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Ghosts.There AreGhosts.

“That’s what I said,” Father Albert Wentley said into thephone. “There are ghosts.”

There was a pause while he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. He looked at the door to his office. He looked at the window,shades drawn. He looked at the desk.“Don’t

tell

me it sounds crazy. First of all, I

know

it sounds crazy.Second of all,

why

does it sound crazy? It shouldn’t. We believe inspirits, after all. We believe in

souls

. We believe in an

afterlife

, andghosts are part of what comes… after… life.” He deliberately sloweddown his words for the last part, emphasizing what comes next.Another pause. He looked at the pen that he tapped in his hand. Helooked at the door again. He didn’t turn his eyes forward at his desk.“I know that it’s not traditional doctrine. But they are

here

.”Pause. Looking around. Then he spoke again: “I won’t go to adoctor.”Pause. Looking around. Then he answered: “Well, then, when youcome to get me you’ll have to be here and you’ll see them.”He hung the phone up, carefully. He was frustrated but it was exactlywhat he had expected. That was why he had not mentioned it before.He knew what happens when you call the archbishop’s office and tellthem that there are ghosts attending Mass in your church. That washow he’d gotten through to the Archbishop in the first place. Whenasked what he the call was regarding, he’d said simply “Ghosts.” The Archbishop had then interrupted whatever it was he’d been doingand Father Albert had explained to him that he had ghosts in hischurch. He sighed. He finally looked up across the desk from him. Two of the ghosts sat across from him. They wore their Sunday finest,dress clothes and ties and shoes. Their hair was neatly combed. Bothwere men. One was balding. Father Albert looked at that one, andwondered why in the afterlife this man would still be bald. He focusedon the balding and tried not to make eye contact with the ghosts, whosat mutely across from him. Finally, he met their eyes, each in turn,and saw the sadness and fear there, sadness and fear he did not want

to see because he did not understand it. The afterlife was notsomething to fear or be sad about, was it?Was it?He looked at them. They seemed to be imploring him. They were onlytwo of the seven or so that he’d seen in the church, but these were thefirst two he’d seen out of the church itself, the first two that had madeit down to the hallways.Father Albert was not afraid of them. He was afraid of what theyrepresented. He was afraid that the ghosts were here in churchbecause there was no place else for them to go, and if that was true,then what was he doing?He’d never believed that there could be ghosts roaming the earth,because the dead would fall into two categories. There would be the Saved, who would go up to Heaven. Who wouldchoose to remain on Earth when they could bask in the eternal glory of God in paradise forever? There would be the Damned, who would go to Hell. And who couldchoose to remain on Earth once Satan had his claws on them? TheDevil would surely not tolerate his property walking the Earth.Father Albert discounted the possibility that these were souls sent bySatan to cause trouble. The Dark One would not use humans for that.If he could spring things from Hell, he would send a demon. He alwayshad in the past. There had never been a case, he was sure, of possession by another human.And Father Albert spared no time for thinking about Purgatory, theflawed creation of the church centuries back.So he sat now and looked at the two ghosts sitting across from him. They had come to his office, had been sitting in his office when FatherAlbert had come down from the residence this morning at 9, as he dideveryday. They waited there patiently, like any two visitors might. Hedid not know how they had gotten in, but he supposed that was not toomuch trouble for ghosts. They had sat there as he walked in, and herecognized them from the Masses they had attended, and they had notmoved when he sat down behind the desk. They had not tried to stophim from making the phone call, finally, to the Archbishop’s office. They had sat mutely and calmly while he tried to convince his superior