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The Call - Thirteen thought it?” “Right,” Ted echoed, “who would have?” He was happy for Ralph, but he couldn’t help wondering how he was going to get his own life back on track. And he fervently hoped that he had seen the last of any ghosts. His encounters with the Aunt Jemima apparition and with the spirit of Miss Flowers, despite what ever mysterious purpose they were meant to serve, had at least accomplished two things. Now Ted knew that the spirit world was real, in some unfathomable way, and that intimate knowledge made him apprehensive and uneasy. Masquerade of Angels 126 Fourteen ..led by some wondrous power, I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes Gogol By the end of the summer, Ted was back in good health. He contacted his boss, but to his dismay he learned that another employee had taken over the job in his long absence. He knew the company was obligated to rehire him, yet there was no room for him now in the Tuscaloosa office. Instead he was offered a position a hundred miles away in Gadsden. Depressed by the prospect of moving so far from his home and friends, Ted accepted the offer anyway, deter- mined to make the best of the situation. He needed to work, to recover financially from months of unemployment, and he hoped that life in Gadsden wouldn’t be too lonely. His good intentions soon evaporated, however, once he moved into a small apartment in the dingy industrial town. He didn’t know anyone there, and his depression deepened. Ted’s only breaks from the monotony of his routine were vis- its to Tuscaloosa, which he made almost every weekend. And every Sunday as he drove back into Gadsden, his spirits sank again. On one of these trips home, when nothing special was planned, Ted decided to drop in at The Chucker, the college bar he used to haunt. The Chucker, for all its local notoriety, was little more than an alleyway, enclosed at both ends, with a roof. Dilapidated tables and chairs littered the floor, it was cold in the winter and steamy in the summer, and cock- roaches considered it their homeland. In other words, The Chucker was a favorite spot for students to gather and get