Do you believe in ghosts?
I see that question anywhere, and while I know it’s supposed to be a yes or no sort of thing, I’ve never been able to answer it. My answer falls more in the range of “kinda?”
There are those who believe that ghosts are completely real, those who believe they’re completely fake, those who think they’re not what we think they are and the folks who just want to profit from their concept.
This week’s story was an exploration of what would happen if someone who thought ghosts were definitely fake had to grapple with being face to face with one. What would he do about the folks he’s always seen as crooks? How does it change his perception of reality?
And of course, who better to put in that role than a serious, cutting edge scientist who prefers to look at things through the laws of physics?
Thus this week’s story was born:
The Haunting of Quantum Accelerants
Jill N Davies
Things had been weird in the labs for Mark for a few days. He wasn’t sure what the problem was, but could trace it back to his last cup of coffee. Nobody was talking to him anymore.
“Hey Fabian, does it seem like the frequency converter is always on the fritz lately?” Mark asked as he ran the calibration sequence again.
Fabien stopped what he was doing and looked back at the machine as it came to life. “Again? What the heck?!”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Mark said, but Fabien ignored him.
“Hey Bea! The frequency converter did that thing again,” Fabien called.
“That’s what I said.” Mark rolled his eyes.
Bea left the particle accelerator to stand next to Fabien. “You still think it’s Mark?”
“Very funny, blaming me for malfunctioning equipment,” Mark said.
“It’s a pretty big coincidence,” Fabien said.
Bea shook her head. “You know I don’t believe.”
“You started it!” Mark protested.
Fabien shrugged. “You agreed to let his brother try to talk to him. C’mon, let’s get some coffee.”
“You talked to Andy?” Mark asked, confused as to why Bea would talk to his kooky brother.
“I’ll have tea. After what happened last time…” Bea started.
“That was probably Mark too,” Fabien laughed. The two physicists exited the lab as though Mark weren’t there.
The next thing Mark knew, an overburdened Andy was ushered into the labs. Mark couldn’t believe Andy had weaseled his way into the labs. But that’s how it was with Andy—always a gimmick. Haunted this, spirits that, electromagnetic disturbances…
Andy chewed his lip while studying the wildly blinking equipment. “He must be trying to communicate.”
Bea rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, Ghost Man. I just want to be able to run an experiment without something going wrong.”
Andy dumped his equipment at the base of the converter. Mark winced at the noise.
“You asked me to come talk to Mark,” he jabbed.
“Let the man do his job. The sooner the equipment is up and running, the sooner we make history,” Fabien coaxed.
“Fine. If you two are right about this, I can switch back to coffee,” Bea said, following Fabien out of the lab. Mark watched them go. He wasn’t sure what to do—follow them and demand an explanation, or make sure his brother didn’t mess anything up in the lab…
Mark turned away from the door to find that Andy had somehow already finished setting up his gear. Andy flipped a visor over his eyes and started to look around the lab for—what did he call it?—disturbances.
Andy settled his gaze on Mark. “Hey Mark, it’s your bro, Andy. Can you hear me?”
“What are you doing here, Andy?” Mark asked.
Andy watched the panels light up. The ground shook with each word.
“It’s good to hear your voice.”
Mark couldn’t believe Andy’s audacity. How dare he bring his joke of a career into the laboratory! “You came all this way to hear my voice? I’m not buying it. What’s it really? Do you need money?”
“Nah, I came here for you.”
“What sort of yarn did you spin to get in here?” Mark found himself tinkering with the controls again, almost as if he couldn’t help himself.
“They approached me,” Andy said.
The electricity flickered and pulsed. Andy could see his breath as the moisture formed crystals in the frigid air.
“Yeah? And you told them—what? The Laboratory’s haunted?” Mark scoffed.
“The laboratory is haunted,” Andy said.
Mark stormed away from the converter and began tinkering with the accelerator.
“A couple of machines start going haywire and they abandon reason? You must be really good at what you do.”
“I am,” Andy agreed.
“A real con artist.”
“A real ghost hunter,” Andy corrected.
“Yeah? Have you found our lab’s ghost yet?” Mark laughed.
“Yep,” Andy said.
“Who is it? Disgruntled lab tech?”
“Not exactly,” Andy said.
“The suspense is killing me—who died?”
“You did,” Andy blurted.
“Good joke,” Mark laughed.
“It’s not a joke.”
Mark waited for Andy’s face to break.
“That’s why they can’t hear you,” Andy explained.
“You can hear me,” Mark pointed out.
“I know how to listen,” Andy said.
“Because I’m a ghost,” Mark mocked.
Andy nodded.
“Well how’d I die?” Mark asked.
“It was an accident—with the accelerator,” Andy started.
A flash of a memory crossed Mark’s consciousness—something about coffee.
“There’s no such thing as ghosts!” Mark shrieked. Several fluorescent lights shattered.
“What about that then?” Andy asked.
“There’s an explanation. Energy—a rearrangement of atoms…”
“You’re not Dr. Manhattan,” Andy said. It gave Mark an idea.
“If there were an accident, then perhaps I—”
“You exploded like a potato someone heated up to fast.”
Mark sobered.
“Think about it. When’s the last time you touched any of the equipment?” Andy asked.
“I’ve been working on it since you got here!”
“Look at your hands, bro.”
Mark looked down at his hands. He thought they’d been resting on the control panel. They were floating inside the machine. He pulled them away, shocked. He looked at them, then through them, before focusing on his brother.
“I’m a ghost.”
“Yeah you are,” Andy agreed.
“What am I supposed to do now?” He asked.
“How about a cup of coffee? I can show you how,” Andy said.
“No way, we’re on the brink of a breakthrough here, as soon as… as soon as…”
“You quit messing up the equipment,” Andy finished.
“I guess so,” Mark said.
“I can show you how to do that, too,” Andy suggested.
Mark looked at him, seeing his brother for the first time.
“So how about that coffee?” Andy asked.
Mark hadn’t been able to get one since the accident.
“I’d die for one,” he said.
Andy smirked, “You already did.”
“Too soon, dude. Too soon.”
The End
Don’t have time to read? It’s okay! I’ll read it to you on IGTV!
Want something with a bit more meat on the bones? I write short stories for reedsy. You can check out my entries:
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