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I stood in front of Johnny's shack and tugged at my sweater nervously. I craned my neck trying to spot Nate. A large crowd had gathered of people my age, and all the tall guys seemed to want to stand right in my line of sight. I wasn't sure if it was because they were completely clueless, or wanted to make sure I was looking at them. Maybe a little from column A... a little from column B...
Finally, Nate crested the dune. I'm not sure who smiled bigger, him or me, but it sure was great to see him. I couldn't help but notice the fellas around me found other places to stand as soon as they saw I had a boyfriend.
Nate gave me a kiss and took my hand as we waited with the group to go over to the cannery. I filled him in on everything that went down today, all the way to Stan and Fred arresting Ralph.
"They stuck an eighty-year-old man in a jail cell?" he asked, aghast.
"We gotta do something about them," I replied. "They are out of control." I jerked my thumb toward Main Street. "And now Tango is on a rampage because his séance room is now off limits."
Nate knit his brow. "He was crushed by a bookshelf because a floorboard gave out."
"Well, the floorboard was cut."
Nate gazed upon the happy group that had gathered for the tour, as if considering the character of each one of them. "Who would have done such a thing? It just doesn't even make sense."
But before we could consider it anymore, Johnny called out. "Your chariot awaits!"
He motioned to Main Street and we all moseyed our way up there. I had to laugh. Johnny had rented a party bus, complete with disco lights and dance poles. Nothing says party like rattling through the countryside, trying not to fall into each other's laps when you hit a pothole.
We piled inside and every seat was filled. Johnny evidently miscounted and ended up having to use the poles as a place to grip as he stood through the ride. The mood was merry, however, with people making their own fun.
Echo took shotgun and started a running commentary about the island's history, making sure to spin things so that the most innocent events had a more sinister spin.
"And now we go to the old cannery... that was closed and neeever reopened again... UNTIL NOW," he said awkwardly over the P.A. system.
Nate shook his head as we pulled into the parking lot. Johnny and Echo had evidently taken a page out of Tango's book and decided to up the theatricality of it all, but it was coming off a little cringy. And the new tour script Echo was testing was just the beginning. Johnny had gotten two inflatable air dancers, the kind you find outside of mattress stores and car dealerships. Except he had gotten ones shaped like ghosts and had placed them on either side of the door to the old building. In order to be seen, he had set up floodlights, which really highlighted all of the weeds growing up through the cracks in the asphalt. I didn't know if it made it creepier or just ratty. As we stepped outside, a music system was blaring the sound of creaky houses and rattling chains.
Johnny checked in with me for my approval. What could I do? I gave him two thumbs up, and he returned my thumbs up with his own thumbs up. Guess we were all good.
We walked into the building. It had been awhile since I had been here, and I realized it probably hadn't been long enough. I gave a little shiver.
But Johnny, again, had been inside, and had done his magic to make it seem some sort of haunted rave, and any real spookiness had been chased away. There were projections of ghosts rotating on the concrete walls and a sad smoke machine that was letting out little puffs of white clouds every now and then. The creepy sounds playing outside filtered in, but then abruptly they stopped. I cast my eyes over to Johnny to see what was wrong and noticed he was fiddling with a makeshift sound system. And then, out of nowhere, the theme to Ghostbusters started to play. Johnny pumped his fist to every "Ghost! Busters!" lyric.
Nate was all about it, though. He leaned over and murmured in my ear. "Have I said how great that goof is?"
"He brings the party with him..." I replied.
It seemed to take every ounce of will in his body to deign to be part of this, but Echo closed his eyes and focused like he was getting ready to enter the ring in a martial arts fight.
He opened his eyes and motioned to Johnny. Johnny cut the music, and then Echo stepped forward.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to this, a most haunted site." He then began droning on about the history of fishing and the canning industry. I saw the enthusiasm in the group start to wane.
Johnny motioned to him to pick up the pace, and I was impressed that Echo actually paid attention.
He pulled out his spirit box and fiddled with the switches. "There is a principal called an electronic voice phenomenon, or EVP. This machine does extremely fast radio sweeps. The white noise and the fast scanning of radio frequencies provides the energy and transmission that the spirits need to speak to us. They will control what words come through the radio."
He turned up the volume and it sounded like static and then someone was rapidly changing the channels. Suddenly, a word came through. "Hello."
Everyone gasped with the thrill as the static and channel changes continued, and I gotta admit, it was a little spooky.
"Is anyone there?" Echo asked.
There was more static, and then, once again, the word, "Hello" came out of the radio.
"It's real!" said a girl beside me.
Nate looked at me like he couldn't believe people were buying this.
"Is there something you want to tell me?" Echo asked.
There was a bunch more static.
And then the ghost box spat out: "Run." People started to get a bit more freaked, but then the word "to" came through the speaker. It was a sentence of some sort. We all leaned in. And then it said, "Me."
Echo mouthed it, putting the words together. Suddenly, he fixed his eyes on me and Nate. "Run to me." His face paled as it became not just repeating the words but a command. "RUN TO ME!"
So, we did.
And moments later, there was a crashing sound and the metal catwalk we had just been standing under collapsed and fell from the wall.
"DUDE!" Johnny exclaimed. As the dust settled, he called. "Is everyone okay?"
We all glanced at each other, checking on one another just to be sure. Nate took my face in his hands, as if to reassure himself I was still there and he was still there. We were fine.
We all turned to Echo. Shocked, he muted the ghost box. The silence without the static was deafening. We all stared at it and at him. And then he gulped. "So, I think the tour for tonight is over."