Second hand ghost
Editor: If you walk north on Morris Street, on a very late, dark, moonlit, foggy night, it may be possible to observe an apparition in the haze. The form is of a man turning his head from side to side as he walks slowly north. In his hands he hold a note pad and a pencil, apparently making notes as he walks. I observed this action, late one night, and got close enough to observe what he had scribbled on his note pad. It read, “I waited patiently for the fishing boats to bring their catch from the open ocean up the Laguna to the unloading docks.”
At that moment the lights from a automobile erased the apparition. Later, in an attempt to approach this form again, I put on my $231.78 new sneakers, buckled my work belt in the correct position, picked up my framing square with hammer and darkened my face with ashes from the Barlow fire. I did this in an attempt to appear as a midnight workman on the job. It worked. I approached the outline of the figure making it possible for me to see the heading clearly printed on the notepad. I quote: “ The New Cannery Row” by John Steinbeck.
Dave Wischemann
Sebastopol