We hold in our hands a million objects, but some stick. This guy is one adhesive little poltergeist. He's been around so long that I often forget to look at him and sometimes my eyes pass right over him when I do see him. In other words, he's been around so long that he really is a ghost.
During college, when someone had access to a car (or later when I did), we drove to the theater by the mall for a "double feature." Often after the free show, we would make a stop at a diner. When we were near the mall, Friendly's Restaurant was the option of choice unless we wanted to delay the papers and assigned reading...then the State Street Diner was more likely the place to go.
If you haven't been to Friendly's, I'll help you out. Take a Denny's restaurant, color the booths fire-ant red, toss some jump-the-pegs brain-teaser games on the table, and add a focus on ice cream, including a double-thick shake called the Fribble. The restaurant radiates the meals (with ice cream) that it wants you to buy. Bountiful scoops of ice cream burst through the borders of what would otherwise be a rectangular menu. When you reach for the ketchup, your hand passes a flotilla of seasonal table-top menulets, standing tall in inverted plastic T's.
I freed my ghost from one of the seasonal table-top menus. He spoke to me, loud enough over the conversation with Trey or Britt or Tony or Amelia (or someone else?), that I decided we were hitting the road together and leaving the rest of the mini-menu behind. Since that day, he resides in my checkbook as the spector of finance. He has lived in my checkbook through 7 or 8 bank accounts; he can tell you a few tales.
Epilogue: In my cross-country travels, another ghost moved into the back of my checkbook--though I can't remember when or where that happened. But both ghosts are pretty much on their own. Checks are nearly obsolete. I can't clip the phantoms onto a credit card or attach them to an electronic funds transfer. So, they will become true ghosts someday. The last haunt will probably be a recycling center. Maybe part of the original spirit will make the journey across the country to a menu at a Friendly's restaurant. Stranger things have happened.
