Wishful thinking

by Campi

Janine gets a customer and anything she wants.

*Wishful thinking

The customer that walked up to Janine's desk didn't walk. That was the problem with him, to start with.
........"What do you think you're doing here?" she asked in her sharpest voice. "If you're looking for some friends, mind they're all locked up!"
........"Oh no, miss," the ghosts said in a hissing voice, smiling oddly. "I've already found the one I'm looking for."
........"Sure?" she replied. "I don't think so. Turn around and beat it, or you'll be spending eternity in the containment unit. Ghost prison. Got that?"
........"How about making a deal?"
........"There are still two 'busters in, so don't think you can come and threaten me," she told him and put her hand above the alarm button. "I'm counting down: three... two..."
........"Your part is easy," said the ghost. "I can give you anything you want."
........"Oh, so you're a genie in a bottle, besides from not having a bottle? I dealt with your kind once and I'm not doing it again. Out."
........"I'm not a genie, but I'm a ghost," said the ghost. "I don't do magic. What I can give you are solid things, anything you want."
........She looked at him without a word. He had small black eyes, pale skin, a hat and a brown coat. At least he didn't have the tendrils.
........"Okay. What's my part in this deal? Just curious."
........"You keep me out of jail."
........"That part you can deal with just great, all by yourself," Janine pointed out. "Just take the next ghost train out of town. Can you please leave? You aren't good for business. You could scare someone."
........"You give up riches?"
........"I don't want riches. You can't give me what I want. Besides, I told you that I tried it when that genie came along."
........"Aha," said the ghost. "You do have wishes. What makes you think I can't fulfil them for you? Money does magic."
........"I'm pushing this button and you're busted," said Janine. "It's your final call."
........"All right," the ghost spat. "The name's Jim. Slick Jim. I don't think we introduced, but don't forget I was here."
........"I'm sure I won't. Would you mind?"
........ The phone was ringing and Janine picked it up, watching the ghost glide through the wall and leave. In about fifteen minutes she had already forgotten the visit Slick Jim had paid her.
........ At about noon the very next day Janine came back from lunch, only to find some big piece of equipment next to her desk. She thought it was rather odd that the guys had unpacked it downstairs instead of in the lab.
........She looked at it, but couldn't figure out what it was good for. It certainly wasn't the new copy machine she wanted, but reminded of a very oversized microwave oven atop a cabinet. The strangest thing was that it had a ribbon tied around it. There was a note attached to the ribbon, which Janine was too curios not to read. "Congratulations! First prize in the Crozzword Puzzle Monthly goes to Janine Melnitz."
........She wasn't sure that she'd participated, but it could very well be so, since she was fond of solving crossword puzzles and sometimes submitting them. What she was sure of was that she just felt strangely empty, looking at her prize. She was indeed certain she never sent in her answer to win that... thing.
........"Hi Janine! You're back!"
........"Hi Winston," she returned his greeting. "What's this?"
........"Someone unloaded it outside just a few minutes ago. Good thing that box's got some wheels so I could roll it inside. Look like it's going to rain. Wouldn't want to ruin your prize, would ya sis?"
........"I'm not sure, since I don't know what it is," said Janine. "I don't see why I'd write the business address if I solved a crossword puzzle and submitted it. Then again, I write that address a million times a day. I could have written it by mistake. Know what? You can have it."
........"Our address?" Winston smiled.
........"No, silly, the overgrown microwave," Janine said and laughed.
........At that very moment, Egon came sliding down the pole with a notebook in his mouth and a PKE-meter in his hand. When he saw the prize Janine had won, he got so excited that he forgot to take the big notebook out of his mouth. Once he did, they understood what he wanted to say.
........"That's a state of the art CX-7 Alpha!" he said, eyes shining. "Why's it standing here? Did Peter really order it? Ray and I have been wanting one, actually a CX-6 Beta to be exact, but..."
........"Whoo, slow down, big E," said Winston. "I didn't see you this wound up since you thought you really had a chance to win the Nobel Prize."
