Nobody's Sorry You're Dead

23

"Hey, Beanie," Hadley yelled out of her car window. "You busy?"

"Nah," said Beanie. "Fish must be gone to church, today. Ain't gotta single bite."

"Throw your cane pole in the back seat, then," Hadley said. "Come with me."

"Where we going, Hadley?" Beanie asked, putting his fishing pole in the back seat of Hadley's car.

It didn't seem to hang out of the window too far when he angled it down into the back floorboard. He opened the door and slid in beside Hadley. 

His coffee can of worms was securely positioned between his feet. He was pretty sure Hadley would not be happy if the can spilled out or if she had worms crawling up her legs as she drove.

God forbid one wriggled into her shoe.

He kept a close eye on the can. You never knew when a really athletic worm would wriggle out of the can and escape to freedom. 

Beanie knew from past experience that it was usually the biggest, fattest, bestest worms that managed to crawl over the lid edge, plop down to the ground, and slither away to safety.

"We're going to Eustian's," Hadley said.

"On Sunday?"

"Yeah," Hadley said. "Don't worry. We ain't gonna start work out there, yet."

"Then, what in the world we goin' out there for?" Beanie asked.

"This," Hadley said, showing Beanie Harry's camera.

"What in the Sam Hill we gonna do with that thing?" Beanie asked.

"We're gonna record a real live ghost," Hadley said, wickedly.

"Stop this car right now, and let me out," Beanie said, his eyes suddenly wide and his face pale. "I mean it. Stop. Now."

"Aw, Beanie," Hadley said, "I'm just messin' with you. But I do want to go out there and document how it looks. Then I'll shoot some more once we finish. You know, before and after kinda thing."

"Uh-huh," Beanie said softly.

"Oh, Beanie," Hadley said. "Look. All I want to do is record what the place looks like before we start cleaning. That way, folks will see what miracle workers you and I are because I'll show them another video of what it looks like after we finish. Spick and span. Who knows? Might drum us up some more business."

"I dunno, Hadley," said Beanie. "Ain't we gonna be trespassin'?"

"How can it be trespassing, Beanie? Bill gave me a key. We've been hired to do a job. We're just documenting things so that folks will see what a good job we do."

"Okay," Beanie said. "If you say so."

"I say so. Now, get ready to be impressed by my Hollywood camera skills, Beanie. I'm tellin' you, I thought this thing had me beat. Once I read the instructional manual, turns out, the little camera is a piece of cake. No wonder Harry was always fooling with it. It's really fun, once you get the hang of it."

"Mmm," said Beanie. "If you say so."

"I do," said Hadley, turning into the long dirt road that led to Eustian's place. "Beanie. There's no such thing as ghosts."

"If you say so."

"I do," said Hadley.