ALL IN THE HEAD 1

THE OFFICE

In life we all have responsibilities; we all face hardships and deal with tragedy though for me with whatever comes my way I like to see the bright side, the positive side, the good side of life, even during times of great difficulty. It is how we deal with adversity that makes us unique, makes us strong, right?

Take my older brother for instance. He had been attacked and savagely beaten a few years back, nearly six years ago in fact. His injuries were so severe that ever since that attack, he requires near constant attention.

Now I can sit and mope, saddened and destroyed, burdened by a strong sense of loyalty, of family, or I can be happy and feel lucky that I still have my brother. He can talk though a lot slower than what he did before and he needs help with almost everything he does but I feel lucky to still have him in my life, lucky to still have him alive. He lives with me and my sister and we both, along with a career or two who comes by most days and a physio therapist who comes three times a week, care for him as best we can.

My sister and I both also have jobs and we both work hard, especially my sister and again I like to consider myself lucky. What we do is not a burden, it is family, roles would be altered if the shoe was on another foot. My sister works during the day, and I stay home during these hours. I have found an office job that allows me to work flexible hours. I generally work between six in the evening and two in the morning. I work Mondays to Fridays and if necessary, I work weekends, as long as I get my work done then my bosses don't mind when I get it done and sis is home when I am working.

The workstation I have is on the third floor of a six-story office building and also just happens to be close to the furthest corner of that floor from where I get out of an elevator though I don't mind that. It is often peaceful when I work, generally when I am at work there are very few, if any, others around.

You know the hours are kinda perfect really when I think about it, or when I used to think about it, I should say. During mid-February like it is right now as I write this, it is usually quite dark; almost pitch dark when I arrive to work. I find the lower level of lighting and the peacefulness of working alone to be soothing. I probably get through my work quicker and easier without the distraction of being surrounded by co-workers.

At the quietest of times, I am not completely alone in the building when I am there. There is the odd security guard or two or three in the building at all times though they tend to stay down on the ground floor. Maybe once or twice during my shift I will be checked up upon to ensure all is well.

One guard in particular, James or Jimmy as he likes to be called, likes to taunt me every time I see him. I may only be in this job six months though for every day of it with which I see Jimmy, he tells me the place is haunted and he tells me the same story as to why it is haunted and until last night's shift, I had never believed him for I never witnessed anything out of the ordinary.

Jimmy of course just so happened to be working, or at least he was on duty, when I arrived yesterday. He escorted me to the third floor as he wanted to go through the story with me once more.

'Good evening or almost evening' he said to me with a smile as soon as I entered the building. It was five minutes to six, so I guess it wasn't quite evening.

I couldn't help but smile when I returned the 'good almost evening'. I knew what was coming and was actually looking forward to it. The thing was that I had no idea that evening events would at least be a little bit different on this occasion.

'Have I ever told you that this building is haunted?' he says, being only too happy to get the words out.

'Only each and every time I see you, Jimmy.'