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The Onarga Occurrence
By Kevin Kemarly
Part 1
The air was actually cool on the summer Sunday evening. It was only a week after graduation and Kevin still couldn’t believe he was done with school. He finished putting the last letter up on the theatre Marquee. It was a sad event. It was his last time at the theatre. He had decided earlier that this summer would be his best; there would be as little work as possible. Even though he loved working on the theatre, he’d rather sleep any day.
He no more got settled back in than the corny intermission song played signaling the advent of many people wanting popcorn, drinks and candy. The first up was a young man from the middle school.
“Hey Johnny anything new?” Kevin asked making conversation as Johnny picked his treats.
“You ain’t gonna believe this but we went out to the old Meyer’s place outside of town and we saw a ghost!”
“Ghost?”
“Yeah, ah I knew you wouldn’t believe me. Give me a Medium sprite and a small popcorn.”
Kevin served him all the while thinking about Johnny’s statement.
***
Later on as he was cleaning the auditorium he mentioned it to his friend and coworker Patty.
“Hey Patty?”
“WHAT!”
“Sorry, I was just wondering if you believed in ghost.”
“Never saw one, but that don’t mean nothing. Now if you mind I am going to finish this so we can get out of here.”
***
When Kevin got home he went to his dresser drawer and pulled out his most prized possession. Tomorrow was the day. He’d round up his friends for a bike ride and ride out to the Meyer’s place and prove the existence of ectoplasmic entities once and for all, although a 100-foot marshmallow should have been enough.
***
Kevin
slowly rolled out of bed. He blinked a few times and was finally awake enough
to see the clock:
Crap!
Kevin grabbed some shorts and a shirt. He picked up his supplies and a coca cola and ran out the door. He got on his bike and went on a frantic search for his friends. The first rule of what he was about to do was simple, never go to the site alone.
***
It didn’t take him long to find Ryan and Josh. They were up at the Rockin K Farmhouse restaurant getting some burgers. Now they were on the Woodland Slab heading out of town towards the old Meyer place. The two mile ride was longer than Kevin thought.
He was huffing and puffing as they rode along. Ryan and Josh were far ahead. They kept looking back at Kevin until they finally decided to fall in.
“Kevin, so where is this haunted house?” Josh asked Kevin.
Kevin caught his breath, “Just ahead.”
“Uh Kevin,” Ryan started, “Why are we going to the Meyer’s place again?”
“I want to prove the existence of ectoplasmic entities within the area?”
It flew right over Ryan’s head, “Ecto . . .What?!?!”
Josh knew he had to translate, “I think he means ghosts.”
They arrived at the house a few seconds later. It was a run down two story building that should have been bulldozed a long time ago. Josh was more afraid of it falling in than of a ghost. They pulled their bikes up in the front lawn and walked up to the door. Out of his book bag Kevin pulled out his most prized possession, his PKE meter. He turned it on to make sure everything was functioning properly; he looked up to see Ryan, as always with a confused look on his face.
“What is that?” He asked predictably.
“It’s a psychokinetic energy meter.” The look on Ryan’s face got worse, “it detects ghost, Ryan.”
“Oh I get it now. Let me see it.”
“I don’t think so,”
“What else did you bring?” Josh wondered.
Suddenly Kevin realized how ill prepared he actually was, “Well . . . uh a flashlight.”
Ryan and Josh didn’t seem too thrilled.
“You mean to tell me that you brought us clear out here in the middle of nowhere to find a ghost with nothing but a flashlight and that weird crap’o’meter?” Ryan glared.
Kevin didn’t know what else to say, “Well, yes.”
Ryan face changed suddenly, “Well, in that case, let’s go!”
Kevin walked up to the door. He carefully opened it up a bit. He didn’t want to be too loud. He almost had it ajar when Ryan came from behind and slammed the door open, “LUCY! I’m home!”
Kevin and Josh quickly shushed him. “Dang it Ryan, shut up. I don’t what’s here but I don’t want’em knowing we’re here,” Joshed yelled.
Kevin looked at the meter; the wings were half raised at the beeping was steady. “There’s definitely something here, but I can’t get a pinpoint on its location.”
