DaveKuzminski

"Welcome back, Mack. What'd you do on vacation?"

"Hi, Cale. Well, I visited a haunted house. Anyway, it was just one more stop on a guided tour. At least it took the hassle out of trying to decide where I wanted to go and what to see. You know how busy I usually am."

Cale replied drolly to the litany, "Yes, I know how busy you are, Mack."

Mack said, "I don't have the time to plan my own itinerary and drive about trying to find those places. Anyway, that was why I was there when I spotted a few things which appeared somewhat odd. Now, I'm not positive, but the arrangement of several objects in the room where most of the haunting took place seemed familiar to me in a strange way. After all, communications is my field. You know how a crystal radio receiver works?"

Cale replied, "Of course, Mack. I think all of us made one as a kid."

Mack said, "Exactly. Well, I'm not sure, but I think that some of the objects in that room were acting as what I can only describe as a crude crystal hologram receiver. If I'm right, that room isn't really haunted. It's picking up a signal from somewhere, though I don't think the origin is necessarily in our time. The transmission is most likely from the past through another set of coincidental circumstances. I haven't ruled out the future even though the ghostly characters most people report seeing are dressed periodically in clothing from the past. Not ruling out the future occurred to me when I happened to watch a re-enactment during that stop. That's when it occurred to me that the transmission could be from the future. It might explain why the sequence of events for the ghostly apparitions, when seen, are always described as being nearly identical. I mean, if it was from the past, then shouldn't the action be different each time it was witnessed?"

Suddenly interested, Cale remarked, "That's a good point, if you're right about the room acting as a crude hologram receiver. Of course, there's always the possibility that the circumstances only existed for transmission at that one particular point in time. Each witness could be seeing a harmonic image of the same exact occurrence. That could account for the repetition of the action at different times. Then, of course, it could actually be haunted and the ghosts are simply caught in some sort of endless repetition of events that occurred in their lives."

Mack said, "Which is why I haven't ruled out the past. I'm not so sure about ghosts in this case. I really think they can be ruled out. Anyway, this all brings me to this point. I think you and I should go back to that location and make note of everything I saw. There's a distinct possibility that we might discover something new which we can adapt to our own work."


Cale and Mack entered the building seeking out a curator to assist them, rather than get anyone upset with their investigation. They passed some actors who performed during the day for tourists who didn't have the time to stay and watch for the real ghosts. Even if someone waited until the witching hour, whenever it occurred, and was lucky to see it, there was no guarantee of how well or how long the ghosts would perform.

"Why yes, we'd be glad to have you do an investigation. That is, if you can guarantee that you won't harm anything."

Cale asked, "We simply want to make recordings and measurements. How long have the ghosts been seen?"

The curator replied, "Well, this house has stood for over two centuries. The ghosts first appeared over a hundred and fifty years ago. Since that time, almost no one lived in the house. A few tried on and off, but one visitation was usually enough for them. It became a tourist attraction over three decades ago. As far as I know, everything has remained virtually unchanged during all that time except for the office and gift shop. Course, the only room the ghosts inhabit is the living and dining room area. That left the rest of the house available, so putting in an office, gift shop, and supply room didn't really change anything. The ghosts still appear from time to time since this became a tourist attraction. Usually on stormy nights."


The two men looked at the haunted room carefully. It didn't take either of them long to discover that several oil lamps, pieces of china, knick-knacks, and numerous metal utensils all served in one way or another to complete a crude circuit. They felt it was a fairly solid foundation for their case of establishing the presence of the first ever crystal hologram receiver. They even persuaded one of the curators of the home to fill the oil lamp slowly over a ten minute interval to see if they could induce the ghostly images to appear. They were disappointed somewhat when it failed.

Cale said, "Perhaps it needs certain atmospheric conditions to complete the circuitry."

Mack replied, "I think that fits in with the recorded times when the appearances were seen before. I think it was usually on stormy nights and such when there was a lot of electricity in the air to display any received images with."

The curator said, "Like I said before, they only appear on stormy nights. Usually, that is. I think there's been one or two times they showed during the day, but it was still dark and stormy."

Mack said, "I guess we'll have to plan on returning when the weather is on our side."

Cale said, "I'll be looking forward to that. This I’ve got to see."


Several weeks later, Mack said, "Weather's going to be almost perfect tomorrow night.”

"Perfect? You like storms?" asked Cale.

Mack replied, "For the haunted house we visited last month. Remember?"

"Sure, now I remember. Tomorrow? Oh yeah! I'm still in!" Cale exclaimed.


Mack and Cale set up their video camera in an out of the way corner hoping to record the ghosts. Whatever evidence they could record would be more than useful in determining whether the suspected hologram receiver was picking up the past or future. It might only be some minor detail which they would catch on videotape that no one, of the people they interviewed who saw the apparitions before, noticed or remembered.

One of the curators said, "Folks, we have a real investigative team of scientists here tonight to document our ghosts. They've visited before and seem fairly certain that tonight is the night for our ghosts to actually appear as others have seen them. If so, we should be in for a real treat. Please cooperate by keeping an opening between them and the cordoned off area where the ghosts usually appear. Thank you."

The lights went off.

Cale whispered, "You recording already?"

Mack replied, "Yes. Terrible lighting here. I hope the images are bright enough to pick up."

The minutes went by slowly. As the storm moved into the area outside the house, a ghostly pale light began to appear in the cordoned off area. Lightning flashed outside the house, contributing to the electricity in the air. Thunderclaps, by their nearness, indicated that the storm was almost upon the house. All the while, the curators helped the scene along with spooky, chilling music for the tourists. Minute by minute, the pale images became more and more clear until...

Cale whispered, "I think we can say that it's definitely the past that's being picked up, Mack."

Mack lowered the camera as he shut it off. He whispered back, "I wish I'd figured out before now that the same setup was capable of transmitting images, too. I thought the images were coming from somewhere else. I doubt if anyone's going to be interested in touring a home haunted by two investigative scientists and a curator. We just don't look too scary."

Around them, tourists were already comparing the images in the cordoned off area with the two scientists.

Cale replied, "Speak for yourself. At least, I raised my arms once and said boo to you while we were working. You sure jumped out of your skin then."

Mack said, "Right now, I'm scared of those tourists. They don't look too happy about what we did."

Cale glanced at the tourists and curator, then quickly said aloud to everyone, "Well, I guess we proved that the home isn't haunted, but you're all really fortunate to be here tonight. You've just witnessed history in the making. That's right! You'll be the first to tell your friends that you visited a site of great historical importance since this is the first natural occurring hologram found in the world." Then he turned back to Mack and whispered, "We better get out of here fast, anyway."

butchiesmom

I read this but didn't take the time to comment on this excellent story. I like the twist you added to it in the end. A story about chasing ghosts and finding the ghosts they found were actually a broadcast of themselves trying to find the ghosts, lol. What a wonderful twist! I didn't see it coming! That's why I like reading your work! You take something and add your own twist to it.

Very good, Dave!
Gail