........"The discovery I had made outmatched the winner that year, but we know that parapsychology is sadly underestimated, even distrusted."
........"You don't have to tell me that about distrust, cause I know, man," said Winston. "Actually, you have a winner standing right here. Not a Nobel Prize winner, but..."
........"Yeah, I won this thing," said Janine. "What does it do?"
........"What it does?" Egon didn't seem to believe his ears. "It's the latest and best spectrum analyser on the market, and it's portable!"
........"Oh yes, I can indeed put it in my pocket," mumbled Winston to Janine and looked at the analyser, which reached up to his shoulders.
........"You won it? Won?" Egon asked.
........"Well, yes," said Janine. "In a crossword puzzle quiz."
........"That is amazing!" said Egon. "With full guarantee? All paid?"
........"I guess so."
........"You're keeping it?" Egon asked. "I mean, uh..."
........"You want it? You can have it."
........At one moment it seemed like Egon wanted to hug Janine, but he stretched as far as to a handshake.
........"I'll tell Ray, and we'll take it upstairs," he said.
........"Egon!" she called out after him. "Does this mean we can have dinner tonight? To celebrate I'm a winner, and all?"
........"Yes!" Egon replied, without any hesitation.
........"You hit the honey pot now, girl," said Winston and smiled. "That monster piece of equipment really made him happy."
........The dinner went unusually well, being spent with Egon. She had gotten some odd green ooze on her plate, next to her dinner, which proved to be a kind of fungi Egon was more than eager to collect. He even examined the restaurant kitchen to find more breeding there, but couldn't find any.
........That next day was more than okay, according to Janine. Egon had smiled at her when she came through the door in the morning. Only moments later she put her book and sandwich in the top drawer, but hesitated.
........"What's this?" said Janine. "I'm sure I brought the Grimm Brothers, but this I can't even read the title of."
........"It's Malleus Maleficarum, the British version!" Egon said and made her gently put it on the counter. "It tells about how to deal with witchcraft in the fifteenth century, and this edition is contemporary!"
........"Why would I have that on my bookshelf? It's probably from the stack of books Uncle August left me. Great, now what should I read today?"
........"Malleus Maleficarum," Egon repeated himself. "It's very rare and worth a fortune, let alone the text itself!"
........"You want it? Take it," said Janine. "Oh, besides, there's a movie I wanted to see. Are you free...?"
........"Tonight?" Egon asked, grabbing the book very cautiously. "Of course, Janine."
........"You don't even want to know if it's a scientific movie?"
........"Hm? No," said Egon. "Anything you like, Janine."
........Janine got warm all over when he smiled like that. She came around, noticing she was smiling foolishly herself, alone in the reception. Then again, she wasn't completely alone. Someone was watching her. She recognized the hat, the coat and the floating.
........"Slick Jim!" she spat out. "The dealmaker!"
........"Honored," he responded and took off his hat in a gesture of respect. "How's it going?"
........"What's going?" Janine asked. "Why are you here again?"
........"I kept my part of the deal," he said. "Now you keep yours."
........"We never made any deal," said Janine furiously.
........"Oh yes," said Slick Jim. "I give you what you want, and you give me what I want. It wasn't very hard to find out about your three wishes when you got a ghost genie in a bottle, wanting a holiday. Word travels fast in the hereafter."
........"My wishes? My... first wish?"
........"Oh yes indeed, your first wish," grinned the ghost threateningly. "And besides, three is the magic number. Three gifts and a man is yours."
........"Whoa! Guys!"
........Peter's voice was easy to recognize as he yelled from upstairs.
........"There's a ghost here! Janine, don't worry!"
........Before she could say anything else, a burst from his thrusters sizzled through the air and locked the ghost in midair. Janine ducked behind her desk and screamed that he must stop.
........"Peter! Where's your trap?" asked Ray. "You haven't got any attached to the accelerator!"
........"I was bringing this down from upstairs, when... hey, come on, Ray! He's getting away!"
