The Late Night Sneezer

Hank had been working late at the garage. He was tired but needed to finish looking over some invoices. He had been alone for about an hour and all was very quiet.

"Achooo!"

Hank lifted up his head so quickly that his neck creaked. "Whaa-at was that?!" he stuttered.

It was a huge garage and the sound could have come from a number of places. He did not look forward to searching about but, with a tire iron gripped tightly in his hand, Hank set out to find the source of the sound.

"Achooo!"

"WHO'S THERE?! I HAVE A GUN. SHOW YOURSELF!"

Nothing. Not a peep. Even his breathing could not be heard. That's because he had automatically held his breath, out of fear. His imagination always got the better of him. And right now, his imagination was racing.

He took a flashlight and checked under, inside and around the cars, in the bathroom, supply room. He even went outside to look. There was no one there, anywhere. He went back in.

"Achooo!"

"Damn it! Who's in here?! Come out NOW!"

"I'm right here," came a soft voice.

"Hu-oh?" Hank spun around and tripped on his own feet and fell to the floor and the tire iron fell quickly from his sweaty hand.

"Who is it?!" demanded Hank, looking up from the floor, but he saw nothing and fainted from all the excitement.

His workers found him the next morning, tire iron in hand, sitting on the floor in the middle of the garage.

"What happened?" asked Chris, one of the mechanics.

Hank had sat in a stupor for hours but snapped out of it as he answered: "Someone tried to break in and I twisted my ankle trying to catch him."

They helped him up and he limped to his office.

"Want me to call the police?" asked Michael, his assistant.

"Uh, no, no. I didn't get a good look at him. Besides, nothing was taken."

The rest of the day went by normally but Hank was exhausted from not haven't gone home the night before and gotten some sleep. As a consequence, he was hardly able to get anything done. Each time he tried to, he dozed off.

His employees left at the end of the day and again he was alone in the garage that night, trying to catch up with even more back work.

"ACHOOOO!!"

The sneeze reverberated throughout the place. Hank snapped out of his sleepy state and jumped from his seat. Again, he tripped but managed to slow down, thus avoiding another fall.

Hank ran through the garage, forgetting to grab a weapon beforehand. And as he ran, he yelled: "Who is that? Who is that?!"

"It's me again," came the same soft voice from the day before.

"WHO?!" exclaimed the exasperated man.

"Me."

"Who's 'ME'?"

"Uh, I don't know, just me."

"Where are you?" Hank's face was red and sweaty and he now remembered that he had nothing to fight with.

"Right here. In front of you."

"Aah!!" Hank fainted and hit the floor again. He came to quickly.

"What kind of prank is this?" asked Hank, as soon as he had regained his senses.

"Aaa-choo! Sorry, something's making me sneeze. I've got lots of allergies."

"Grrr! I'm fed up with this. Where are you? I can't see you!"

"Oh, that's probably because I'm a ghost."

"Aah! What?!" Hank thought he'd lose it again but fought it off. "A ghost? No such thing. And I never heard of one who sneezes!"

"Well, that's strange because almost all ghosts sneeze. And cough and fart and..."

"Look," interrupted Hank, "I don't believe you. This is a trick. Prove you're a ghost."

"How?" came the reply.

"How should I know!!" Hank cried out. "I never met a ghost before."

"Ah, so you believe me now!"

"Alright, fine. What do you want?"

"Nothing. I just like traveling around. I was resting here for a while. But you heard me sneezing and now I guess I need to go?"

"Well, if you want to stay, I won't try to stop you. Not that I'd know how to, anyway!"

"You could ask me and then I'd leave. Most ghosts are polite."

"If you're so polite, why didn't you answer me when I first asked who was sneezing?"

"Well, at first I didn't know you had heard me, so I didn't know it was me you were speaking to. And then you got angry..."

"Fine. Fine. I have to get back to work." He headed back towards his office.

"Achooo!"

"Gesundheit!"