Page 11 of Ghost

M ason was about to go and see about getting some lunch when he heard a voice calling from upstairs. “Anyone ta home?”

“Down here,” Mason called out.

Mason and Paul were pulling wire so that the new electrical panel could be hooked up.

Mason was on the inside pulling and then pushing wire to the outside, while Paul pulled it.

The job required quite a bit of upper body strength on Mason’s part, but he was used to using those muscles, so it wasn’t that big a chore to him.

A moment later they heard heavy footsteps on the stairs. “Looking good,” came a voice that Mason recognized as Nick’s.

“Hey, Nick.” Mason grunted as he put his full body into pulling down a clump of wires from the uppermost floor of the townhome. “I was just thinking of coming to see you about some lunch.”

“Already got it,” Nick chuckled. “Ya’ll about to a stopping point?”

“I am,” Mitch said. He was sitting on one of the beach chairs fiddling with power outlets and light switches, a small bag of ice sitting on his foot. “I’m starved.”

“What happened to you?” Nick asked, approaching Mitch.

“Oh, Mason’s haunted house is trying to kill me, it seems.”

Mason grunted one more time, pulling the group of wires tight. “Alright, Paul. That’s got this last bunch.”

Paul came in through the back door. “Good. After lunch I can start wiring it all in. With any luck, we can do a test run on the two upper floors by the end of the day. Except for the kitchen, which we still need to decide on.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mason said, rubbing his hands on his shorts. “I’m ready for lunch myself.”

“I’ve got it all set up outside where you guys were yesterday,” Nick announced, obviously very pleased with himself. “Gotta keep the new neighbors happy.”

“Wow, that’s nice of you.” Mason shook Nick’s hand. “What’s for lunch?”

“I figured you boys haven’t had much of a home-cooked meal in a while so... Momma, my wife, made up a big pan of lasagna, and I put together a big salad and some garlic bread to go with it.”

“Oh man, I love lasagna,” Paul said, rubbing his belly.

“Me too.” Mitch stood up, keeping the toes of his injured foot off the floor. “Owie, owie, owie,” he complained as he hobbled towards the back door. “Can someone bring that chair?”

By someone Mitch meant Mason, seeing as Paul was already out the door, with Nick right behind him. “Sure, Hopalong,” Mason snickered. “Don’t get used to this. I ain’t yor momma!”

Nick hung out for a bit, making sure everything was good, which it was. Fantastic actually. By the end of lunch, they were all so full, they could hardly move.

“Damn, that was good,” Paul said, stretching, his legs out in front of him. “Hell, I need a nap after all that food.”

“Yeah, I hear ya,” Mitch agreed, yawning.

“Come on, guys,” Mason said getting up. “We don’t have time for naps. There’s a shitload more work to get done.”

“Slave driver.” Mitch took the bag of ice off his foot and examined it.

Mason stood and looked at Mitch’s foot. “Man, it ain’t even bruised.”

Mitch scowled at him. “It still hurts, ya know.”

Paul laughed. “Wimp.” He pulled up his pants, his bit of belly keeping them from staying up. Knowing that he’d get a rise out of Mitch, he added, “Get your skinny ass up.”

Mitch stood up. “I keep tellin’ ya, I don’t have no skinny ass.” He smiled brightly. “And Mason here thinks I’m beautiful.”

Mason sighed dramatically. “I’m regretting saying that already. Come on, let’s try and get this wiring finished. I’ve already got the inspection scheduled, and the power company is coming right after to put in a new meter.”

They all worked hard the rest of the afternoon. Mitch was feeding wires down from the main level of the house, Mason pulled them, then pushed them out to Paul who was doing the wiring in to the panel box.

“I’m going to leave plenty of open circuits for when we do the kitchen,” Paul said. “We only have a little bit of wire left and I don’t think there’ll be enough to even start on the kitchen.”

Mason grunted, pulling down some of the wiring. “That’s okay, I guess. Won’t have the funds to do anything up there anyway, just so long as there is enough to get a little kitchenette down here.”

“Yeah, we got enough for that, but just barely.” Paul stuck his head inside the door from outside. “I gotta run over to my truck and get that box of breakers. I’ll be right back.”

“Sure, no problem,” Mason said, untangling some of the wire. “I’ll go check on our invalid.”

Paul laughed as he walked away. “Damn wimp.”

Mason turned to go up the stairs, only to be met by the angry woman ghost. She was standing there, her arms raised, but she didn’t charge him this time.

“Listen, lady, I’m here to stay, so you might as well get used to it,” Mason said, sighing. “And just to let you know, you stink!”

That set her off. She screeched and came at him, but Mason was ready for her.

As she got close, he dodged and squatted, and she passed right by him.

That seemed to piss her off even more. She came back at him; her hands were now throwing punches in his direction.

Mason shook his head and dodged her again.

“You know, you could just go away.” Mason looked behind himself, the backdoor just a few steps away. “You ol’ stink pot. You smell like something dead, which you most certainly are!”

She screamed again and charged.

Bingo , Mason thought as he quickly stepped back and out the door, keeping his eyes on the old hag.