........Winston swooped down the pole, ran around Ecto-1 and found an empty trap in the lockers. He tossed it and stamped the pedal, nicely catching the ghost.
........"Thanks for nothing, Ray," said Peter and turned off his thrusters.
........"Sorry Peter, Winston was quicker than me."
........"What's happening?" Egon asked, approaching Peter and Ray from behind.
........"A ghost at the reception," said Winston. "He was threatening Janine. Glad we caught him. Must have been a class two or three, Peter could hold him with just one proton beam."
........"Yeah," said Janine, climbing to her feet. "You gonna put him away now, right?"
........"Of course," said Winston. "Straight away."
........"No money for this one," said Peter. "Why couldn't he go troubling our neighbor instead?"
........"Uh, Winston," started Janine. "No, never mind."
........She heard Winston descend down the stairs. Egon smiled at her again, but this time she froze. Three gifts to get a man. Her first wish! Egon!
........Janine thought about telling the whole thing, but hesitated. It was embarrassing to admit that she got them in trouble over the same thing once again. She was certain she could deal with it all by herself.
........"You okay?" Peter asked Janine.
........"Yes, I'm fine."
........The three of them left, and Winston was walking up the stairs from the basement, having emptied the trap. In a few moments time she was all alone.
........"Get him out of jail," she mumbled to herself. "It can't be that hard."
........She almost ran downstairs and looked into the two-way glass. Shapes were swiveling there, but she couldn't make out the face of Slick Jim. Janine banged on the glass, yelling his name. Soon enough, after Janine had waved away a number of strange looking specters, Slick Jim was there.
........"Get me out," he mimed.
........"You stole those things!" she yelled. "Return them! Your deal sucks, you know that?"
........Janine didn't like his smile. She had to let him out so that he could return the spectrum analyzer, the odd green goo and the book. They had been presents to Egon and it had indeed done the trick: he was fully aware of her existence and thought very fondly of her. Her wish back then had been for Egon to be crazy about her. The ghost surely had tricks left, she was sure, to make that wish come absolutely true.
........"Let me out," he mimed again.
........She nodded in reply. Making sure the coast was clear behind him, she turned the handle and listened to the blaring horn. In moments it was all over. The containment unit had spat out Slick Jim and she hissed at him to hide.
........"Janine, now what?" asked Winston from up the door.
........"Nothing, it's under control!"
........"It sounded like the unit was open," said Winston. "I don't want to face our caught ghosts all at once."
........"Thanks for checking, but it's all fine," Janine said.
........She turned to Slick Jim and tried not to yell.
........"You stole those things, the big microwave thingie and the book! I bet you stole the mucus, too!"
........"Once a criminal, always a criminal," said Slick Jim. "If you excuse me, I must attend a meeting."
........"No you're not!" growled Janine. "You're going to return the..."
........She could do nothing when he drifted through the wall and disappeared.
........"Oh Janine, now what have you done", she mumbled to herself.
........She went upstairs again, thinking about what to do. As long as Slick Jim had fled through the sewer system, there was little chance she or the guys could trace him. Besides, she was still embarrassed about the whole thing.
........About twenty minutes later, things happened in stereo. She had barely heard Egon finish his lecture about how a class nine could escape from the containment unit very recently, before there was a call concerning ghost gang in cars coming in from everywhere, seeming to rendezvous somewhere on Fifth Avenue. They all had cars from the fifties and were dressed like coming straight from the fifties - just like Slick Jim.
........"Oh no!" said Peter. "I just caught one of them in the reception and I didn't think - well, can it be?"
........"It seems like it," said Egon sternly. "Gino Maranelli and his hood."
........"We caught him already!" objected Winston. "How can it be him? He's in the can!"
........"One ectoplasmic entity has fled today. A class nine, just like Maranelli. This can't be a coincidence," explained Egon. "We caught only so many class nine specters."
........"Let's go, then!" said Ray, loading the equipment into Ecto. "No time to waste if it's him again."
