be our first Christmas without him, but Stan here suggested we tell some tales of our own. Turns out some of us have some good ones, said the man named Johnny. He looked much worse for where the many of his comrades, yet when I started his face, I believed him to actually be one of the group's younger members. He either lived a hard life or lived life hard. Stan said, before I interrupt him to invite you into our fall, Johnny was about to tell a story of his own. That's right, said Johnny. Now, unless anyone else has something to add, I'll get started. Go ahead, said Stan. Now that the introductions had ceased, the man standing in the back returned, crossing his arms and leaning on the wall. I wanted to say something offered to get him a chair. But since Johnny's seen somewhat irritated about being interrupted before, I did not speak up after he began it in. You all know how I used to like to go out on the water early before dawn. On a good day, I could catch enough crappy oblugal for dinner before heading out to work for the day.

6:04I'm talking about back when I lived in the lake, of course. I just wander down to the dock first thing in the morning, hop in the boat and zip out to one of the good spots. One morning, back at that time, I might have been 40, but only barely as stepped out my front door into a cloud. It got foggy up there on the lake all the time, but this day rested so heavy all around. It felt like a cloud had sunk down from above. It didn't stop me for a second though. It was airy, sure, but also beautiful. So there I was floating on dead, still water in the heavy fog right before summaries. I cast out one line and actively worked a second to maybe snag a nice catfish. When the sun began to rise, the fog around me, so thick as it was, lit up orange like fire. The new light bounced around in the cloud until it felt like I was caught in a still frame of an explosion. It was absolutely gorgeous. All day I turned that vivid color and the smaller whips of vapor became shimmery miniature rainbows that flash before vanishing. I must have seen the air light up like that a hundred times before, but on that day it was no less beautiful than the very first time. I tell ya, that was a better way to start the day than any cup of coffee.

7:05No offense, Christie. I looked over at Christie and saw she was making no effort to disguise her eavesdropping. She shrugged and said, none taken. That morning was special, not because the light in the fog alone looked any more impressive, but because of how the stillness of the water reflect to the fiery fog so perfectly. All I could see up down and all around me was that brilliant orange haze. That is, until something else broke through. A small dark shape that rested in the line between the glowing air and the slightly dimmer water. It merged in a direction of the rising sun, so I had to squint a look at it and through my eyelids it looked all soft and wavy. I couldn't tell what it was for a few minutes. It turned out to be a small robot, the kind built for no more than a person or two. At first I thought a fellow fisherman might be out sitting or laying low inside the boat, taking everything in like me. Thanks to the stillness of the water, I didn't have to worry about his colliding. Even though I couldn't see anybody for the sake of being friendly, I called out howdy, beautiful out here, isn't it? Nobody answered me back. Here's where things start to get strange. Hopefully I said it enough times now

8:06that I don't need to remind you, but just in case the water was perfectly still. Almost no current whatsoever. And it was most certainly a robot I saw on the near horizon. I could see two oars sticking off, dangling motionless in the water, but somehow the little butt began drifting towards me. Of course, even on the still list of waters, there's bound to be some subtle movement, but not enough to move a boat this fast, I tell you. It came toward my boat as quickly as if someone was rowing it toward me. I called out again, again without receiving an answer, and I started reeling in my active line. I wanted to get away. Suddenly the orange haze felt ominous. I couldn't see beyond 10 yards in any direction. I knew vaguely how far I ventured out, but with no sight at the shore, I felt especially nervous about the weird situation I'd found myself in. You might be thinking, so what? It's just a robot, Johnny. Not like it could've hurt you, right? And sure, to write about that, it could've just perked free of its tether and drifted off empty. Sure, I grant you that, but that's not the scenario that came to mind right away out there on that glassy, blowing lake. My mind jumped all the terrible reasons

