Page 79 of Ghost

“What’s that noise?”Mitch asked.

“A carrot.”

“Maybe I should start calling you Bugs Bunny,” Mitch giggled.

“Yeah, you do that, Mr.Skinny-ass.”

“My ass ain’t skinny!”

Mason laughed.“Have you heard anything from Paul?”

“Yeah, actually, I did.He talked things over with the wife and it looks like she’s on board.Said the timing was perfect since the kids are out of school for the summer.”

“Wow!It’s like this was meant to be or something.”

Mitch burped again, only not as loud this time.“You know, I was thinking the same thing.But you know it’s going to take him a lot longer to get packed up and down there.They’ve got that big ass house to pack up, and they’ll need to sell it.”

“That will probably work out even better.I still need to talk to Mr.Stockbridge about renting out the whole house.”Mason leaned against the counter as he drank down some of the lemonade.“How long will it take to get you all packed up?”

“Hmm, I’d say just a day or so.I can start on it tomorrow.I have almost the whole day free.I’ll probably get rid of a bunch of junk.”

Mason laughed.“Yeah?Like that beat up old recliner?”

“Don’t go dissing my chair, man.I love that chair!”

“Man, that chair looks like it came out of an old homeless shelter.”Mason laughed again.

“Hey, you’ve no room to talk with that tiny little sofa you got.”

“Yeah, and I’m working on that.”Mason quickly thought of all the furniture in Ellen’s basement.“You might be surprised.”

“I ain’t gonna hold my breath, neither,” Mitch responded sarcastically.

“Anyway, I need to make a few more phone calls and this is long distance, so I’ll call you next week.I’ll plan on heading your way on Friday.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mitch said.“I’ll talk to you next week, then.Bye.”

Mason hung up the phone, a big smile on his face.

His next phone call was to Mr.Stockbridge.

“Hi, Mr.Stockbridge, this is Mason Montgomery.How are you?”

“Good afternoon, Mason.”The man cleared his throat before continuing.“I was just thinking of trying to get in touch with you.”

“Oh?About what?”Mason was a little surprised.

“The first thing was to find out when you were planning on vacating the basement apartment,” he answered.

“Funny you should mention that because that’s the reason I was calling you, that and to give you my new number,” Mason chuckled.

“Excellent.How about you give me the number first?”

Mason gave Mr.Stockbridge the new phone number.“About the apartment, I was wondering if you would either let me sub-let it or even rent it to my friend who has decided to move down here.You probably met him at the party the other day.He’s going to be my new business partner.”

There was a brief silence.“Well now, that’s good news.I’m glad to hear it.I was beginning to wonder if you were going to be able to manage all this work just on your own.”

“And my other buddy, who you also probably met, is moving down here too.”Mason took a deep breath.“I was wondering if perhaps he might be able to rent out the rest of that house.Might need to do a little renovation on it before he and his family arrives, though.”