Kickass and Louie’s ghost

Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper growing up in the company of bachelor farm hand Louie Lancaster, he of the crooked leg and the tumbleweed mind that never lacked for novelty and curiosity nor the inclination to express those things.

 There was the ghost that haunted the horse stalls when Louie had been a solitary farmer. In his Illinois twang, Louie related the circumstance: “There was this odd thumping noise that kept coming out of the dark stalls and it went on until I knew it could only be some kind of a damn spirit or ghost. I stood it as long as I could and then I grabbed a pitchfork and stood in the darkened doorway and challenged whatever it was to make an appearance and we would have it out once and for all.”

The imagined image of Louie standing with a pitchfork at port arms ready to do battle with a ghost was precious at the time and has endured through the decades so the keeper still can see it.

He tries to share it with Phyllis but it seems to lose impact in repetition. Maybe you had to know Louie!