9:07a small boat like that might end up abandoned in the water. After retrieving the line I'd been working, I set down that pole and picked up the static line. I put a bobber on it, which rippled through the orange water on its way back to me. Until suddenly it dropped below the surface. The excitement, thinking I got in a bite and from something big, jostled my brain and threw out all of my fear and worries. But the drag on the line persisted too consistently to be from any fish. I'd snagged something underwater, something either very stuck or very heavy. When I reeled hard enough, I actually pulled my boat toward the bobber and whatever the hope below it caught. I might have just cut the line, but I had one of my favorite jerk bits down there, so I had to at least try to get it back. I felt the object shift a little, which gave me an ounce of hope and just as I felt that little bit of give the empty robot floated past me. It cruised right over my trap line about 10 feet away. I could see into it and saw nobody inside. Nobody passed out, dead or asleep. Nobody laying down to take in the sky. Nobody at all. Except that was about when the sun reached a high enough elevation to light up some of the rest of the world.

10:08So high, it stopped making the fog glow quite so bright. The shoreline began to appear and there, standing on it, was a man. He waved to me, not in a friendly sort of way. Well, not unfriendly either, but not in greeting. I guess is what I mean. It sort of seemed like he was trying to flag me down. I let my align go slack and wave back to him, just trying to signal that I'd seen him, hoping he would give me some sort of explanation and quick. Finding the empty boat already had me on edge and seeing that man, there was something I still don't understand that just felt off about him. But just as I lowered my hand after waving, a man on the shore evaporated in the fog. As the sun rose just a few inches higher, it slights stopped coloring the fog and equipment reflecting so brightly off the water, at least from where I was positioned. The glassy water looked almost black now under the low cloud belowing above it. Just wanting to get off that water, I started reeling again. I almost forgot my hook was caught. Whatever it found down there in those murky depths shifted again, ever so slightly. Then came dislodged. I felt its weight drag my line down a little deeper as the end of my pole bent with it.

11:10In my mind, a sudden flash of two images totally unprompted by my conscious thoughts, nearly made me lose my grip. One, sort of floating in the background, showed my immediate memory of the man on the shore. The second, more prominent image was of nothing I'd seen with my two eyes, only the one up here. Johnny tapped his forehead with his index finger and looked around. What a picture was my hook down there in those cold dark waters stuck in the ribs of a blue decoats. Did I have any proof that a dead man was dragging my line down, bending my pole no snapping? No. But I tell you all, I cut that line faster than I even realized my knife was in my hand. It snapped into the water and I watched his ripples fade away. I never learned his boat I saw out there or who that man on the shore was. Nobody ever came looking for either of them as far as I know. I probably just got tricked by the light and spooked by a log or something. But there you go. As it asks then. You were just going to leave us all hanging there. That's all the closer I ever got, grunted Johnny. During his story, he seemed to disappear into a trance but now is down to his self-remurged.

12:12Oh, don't be so critical, parlayed Westy. It was a good story, full suspense, well told Johnny. Ambivalent cheers went up and a few old guys took tepid sips at the lips of the cups. He didn't seem like anyone really wanted to go next except for maybe the guy leaning against the wall. He didn't look at all uncomfortable without a chair and didn't bother Christy for anything as she came around to top everyone off. But Westy didn't notice the man in the back and while Christy refilled everyone's mugs, he said, I have a story to offer with just as much mystery but Stan might find a conclusion a bit more to his taste. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing, another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Jamba. Jump in at JambaCasino.com. Let's jump out. No purchase necessary. BTW Group, boy, we're prohibited by law. CCNC, 21 plus sponsored by JambaCasino. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a long time reporter and an on air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology,

13:12I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it. Asking where this is all going, they come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast forever you get your podcasts. I'm all ears set Stan. Wesley push back his chair, stood and moved behind it where he placed his hands on its back and leaned forward making the wood creek. As most of you know, I used to teach physics. Variations of, yeah, and we know what up all around the table informing me this was a fact Wesley mentioned with some frequency. Oh yeah, yeah, he dismissed them. I worked with many graduate students on the overseas. Some of them even went on to work with many of the greats in their respective fields. But ironically, the most memorable student I ever had was one who dropped out and never became anything. Nothing in the world of physics anyway. But she was the only student who I can honestly say taught me something. Her name was Rachel and she was pursuing her PhD