When she’d reached the doorway, it looked as if she’d hit a wall, even though the door was open. He had suspected as much, not that he knew why he knew. She was trapped in the house and couldn’t get through the door. She howled with frustration, while Mason stood just on the other side.

“Hmm, I guess you’ll not be able to enjoy any of this wonderful sunshine,” Mason taunted.

She stood there or hovered or... whatever it was she was doing. The look on her face was pure evil fury.

“Who the hell are you anyway?” Mason asked, looking at her up close for the first time. “Why not just tell me? I know you can talk. Hell, you sure can scream!”

The woman appeared to be breathing heavy, which made no sense to Mason. She screeched again, and then disappeared.

“I sure as hell hope she doesn’t keep me up at night.” Mason shook his head and went to check on Mitch.

* * * * *

P aul was putting in the last of the circuit breakers, sweat running down both sides of his face.

It was almost five in the afternoon, but it was still hotter than blue blazes.

While he was finishing that up, Mason and Mitch were wiring in all the new overhead fixtures, light switches and power outlets.

After lunch, Mason had gone and gotten some more gasoline to power the generator.

It was his hope that they’d be able to test at least a few things that day.

It meant that he was that much closer to being able to move in, which he really wanted to do so that he could save as much money as he could.

His bank account had taken a pretty big hit with all this electrical work.

If he wasn’t careful, he’d be out of money before the end of the month and for sure the following month.

By five-thirty, Paul announced that he was ready to test the top floor and the main floor.

Mason couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

It was already Tuesday, and it had been their hope to have all the electrical work done no later than Friday.

He was then hoping that he could get the inspection done by Monday, since Paul had to leave on Tuesday, and Mitch said he had to be back home no later than Thursday.

If he didn’t pass inspection, then Mason was well and truly screwed.

Mason hurriedly went up the stairs, two at a time.

Mitch was standing in the central hallway while Paul was next to the electrical panel.

The plan was to test room by room, Mason turning on lights, and testing each power outlet.

He then could call down to Mitch, who would then relay the results down to Paul.

The first room was a success. “Oh, thank god.” Mason sighed in relief.

The second room had one wire that had come lose on the light switch, but that was easily enough corrected.

They tested the whole upper floor without many issues at all.

When that was done, Mason moved down to the main level, the center one.

Again, they went room by room, making small adjustments along the way.

It didn’t take them very long to get it all done.

At six o’clock, they were all sitting in the courtyard toasting with cold beers.

“Wow,” Mason said. “That went faster than I thought it would.

“That’s what happens when you have professionals doing the work,” Mitch piped up. “Good looking ones at that.”

“Pfft,” Paul huffed. “You mean skinny ass professionals.”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news there, bud,” Mitch said rather haughtily, “But there ain’t nothin’ skinny about that ass of yours!”

Mason snorted beer through his nose. “Please, stop,” he begged. “You’ve both done a great job, and I don’t want to talk about either of your asses, so please... for all that is holy, let’s not talk about it.”

Mitch snorted before taking a long swig of his beer. He looked at Paul and then at Mason. “My ass ain’t skinny and that’s all I’m gonna say about it.”

Paul shook his head and looked at Mason. “He’s always got to have the last word, don’t he?”

Mason drained the last of his beer and stood up. He took out his wallet and handed some cash to Paul. “Why don’t you go and get us some more beer while I lock everything up for the night.” Mason shoved his wallet back into his back pocket. “I need to ask Nick if I can’t just open an account.”

Paul stood up and stretched. “Sure, I can do that.”

“What about dinner?” Mitch asked.

“There’s enough of that lasagna left,” Mason said as he climbed the steps up to the deck. He turned to look at Mitch. “Why don’t you go ahead and get a shower, then Paul and I can have one. With any luck, we can all be sitting with some food before the Braves game starts.”

Mitch grinned. “Perfect. Good food, plenty of beer and some baseball.” He started walking across the courtyard singing the ‘tomahawk’ song, making a chopping motion with his arm.

Damn, that man is funny. Too bad he’s so damn straight, Mason thought. On second thought, I’d rather have a good friend.

Mason didn’t know about the other two, but he was exhausted. Between the heat, the physical work and long hours, he was beat. He wasn’t even sure if he’d make it through the entire game tonight.

He was breathing a bit easier, though. Just knowing that they were very close to being ready for the electrical inspection set him at ease.

Tomorrow, he planned on getting the water turned on.

After that, he could easily move into the lower level and hopefully not have to pay another month’s rent.

Mason was glad he had listened to Mitch and only agreed to rent on a month-to-month basis.

The realtor wasn’t happy with that arrangement but seeing as the apartment hadn’t been rented in several months, he was happy to get anything he could out of the place.

Mason made a mental note to himself to make sure that when it came time to get ready to rent out his lower-level apartment, he needed to upscale it as much as he it could.

He couldn’t afford for it to sit empty. He also needed to get as much as he could so he could continue the renovations upstairs.

Things were looking up for Mason. As he made his way to the small rental apartment he muttered, “It’s about time I had a decent run of luck. ”