........Janine had put her hands over her cheeks, looking at the Ghostbusters. A class nine released? Peter had said it was easy to catch Slick Jim, that he was a class two or three. She knew it wasn't possible to catch a class nine all by yourself, like Peter did.
........"It's my fault!" she burst out. "I let Maranelli flee!"
........The four men were dumbstruck, just staring at her. Ray came to his senses first, asking:
........"What do you mean, Janine?"
........The telephone rang, but she let it ring. It was surely about the Maranelli gang again.
........"There's no time to explain," said Egon. "We have to stop Maranelli, or innocent people might die."
........"Yes, come with us in the car and tell," urged Peter.
........The four got into Ecto and Janine tried to lock the doors as fast as possible once they had backed out, but she fumbled with the keys and it felt like an eternity passed by before the door was securely locked. The horns blared while the Ghostbusters waited, and she ran to the car and sat down in the backseat.
........The guys stared blankly ahead, not knowing where to look. Only Ray let his and Janine's eyes meet, asking without words why she had opened the containment unit.
........"Slick Jim," she said. "The ghost Peter busted today, in the reception. He's been bothering me and he planted gifts that I should give to Egon. He tricked me! I let him out of the containment unit so he could return the stuff, since he'd stolen it, and he had said that to me before: if he got caught, I must take him out of the unit."
........"Aha," said Egon. "An unusual plan. We know Maranelli is a shapeshifter. It was easy for him to take the shape of Slick Jim and thus be let out instead of his understudy."
........"Oh no!" Janine gasped - she had indeed been a fool.
........"He knows more about us now," said Winston. "This could be a tough fight."
........"Yes, especially since they have these stinging ectoplasmic guns," said Ray.
........It was unusually easy to go to Fifth Avenue, since people were driving in the opposite direction and few wanted to go to Fifth. Words must have spread quickly about Maranelli.
........"There!" said Peter. "They're everywhere!"
........"We have to find Maranelli's car," said Winston and pulled to the right when trying to avoid getting the windshield peppered with ecto bullets. "It's him we want."
........"Since he could be everywhere and everything between a lamppost and a car, this is gonna be tricky," said Peter.
........"Not if you've got a PKE-meter," grumbled Egon and turned it on. "Only one class nine in the vicinity. Straight ahead, Winston."
........"That's easier said than done," answered Winston and drove between two spook cars. "They don't want us here."
........"I'm so sorry," said Janine.
........"We know you didn't mean to," said Winston. "It's okay."
........Maranelli was right there. His thick lips, his wry smile and the small gleaming eyes in the fatty face were all the same. Apparently he put little confidence in the Ghostbusters, thinking that he was far cleverer than they.
........"The weakest point!" he bellowed and laughed. "Always look for the weakest point, and how often isn't that the women!"
........"Man, I wanna get him good," said Winston.
........"So we meet again, eh?" yelled Peter through the open window. "You haven't lost any weight in the containment unit, like we told you to!"
........"Venkman," growled the ghost and smiled. "I got plenty of information on you in your prison."
........"Oh no," said Ray. "He's been asking around in the unit!"
........"Which means this calls for something out of the ordinary," said Winston.
........Egon didn't look all too happy. He was the brains and had to prove it.
........Janine took her shoes off, put her handbag over her arm and opened the door. The guys screamed that she must get back in the car, but she walked up the Avenue and dodged a few bullets. The ghosts and Maranelli were astounded but happy, and many of them fired up in the air at the mere sight of her.
........"Open the door," she said. "Maranelli!"
........"If it isn't the little secretary," said Maranelli and smiled his revolting smile. "What do you want?"
........"I change side," said Janine. "I don't wanna be with losers."
........"Little girl, you have to be smarter than that," said Maranelli.
........"Alright," she said and opened her purse. "I have something here that'll prove it."
........"Really?" asked Maranelli and leaned out through the open window.
........She held a sphere in her hand, only slightly bigger than a baseball. When she'd pushed the button on the side, a very familiar light shone straight in the eyes of Maranelli and he screamed in anger.