14:13focusing on magnatics. She had a brilliant mind but thought a bit too much of her originality and creativity. She frequently brought me designs, schemes, calculations, behaving as if she had just brought me the solution to all of the world's energy problems only for me to regrettably inform her that whatever breakthrough she did was already tried by Nikola Tessa or a similarly great mind of the past. I always told her not to be discouraged because as soon as she could just learn to examine all the work done before her, she could build something truly remarkable off of it. And then she disappeared for a while. I eventually learned her mother who she had been very close with and had done everything in her life to impress. Past a way after being struck by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. I wrote her a letter, well, an email expressing my condolences and telling her we could easily arrange for her to make up her lips whenever she felt ready. I didn't hear back. Then one day it was a Friday. I stayed late to finalize a report before the long winter break. I started an automated process then went to relieve myself while it ran its course. I shut my office door behind me out of habit. It's latched, I could off the Polish floor in the hallway.

15:15Every light in the building had been shut off. So only the red emergency lights provided any light for me on my way to the restroom. Only when I opened the door to go in did I hear someone else's footsteps down the hole. Not wanting to get arrested in conversation with another late stay I quickly ducked into the dark restroom and quietly closed the door. I needed to turn the light on and struggled for a few seconds to find a switch. During that time I listened as the gentle footsteps passed by the door. It struck me as odd. I heard only the person steps. I didn't hear any swishing of clothes, no size of 11th eye or exasperation. You don't even notice, I'd venture to guess how many other noises usually accompany a sand so simple as a footstep. Until those other noises are absent. Well, I still had a task at hand so after I finished up in the restroom I returned to my office. Along the way, I saw no sign of another person in the building, heard none either. But when I again stood at my office door I found it partially open. Now you might say, Wesley, you crazy old man. You just forgot to close the door. But remember how I told you its latch echoed down the hall when I closed it.

16:17I distinctly remember hearing it that evening because the building was otherwise so quiet. I would have surely detected any weakest in a noise which might have indicated my failure to properly shut the door. Of course, my first thought went to the footsteps I'd heard on my way into the restroom. My premonition that whoever they belonged to wished to speak with me, therefore interrupting my last minute work I thought must have been correct. I pushed open the door, prepared to meet you ever had come to find me. Or so I thought. There, standing on the other side of my desk just behind a tall chair where I usually sat reading, grading was a shimmering translucent switch took the vague form of a woman. With her back to me, she jumped when I entered turning ever so slightly toward me before vanishing into thin air. Air which she left electric with crackling static in her wake. Now you man all know me. Christy, you too. You know I'm a man of science. Anything that exists can be proven given enough time and resources. That's my philosophy. Well friends, admittedly fell too scared to sit in my chair with my back to the empty place the apparition had left behind. So while waiting for my nerves to settle,

17:17I went looking for the answer, the logical rationale for how I'd seen what I saw. I retraced the footsteps I'd heard, walking past the restrooms to where from which they first reached my ears. I stood in a tea intersection and could have turned left or right. White would have taken me to the lecture halls and more faculty offices. Left led to the lab. Having just experienced what I would categorize as a scientific anomaly, of course I chose left. In our lab, we had a variety of equipment but don't fill your mind's eyes with some grand laboratory like he might see in a Hollywood horror film. We essentially had rows of desks lined up, each with relatively simple equipment for a particular field of study. There were no windows, so we could more easily control light conditions and temperature, which meant when I first opened the door to the lab, it was pitch black inside. But deep inside the darkness, I heard the muffled solbs of a woman. I called out hello and a crying immediately stopped. Nobody answered me though. I stood in the doorway, waiting and heard nothing more. With rising apprehension, I reached into the dark to fill for the lights which inflicted on. The rows of white lights in the ceiling came to life.

