Chapter 1 "Opportunity Knocks" February 1983

(Song suggestion- "She's a Beauty" by the Tubes)

Janine Melnitz

I awoke to a cold, dreary morning in February with a high temperature of thirty-eight degrees on the day of my interview with the Ghostbusters. Even though there was little that I knew about the fledgling company, I silently prayed for this opportunity to be the one that I needed.

Ghostbusters Inc. was housed in Tribeca, Manhattan, twenty minutes away from Brooklyn Heights, where I lived with my roommate, Wendy. I rode on the overly crowded subway when I needed to travel around the city, and my stop in put me two blocks away from my interview. Swiftly, I exited the subway station with a red umbrella over my head. I still felt slight dampness on my clothing and on my hair despite wearing a long trench coat jacket made for the rain.

Shivering, the brisk wind chilled my legs, which were only protected by the thin nude pantyhose and my knee-length shiny red patent rain boots that I wore that day. I arrived at Ghostbusters HQ eight minutes before ten according to my wristwatch, so I knocked heavily on the black door of the building.

There wasn't an answer after I waited a half of a minute, so I banged with my right fist on the door again as the rain began to fall more speedily.

" Third time's a charm," I thought wryly. No response. The time was now 9:54, and my interview was at ten.

Exhaling in agitation, I tapped my foot on the concrete. I impetuously grabbed on the door handle, and I felt a small feeling of satisfaction when it opened.

I shook out my umbrella before entering the building and then I sauntered in

"Hello?" My voice echoed, and I cringed because I did not like the sound of my thick accented voice.

Continuing slowly, I examined the building's interior as I strolled towards a office area. It was sparsely decorated, somewhat empty and needed some plants to liven the atmosphere. There was a long winding staircase on the right and a pole running down the third to second floor by a few lockers near the office area. Without any doubt, it was an old firehouse, judging by the layout.

A clock on the wall read 9:57 a.m., as I halted my steps in front of a vacant office desk. The firehouse layout puzzled me as this was supposed to be a place of business, but a man's voice rang out in the building, breaking my thoughts.

"Great! You made it! I thought maybe the weather would prevent you from coming."

"I always keep my appointments," I stubbornly replied, feeling defensive, looking around to see where the voice came from since no one was there.

" Good morning, I am Dr. Peter Venkman," a slightly balding man greeted me. He wore blue khakis and a plaid long sleeve shirt, and he appeared behind the filing cabinets

Astonished, I held out my hand then introduced myself. My potential employer shook my hand then led me to his office where he offered me a wooden chair to sit down on.

"Thank you, Dr. Venkman," I replied, treating him to one of my brightest smiles.

Next, I lowered myself into the chair while taking my messenger-style bag off my right shoulder. I removed a copy of my resume and handed it to him. He skimmed it, then discarded it to the side.

" Describe your responsibilities at your last job," my interviewer began but didn't listen as I went into a long laundry list of my duties. I could tell he didn't take anything too seriously as I reported my skills.

"Do you believe in ghosts, Ms. Melnitz? Ghostbusters is a brand new company that will capture ghosts and contain them," Dr. Venkman suddenly questioned, wide eyed.

"I haven't seen one, but my great Aunt Joan regularly had psychic visions on my mother's side. About ten years ago, I had a horrible suspicion that my cousins would be killed in a terrible car wreck when they were traveling across the country. I was supposed to go on that trip and I warned them to abandon it," I plainly answered, feeling a wave of sadness drifting over my mood.

"What happened?"

"They didn't listen and persisted in their plans. Two days later, they ran into a train outside of Harrisburg. I had the most dreadful feeling before "seeing" that vision- a debilitating migraine that caused me to faint. When I woke up, I felt sick to my stomach in a way I never had before and couldn't move for a whole hour. It felt like a weight pressed upon my body where I couldn't escape, and at the time, I was in the middle of a work shift," I morosely recalled, frowning. I paused and said a silent prayer for my cousins.

A tall, younger but slightly rotund man with lighter brown hair now materialized in Dr. Venkman's office and introduced himself. His vibe was more positive and less cynical than his colleague. Dr. Stantz was more friendly and warm overall. He sat next to me, and inquired more about my story.

While I answered his questions, I could tell that the misanthropic Ghostbuster with less hair analyzed my looks as we spoke about our experiences.

"Dr. Venkman is one of those guys," I inwardly thought.

Dr. Stantz and I seemed to get on very well, and I genuinely liked talking to him.

After Dr. Venkman listened to the animated talk between his business partner and me for twenty minutes, the two went downstairs to discuss. He promised to return in five minutes. I hoped that when Dr. Stantz took my resume with him, it meant the interview was going well. Since I noticed a psychology magazine on Dr. Venkman's desk, I grabbed it as I liked to read. It was a little warm in the Firehouse so I removed my jacket and put it behind my chair.