Ryan was too preoccupied in looking at all the stuff inside the front room to think about it. “Oh there is definitely something here all right,” he said as he blew dust off a chair, “I would say Rats, bugs, snakes. . . .”
“Piano,” Josh added.
Sure enough in the room behind the front room a dusty old piano stood against the wall. Kevin was amazed, he wasn’t a piano player by any means but he could plunk out a few notes. He lifted the cover and dusted off the keys.
“Now lets see if it still works,” again Ryan butted in.
“Step aside! Let the master through.” Ryan sat down and began to plunk out the most horrible sound ever.
“Yeah Ryan, you’re the master all right!” Kevin commented.
“The master of Suckiness that is” Josh added.
Ryan finished his horrible excuse for music. He cracked his knuckles and lifted his hands in the air. “And now for the finale!”
He placed his fingers on the top two notes and began alternating the notes. It was worse than before. Apparently it wasn’t just annoying to Kevin and Josh; an unknown voice moaned throughout the house. It didn’t appear human. The three’s eyes widened as fear filled them. Kevin was shaking a bit. He didn’t even notice the PKE which had begun to beep more rapidly.
“You know,” Kevin said scared, “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
“Ryan, this reminds me of the time we went to your house to look for UFO’s,” Josh commented trying to get his mind off the situation.
"Yeah. That was Kevin’s idea too. First light in the sky and he wanted to go in.”
Kevin wasn’t going to take that lightly, “Hey that was you two that wanted to go in. I’ll tell you what. If we would have run into any green men I wouldn’t have been scared a bit. Come on.” He marched forward completely ignoring the meter which was fully extended.
They turned the corner and ran into the ugliest thing they had ever seen. They couldn’t describe it. It was big, ugly, and definitely a ghost. It wasn’t a second before they were running out of the house screaming. They jumped on their bikes and hightailed it towards town. With adrenaline pumping Kevin led all the way. They didn’t finish screaming till they reached the edge of town. They hit the brakes and come to a stop. They tried to catch their breath. They began to laugh hysterically.
“Holy Crap!” Kevin exclaimed.
“Oh if I saw any green men I wouldn’t be scared,” Ryan imitated Kevin.
“You didn’t seem that brave either!” Kevin shot back.
“Well
that was fun but we gotta go Ryan, my mom’s leaving for
“Wait a minute I thought we were going back to my house, I wanted to show you guys something.”
It was too late they were already riding away. Ryan yelled back at him, “Let’s just meet at the Rocking K tomorrow for lunch.”
“Alright . . . . I guess” Kevin lamented.
He slowly got started and rode back towards his house. It wasn’t too far but he decided to take it slow. He had the evidence and the readings he needed, but then his friends left. He had had a feeling of displacement every since graduation and had hoped this would change things. He arrived at his home and put his bike in the porch. His mom was at a doctor’s appointment. He walked through the front room and to his room. He threw his meter onto the bed. He threw it a bit too hard and it bounced off.
“Oh Crap!” Kevin said as he went to recover it. Luckily it was all right.
He had got the meter at a paranormal lecture given by Dr. Ray Stanz, it was quite a lecture.
Kevin gently set down the meter on the computer desk and went to the kitchen to get himself a coke. Like everyday he tried the internet. Like most of the time Collective Intelligence, his poorly named internet provider, was busy.
“Damn Internet!”
Finally after four attempts Kevin got connected to the server. Kevin had already visited the headquarters site and knew where he had to go. He typed in the long complicated address and went to hit enter when someone messenged him. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but Kevin had the volume turned up, and the doorbell sound resonated through the entire house making Kevin jump. Kevin sighed. Every time he tries to do something he gets buzzed.
“This better not be Mary_Sue21, or I am ignoring her.” He looked at the message. It was his friend from school, Sarah. Hey Sarah, he typed can’t talk now busy. It was the first message he had sent that didn’t have a misspelled word in it.
Having that taken care of that he visited the GBI website. He clicked the join link and he was on his way to be coming one of the one, the only, the Ghostbusters.
***
“The
Gem of Ordïn will be shipped by a military transport plane to an undisclosed
facility in
Kevin looked away from the TV to his menu. The Rocking K Farmhouse had only been open a few weeks but it was already becoming one of Kevin’s favorite restaurants. The food was great, the service was exceptional, and they even had a TV. Kevin decided to look back at the TV to see if the segment was still on, but it wasn’t. He opened the manila folder in front of him, and pulled out the franchise information. He was about a page through when the waitress brought him a coke.