18:19Those which needed to be replaced soon buzz than hunt. A couple of lights deeper in the room flickered erratically before stabilizing. It was beneath one of these flickering lights that I saw her. Rachel, my student who had vanished earlier in the semester. She gave me a good fright, Rachel. I found her called up with her niece to her chain in one of the swiveling chairs by desk. In front of her, encased in child glass, sat a complex device she concocted on her own out of parts of the various equipment around her. Rachel, what are you doing here? I asked her. She seemed surprised to see me. Said she thought the building was empty. I asked if that was why she chose such a bizarre time to return to the lab and she told me it was. When I asked if she knew anything about footsteps and the whole way or an apparition which visited my office, Rachel looked up. Dumbstruck, she was, this formerly in-shakable student. See, Rachel had just finished conducting an experiment. An experiment which she thought to have been a total failure. She built an electrostatic generator inside of a vacuum tube. Inside the tube, she also placed a bracelet her mother had been wearing the night she died,

19:20which was stained with blood. Prior to her experiment, she used an electromagnetic field to charge a bracelet, making it interact with the electrostatic device in a way she's beculated, hope more alike, would bring about some ethereal remainder of her mother is such a thing existed. Her hypothesis was convoluted, a mutant offspring of the scientific and spiritual clearly bored of a person maddened with grief. It gets somehow, although not in the manner she expected, it worked. I told Rachel to go stand by the restroom door and wait while I reset her experiment and performed it for a second time. I must say, I found the prospect terrifying. I just wanted to reward my student for her profound discovery and give her the closure she sought. While she was gone, I did exactly as promised. And when she returned to me, it was with tears streaming down her cheeks. I never asked her to tell me what she saw or what else may have happened at in that whole way and she never offered to tell me. However, as a scientist, I know how much stock to put into power of human emotion. Her reaction was all the evidence I needed. Wessly looked down, then picked up his coffee and took a long sip. We all knew he was done. Hang on, said Johnny.

20:21If you believe this experiment actually worked and you conjured up a ghost, why didn't you publish it? How come we've never heard of this incredible break through viewers? Because Wesley instantly counted as if expecting this question, I was never able to recreate it without Rachel with any item except her mother's bracelet. If you'll allow me to be briefly in scientific, I personally believe whatever emotional power Rachel instilled in that piece of jewelry matter had more than any other factor in her experiment. Perhaps if someone experiencing a similar level of grief and beauty and object with matching power, we could recreate what Rachel did in the physics lab that night. I am content to have experienced one such a apparition though, and I count myself lucky to have witnessed it. Unlike at the end of Johnny's story, after which most of the men had ruminated in silence, after Wesley's story nearly everyone spoke at once, all having something to say. It became immediately clear to me the character Wesley played in this group. He was the unwittingly arrogant academic who thought more of his own intellect than any of his comrades did, that he made up for this bony personality with his big heart. I keenly understood that these men appreciated each other for their differences, for their differences are what made the gatherings

21:23interesting enough to continue for years, and in some cases, decades. I made the upper accusations of exaggeration, friendly denials of credibility, good nature, cheers at Wesley's scholarly pros, I turned to stamp side me and whispered, although I'm sure it was quite loud, I'll need to leave soon. Thanks for inviting me though. This has been really fun. Oh, do you need to leave right this second? Us Stan. I stammer afraid of what I might be committing to if I stayed. Stan said, well, at least stick around for one more if you can. I've got to tell my story yet. It's one some of you won't buy, I know. Some of you will though. The others quit bagging on Wesley and gave their attention to Stan. He turned to me again with his head cocked and said, maybe even you, new friend. I think he may have forgotten my name, but something in how he looked at me felt indescribably knowing. He gave me the sense that we were in on a secret together or be it a secret, I could not pretend to be aware of. The one man standing against the back wall seen to become very interested as soon as Stan made to begin his story. And he too, the standing man,