I felt a pair of eyes scrutinizing me, causing me to look up from the magazine in wonder. An extraordinarily tall man with black fluffy hair in a pompadour style with dark circular glasses on his face appeared in front of me. The man didn't introduce himself, but I assumed he was one of the Ghostbusters so I gave him a warm smile. Awkwardly, he handed me a piece of paper that contained two questions about the computer language BASIC on it. I read them cautiously before answering. The man obviously didn't believe that I knew the programming language.

Lifting my chin defiantly, I answered the question without hestiation while meeting the man's perplexed eyes. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I did.

"Good," the mysterious man solemnly stated, raising one of his thick black eyebrows then breaking eye contact with me.

Before I knew it, the man was gone, and I was left to wonder what caused me to react the way I did to him. I folded my arms across my chest as Dr. Venkman hysterically laughed.

In a contemptuous voice, I inquired, "This is a secretarial job,or will I be expected to use my BASIC knowledge to write computer programs?"

"No, nothing like that. You just settled a bet between the three of us. Congratulations, the job is yours," Dr. Venkman admitted, smiling widely and extending his hand for me to shake.

Pleased, I shook his hand and thanked him for the opportunity. We discussed the details, and he offered me a wage a little more than I asked for because I had obtained some accounting skills that they may need in the future. Dr. Venkman assured me that my pay would increase, reflecting on my performance and abilities as the business took off. I sighed in relief when I left the firehouse for the subway, even though it was still raining heavily. As I opened up my umbrella before walking through the door, I quickly thanked God for providing me with this opportunity.

Dr. Peter Venkman

When Ray and I walked down to the containment unit's location where Egon worked diligently, we discussed Janine Melnitz. She was a pretty woman, after all.

"Did you see her legs? Nice," I observed, and Ray nodded in acknowledgement.

"Plus, she knows how to use BASIC, wow," my chubby colleague declared.

"I know. I was immediately hooked when I read that," I sarcastically replied, rolling my eyes, "what is that, anyway?"

"It's a computer programming language," Stantz answered automatically.

"Who knows BASIC," Egon asked in a skeptical tone of voice, without looking up from his work; his hands were full with his latest project.

"Our newest applicant," Ray remarked, trying to hand the resume to him.

Skeptically, Egon shook his head, refusing to accept it, then inquired, "ask her if she knows what this means?" He took a scrap piece of paper from his yellow notepad and messily scribbled down two questions with a pencil.

What is a syntax error?

What are short sections of code written to complete a task?

"Quizzing her in an interview," I laughed at m overly serious tall friend, "This isn't a test, Professor. We aren't in school."

Encouraging me, Iggy raised an eyebrow and handed me the paper. He didn't use words when he could give an excellent dispassionate look.

"No, you give it to her. I'll watch," I laughed, watching Spengler roll his eyes at me. Since he was the organization's brains, he didn't want anything to do with the job's social aspect. Dr. Egon Spengler loved experiments, logic, control, and inanimate objects, making people a mystery to him and of very little importance.

With an icy glare to my socially clueless friend, Ms. Melnitz responded correctly. Spengler, visibly taken aback, said "Good," and fled back to the laboratory to finish his work.

Ms. Janine Melnitz was hired straightaway.

Subsequently, we were all upstairs in the lab working on various things (or at least Egon and Ray were).

"Spengs, my favorite part of that interview was when Ms. Melnitz answered those quiz questions correctly. You should have seen your face," I informed him, chuckling. Egon ignored any teasing remarks that I gave him.

"Oh, she knew the answers? That's classic, " Ray declared, an easy going smile spread across his face.

" like her. She is easy to talk to."

"There's more! Realizing that Ms. Melnitz had foiled him, Dr. Spengler says 'good' like she helped him with a lab experiment and then absconded quickly," I told the story, then slapped the back of my friend twice. I could barely breathe I was laughing so hard.

Peeved, Egon scowled slightly but didn't respond as was his m.o.

"Iggy, you didn't hear this part. Ms. Melnitz asked me if this was a secretarial job or if she will need to use her skills writing computer programs in BASIC for this position," I perpetuated the tale as tears squeezed their way out of my eyes.

"It was already sarcastic, but with her thick accent, it sounded even more caustic," I replied then doubled over laughing, and Ray started to laugh.

"Oh my God, she fits with our sense of humor," the youngest Ghostbuster responded.

"I had to hire her, if not just to thwart Spengler," I replied, laughing still.

My close friend finally raised his head from his work and looked at us with bewilderment in his skeptical brown eyes.

"Do you know the percentage of women under thirty who know BASIC?" Iggy questioned dubiously. He grabbed his pocket calculator and pressed a button or two with his long index finger.

"No, but maybe you two can figure it out together," I blurted out, laughing so hard that my side hurt. Ray slapped his knee and laughed harder. We continued to laugh loudly, only infuriating our grave friend because he had been proven wrong, which he hated.

"It's relatively obscure," Egon declared a moment later. Snubbing us, Iggy put the calculator back in his coat pocket and returned to work.

"Janine has four-fifths of a degree in computer systems and a minor in accounting. Plus, she used some IBM systems at King's College. What is she doing as a secretary? She's overqualified," Ray demanded, in disbelief, as he looked at her resume again.