........"Fire! Fire, damn it!" he commanded.
........Maranelli pulled out his gun and shot Janine in the chest. She gasped and had to back two quick steps to regain balance. The noise increased tenfold and ghosts were driving up their cars in a tight circle around their boss, some ghosts jumping out from cars and running to the heart of the battle.
........"Janine!" screamed Egon. "We must go there! Hurry!"
........They nodded and put the proton accelerators on their back, running to the turmoil like one man. They used the proton beams like fishing rods, catching a ghost and hoisting them on the edge of the beam over their shoulder, turning off the beam and heard them yell in irritation over how they flew away. The Ghostbusters got shot dozens of times, leaving stains to prove it.
........"Janine? Janine!" Egon screamed.
........He heard her ever so faintly from the mass of ghosts in front of her, screaming his name back. The ghosts were pulling and pushing, but the Ghostbusters made progress. None of the specters seemed very strong, not being higher class than class four.
........They saw Janine more suddenly than they'd expected. Her scream made them all look at her, being lifted above the crowd on strong arms. She clutched the sphere tightly to her chest and had cuts and first phase bruises all over her body. A manifold of bullets had hit her and had her almost covered in a yellowish coat of slime.
........She saw the Ghostbusters and reacted instantly. The sphere came flying over the ghost's heads, but only half a dozen ghost hands reached out to grab the mysterious sphere. Either didn't they know what it was, or they cared more for the hand-to-hand combat.
........"Got it!" said Winston and caught the sphere.
........"That's the compact trap we used to get ghosts outta the containment unit!" said Ray. "Janine must have found it in the basement, next to the unit."
........"Yes," said Egon. "Problem is that it can hold a ghost only for so long: the higher the class, the shorter the time."
........"Maranelli's a class nine," said Peter. "How long, Egon?"
........"Approximately fifteen minutes."
........"We don't have fifteen minutes!" said Winston.
........"Leave it to me," said Ray. "You three get Janine, on the double!"
........"Ay ay sir," said Peter.
........Their beams fizzed through the air and Egon encouraged them to alter the length and force. Ghosts started to avoid them and made a clear path all the way to Janine, whom they could see between two ghost cars.
........"Let go of her!" Egon called out and started to run.
........A ghost was emptying his gun into her lifeless body, which twitched with every blow. Her clothes were torn and dirty.
........"We've got your boss!" yelled Peter. "Get outta here, now!"
........The ghosts began to mumble and look fierce. Winston said to Peter that he probably should have kept that piece of information to himself.
........"Stop it!" said Egon and planted a foot in the face of the ghost that shot Janine.
........He kneeled at her side and cared little for being shot at and clawed. Janine was light and limp, and he took her in his arms and ran back as fast as he could.
........"Give us the girl!" the ghosts hissed at him.
........"...Egon?" she mumbled faintly and smiled when she saw Egon's face above her.
........"Ssssch, don't talk," he urged her and ran between the two rays that made way for him.
........"You got her!" said Peter and backed as Egon ran passed them and headed for the car.
........"What do we do now?" asked Winston. "We ain't got this many traps. Mine are full already."
........"Mine too," said Peter. "Plan B, eh?"
........"Yeah, plan B it is," answered Winston.
........They ran back to Ecto and sat down in their seats. Egon had put Janine on the simple prolonged back seat in the back of the car.
........"Go, Winston, go!" he called out. "We must get her to a hospital."
........"No," objected Janine faintly.
........"Yes, you must," Egon said and dared to caringly wipe some slime off her forehead.
........"Guys, I fixed it," said Ray and held up a smoking ordinary trap. "I managed to move him from the small trap and into this one by cables."
........"Good," said Peter. "How is she, Egon?"
........"She'll be alright," said Egon and smiled again. He was happy to see her smile back.
........"I'm sorry," she whispered to him.
........"Don't think about it," he answered. "When you're okay, would you want to... hm... have dinner with me?"
........"Yes," she anwered. "Yes, I would."


the end

Written August 2nd, 2003