Message-ID: <35149asstr$1013202609@assm.asstr-mirror.org> Return-Path: From: "empath :{)" X-Original-Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 08 Feb 2002 13:25:30.0705 (UTC) FILETIME=[146F5410:01C1B0A4] X-ASSTR-Original-Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 09:55:30 -0330 Subject: {ASSM} {ASSD} "A Ghost's Story" [Empath] (MF rom magic) [3/5] Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 16:10:09 -0500 Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail Approved: Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d X-Archived-At: X-Moderator-Contact: ASSTR ASSM moderation X-Story-Submission: X-Moderator-ID: gill-bates, newsman Warnings: Splitting your attention between driving and ANYTHING else (especially -AHEM- :) is dangerous. Smoking rots your lungs and makes you stink - and cannabis is no better than tobacco in this respect, Captain Herbal-Life. Alcohol lets your inner asshole out. And reading these sorts of stories too much makes you go blind. {What? OH, *that* type of warning - right.} Don't read/download this if you're not able to vote; it's not worth the trouble you could get into. And attempting to use the stories I post here to make money of your own is a) illegal, and b) ludicrous - if I thought I could get anything for this stuff, do you think I'd post it here for FREE?:) {Happy now? Good.} _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx <1st attachment, "ghost3.txt" begin> {ASSD} "A Ghost's Story" [Empath] (MF rom magic) [3/5] ============= "A Ghost's Story" Copyright 2001...er 200*2* (dang changeover:) by empath Chapter 3 ========= If David was anything like Sue, he'd be a welcome guest in my home. She left a small footprint, so to speak. She didn't use much of the house - just her bedroom, the bathroom next to it, the kitchen (her favourite room) and the sitting room, or 'living room' as she called it. She left the rest of the house untouched. We settled into a comfortable routine. On weekdays she would go to work and administer to the dietary needs of the County Hospital. Meanwhile I would keep up my education of the 20th century that I'd missed out on - did you know that America has been directly involved in ten conflicts since I had done my bit in the "War to end all wars"? Makes me feel a little foolish and impotent. In the evening she would make dinner for herself and eat in the kitchen with me helping and using the small TV I cajoled her into buying as a 'Ouija board.' After that, she would watch her few shows, and chat with me some more about her day and mine. Then Sue would bathe and get ready for bed. I'd tuck her in then go study with the TV some more, or practice. I get better at the manipulating of material objects all the time. As stated I pull the covers up for my friend every night, and I've been able to carry a pencil for a full five minutes in any kind of mood - I don't have to be excited or angry or whatever anymore. Soon I'll be able to write more permanent notes for when Sue is away. Saturday is Sue's shopping day; she goes out and gets groceries and other things for a few hours in the morning. More my insistence she have some kind of life outside the house than any desire to get away from her shut-in friend with the REALLY pale z z complexion. Saturday afternoons are spent playing games; I discovered Sue's quite a competent chess player, and she hardly ever cheats now that I can move my own pieces. Saturday night is spent watching a movie together; usually Sue would order a pay-per-view, but sometimes check out a video store for something older that she'd think I'd like - usually her taste is impeccable. Her performance evaluation is how few popcorn kernels I've thrown at her during the showing. Sunday is like Saturday except Sue goes to church in the morning instead of shopping. What - you thought someone who would believe in ghosts and even strike up a friendship with one would be like these 'fashionable atheists' that always seem to be the focus of television and the movies? Sue and David met at a social at their Lutheran church. I don't hold it against them; I used to be a churchgoing Catholic, and now I just can't attend services. I imagine that God has given me this time as a sort of purgatory - a chance to dwell on my mistakes in life and perhaps repent for them. It's just a pity it took me so long to come to that realisation. Anyway, routine is hardly interesting - the notable events of the next few weeks are what I'll focus on. Two days after I showed Sue how I could communicate with her, she bought that second TV for the kitchen. She also scheduled an appointment for the Phone Company to come out and upgrade the house to these new 'clippy' connections that would allow her to use an answering machine. The next week the phone technician was out. He was happy to report that he would only have to replace the actual outlet - the lines themselves were in fine condition. Again, my home was spared drastic changes. The tech was done in a half-hour. Sue