Elton Varfi - The Ghost Of Margaret Houg

While thinking, he did not even notice he had already arrived at the shop where Luisa worked. He stayed outside for a while, but then he gathered up his forces and went inside.

He quickly spotted her, she was there, more beautiful than ever, and Ernest understood that he loved her like he had never loved any another woman in his whole life. He could stay still there for hours and hours just looking at her, and he would’ve never gotten tired of it. For a moment he wanted to go back and let sit all, but then he gathered up his courage and approached.

“ Hi Luisa,” he said.

Luisa seemed glad to see him and that made him feel good.

“ Hello, Ernest, what a nice surprise; what brings you here?” she asked.

“ I wanted to apologize for last night.”

“ To apologize? For what?” Luisa asked as she truly could not understand.

“ Well ... last night I wanted to invite you out to dinner, but I did not and so I would like to fix it tonight, what do you say?”

“ I was afraid it was something much more serious,” Luisa replied, relieved by Ernest’s response. “Unfortunately tonight I can’t because I have already made plans with a friend. I’m really sorry, maybe next time,” Luisa concluded, but Ernest had no intention of giving up.

“ So, let’s do tomorrow night,” he tried to insist. “You choose the restaurant, I don’t really...”

“ I can’t tomorrow as well,” she interrupted him and continued, “unfortunately, I have other plans, but I promise that as soon as I’m freer I'll call you and we’ll spend an evening together.”

“ Okay, no problem. I just wanted to spend some time with you. That’s all. I’ll wait for your call then,” Ernest said, trying to sound calm, but in reality he was a mess.

“ Well...” Luisa said “I certainly didn’t want to disappoint you, but...”

“ No, no disappointment at all, I assure you,” Ernest interrupted her and continued “I’d better go now. You have to work. See you soon, darling.”

Ernest was sure that Luisa was not that busy as she said, but he could not understand why she did not want dating him. Without thinking about it, he stopped at a pub, went in and chugged down various bottles of beer.

It had been three days and Roni had not showed up. Ernest was in a confused state; he could not remember how many liters of beer he had been drinking, but certainly it had to be many, since he was feeling awful. He was sitting, his eyes stared into space and he did not want to do anything, he did not even want to move, and he remained motionless even when the door opened and Roni came in.

“ For Christ's sake! I had never seen so many empty beer bottles in one single room!” Roni exclaimed, impressed by the scene in front of his eyes.

“ Finally my friend Roni showed up! But where the hell have you been all this time?” Ernest asked, trying to tidy up a little bit the mess surrounding him.

“ I had things to do, but I can see that you did not waste any time and you tried to give your life an aim.”

“ I beg you, Roni, I'm ashamed enough and I don’t think I deserve your stupid comments. These three days I have been alone just like a dog and I thought...”

“ You have seen fit to drink until losing consciousness.” Roni interrupted him, and, without giving him time to answer, he continued, “Anyway, I'm not here to judge you, but to tell you that in less than two hours we must be over Houg. Now get up and firstly get a shave and then take a good shower. Is that clear?”

Ernest obeyed without saying a word.

While he was in the shower he could hear Roni’s upset voice.

“ And yet I remember perfectly well I told you to improve your appearance. When I saw you, you've looked like a zombie, and you made me a very bad impression. Luckily I know you, but if a stranger had seen you, he would have thought you were a suspicious individual escaped from an asylum.”

Ernest was slowly and quietly dressing up, not caring about what Roni was saying because he didn’t want to argue with him. When he was done, he simply said he was ready. Even Roni looked calmer; besides he worried about his friend and he felt bad when he saw him in that state.

They both went out silently and only when they got in the car Roni said: “Houg lives out of town, on the hills where he has his family residence. Please, Ernest, listen to him carefully and in the end you’ll be the one to decide if you want to accept it or not.”

“ Don't worry; I won’t ever make you look bad. Firstly I’ll listen carefully to your friend Houg and then we’ll see what happens.”

In Ernest’s words there was a bit of irony and Roni decided that it probably was better not to speak anymore, at least not until the arrival at Houg’s house.

Ernest had tried to imagine how the house of a millionaire could be, but as soon as he saw it he was amazed. That house looked like a castle and all around there was a green well-maintained lawn. Ernest noticed how Roni wasn’t impressed at all and that’s why he thought that he had been in that house several times. They got through the opened main gate and headed towards the house. From the gate to the house there was a distance of about half a mile and the two friends were walking on a small street which was the only paved part among all that green. When they arrived in front of the door, Roni rang the bell and someone opened the door. A woman appeared who had to be the maid, given the way she was dressed up.

As soon as the woman saw Roni she exclaimed: “Good morning, Mr. Ewin! Please, come on in, I'll tell Mr. Houg right away.”

“ I see you’re known here.” Ernest told his friend as soon as they entered.

“ Yeah, lately I’ve been coming here quite often.” Roni answered.

They got in and Ernest was more and more impressed from the beauty of that house. His attention had been caught by a huge painting hung on one of the walls representing a beautiful woman with long black hair; she was wearing a white dress holding a red rose in her hands; but her gaze was attracting him the most, it was so intense and penetrating that Ernest couldn’t stop looking at it.

“ It is the portrait of my dead wife.” A voice said behind his back.

Ernest turned and saw a tall man, with white hair and beard, dressed in a very elegant way.

“ Let me introduce myself, James Houg. You must be Mr. Devon, if I’m not wrong.”

“ Please, call me Ernest, sir” the investigator said.

“ Very good. Well, Ernest, it’s a big pleasure meeting you.” Houg said and he shook his hand. Ernest was embarrassed and stuttered something like “My pleasure”. Houg turned to Roni and said: “This is my dear and good friend Roni. You’re looking good.”

“ Yes, luckily I’m quite good, thanks. As you can see I kept my promise and I brought you Ernest. I’m sure he will be a big help for you.”

“ I hope so as well, to be honest.” Houg said and continued “Can I offer you something to drink?”

“ Not for me, thank you.” Ernest answered while still standing focused on appreciating that extraordinary house.

Houg grabbed a bottle and filled up two glasses, one for Roni and the other one for himself. Then he finally noticed that Ernest was still standing and invited him to have a seat.

“ Please, take a seat. I need to talk to you.”

That's what I'm here for.” Ernest said, very curious to know what it was about.

“ Well… it’s a pretty funny situation, to be honest, but it could be pretty dangerous for my son” Houg started and continued after taking a sip from the glass he was holding, “Less than a month ago, to be exact on the night of 13 October, my son got rushed into emergency to the hospital, in a state of total shock. He didn't say a word for weeks. Until a few days ago. The first person he had talked to right after what happened was me and when I knew the reason why my son was in such a state, I was stunned. Anyway...It seems that he's seen a ghost.”