Ray

"Bye, Dad!" yelled Eddie. He ran out the door.

"Eddie!" I called after him. "Forgetting something?"

Eddie ran back in and grabbed his backpack. "Thanks! Bye!"

After doing this almost every morning, you'd think he'd learn from his mistakes. I shook my head. Eddie may have his mother's blonde hair, but other than that, he was just like his father.

I tried to make a home for Amber for here, hoping she would want to stay. But shortly after Eddie was born, she packed up her things and left without a word. So for the past sixteen years or so, it had just been Eddie and me.

I spooned some Frosted Flakes in my mouth. Unfortunately, I misjudged where my mouth was and ended up spilling the bite on my shirt. "Damn it," I muttered to myself. I'd had a motorcycle accident a few years back, leaving me with a bad knee and a blind eye, which really made life cumbersome when I wasn't paying attention.

The phone rang. I grabbed the receiver. "Ray's Occult," I answered. I hadn't had the money to get a separate extension line for our small apartment above the store.

"Ray," said the voice on the other end of the line. "It's me."

I froze. The voice was like a blast from the past. "Spengler?"

"Yes," said Egon. His voice was the same as remember from eighteen years ago-deep and a little nasal. "I have a matter of tremendous importance I have to confer with you about."

"What's going on?" I asked, picking up on his urgent tone.

"I've picked up on immense levels of psychokinetic energy coming from Central Park. I really believe we should look into this."

I paused. "Spengler…I don't know. If we try opening that door again-"

"Ray, I know we could get sent back to prison," Egon cut me off. "But you don't understand: the levels were higher than any PKE surge I've ever seen. My last reading showed 1367-you know what that means."

My heart stopped beating for a moment; I did know what that meant. "You don't suppose it's…"

"Yes," was the grave answer. "I'm afraid it is."

I licked my lips. I knew I was going to regret this, but… "Okay. I meet you at the park."

The taxi pulled up in front of the park. I hated taxis. I missed my bike...and the Ectomobile.

I paid the cabbie and climbed out. A tall man with glasses in a grey suit was waiting with his hands in his pockets. His tall brown hair was touched with grey at the sides and he had grown a bushy brown beard, but still-it was my old best friend and colleague, Dr. Egon Spengler.

I cleared my throat. "Spengler."

He nodded back. "Raymond. It's been a long time."

"Definitely," I agreed. We awkwardly shook hands.

"So," I said. "You bring the meters?"

Egon walked over to a shrub and pulled a canvas bag out from behind it. "I thought I would be best if I wasn't caught with these in my possession," he explained.

That brought the worry I had in the back of my head up front. "Egon? Are you sure that we should be doing this? I mean, if Peck were to find out…"

"I know." Egon's voice came out flat. "But this is a critical matter. We have to check if there's any threat to the city."

I hesitated. "You…you're sure it's 1367?"

"I'm positive, Ray."

I shook my head. "I just don't know, Spengs. We didn't get readings that high when we battled," I looked around and dropped my voice, "Vigo. I mean, the only thing a PKE surge of that size could point to is…"

"A cross rip," finished Egon.

I shuddered. "I didn't want to have to say it, but-yeah. That."

"The question is, how could a cross rip even have occurred?" wondered Egon.

"Well, we could have a false alarm," I reasoned. "Let's just check it out before we jump to any conclusions."

Egon looked at me as if he doubted the possibility of a false alarm, but nodded and handed me a PKE meter. "Let's take some valences."

We walked around the park, trying to look inconspicuous. Luckily, it was an overcast day, so there weren't many park wanderers that day.

I scanned some bushes and trees. Nothing…nothing…

Beep-beep-beep. I stared as the PKE went crazy. "Spengler!" I called.

Egon looked up from the ground where he'd been scanning on his hands and knees about ten yards away.

"It's going insane-ouch!" I dropped the sizzling meter as it started to smoke. Suddenly in mid-beep, its circuitry popped and the meter was dead.

Egon hurried over and stared at the smoldering hunk of metal lying on the ground. "I believe we've found the site of our disturbance," he stated after a moment.

I cautiously bent down (not the easiest thing in the world to do with a bum knee) and pulled aside some bush. I gasped. "Spengler, look at this."

He bent down too, studying it. "Are you seeing this?" I asked him.

"I see it, I see it."

We stood up. "Look," I said. "I know we could get into a lot of trouble for this…but I think we both know we need to the others."

Egon froze. "You mean…all of them?"

"Yes, Egon. All the Ghostbusters," I said firmly. I knew who he meant.

He hesitated. "Alright," he finally whispered.

I nodded. "Okay. I'll call them tonight."