Lies

I don’t remember the exact date, but it was cold. The snow was perched on the limbs of trees like white icing, and the cars appeared to be undercover rocks of various sizes and shapes.

I could hear the wind as it whipped around the “L” shaped building where I sat. When I first entered the office it was freezing, but as the hour passed a warming comfort enveloped me from the inside out, as I laughed uncontrollably at a YouTube video involving singing puppets who were tone-deaf.

There were folders of work neatly stacked on my army metal desk, while a bug with a bazillion legs crawled up my dingy white cement blocked walls. The windows rattled every time the wind blew, and I could feel the haunting of “Jack Frost,” and at times I thought I heard him.

The following incidents and conversations are not exact or verbatim, and they will be repeated in the present tense. This is however, a ghost’s fake re-enactment from the past.



I hear a muffled, ringing sound coming from the bottom of a stack of folders and papers, it’s my phone. I answer the call and hear a larger noise outside and attempt to stand and turn around.

“Hello? Hello?” The panic stricken caller says.

Laughter …“Um, Why hell--loo Marty, what’s up?” Laughter continues.

“What’s up? Have you not heard the noises outside? Have you not seen the sky?”

Snickering, “Well, I um tried to, I think, now that you mention it, umm,... laughter...you can’t see much from the floor. more laughter Uh…what’s UP?”

“Stop laughing, it’s not funny. I’m not sure, but a lot of people say it’s the rapture!”

“What ruptured?”

“No, the Rap-ture.”

A serious tone develops, “They Rap tured what?”

“Oh Dear God!”

Extreme concern, “They Rap tured, dear God? Are they asking for a ransom? Why, this is terrible!”

“What is going on in your office?” Marty asks with a serious attitude.

Laughter resumes, “Well, there’s a huge bug climbing up my wall. It looks to be the size of a chipmunk. There was a ringing noise but, it stopped and the glass bottle of water my boss had in his desk, it’s now gone. I hope he didn’t mind. I was thirsty. But I’m going to blame it on the chipmunk bug.”

“Why would your boss have a glass bottle of water in his desk?”

“Uhm, he uhm, said that he uh, oh yea, he kept it in there when he needed it.”

Inquisitive and concerned, Marty asks, “What did the label on the bottle say?”

Laughter … “Water?” More laughter, “My glasses are at uhm, -- a delayed pause --, my glasses are at home.”

“What does the bottle look like?”

Laughter … “I don’t know. It’s a bottle okay? Old water…”

“Old water?”

Off key singing…“Old water, stronger than a fire, I’m drinking you in my office…”

Marty is disgusted as he asks, “How much of the bottle did you drink?”

Off key singing continues, “Some day, dah, dah, dah …” as the voice trails off …“it was about half-way gone by the time I found it. Oh no, oh…no….no….no…get away, get away!...”

Frantically Marty yells, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”


There was total silence.


The next day an article in the daily newspaper appeared with the following headline:

“Man buried under files of paper”

Yesterday afternoon a man’s body was discovered covered in files and mounds of paper. He apparently died of suffocation. There were numerous bruises on his face, and a small dead cockroach. It has been determined that the man had fallen onto the ground, knocking over stacks of paper. It is believed he tried to kill the cockroach as it walked on his face. Alcohol may have been involved.

image at: kylekeeton.com/2007/07/russia-from-inside-sof...