22:23watched me like a light-hearted co-conspirator. I haven't thought much about how to start this, said Stan, so I guess I'll just lay a little ground where I can go from there. I took Paladin, all gosh, how long it all now. Just about three weeks ago, I bet. Anywho, he's a well-behaved, albeit feisty golden lab. He's got to be walked at least twice a day or led out to play cause otherwise he gets real antsy. That boy's not meant to be cooped up. In fact, just after this, I'll be walking him. To be straight with you all, I wanted to have this conversation about ghosts because of something that happened to me just over the weekend. On Saturday morning, it stuck ghosts to my mind like cheese in the bottom of a pan. And, well, I wanted to run the story by all of you. But I couldn't go first. No, not before you'd all let your mind be opened and intro to. What I'm about to tell you happened to me is the 100% no BS, no lies truth. I promised that. Saturday morning, I took Pilate for a walk. And like I said, he's a real good boy. But that morning, he jumped away from me. He ripped the leash from my hands and nearly pulled me down.

23:24He shot across the street and into the park with the leash swinging and jumping behind him. I looked thinking he must have seen a raccoon or square, but as far as I could see, Pilate wasn't chasing a thing. Hey, it's Cole Swindle. And when I spend 200 days a year rolling down the highway, the bus can start to feel smaller than a guitar case. Everyone wonders how I stay chill while the hours crawl by. Truth is, one good luck spent on Chamba and suddenly the trip does a whole lot shorter. Find in your space even when there isn't much to spare. Need some chill? Let's Chamba. No purchase necessary. VGW Group Void were prohibited by law. 21 plus TNC supply. Sponsored by Chamba Casino. This is Mike Voilo of Lexicon Valley. And I'm Bob Garfield. Are you one of those people who sometimes uses words? Do you communicate or acquire information with, you know, language? Hey, us too. So join us on Lexicon Valley to true over the history, culture, and many mysteries of English.

24:25Plus some ice cracks. Find us on one of those apps where people listen to podcasts. He yipped and jumped through the park like he'd been struck mad and for a minute, I thought maybe he had. I called him back to me. And after a couple of tries, he listened and came running back with his tongue flopping out the side of his mouth. He looked so happy, just thrilled with himself. Now, pilot's been through a lot, so I didn't want to be too hard on him. I took up his leash and tried to lead him home, but that stubborn dog didn't want to budge. Now instead of running around like a fool, he planted his rear on the sidewalk and sat there with the dumbest. Happiest look he've ever seen. I gave his leash a gentle tug, but he would not respond to me. I looked up and said, come on, boy, it's time to get you home. You wanna treat? That's always a good way to get him moving, but not that morning, apparently. And what else, when I looked at him, my eyes were sort of drawn up as only. There was nothing there were. There's still my eyes got locked. They're staying into that blank space beside pilot where I felt I sensed someone there. I can't say her because I didn't see it here. I smell anybody. I just sort of sensed a person.

25:25Yes, a human being standing near my delk. Till it seemed to sense them too and wasn't remotely bothered. In fact, I've never seen him look so happy. Finally, he let me lead him back to the house. Well, I guess he led me. He really didn't seem to pay me any mind at all as he followed whatever I couldn't see. At the front door, pilot sat obediently, but not for me instead at the sky until I unlocked the door. He walked inside slowly and for the rest of the day, he moped around the house looking sad and tired. I couldn't think of a reason for him to act like that. I offered him treats, played with him as well as I could, but nothing I did cheered him up. Strange. I took him on his evening walk at the usual time, but we didn't leave the block. He just seemed so depressed. So the next morning, this is yesterday, I was cooking some bacon and eating an apple to keep the doctor away. I fed a couple strips of pilot. He already seemed to be warming back up to his usual self and I was glad to see it. I always tend to move a bit slow on Sunday mornings so we didn't do our first walk on time. I just finished breakfast and was tying my shoes

26:26when somebody knocked on my front door. This time of year, you never can know what that means. Could be a neighbor dropping off some Christmas cookies, could be somebody whose car got stuck up the road. Either way, you'd better answer. I limped over with one shoe and opened up the door, but I tell you, nobody was there. I looked both ways. Then I realized there were no footprints in this snow which had blown around overnight. I could clearly see mine and pilots from Saturday, but not one foot nor void yet to disturb the fresh layer of snow. Strange how well I started to shut the door, but pilot darted through it at the very last second I went to the door back open and yelled after him, but he got out of reach quick in me with just one half-lay shoe on I had to just watch him go. He ran the same direction. We usually walked so I estimated he would go to the park again. In my car, I thought I might have a chance of catching him. I drove to the park, didn't see him. So I went to the next place that kin to mind he might have gone. Stan looked around the table as if checking to see if he'd been understood. One of the men, whose name I forget, asked Bruce's place. Stan looked down and slowly nodded. Bruce, I thought. When did they mention Bruce before?

