The Haunted Man

The Haunted Man - A Halloween fable of Southwest Florida

What else would a fading sideshow impresario do with a captured ghost but put it in the act and try to make a million bucks off it? What else would a pretty and passionate civil rights activist do but try to set it free? And what else would a photo-journalist wannabe do but quit his job at the Home Depot Garden Center and go along for the ride?

Conrad Mueller's got himself a new act. And so what if the thing looks as if it's in pain? It's dead, isn't it? It doesn't really do to examine these sorts of things too closely, not when you're looking at bankruptcy on one hand and the Greatest New Show on Earth on the other. Mueller's already planning his audience with the Pope.
Mueller's fairly sophisticated; he's a man of the world. Just not of this world. And while he's prepared, or thinks he's prepared, for the interference of science, government and the law, he never counted on the Christian activists or the New Age channelers. He never counted on his other acts betraying him, much less on the hippie throwbacks eager to bring a new kink to their sexual play. And while the hovering photo-journalist wannabe doesn't bother him much one way or the other, Mueller is completely unprepared for the young man's sidekick, the dark-haired blue-eyed civil rights demonstrator with the challenging smile.