Apartment 45 | 1, 2

"I need another beer. Anybody else want one while I'm up?"

"Come on Chauncey!" Dianne laughed. "You're making all this up."

"No I'm not. I really want another beer."

I couldn't blame her for her skepticism. I've pulled a lot of practical jokes and piled on the bullshit with her many times over the years. But this time I wasn't joking.

"It's true." Dena said. "I was there when it happened. Not there that night, but the next day when he told me about it and you could tell he was still shaken up."

I came back from the kitchen with another cold one. "That's for sure. That's why I need this.", I said, holding up the brew. "I've told this story at least a half dozen times but I still get the willies just thinking about it."

"So go on.", urged Dianne. "There was a figure in the room?"

"Yeah. There definitely was. I don't know if I could call it a figure, so much as a swirl. A misty swirl with a vague shape of a head and shoulders on top. I don't recall that I saw any limbs. It reminded me of a mummy. As if it were the upper part of a mummy above a swirling white cloud.

"Instinctively I tried to call out again... to ask 'Who are you?' or to call out for Alex again or for help, or to frighten it away. But I was the one that was frightened and whatever I was trying to say just stuck in my throat. The only sound that came out was a gurgling, choking sound. I could only watch in horror, my eyes transfixed on the thing as it hovered there at the foot of my bed. I reached for the bedside lamp, not taking my eyes from it, still trying to cry out, my fingers fumbling for the switch. But my fingers wouldn't work either. Nothing worked. I don't even remember breathing. It was as if the air was thick with a highly charged energy and a strong current running through my body that rendered me helpless and in a state of suspended animation. I was panicked and literally paralyzed with fear.

"And all the while the thing just stood there, not moving or making threatening gestures or noises. It was simply, calmly... being - in mocking contrast to my own state of emotional turmoil.

"Eventually - in retrospect a full minute must have gone by - my fingers managed to somehow find the light switch. Even with the room now well-lit, the ghost... or entity or whatever it was, lingered there for a few moments more before drifting toward the bathroom and disappearing beyond the door.

"Weeeeird, huh?" said Dena. She'd heard the story many times before, but never tired of hearing it again. She likes that kind of stuff. She watches that psychic guy's Crossing Over show all the time.

I could tell Dianne was impressed too. "So what did you do then? I would have left the place and never come back."

"I went downstairs, turned on all the lights and tried to call Alex and another friend or two, but couldn't get in touch with anybody. Eventually I worked up the nerve go back upstairs and peek into the master bathroom just to reassure myself that is wasn't there. And it wasn't. So I just stayed up the rest of the night and the next day I met Dena for breakfast and told her the story.

We were all silent for a moment, letting it sink in and grappling with the unreality of it, what it all might mean and how you could justify the truth of such a story in your own mind. I've since come to the conclusion that there is simply no way to explain the inexplicable.

I noticed that Dianne now looked pensive and disconcerted. "When did this happen?"

"Gee, it must have been almost two years ago when I was living in Berdoo. Not long after that, Dena and I moved to Mentone together."

"You know, something happened to my boyfriend, David Tripp, a few weeks ago. His apartment has a staircase with a wrought iron handrail too. He told me that he had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room and woke up when he heard somebody coming in the door. It was dark, but he could make out the dark shape of a person silently walking up the stairs. When it got to the top, it turned toward a closet door and walked through. David had a roommate, but he sensed this was not the roommate or any other person he knew. Of course, when he went to check it out, there was no one there. He was sure that what he saw was a ghost."

"Now you're the one that's bullshitting!"

I said it, but knowing Dianne, I didn't really believe it.

She shook her head.

"That is strange about the staircase and everything.", I said. I was almost afraid to ask the question. "Where does your boyfriend live?"

"At the Las Palmas Apartments, just below Highland between D and E streets."

Goosebumps. Dena and I exchanged glances. "What was our apartment number there Deen? Do you remember?"

"It was apartment 45"

Dianne's eyes widened as she drew her hands to her mouth and whispered, "Oh my god!"