Ghost Story

Mike and Ellen were a married couple who were regulars at the store and also went to my church. Both pretty quiet, but always nice to everyone they stopped to talk to. Both were about sixty, Ellen an average size woman and Mike a gentle giant of a guy. They almost always came in to shop together and seemed very devoted to each other. Three weeks ago Ellen died suddenly of a heart attack. Last week, on Sunday, I saw Mike going down an aisle of the store and I wanted to express my condolences so I started down the next aisle to meet him when he came down that one. When I got to the end and turned the corner he was gone, so I figured to catch him next time he was in. The next day I opened the paper and there was Mike's picture in the obituaries. He had died on Saturday, almost two weeks after his wife and a day before I saw him in the store. I thought that maybe I had been seeing things the day before, although I was certain it was him in the store. I didn't tell anyone about it, but a few days later, this last Thursday, I saw him again, turning into an aisle down by the water machine. I hurried to where I saw him, not knowing what I'd do when I saw him up close. He was gone when I got there and I walked up and down each aisle to see if there was someone who looked just like him, but there wasn't. He was someone you couldn't easily mistake for anyone else. At lunch that day I was talking to Jody the office girl and happened to mention how sad it was that Mike and Ellen had passed so close together. She got very quiet as soon as I said that. Then I told her, with a slight chuckle, that I thought I saw Mike in the store and I must be losing my marbles. Her eyes got big and her face turned pale. "I saw him in here too! It was last Sunday, the day after he died!". We just looked at each other for awhile, not knowing what to say.
Who knows, maybe he was coming back to get a few things before departing for good.