The funeral was a somber event. Old man Williams was 96 years old when he died. He was a rich man, but had few friends. He had lived the last forty years of this life in London, England and had only come home to be buried. Few people attended the funeral, but one of the few was old man William’s grandson Ted.
Ted was a no nonsense type of guy. He was a man of little humor. The family had not been close and there was certainly no love lost here. Ted had never married or had children and cared little about himself or others. Ted treated people with contempt, as simply a means to get what he wanted.
Old man Williams owned a mansion on Raven Road. It had not been used for over forty years and he used to say that it was haunted by a spirit from long past. Most people thought this story was just an attempt to keep people away from the property. The mansion was old, but still in good repair since old man Williams had employed a caretaker during the day to keep the property up. The caretaker had just quit after old man Williams died a few days earlier.
After the funeral they had the reading of the will and Ted inherited the mansion on Raven Road. Ted had decided to stay at the mansion a couple of days in order to assess its value for sale.
It was late when Ted arrived at the mansion. Unlocking the front door, he stepped into the huge entrance hall. Off this hall were many corridors traveling in multiple directions. Ted went up the grand staircase and went down the hall on the left.
Tired, Ted decided to get to bed, but first he had to find one. The first door on the left was locked, the second door was just a storage closet, the next door on the right was an empty room. After several more doors he found a room with a nice big bed.
Ted changed into his nightclothes, turned down the bed and was just about to get in when he realized that he had not brushed his teeth and needed to use the toilet. Since the mansion was old there were no bathrooms in the bedrooms, so Ted needed to go find one. Ted grabbed the candle and took off down the hall looking for a bathroom. Up one hall and down another he went without success. Ted was getting more and more frustrated when he turned down the hall on the right.
At the far end of the hall Ted saw a faint light that seemed to be moving toward him. As it got closer it got a little brighter and seemed to take on the ghostly appearance of a man.
Ted just stood there motionless with what looked like an impatient look on his face. The ghost now was just a few feet in front of Ted when, in a ghostly voice it said, “I am the ghost of Raven Mansion and I have been roaming these halls for 100 years.” Ted without hesitation said, “Good, you must have found the toilet by now…so where is it?”
*****