Mr. Syme was sitting in front of his fireplace reading. He usually had company, students or guests, on Sunday evening, but on the occasional times when nobody was visiting he would relax by reading and listening to arcane pieces of baroque music. This Sunday he was listening to Bach fugues and reading poetry. The phone rang.
He was probably one of the few people who would not have groaned after having settled so comfortably into his reading. He quickly rose to answer it, catching it on the third ring.
“Hello? Oh, hello, Laurie. Of course I remember you. You’re a freshman, right?”
Now this was odd. She was asking about ghosts. Well, college students were a varied lot these days. She was wondering if she and some friends could meet with him. “Sure,” he said. “You can come now, if you want. I have the evening free.”
About half an hour later four more people were settled around the fireplace. His wife brought in some refreshments and found an inconspicuous spot from which she could observe.
Richard started off by saying how much he enjoyed Mr. Syme’s “speech” that morning. “It was the first time I’ve been in church, and I thought it was really interesting,” he said.
“Thank you,” said Mr. Syme. “Much as I’m complimented by your response, though, I don’t think you came here to tell me what a good preacher I am. So, before you start, let me present my credentials.
“First, I’ve never seen a ghost. Nor do I know anyone who has seen one.
“I don’t disbelieve in ghosts. I just don’t know. The Bible seems to talk about at least one ghostly spirit. On the other hand, I’m far more inclined to think that something that looks like a ghost is a deceptive evil spirit than a departed spirit from the dead. Oh, and I’ve never actually seen an evil spirit myself, either. “So from all this you might conclude that there’s no point in coming to see me, and I’ll not complain.”
Julie said, “I saw the ghost myself, in fact three of us did. But I also heard your speech, I mean your sermon, and I thought it was really good too. We’re really just looking for someone, well maybe someone adult, who can help us with this.”
“You say you saw a ghost. What exactly did you see?”
Mike said, “They saw something horrible. I saw someone beautiful.”
“You mean you didn’t see the same thing? There is more than one ghost?”
“We think it’s the same ghost,” said Richard. “But it just seemed to respond differently to different people. To us it was horrible and angry, quite scary.”
“But I spent hours and hours talking with her, and she was beautiful and her voice was as sweet as music,” said Mike.
“We know who the ghost is,” said Julie. “It’s a girl who killed herself a few years ago. Her name was Annie Inoue.”
“I heard about that,” said Mr. Syme. “She was seeing a grad student who got tired of her and dropped her rather hard. Apparently she was pretty obsessive in her feelings and started following him around. She found him with another woman and later went there by herself and killed herself there.
“So what makes you think the ghost is Annie Inoue?”
“I did some research,” said Mike. “I ended up finding a picture and it looked like her. She even said it was her when I showed it to her. Also, she had told me her name was Annie before I started my research.”
“Hmn, well, I’m assuming that you are being truthful and at least somewhat objective, so I’ll take it as a given that this ghost is the departed spirit of Annie Inoue, or possibly some evil spirit impersonating her,” said Mr. Syme.
“But…” said Mike.
“Mike, we agreed at the beginning that you would at least listen,” said Richard.
“Well, it’s hard to go against something you are just sure is true,” said Mike.
“I think that grad student is still around. Actually I think he’s a professor now. Calls himself Professor K or something like that,” said Mr. Syme.
“You don’t mean Professor J, do you?” asked Julie.
“Yes, I think that’s correct,” said Mr. Syme.
“Strange,” said Laurie. “We also called him up tonight to talk to him about this. But we didn’t know that he was involved. I wonder if he realized what we were talking about.”
“If he did, he must think we’re really tacky,” said Julie.
“I don’t think he knew at the time,” said Mike. “On the other hand, I’m not sure I want to go talk to him any more.”
Mr. Syme suddenly said, “You know, I’d like to go see this ghost. It’s not that far from here, and, well, I for one don’t have to get up tomorrow morning.”
The four students looked at each other. This was not a development they expected. “I don’t know,” said Mike. “I wonder if she’s getting annoyed by all the traffic.”
“Well, Mike, if you want to get to the bottom of this, you need us to help,” said Mr. Syme. “And she did let the others see her.”
“I just don’t want to lose her,” said Mike.
