The Demon in Uncle Joe's House

CHAPTER 7

While having dinner, I told Mama that I would be sleeping with the bakery boys in my new house that night. Mama already knew my plan of  restarting the bakery's operation, and the bakery boys boarding in that house.

"New employees—I like that," I laughed.

After dinner, I walked all the way to my new house. When I got there, I found the bakery boys relaxing the living room. They had just finish their dinner.

"Good evening, Engineer," Erning greeted me as soon as he saw me get in.

"Good evening, boys. How are you doing?" I said.

"We're fine, sir," Romeo and Onofre replied.

"Sorry, there's no TV here. Uncle Joe never had one. But don't worry, I'll buy you one," I said pleasantly.

"Thanks, Engineer," Atong grinned, "now we can watch the PBA games."

"I thought you love to watch soap operas, Pare Atong," Romeo jokingly said.

"Anything but soap operas, Pare," Atong said defensively. "We're not millennials anymore," he added. 

"How about you, Engineer," Onofre asked me, "what do you watch?"

"PBA and NBA games," I replied with gusto.

"Then welcome to the club, Sir," Romeo laughed.

"Hey, doesn't anyone love boxing?" Erning said. Apparenlty, Erning was a boxing aficionado.

"I watched all Manny Pacquiao's fight," I said with a grin. "I'm a big fan of Pacman." I added.

"Well, that makes it two of us, Sir," Erning said as he gave me a high five.

After exchanging pleasantries, we decided to hit the sack. Romeo and Atong occupied one of the two rooms upstairs, while Erning and Onofre took the room adjacent to Uncle Joe's room downstairs. I took Uncle Joe's room for the night.

I was already sleeping soundly when I was awakened by a loud commotion coming from the adjoining room. I rushed out of my room to the living room and switch on the light. I found Erning and Onofre standing just outside their room. They looked stunned and terrified.

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"Our bed started shaking crazily," Erning cried, "then we saw an old man that looked like Old Joe standing by the window. He was staring at us as if he wanted to kill us!"

I walked into  their room to make a check. There was no old man standing by the window, but I noticed that their beds were displaced. Erning and Onofre followed me. Atong and Romeo, who were awakened by the noise, joined them.

"There's no old  man here, but Jesus Christ, what happened to your beds!" I exclaimed.

"I think I saw Old Joe's ghost!" Erning said with a trembling voice.

"I did, too!" Atong butted in, "I was already half asleep when I heard someone walking across our room.  I thought it was Romeo. When I opened my eyes, I saw an old man going out of the room."

"I heard the movement too, but I didn't pay any attention to it because I thought it was you who was going to the restroom," Romeo looked at Atong.

"Okay, okay, just calm down," I told them, then I added, "maybe that wasn't Uncle Joe's ghost that you saw."

"Then what was it that we saw?" Onofre asked. He was still visibly shaken.

I thought for a moment trying to search for a logical explanation. I remembered what I read in the Book of Ecclesiastes. It read, "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they anymore a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten...there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave." If that was so, then what had these bakery boys had seen? There was only one answer to this question. What they saw was a demon disguised as Uncle Joe's ghost. But how could I explain this fact to these ordinary folks?