The Ghost in the Guard Shack

When I first started to work in the dog business I was working with a man named, Larry. I did the racing kennel and he did the puppy farm and came in to help on schooling days or whenever we were really busy in the kennel. One day my boss came in and told me that Larry was in the hospital, he had a heart attack.

For the next couple of days when my boss came in I would ask him how Larry was. On the third day he told me Larry had died. I went about my life as usual. I worked for a couple more years at Tri-State and then I worked for 5 years at the Palm Beach Kennel Club. Then I moved back to West Virginia and started to work at Tri-State again.

One day I walked into the guard shack and there stood Larry - plain as day! I turned about 63 shades of white as my mouth started to pop open over and over like a guppy sucking in water. Larry stood there, pale as could be with silvery white hair and a big, beaming smile came over his face when he saw me. I stood there staring and trying to regain my composure after my heart had fallen to my knees.

"Larry, how are you?" I managed to sputter out.

"Great. It's good to see you," he said.

Even though I momentarily thought I had seen a ghost, obviously I did not. Larry had been pale with silvery, white hair when I had known him 10 years before that. We talked pleasantly for a few minutes. I was afraid to tell him that I thought he was dead all that time. I didn't know what kind of shape his heart was in and I didn't want to upset him.

Later, after I had seen him a few more times, I told him that Sal had told me he had died and how bad it scared me when I ran into him in the guard shack that day. Larry just laughed.

"That sounds like something Sal would do," he chuckled.