The Painter

The Painter

By Patti Foley

The building where I work was built during the great depression in the 1930’s. It was once a warming house for ice skaters on the pond in the park. It is now a senior center/recreation center.        

Rumor has it that the building is haunted. They say a man has been seen walking around the building. He’s wearing paint stained clothing and is carrying a paint bucket and brushes. It seems that he walks into the room with the high cathedral ceiling, looks around then disappears. I had been working there for over a year and had never seen him.

One day when I arrived at work and there was a worker in the building.

I didn’t see him immediately. I did hear him though when he said “Good morning young lady, you’re the best thing I’ve seen today. I looked around. Where is that voice coming from? Then I heard “Hey I’m up here”. He was up on a scaffold painting the ceiling. “Oh,” I said, “Good morning. What are you doing up there?” He said, “I’m painting the ceiling again.”

He was very cheerful and quite good looking, I thought.  Strange I hadn’t seen him before, and I wasn’t told that anyone would be working in the building today. Oh well. It’s wasn’t the first time that there had been lack of communication here.

But I had no time to worry about that at the moment. I had about 50 seniors coming in soon that I had to make coffee for. I had reports to do and it was bingo day. I had to get set up and start calling the game in an hour.

I went into my office to start my workday. It was going to be a busy one.

There was a beautiful bouquet of flowers lying on my desk. Lilacs, my favorite flower. Strange, they usually bloom in May and it was September.  

I wondered where they came from. It wasn’t my birthday or any other occasion.

I went back out to the room where he was working, intending to ask him if he had seen anyone bring them in. But he wasn’t there. Oh well, I’d ask him later.

Maybe it was one of my seniors. They were always doing something nice for me. One of them might have come in early and left them.

Everyone had a fun time at bingo as usual. They always liked to win a little money or sometimes a prize. Now the kitchen crew was serving them lunch and I was going to my office to have mine.

When I looked up, he still wasn’t there.  AND the scaffold was gone. Funny I didn’t see him leave or remove the equipment. Maybe he went out by the pond side door.

Now I’d probably never know where the flowers came from. None of the seniors had said anything. And if they had left them, they would have told me.

When I went into my office the flowers were gone too. Who would have gone in and taken them? I have full view of my office from where I call bingo and I didn’t see anyone go in there.

The next morning when went into the building he was there again. The scaffold was back and he was painting. He said “Good morning. How are you today?” I responded “I’m good, how are you? I didn’t expect you to be back again today. What with the scaffold being gone too? I would have thought you would have left it”.

He said “I did. I knew I’d be still here today so why would I take it down?” 

Okay, I know what I saw, or should I say what I didn’t see. I think this guy might be a little crazy.  

I asked him if he had seen anyone come in yesterday and put flowers in my office. He said “I brought them for you. I know that Lilacs are your favorite and they are as sweet as you.” I said, “How would you know that?” He said, “A little birdie told me.”

This was getting very strange. I didn’t want to ask him if he also took them when he left, so I left it at that.

I had another busy day ahead of me. I had to make coffee for the seniors who would be coming today. No bingo today, but exercise classes  in the morning and Mahjong players in the afternoon.

After greeting everyone in the morning, I would be busy in my office for most of the day.

I went into my office to prepare for the day and Lo and Behold the flowers were back on my desk again.

I went back out to make coffee and to thank him. But again, he wasn’t there. Maybe he stepped out to get something. Oh well! I’d have to talk to him later if he was still there.

When most of the seniors had arrived. I asked if any of them had gone into that room yesterday and if they had seen anyone working there. No-one had seen anything.

Next, I called my boss to ask why I hadn’t been told that someone would be working in the building. She said that she wasn’t always informed of their schedule unless it would interfere with activities, so she didn’t know anything about it.

That afternoon when I walked into that room he was gone again and so was the scaffold.   And when I went back into my office the flowers were gone again too. I had put them in a vase. The vase was there but the flowers weren’t. Was I going crazy? This was too weird.

The following day. I walked in and there he was scaffold and all. I heard the same “Good morning. How are you today young lady?”. I told him that the scaffold was gone again yesterday, and he said, “Oh No, I’m always here working.”

As he turned to go back to work his foot slipped and he came crashing down to the floor. Oh my God!!! He wasn’t moving and there was blood everywhere. There was no one else in the building yet so I ran into my office to call 911. When I got back to where he was laying, he was gone. So was the scaffold.

July 22, 2020