“Thanks,”
“Ready to order?”
“Yeah I will have a . . .”
Kevin stopped to look at the front door. Josh and Ryan seemed to be stuck outside. Unlike most people they had some trouble with opening doors. Finally the waitress got up and opened it for them. Embarrassment was not a good enough word.
“Uh thanks,” Josh muttered.
They sat down finally at Kevin’s table.
“It’s about time!” Kevin smirked.
“Well I had to ride into town,” Ryan made excuses.
“Whatever we’re here now, so what did you want to talk about?” Josh asked.
Kevin went to answer but the waitress cut him off, “Can I get you something?”
“I’ll take a Sierra Mist,” Josh ordered.
“Uh habababba,” Ryan muttered. He was more interested in the server than the service.
Kevin just shook his head. “Josh would translate?”
“He’ll have a coke,” Josh told her.
“Uh alright, sure, I get those right to you,” she said a little freaked out. She went to the dispenser.
“Uh excuse me,” Kevin stopped her.
“Yes?” she asked politely.
“Can you just bring us a pitcher so we don’t have to wait for refills?”
“Sure,” She went back to her job, leaving them to talk.
“So what happened to Mr. Cool around the ladies?” Josh laughed at Ryan.
“As the ladies man would say,” Ryan smiled, “‘Ryan Price is always cool around the magnificent given the name of women.”
“You’re terrible!” Josh told him as the waitress served them the drinks. She went to get her notepad.
“Back on topic,” Kevin continued, “What did you think of yesterday?”
“It was a rush,” Ryan commented.
‘That’s one way to put it,” josh added.
Kevin smiled. It was what he wanted to hear. “Cool, how would you like to do it all the time and get paid big bucks for it?”
“Kevin, what in the hell are you talking about?” Josh asked.
“Simple,” Kevin grabbed the folder but before he could get the stuff out the waitress came to take their order.
“Ready to order?” She asked.
“I’ll take the chicken strips and fries,” Kevin said.
“Me too,” Josh ordered.
“And you?” The waitress asked Ryan hesitantly.
There was a small silence, “I’ll take a breaded chicken sandwich with Swiss cheese and fries.”
“All right, I’ll get that going.”
With the waitress going Kevin was ready to begin.
“Kevin,
grab me the
“By all means,” Ryan said.
“This is what I mean,” Kevin opened the folder. On the front page there was a No-Ghost Logo. Ryan and Josh instantly recognized it.
“You’re kidding right?” Ryan asked.
“You can’t be serious,” Josh added.
“I’m always serious. Just take a look at the stuff. Heck one bust will get us at least five grand. Plus we’ll be able to encounter ectoplasmic entities and carry nuclear particle accelerators.
“You know Josh, he sounds link Professor Frink with the plasma and the paranormal activity flahighvin flavin,”
‘Just shut up and look at it already!” Kevin yelled. Finally they did take a look at it.
Ryan looked up from the brochure, “Wow that is a great medical plan!”
“It only cost a small percentage of our income,” Kevin sounded like a used car salesman.
“Uh Kevin,” Josh looked up.
“What?”
“It says we all have to be eighteen.”
“I know that’s why I lied,” Kevin responded.
“Don’t you mean that’s why you will lie?” Ryan looked at Kevin.
‘Nope the starter kit will be here by Friday,”
“You just signed us up without asking us?” Ryan asked.
“Yep, I even included Andrew and he won’t even be back from camp for a few weeks.”
The waitress brought the food and refilled the drinks.
“So now what?” Josh asked.
Kevin grabbed a fry, “We wait for the kit.”
“I
hope this isn’t another disaster,” Ryan poured the
“It can’t be worse than any of your ideas,” Kevin told Ryan.
“Yeah like the flying bike or the Onarga Hockey Team.,” josh piped in.
“Exactly,” Ryan said.
Kevin raised his glass, “Here’s to the Onarga Ghostbusters.”
Ryan raised his glass as well, “May God help us all.”
Josh joined in, “AMEN!”