27:28Wait, wasn't he the one who I should have explained for our friend here's sake? Stan continued gesturing toward me. Pilot belonged to Bruce before he passed. I adopted him. We always got along, pilot, and I, so it seemed like a good fit. Nuts of agreement barbed all around me, I noticed one character was suddenly absent. The man standing against the wall had disappeared without my noticing until that point. Stan said, so I naturally considered that pilot might return to his long time home. Maybe he wanted to see if, you know, his old master had come back. I pulled into Bruce's driveway. The sign in his yard still says it's for sale. I got out to have a look around. Maybe call pilot's name a bit to see if I could draw him in. I wouldn't need to though. Right as I closed my car door, I heard him barking. I would have been relieved to hear it except there was just one problem. The barking was coming from inside the house. I hadn't noticed him because of the reflection on the window earlier, but now I could clearly see his face in Bruce's front window. He was smiling, eager to see me. I assumed someone must have been around, maybe the realtor, and let him inside to keep him

28:28until animal control could pick him up. So I knocked on the front door. Someone had to be there, right? Nobody answered, so I checked around back. Through the patio door, the house looked pretty empty besides pilot. I found a realtor's hide a key, but I didn't have the combination. Luckily, it turned out nobody told the realtor about the keeper's kept hidden in the doorbell. Isn't that crazy though, the doors were locked even though pilot was inside. Somebody could have let him in and left him, but it hadn't been that long yet. Anyhow, pilot met me at the door, but was careful not to let me catch him by the collar. Maybe going in with Alicia Hahn wasn't a good idea. I announced myself to anyone who might be around as I followed pilot into the house. Bruce's family took all the pictures and sent him mental stuff down, but otherwise his house is still pretty much how it always was. It felt strange to be back there. pilot went into the kitchen then around to the staircase going up. I was right on his tail until the kitchen. I saw up there because I was pretty sure I'd heard one of the boys about my head and creek. I told pilot to come back, but of course he didn't listen.

29:29He went right up those stairs straight toward the place where I now most definitely heard a second creek. It sounded like a grown man was standing directly above me, which those of you who've been there might know was Bruce's bedroom. I listened through the floor's pilot joined the person standing above me. I waited to hear voice, but no one spoke. The pilot was obediently quiet, not hyper like he usually gets around strangers. That gave me a little comfort. Again announcing myself, I went up the stairs as loudly as I could. I wanted to give forever was up. There was much notice as possible that I was soon up here. Pilot stuck his head out of the bedroom doorway then quickly spun around back inside. I started talking right away as I got to the room. I think I said something like, sorry for letting him bother you. Before I froze there in the doorway, Pilot was in there all by himself. I heard another footstep down the hole in one of the other rooms. I called out and stepped into the hallway, but nobody responded. So I asked Pilot, where are they boy? He stopped in front of me in a doorway for a second with his tail straight back.

30:29Nearer of us breathed. After a time, Pilot braved the short trip back to the bedroom down at the corner of the hole. I decided to keep back. As soon as Pilot reached that doorway, his tail pointed upwards and he ran in. Watching him disappear started all me into a run. He barked twice. My heart was fit to burst, you know. I started to wonder just who or what exactly we chased into that dark room. A burglar? A squatter? Highlights a big boy, but he's no fighting dog. I reached the doorway just in time to watch Pilot Chase's own shadow into the corner. He stopped and looked up about halfway to the ceiling and his tail stopped wagging. It stuck back at an angle like a warning flag. When he barked, I recognized the anticipatory tone. When he always took if I struggled too long to open his treat jar or locked the door on our way out of the house. With each bark, he wriggled backward a bit and gestured slightly towards the floor in front of him with his head. I said to him, come on boy, let's get you back home. But he wouldn't budge from that corner. It took me 10 minutes to get him to leave. But once we got out of there, things have carried on like normal since.

