Fantasy fiction; Science fiction; Subconsciousness -- Fiction
Toffee Haunts A Ghost
By CHARLES F. MYERS
Having Toffee the "dream-girl" around
was bad enough for Marc, but a ghost
named George was just too much.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Fantastic Adventures November 1947.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
As a rule, in moments of acute peril, most faces can be relied upon to
arrange themselves into the traditional expressions of open-mouthed,
pop-eyed terror. Not so, however, the willful countenance of Marc
Pillsworth. The lean Pillsworth phiz, openly disdainful of the accepted
manifestations of fear, regally side-stepped into something that looked
curiously like tight-lipped primness. At the moment it had tied
itself into such a knot of horror as to appear downright priggish.
As the sidewalk split under Marc's feet, throwing him against the
unforgiving granite of the Regent Building, the only expletive vigorous
enough to force its way through his tightly pursed lips was a sadly
depleted, but nonetheless determined "damn."
What had just transpired was extremely upsetting, also quite
impossible. Now, if Marc had been careless about looking where he
was going. But he hadn't. He had been fully aware of the suspended
safe ... an object of considerable tonnage by the look of it ... and
its precarious position outside the sixth story window. Dangling
threateningly out over the street like that, how could he have missed
it? He had even taken special care to keep well outside the roped-off
safety area. And yet, when the pulley had slipped, and the safe begun
to fall, it was as though the great hand of Satan, himself, had taken
hold of it and hurled it directly at Marc. It had missed him not by
inches, but by the merest fraction of an inch. It was impossible that
it should have happened that way; all the laws of physics forbade
it. However, for Marc, the morning was already fairly bristling with
impossibilities, and while this was not the least of them, neither was
it the greatest. Staring apprehensively at the great black lump, now
embedded in the sidewalk, he wondered if it were going to leap from its
resting place and crush him against the wall. He wouldn't have been
the least bit surprised if it had. In the last few hours he'd come to
expect almost anything.
"Damn," he repeated breathlessly.
"You hurt, Bud?"
Marc directed bewildered eyes toward the entrance of the building
and saw a workman running swiftly toward him. "No," he said weakly.
"It missed me. I'm all right ... I think. If you want me to sign a
statement to that effect, I'll be glad to." He leaned down to flick
a bit of cement dust from his trouser cuff and, because of a hand
that was trembling badly, did a more complete job than was strictly
necessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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