The Ghost of You

Frank can see clouds of moving dust if he looks closely and not at the task at hand. Shafts of muted light pierce the atmosphere around the hole in front of him. Strange grey smoke appear like ghostly forms and they disappear into the hole. Broken timbers and dangling cables emerge from he smokey light. He takes a step back and smiles at the demolished space. He tilts his head a little to the left and admires the wall going down more quicker than he thought.

With a startling impact a sledge hammer explodes out of no where and the white wall explodes and shutters. The wall buckled and chunks of plaster crashes to the floor. The air filled with new swirls of white dust. Frank freaked out a little and might have shrieked as well.

" Keeping you in line, Frank. Just making sure you're not stopping for a lunch break. " Ray, his good friend, chuckles and puts his sledge hammer down and smirks.

Frank wipes the sweat from across his forehead and lowers his sledge hammer to the floor. " Toro, it's my house. This shit needs to be done. I'm in now way to quit now. " Frank silently hopes for no more short jokes. Yes, he couldn't reach the roof but he was able to get most of the wall plaster off with his sledge hammer.

A sledge hammer drops to the floor hard and Gerard joins the men's conversation. " Our house, Frank. Our house. " Gerard smiles, put his hands on his hips and admires their progress. He's sort of exhausted. Sweat is actually slowly sliding down his brow.
Probably leaving a wet patch in the dust on the floor, he thinks.

The three men are capable of finishing the task before the day is out. Ray and Gerard were in their late 20's and Frank in his mid's, so their conjoint muscle strength was reasonable to take down the couples plastered wall near their kitchen. Only Fran and Ray were shirtless. Frank's partner and best friend now had a worker man's mask on their noses and were back to business. Frank eventually joined them. No more then ten minutes later there was a loud thud and a shaft of light penetrated the rubble on the floor. They all looked up and saw something glinting at them from the roof.

" Frankie, get the ladder please. " Gerard motioned towards the front door for the silver ladder to be fetched.

As Frank returned with the ladder, Ray had helped himself up it and poked his handle of his sledge hammer into the darkness. He shoves the handle in hard and a huge section of the ceiling crashes to the floor. Gerard looks up astonished.

Gerard removes his mask and slides it to the op of his face and says " Frankie, look, there's a whole eight feet up there. "

" And about eight years of dust. " Frank clarifies.

" We'd have so much height, Frank. We could add a second floor and put our bedroom upstairs. That would leave all this space. "

Frank eyes him curiously. " For what? "

" Space. Just space. "

" Yeah, music space. Enough for all the CD's that I could have. " Frank smiles at the thought.

Ray laughs as he looks at Gerard. Their bodies were covered with white powder, appearing as strange ghost figures.
" Frank, this may be none of my business, but I'm concerned that you are doing way too much coke, dude. "

Frank glances at his white body and they all cackle.

" Frankie, " Gerard says, " Come here. "

Frank obeys. Gerard doodles on his chest, drawing a bow tie and an outline of a tuxedo jacket. His lines are quick, accomplished and subtly erotic. Frank steps back and a coin rattles behind his left foot. He turns around and reached down to pick up the coin.
" Hey, look what I found. A penny. " He hands it to Gerard. " For luck in our new loft. It's a good omen. "

Gerard shakes his head, disagreeing. " You're the good omen. " He stares at Frank lovingly.

" What 'bout me? " Ray offers his body to Gerard.

Gerard smiles and reaches out to finger something. Ray's stomach jumps as Gerard's fingers slide over his chest. Gerard steps back to admire his work. Ray now looks like a Greek statue.

" I'll never wash again. " Ray smiles at Gerard.

" Come on. Let's do this. "

All three men held their sledgehammers and waited as Gerard began his count.