had already bought an answering machine at my insistence. My coaxing paid off the very next day. This interesting new device had taken two hang-ups, one obvious telemarketer, and a call from Sue's mother checking up on her. Then there was a message I just KNEW she'd want to hear. Sue actually had the nerve to get home from work LATE that day. I was bouncing around the foyer, waiting for her. When I heard the porch door open, I peeked through the window, and whipped open the front door. "You're late," I intoned with as normal and un-ghost-like a voice as I could manage. She dropped the soda bottle she had been drinking from. "Brad - you spoke! Oh. My. God. Brad, I can SEE you; not just head and shoulders, either - I can even see you're smiling!" Sue rushed up to me and we hugged. "What happened? You've never looked so...so...HERE!" She was right about my 'vitality' - I could inhale and expel air and modulate it enough to speak. That had happened only once before, and we both knew about that occasion. I had prepared for this moment by going to the unused bedrooms and rolling around on the dusty beds, taking special effort to grind my face in good and hard to have my expression visible. "Good news. For you." She looked expectantly at me. I just pointed into the living room and said "Check your messages." She walked into the room with a pleasantly confused expression. She saw the winking light, and hit play on the machine. After one of the hang-ups and the telemarketer, I just gestured for her to continue; it pleased me that she could see it. When her mother's message played, I put a hand on Sue's shoulder and said, "Call her tomorrow; we can skip the chess game." And finally she got to it. BEEP! "Hi honey. It's me - I'm glad you finally got a machine; this is the third time I've tried to call. I know you're working, but you also know I can't do jack with this company's computers while THEY'RE busy using them - that means I work outside business hours. "Anywho, I've got good news - we've broken the back of this problem already. That means we shouldn't need that last month for implementation and testing. That means only another two weeks - yes, two weeks before I get back to you Suzy, darling! Love you, and I can't wait to check out this house you've found. The ghost sounds interesting. Love you lots and miss you more, bye." BEEP! Now Sue was as excited as I was; she danced around the room, swept me into her embrace and forced me into a fast polka around the coffee table. We knocked over a chair, but we were both too busy to care. When she stumbled, I hugged her to me and hoisted her up in the air. Sue yelped with surprise and delight. Then I set us both down on the couch, panting with the exertion. "You were strong 'back in tha day' homey." I shook my head. "I was a scrawny guy when I was alive, Sue. This is pure excitement unfiltered by flesh and bone. But enough about me - let's talk about DAVID." Sue squeezed my arm, then stroked my face. "I'm happy for you, Brad - this is so wonderful." I took her hands in mine. "Sue - I'm like this because I'm happy - happy for YOU. And I like David's voice by the by." She giggled. "He sounds tired but happy - I'm so happy he's coming home so soon." "So how do you think..." [...he'll react to me?] But Sue didn't respond. [Sue?] Her face began to frown. "Brad? You're fading. Are you okay?" I held my hands up and looked at them; we could both see the dust falling through my dematerialising body. [Oh well,] I sighed, shrugging. I turned the TV on and went back to our usual medium of communication. TIRED MYSELF OUT I GUESS OH WELL FUN WHILE IT LASTED WHERE WERE WE Sue put her hand where my knee was - I only barely felt the contact. "I think you were asking me something, but I couldn't make out the question." OH YEAH HOW DO YOU THINK DAVID WILL REACT TO ME My friend thought before answering. "I don't know, Brad. He always used to be more open minded than I was. This has been an enlightening week or two, but I'd like to think he'll take to you as easily as I did, if not better." SERIOUSLY DONT TRY TO SUGARCOAT IT FOR ME IF HES GONNA BE UPSET OR FREAKED I WANNA KNOW NOW AND BE READY WE CAN EASE HIM INTO IT IF NEED BE "No - that won't be necessary, and would only backfire, anyways. If there's one thing that David can't abide, it's bullshit; be up front with him and you're better off." HA SO I SHOULD HELP HIM IN WITH HIS BAGS THEN Sue had to laugh for a little before answering. "Okay, maybe 'easing' is a relative term. Just give him a little while to rest after bringing his stuff in, then you can serve him a drink?" YES MAAM RIGHT AWAY MAAM "Ha - we could always hide the picture and say you were black!" I was laughing too much to type out a reply properly, so I just leaned over and tickled Sue's ribs. "AHH! All right - no games or pranks. How about we leave our plans fluid for now. David will have a long plane ride back here; that's in addition to more than a month of sixteen-hour days. He may be too wiped out to