The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

Chapter 61

Sunshine's in her favorite meeting spot. The park. Very, very public. Emphasis on the public. This time she's by the river, full of little boats being way too loud, and...

Well. She's here to meet Gary and Lionel, the "Real Paranormal Investigators." And of course, she brought Tootall, because, y'know. It's always fun to have somebody to talk to after all the madness.

Oh.

They're here.

"Sunshine, hi," Gary says, wearing a blue sweater with different colored squares, kaki pants, and... a fedora.

"Hi," she replies with a smile.

"Hi, thank you for meeting with— me. Uh," he looks back, "Lionel couldn't be here, he's out at—" Gary gets distracted by the camera. "Oh, good, it's... filming. Hi."

"Yeah. It's filming."

Gary doesn't look particularly comfortable with that, but Sunshine can't be bothered to care. If the 'paranormal legend' can't even face Anna, he deserves no judgement on her precious camera.

Even if it does feel weird not having it in her hands. Tootall's got her, though.

"I mean, the camera, I'm not saying, it's not—" Gary sighs and drops his hands, pointing back. "Uhh. Lionel— feels bad that he couldn't be here, he's at work, uhh, he's..."

Sunshine raises her brows, staring at him strangely as she sits on the wooden railing. "Where does he work...?"

"It's not—" Gary closes his eyes like he's in pain. "It's not important, he's— a male stripper, but—"

"Oh!" Sunshine laughs, because that's definitely not what she'd been expecting.

"—but he's also embarrassed because of the..." Gary glances at the camera when Tootall gets closer. "Hi." He returns his gaze to Sunshine. "Because of the, ehm, peeing."

"Oh. The... incident. Right."

"Um. Anyway, thank you for agreeing to—" Gary pulls himself up onto the railing as well, grunting as he does so.

Sunshine makes a face. "Good job."

"Look." Gary glances down and picks at a leaf. "After last time, there was— listen, last time was really embarrassing for us, personally and professionally. Since that has been on the internet, there's been a lot of... we've had a lot of negative... press, and a lot of calls, and a lot of emails, to our agency, which— barely exists anymore, we lost a lot of clients, a lot of our regulars don't want to see us anymore..."

Sunshine raises a brow. "Your regulars?" She grins, waiting for his response. And maybe she's having a little too much fun watching Gary squirm.

"Yeah," Gary says with forced optimism, "because a lot of people have more than one ghost that's haunting them, or— sometimes it takes more than one— visit to—"

She raises her brows, nodding, amused. "Oh."

"Anyway, um, we would really love an opportunity to make it up to you," he motions toward the camera, "everybody watching, and perhaps establish a little more credibility again if you would be willing to give us another chance, if there's something— if there's something that we can investigate with you—"

Sunshine smiles, waiting for the big finale on this big huge speech.

"—as your— partner, we'd be your team this time."

"Oh, oh." She smiles and tries to hold back her giggles. "Okay, that's, uh... interesting thought. What do you guys think?" Both she and Gary look at the camera. "I mean—" She shrugs. "Should I let them? Go on an adventure with me and such?" Sue her, she's letting the fans vote again. "Or...heck no?"