31:30Strange how that's what got me thinking about ghosts and that's the story I wanted to share. I felt Stan looking at me, but I was looking at the big front window into the fallen snow since morning, I fell sat on the corner, the window looked a long way down the next block although the blowing snow made it difficult to see in detail past the fire hydrant on the corner, people flurred but who oblivious to the tall man passing by them all and bothered by the cold and blown snow. Somehow, even from behind, I recognized the man who'd been leaning against the wall. He's still with us there friend. Stan asked me, I turned to him and said, sorry, I guess I just got lost thinking about the sorts of possibilities a story like that opens up. Before Stan could even take in these words, I asked, what did he say your friend's name was again? Bruce replied Wesley. Johnny Clarified, Bruce Edwards. Edwards? Oh, never mind. I thought it sounded familiar, but I was thinking of someone else. Stan eyed me, likely realizing along with me that no one had said Bruce's last name allowed yet. He didn't say anything though. Instead, he got caught up in the low but lively discussion which his story provoked. Meanwhile, I pulled out my phone under the table

32:31and searched for Bruce Edwards' obituary. As I hoped, it included a recent four-door film and sure enough, the face staring up at me was the same which it interacted with me from the back wall. Excuse me, I interrupted. Sorry, but I really need to go. Great story is everyone. Tell you what, if you'll let me join you tomorrow, I just might have a good good story myself. I think you'll all find it pretty interesting. Stan winked at me and said, see you tomorrow then. I hurried out into the cold, realizing I've forgotten to leave a tip for Christie in the jaw. Oh well, I would get her double tomorrow. I couldn't afford the time to turn back. By the time I confirmed his identity, Bruce's ghost had already drifted out of sight down the block. Shielding my eyes against the flurry, I pursued him, but at the next coroner, with no sign of the tall operation in any direction, I surrendered. I would not get to ask Bruce why he chose to appear at his morning cloak and why to me alone, unless Stan could also see him hence the insinuation I'm winking. What I told those men the next morning, after sharing my story about seeing a mysterious man standing in the back of the coffee shop, was that I thought Bruce might be making his rounds,

33:33saying his goodbyes. Even those who had seemed skeptical of the stories told the prior morning appear to accept this theory with humble gratitude. From then on, I've always waved to the regulars when I picked up my coffee, but I've never sat with them again. They never pressured me to either. It isn't my time to join them yet. Whatever the reason Bruce and maybe Stan, chose me through which to channel the gift of Bruce's final goodbye, I'm glad he did because I received a gift from it myself. I've learned not to hurry so quickly through each day, always too eager to reach the next stage, the next chapter. I know I'll get there eventually. Right now, I need to pay attention to what's happening right around me right now. There are stories happening in every direction, and ghosts will likely touch every one of them at one point or another. Well, so, Bruce, men have been J.U. Salt here from the WWE.

34:36When it's just me between matches, it's day one-ish. That means it's chumbitime with hundreds of casino-style games and new titles arriving weekly. There's always something fresh to try at Chumbacacino. The daily booze make it even more fun. And have me, about to get them all doing my downtime. Ready for a fun way to chill out and enjoy a few minutes for yourself? Let's chumbac! No purchase necessary, VGW Group Void were prohibited by law, CTs and Cs. 21 Plus sponsored by Chumbacacino. Hi, I'm Alicia, and I'm Stacey, and we make trashy divorces. Everybody's favorite, good podcast about bad relationships. Looking for something true crimey without the gore or the body count? We've been churning out funny, feisty, feminist episodes since 2019. So if you're looking to put some scandalous stories told well into your ears this summer, check out trashy divorces. Wherever you listen to podcasts, trust us. We've covered someone you love or someone you love to hate.