do anything more than sleep." GOOD IDEA WE LET HIM SET THE PACE FOR HIS INTRODUCTION TO THE SUPERNATURAL SO APART FROM THIS HOWS YOUR DAY BEEN * * * There was one more notable event before David got back from his distant project. One night, six days after the phone message, I was sitting watching some late night talk show - neither Leno nor Letterman. I was watching with only half my attention, and I actually found myself waiting for the interruption of the furnace turning on with a thump. And then I realised I hadn't heard a thump for a while. I got up and checked the thermostat. It was set to a toasty seventy degrees, but the actual temperature was down in the forties! Frowning at this, I figured I should check the furnace. I started for the basement stairs, stopped and smiled at my habit of only forty years still overtaking eighty years of different abilities, and just sank through the floor. Once in the basement I moved over to the furnace. Lifting the boilerplate hatch, I was terrified to see the interior of the device was dark - the burners weren't lit and the pilot light had gone out. And an audible hissing told me the burners were getting plenty of gas. GAS - ohmygod - SUE! [I've got to shut the gas off!] I thought of the thermostat - no time for that and pilot light would still be getting a small gas flow. [There's a cut-off valve around here, somewhere! Where does Wentworth go first?] I remembered and grabbed the metal knob. Even in my agitated state, I couldn't move the valve. And I recalled that even as a young man, Wentworth used a wrench to turn it. I cast around and found the very same tool - it'd be criminal to leave a furnace like this with no means of shutting off the gas. I struggled to calmly fit the mouth of the wrench onto the valve knob. Once set, I easily turned the gas off. I was rewarded with an end to the hissing. That done I coiled my body and leapt two floors to the bedrooms. Once I cleared the main floor, I concentrated myself into solidity and grabbed the balcony railing. I hauled myself over and raced to Sue's room. "SUE! WAKE UP - get up, honey! Come on, sorry to disturb you, but you gotta get up right NOW, Sue!" But she wasn't moving. I looked her over closely. She was breathing, and her pulse was strong and steady, but even slapping her wouldn't wake her. I tried a trick I learned from "Life in the ER" about pinching the skin over the collarbone and twisting - she didn't even flinch. I grabbed Sue under the arms and began to drag her out of the bed, but I had overexerted myself, and my hands began to slip through her body. "NOOoooo..." [ooooo!] I panted, looking at Sue's limp but live form askew in the bed. I had to get her out of the house and breathing clear air, but how? I'd used up my 'vitality' already, and would have trouble lifting the sheets, let alone her. And it came to me. I concentrated a moment, steeled myself, and jumped... ...and landed in Sue's body. It was difficult trying to adjust being in flesh and blood again. It had been eighty years since I had felt like this, and then I was a six-foot man, not a five- foot, six-inch woman. Nor one who had her lungs filled with propane gas - the dizziness I felt must have been partly due to that. The most difficult task I had was not pushing Sue out of her body. Several times I felt a tingle or sensation that reminded me of the night Sue and I had spent together - maybe that was our souls 'touching.' I struggled out of the bed, made my way on hands and knees to the window, and pulled myself up the frame. I slipped the catch, and heaved at the window, getting it open about a foot. I sank down and thrust my head and shoulders through the opening, gasping deeply to rid my...friend's lungs of poison and get oxygen into her body. After a minute or two, the dizziness lessened, and I felt stronger. I stood, pushing the window up as I did it. Holding the pane open, I grabbed the stick on the sill and propped the sash open. Then I took a deep breath, and made my way out of the house. Getting out of the bedroom, I steered Sue's body down the stairs, staggering a little. The door handle presented a little difficulty, but soon I was out on the front steps, falling to hands and knees. I felt sick - nausea is a horrible thing to feel at any time, but after being free of it for almost a century made it that much worse. As I let Sue's body act on instinct, I focussed on extricating myself from this vessel, and pulling Sue back into the space that I was occupying. It felt weird, as if she vomited me up. My spirit tumbled down to the walk, and I looked back - no one looks pretty when they're throwing up, but under the circumstances, I found her ability to continue with this action without my help beautiful. As she finished regurgitating her the contents of her stomach, she looked up, bewildered and haggard. The first thing she said was "I think that's the worst way in the world to wake someone up." I smiled an apology to her, then wondered how she knew where I