Mr. Syme furrowed his brow. “But you must admit this is a highly unstable situation. It can’t continue. Clearly the ghost, or whatever it is, is at best a deeply troubled soul. Perhaps she’s been given a respite just so she can find her way back from a bad place.”
Mike sighed. “You don’t know what it’s like,” he said. “I live for those times with her.”
“And perhaps she does as well. But it’s sterile. It leads nowhere. You can’t even kiss her.”
“That doesn’t matter,” said Mike.
“But it does. Not for you, perhaps not even for her. But sooner or later love has to face outward. There’s no outward for the two of you. Besides which, she’s using you.”
“I don’t mind her using me,” said Mike.
“That’s as it should be,” said Mr. Syme. “But in this case it’s not good for her. She needs to get connected to real life. You are just a substitute for her, and one day you’ll hit the bottom of your well. Then you’ll both be in trouble.”
Julie spoke up. “It sounds like you’ve figured this stuff out,” she said.
“Well, I’m just guessing I admit. But if I assume that the ghost is real, and that she’s the girl who killed herself a few years ago, the dynamic starts to hang together.”
“I guess we can try to find her,” said Mike.
So the six of them set out. By this time it was past 11pm and pretty dark. They walked up to the place.
“Strange,” said Mike. “I don’t feel anything.”
“It’s not even very cold,” said Richard.
“I’m disappointed,” said Julie, smiling at Richard.
They all stood around wondering what to do. Laurie was wandering around looking behind trees and wondering what a ghost would look like. She saw something a ways down the path and started toward it, moving out of sight of the others. The rest of them stood around looking at each other.
“This is getting anti-climactic pretty fast,” said Mrs. Syme. “Pretty soon you are going to start asking each other what you want to do, saying you don’t know, and asking the same question again.”
“Well, it’s not the full moon, and I never saw her any time except then,” said Mike.
“I guess we could wait until the full moon comes. Another couple weeks,” said Mr. Syme.
“Hey, that sounded like a scream!” said Richard. “And where did Laurie go?”
They turned as a group and started running toward the direction the scream had come from. They saw Laurie standing there, looking at a body lying on the ground.
“That’s Professor J!” said Julie.
Mr. Syme reached down and touched Professor J’s neck. “He’s still alive,” he said.
Professor J lay before them with his eyes open in an unseeing stare. Every now and then he would blink. Mr. Syme shook him gently. “Professor J,” he said. “Are you all right?” There was no reply.
“He doesn’t look hurt,” said Mr. Syme. “There is no blood, no bumps or scrapes. It looks like he just lay down as if to sleep.”
“But he doesn’t seem like he is asleep. Just kind of spaced out,” said Julie.
Mr. Syme made a decision. “I don’t think this is due to an accident. I think he saw the ghost, and that it was not a pleasant experience for him. I suggest we see if we can get him to walk with us. If so, we can take him to my house and put him in our spare room. Then I’ll call a doctor friend of mine to see if he can tell us anything.”
They managed to get Professor J to his feet. He walked with them as they led him, but he did not move by himself. They had to pull him along. Finally they got to Mr. Syme’s house. They were all tired and worried. Richard thought back to the previous night and decided he was really happy that the ghost had somehow been caught up by her rope when she attacked them.
“Is he possessed?” asked Laurie after they had settled Professor J in a spare bed.
“Who knows?” replied Mr. Syme. “As I said, I have never seen spiritual manifestations before, and I don’t know what to make of this one, at least not yet. I’ve called my doctor friend. He’ll at least tell us what the physical situation is.”
The doctor soon arrived, breaking a nervous and tedious silence.
“Thank you for coming, Dr. Hines. Listen, if he needs hospitalization we’ll get him there, but if not we’d like some time to see if we can deal with this situation.”
Dr. Hines furrowed his brow and started examining Professor J. After a while he spoke up. “Vital signs are normal. Breathing normal. His eyes follow the light and his pupils dilate properly. No concussion or evidence of head injury. No breaks or bruises that I can see, doesn’t look like he fell. The open eyes are strange, blinking like that. You seem to have some idea what might have happened. Will you tell me, please?”
Mr. Syme thought a minute, then said, “We think he saw a ghost.”