HOW LONG TONIGHT

"Really, can these ghosts tell time?"

RLJ

(23)

HOW LONG TONIGHT

Mary Trask, again, finds herself right in the middle of a conversation between two haunting entities she cannot see. Oh, it has long been established that they see, and hear, her. But when they, again, begin to argue like an old long-suffering-of-each-other married couple, Mary huffs and puffs and asks them to quiet down, please... but they do not listen.

Mary used to think she was going crazy because of the voices. They began their first argument, that she knows of, the first night she moved into this apartment. Clear as day and close to her as she lay in her bed listening to the conversation, invisible voices began to debate philosophers she had never heard. After about two weeks of this, she finally caught on that she was paying rent to live in a haunted apartment.

And the apartment managers played coy and shy when she confronted them about her plight. They told her that they forgot to tell her about the voices. Mary found herself actually declining their offer to move to another apartment. Something inside of her, maybe morbid curiosity, made her stay.

And so, on a Wednesday night of her work week, she now sits on her bed with her pillow pulled up to her chin, waiting for them to eventually fade out of sound. Sometimes it takes them minutes, and sometimes they debate for hours.

"How long will it be tonight, guys," she whispers in a resigned tone. "How long tonight..."

RLJ