was. "Oh...sorry for getting some on you," Sue said, pointing. I looked down and saw some fluid covering my knees. I also noticed a leaf had stuck to my shoulder. My concern must have been 'vitalising' again. "So what happened?" I tried speaking, but could only manage a tiny hiss. "Oh, sorry. And we don't a TV or any mirrors out here." I sat back, and shrugged. Sue looked around, and grabbed a twig. "Here, use this," she directed, placing in front of me. "I'll ask yes-or-no questions; if the answer is yes, put the stick on your left side. To answer no, put it to your right." I rolled the stick to indicate 'yes'. "Good! Oh, and just to cover all the bases - if I ask a question that you can't answer properly 'yes' or 'no,' just spin the stick in front of you. Okay?" I moved the stick to 'neutral', then back to 'yes.' "Okay, then. Let's see if I can work out what happened. I was asleep, and in some kind of danger - I got sick. Right?" Yes. "You had to get me out of the house. What would threaten me in there - and it had to make me sick." Sue looked panicked. "Smoke? Fire?" No. "Oh, good. Um...gas? The furnace went out!" Yes. "Oh. How long? Never mind - wrong question." Sue looked in my direction. "So you dragged my unconscious body out here to allow me to breathe fresh air?" No. "No? So how did you get me out?" I waggled the stick in 'neutral.' "Aha. Did you help me walk out, then? I don't remember it." Oops; there's a loophole. 'Neutral.' "What? So did you help me or not? Either you did or you didn't!" I rolled the stick half-way to 'yes.' "Sort of yes. Hang on a second," Sue frowned and stared at nothing. "I *do* remember walking out...but...I...didn't - YOU!" I rolled the stick strongly to the left and let it roll down the walk away from us. "You were with me - IN me! You did help me walk out. I was...not quite out, but I couldn't do anything, and you...took the controls, so to speak." We both sat quietly and contemplated the implications. Sue grabbed another stick, and placed it roughly where I was. "So have you ever done that before?" No. "Wow - I'm glad it worked." She looked over her shoulder back at the house. "Do you think it's safe to go back in yet?" I spun the stick, then moved it slowly to 'no.' "Yeah - hasn't been long since you got me out." Sue shivered. "Brrr! But the gas won't affect you, right?" Yes. "Um, do you think you could go in and drag out something to keep me warm?" An emphatic yes, followed by me picking up the stick and taking it with me as I walked past Sue. As she said, I had to drag it out, but I had an afghan from the living room for her. She wrapped it around her shoulders, and curled her legs under herself to cover them with her night- shirt. We didn't do much while we waited for the gas to dissipate; at one point Sue asked me "I miss your elaborate replies - do you think we could wrangle some extension cords and drag a TV out here for you?" I didn't bother with the stick; I just tickled my friend. Soon enough, Sue insisted on the cold being more dangerous than any gas that was left. We entered the house, but I was dependent upon her nose to tell if it was safe. She shrugged and said she didn't smell anything. She shivered again, and said "Brad? Do you know how to restart the furnace?" I realised I still had the stick in my hand, so I put it down and rolled it to Sue's right, signifying 'yes.' Then I went into the living room and turned on the TV. Sue followed me and I proceeded to type out specific instructions on lighting the furnace safely...or at least what Wentworth did after he was finished cleaning it. She recited the steps to my satisfaction, and then we made our way to the basement. I'm glad to say that Sue managed the task as ably as the regular furnace repairman does. We went back into the living room to wait for the house to warm up. Once there, I posed the following statement to her: YOU GET THE FURNACE REPLACED SOON TOO "Brad, what will all this do to you? It's YOUR furnace!" SUE IM ALREADY DEAD IF I FADE AWAY SO BE IT IVE HAD A DECENT LIFE AND A GREAT AFTERLIFE BUT IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO YOU Sue sighed. "I guess." HEY LOOK AT IT LIKE THIS I HELPED PUT THAT FURNAC IN MAYBE IF I HELP PUT THIS NEW ONE IN "Yeah; you install the new furnace, it'd still be YOUR furnace. But how would you help? This time you're lacking a little something - no body. Sorry." TRUE BUT I KNOW SOMEONE WHO DOES MAYBE I COULD BORROW HERS Sue looked uneasy. "Well...I don't know; we may want to test this out first-" Then she looked up at the screen again. SUE I WAS KIDDING ID NEVER ASK YOU TO DO THAT "Oh! Sorry - missed the joke. But seriously, we may want to try this out. It might be interesting to be conscious next time - to have a guy inside me in a completely different way!" I tickled her for her joke. fin de troiseme <1st attachment end> ----- ASSM Moderation System Notice------ Notice: This post has been modified from its original format. 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