"At least she's pretty," I admitted, with a smile, "but not so much where I'm going to be distracted and sexually frustrated all of the time."

Three Days Later

Janine Melnitz

During the first three days of my employment, I thought I worked for only two anomalous scientists, but I was erroneous. I did not see the third one until the second day I worked for the new company, and Dr. Stantz showed me around the firehouse. That was when I saw a strikingly handsome man working on a project by himself at a table in the corner of the lab. Gasping at his attractiveness, I realized it was the man who thought I fibbed about my knowledge of BASIC during my interview.

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Spengler," I greeted warmly. No response.

Then, I couldn't help but add," By the way, I am the one who took a class in BASIC."

The grave scientist kept his head down and disregarded my comment, causing me to feel a smug smile appear on my lips. Meanwhile, my heart skipped a beat as I viewed the cute physicist in the white lab coat.

Dr. Stantz coughed to hide his laughter and informed me, "Spengler spends most of his time in the lab so you won't see much of him. He is the brains of the Ghostbusters."

Nodding, I followed him throughout the rest of the room, glancing back at Dr. Spengler for a second. I didn't notice how attractive he had been during the interview- he had that classic tall, dark and handsome look that I liked with broad shoulders and jet black hair.

Overall, I received a warm feeling from Dr. Spengler even though he chose not to speak, and I thought that he was the brains of the Ghostbusters made him incredibly sexy.

Dr. Egon Spengler

Whistling, Peter walked downstairs, where I worked on our proton packs dutifully. One of the components complicated the instrument's warming up, and I couldn't figure out the reason yet.

"Have you met our new secretary," Venkman inquired in jest, "the one who knows BASIC?"

As he laughed, I remained focused on my problem as I had already spent two hours working on it. Peter thought that joke was hilarious, and despite my attempts to ignore it, he persisted. He started singing the Tubes song "She's a beauty" along with the radio.

"Are you in love," I asked flatly, almost routinely. I didn't look up from the proton pack because this type of talk was common to Peter.

"No way! She's not my type," my friend explained a smirk on his face, "I think she might be too much on the cerebral side. She's talking to Ray about being psychic again as he gives her a facility tour."

I remarked it would be a lengthy conversation as he was very interested in people's paranormal abilities. Still, I remained vexed because I couldn't solve the issue with the particle throwers.

"Why don't you take a break from it, Spengs," Peter asked, watching me wrestle with the equipment in aggravation.

"Mmm," I answered, and then Venkman went back upstairs, leaving me to solve the problem.

Later that day, I didn't even hear Ray and the new secretary come downstairs until I listened to a woman's distinctive Brooklyn accent.

"Janine Melnitz, this is Dr. Egon Spengler," Ray introduced me as I purposely kept working with my head down.

An unknown warmness radiated from her, and I felt it on my skin. Almost like sunshine.

"I am the one that took a class in BASIC," Ms. Melnitz interjected slyly, still grinning. I rolled my eyes inwardly because I had enough of that joke from Peter and Ray.

Venkman

"What do you think," I questioned Egon as he sat bent over the particle throwers' technology still at four-thirty in the afternoon a few days later.

Ms. Melnitz was downstairs typing something that I had given her, and we were upstairs in the lab. She kept herself busy cleaning our downstairs offices, typing any notes that either Ray or Egon had made on their new inventions or even invented other things to try up the place. Furthermore, Janine even brought two extra hanging plants from home to energize the atmosphere downstairs.

"Huh," Egon inquired of me distractedly.

"Did you eat anything recently? You cannot solve that problem until you eat," I replied, rolling my eyes upwards.

"No. I have been too busy, Venkman," he replied exasperatedly. For the second that he made eye contact, I noticed that he had dark circles underneath his eyes.

"What do you think about , the chick from Brooklyn, our secretary, who knows BASIC" I inquired, laughing at his denseness. This man was brilliant but lacked common sense outside of academia.

"Who," Egon inquired me confusedly.

"You are impossible. I am trying to help you here," I wailed loudly as my friend disregarded me.

Meanwhile, Ms. Melnitz's pleasant voice drifted over as she sang the song on the radio from downstairs at her desk.

A slight upturn on the right side of Egon's lips occurred for almost three seconds as our new secretary's voice floated through the air. A little-known fact about Spengler was that he liked to listen to music and even sing when he was solving problems.

"What is this?" I thought, but it was gone almost as quickly was it appeared so I did not have the opportunity to ask my friend about it.

However, something alerted me to an impending attraction between our newest Brooklynite employee and my friend, the brilliant theoretical physicist, out of the blue. I knew I had to collect more data to investigate the situation as a scientist even if the Dean at Colombia labeled me as a "poor" one.

Janine Melnitz

Dear Diary,

Success! I found a secretarial job in the city for a new business catching ghosts in Manhattan, working for three eccentric scientists- Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Ray Stanz, and Dr. Egon Spengler. (The latter thought I was fibbing about knowing the computer language BASIC in the interview and seemed shocked when I proved him wrong. HA! Unfortunately, Dr. Spengler is a dreamboat and so debonairly good-looking.)