Chapter II The Bearded Electrician
1681 Words
Suddenly seeing a figure standing in front of the white house really frightened me a lot. I wondered when this person came to the backyard as I didn’t hear any movement.
“Who…, who’s there!” I asked loudly.
The figure didn’t respond, but walked straight towards me. When he appeared in the light, I finally distinguished his appearance.
He was about forty years old, with a thin body, square face, big nose, full beard, wearing dark blue work clothes, and a black work bag hanging on his right shoulder.
The bearded man walked up to me without speaking, but stared at me like he was reading a story.
I felt a little guilty and said, “Do I have money on my face? Why are you looking at me like that?”
The bearded man, showing his smoked-stained brown teeth, asked, “Chinese?”
I nodded.
“New security guard?”
“Mhmm.”
“Guarding the back gate alone?”
“Yes.”
“You got a lot of balls. Not everyone can guard the back gate. Do you know that there is something in the backyard?”
I asked, “What thing?”
The bearded man looked around, lowered his voice, and said, “The backyard was haunted. Before you, the hospital hired two security guards to guard the back gate, and they both died within six months. One gouged out his own eyes and strangled himself to death; the other was hanged with his tongue hanging out to his chest, so scary.”
I didn’t think he was malicious, and said with a smile, “Sir, you really know how to bluff. How long is a person’s tongue, how could it hang out of their chest?”
The bearded man was a little unhappy and said, “Believe it or not, I am kind. However, I still advise you to resign quickly. Don’t waste your life earning money.”
I said, “I’m an atheist and don’t believe in ghosts.”
“How can Chinese people not believe in ghosts? Unbelievable!”
I had heard a lot of ghost stories from childhood to adulthood, but I had never seen a ghost, so I always felt that the so-called ghosts were just self-hypnosis.
Seeing that I was unmoved, the bearded man said, “Since you don’t believe me, forget what I said.”
Seeing that he was leaving, I hurriedly asked, “Who are you?”
“Electrician, I’m the electrician for the hospital.”
The bearded man’s tone was cold, and he walked towards the backyard gate on his own.
“Sir, can you connect an electric wire for me in the courtyard tomorrow? I want to install an electric lamp.”
The bearded man simply replied “Okay” without turning his head back, and walked into the grass and disappeared after a few sways.
Looking at the weeds in the courtyard, I made a decision in my heart to clean them up starting tomorrow.
At 9am the next morning, I opened the back gate of the hospital on time, and found Morgan to borrow some weeding tools. Morgan was very happy to know that I wanted to w**d, and said that if I could clean the backyard, he would apply for a bonus from the hospital.
Hearing there was a bonus, I was more motivated to work.
After getting the weeding tools, Morgan took me to pick up workman and security gear, and when I got back to work, I started a crazy weeding mode.
Within a morning, I cleaned out the gate area, as well as the bedroom door area, and piled it all together in the courtyard.
In the afternoon, I started cleaning the pavilion in the courtyard. I liked this antique pavilion very much.
When I was a child, there was a pavilion on the hillside behind my home. The tip of the pavilion was deep jujube red, the pavilion columns were ancient dark green, the stone tables and chairs were imaginary gray and white, and there were two beautiful pomegranate trees outside the pavilion...
Although American pavilions and Chinese pavilions are quite different in style, being in a foreign land still reminded me of my childhood.
After cleaning the pavilion, I began to clear the weeds under the pomegranate tree, and I found a driver’s license in the grass.
The owner of the driver’s license was Winnie Taylor. Even though it was an ID photo, it still couldn’t hide Winnie’s beauty. I even felt like she looked a bit like Judy Garland.
I looked up at the hospital building, wondering if Winnie was a nurse, a doctor, or a patient in the hospital.
There was a phone in the duty room in the backyard of the hospital. I called Morgan and said that I found a woman’s driver’s license in the backyard. Could it be that someone in the hospital accidentally lost it from the upstairs window.
Morgan said it was possible and asked me the name of the owner on the driver’s license.
I looked at the driver’s license and said, “Winnie Taylor, born on …, 19XX”
I read it to Morgan according to the information on the driver’s license. Morgan said he would ask around at the hospital and asked me to put it away and keep it safe. If there was such a person, he would arrange for her come to me to get it.
I said, yes.
Morgan began to smile at me, asking me to take it easy and not tire myself out, and if there was anything that he could do to help.
With a warm heart, I said, “I’m fine. It’s not hard work.”
“That’s good. That’s good. If you have any trouble in the future, just let me know.”
“Got it.”
After Morgan hung up, I put the driver’s license into my pocket, walked out of the duty room and turned around to see someone at the gate looking into the courtyard.
I put down the shovel and walked over, asking, “What are you doing?”
It was a black guy, about the same age as me. When he saw me, he showed his white teeth and said with a smile, “Ow, a new guy. When did you get here?”
The young black man had small eyes and a pointed chin. He was sneaky and didn’t dare look at me, which made me feel that he wasn’t a good person, so I asked vigilantly, “What the hell are you doing?”
“I came to find something. My girlfriend came here to play the other day and left it here.”
“What have you lost?”
“A driver’s license.” He leaned forward, craned his neck and continued to look around the courtyard.
I subconsciously touched my pocket and asked, “What’s your girlfriend’s name?”
The black youth was alert and said, “Winnie Taylor. Did you find it?”
Seeing he said Winnie’s name, I told the truth: “I did find a driver’s license with the name Winnie Taylor on.”
The young man stretched out his hand to me, smiled and said, “Ow, bro, thank you so much.”
After hesitating for a while, I took out the driver’s license and handed it to him, and said, “Well, don’t come here again. This is a hospital, not a playground. If you want to see a doctor, you can enter through the front door.”
The young man continued to laugh and said, “Okay! Okay!” He put away the driver’s license, took out a pack of cigarettes, handed me one graciously, and said, “Thanks bro, come have a cigarette.”
I declined and said, “Thank you, I don’t smoke.”
“Man smoke. Have one.”
I still thought he was suspicious, but I took his cigarette out of politeness, but instead of smoking it, I put it behind my ear.
Seeing that I didn’t give him face, the young man rubbed his head in embarrassment, and said, “Looking down on me, huh? But I still have to kindly remind you, resign quickly. Morgan is cheating you.”
I asked in surprise, “You know Morgan?”
“Of course I do. Let me tell you, Morgan is not a good guy. People cheat for money and there are people who cheat people!”
As he said that, he glanced at the courtyard again with seriousness, and lowered his voice and whispered, “Listen, there are evil spirits imprisoned in the backyard of this hospital. If you don’t want to die, leave quickly, or it’ll be too late.”
I was stunned. Last night the bearded electrician said it’s haunted here, and today he’s also said it’s haunted.
Is it really haunted here?
I asked, “How do you know Morgan?”
“I was hospitalized here. My cousin was an electrician in the hospital, and was murdered by Morgan.”
“How did your cousin get murdered?”
The young man raised his finger to the white house in the southeast corner and said, “Morgan asked my cousin to connect the electric wires, but my cousin was pushed from the roof by an evil spirit and fell to his death. It was horrible, like having fallen from a dozen stories high, with his head poking into his chest. That white house was a mortuary.”
I instantly thought of the bearded electrician last night and asked, “What’s your cousin’s name? When did it happen?”
“Buck Jones. My cousin had a beard, a square face, a big nose, and a thin body. He died early last month. If you don’t believe me, go to the hospital and ask. Everyone in the hospital knows.”
I couldn’t help but take a deep breath. Isn’t the black youth’s description of his cousin the bearded electrician I met last night!
Did I really see a ghost last night?
- Writer
