MORE GHOST ENCOUNTERS OF THE WORST KIND by Pam North Ghosts, while obviously an element of the past, apparently can express themselves in the present, and perhaps even can have a bit of fun with unsuspecting mortals in the process. Restless spirits are still a part of the Central City-Black Hawk area, if the experience of a local resident can be interpreted as evidence of their existence. For the sake of anonymity, this resident shall be renamed Beth in this article. Her home is haunted by a benign spirit she calls Joe. Beth purchased her home here in November of last year, moving in the following month. She had been told of an inhabiting presence in the house by its previous owners. Their three-year-old daughter had sometimes stood at the bottom of the stairway, pointing and saying, "Man, man," when no one was visible to her parents. The wife also had seen an ethereal figure in the parlor on several occasions, again with no human element to explain it. Their housesitter had found the front door inexplicably standing open after having been closed and secured by two locks. The sightings had ceased for quite some time before Beth bought the house, so it had been assumed that the ghost had departed the premises. This was a source of relief for Beth, who had ambivalent feelings about cohabiting with a spirit. It wasn't long before Beth became aware that Joe either had never left, or was back. Strange happenings became frequent occurrences. Doors she had closed and locked stood ajar with no explanation. One door between two upstairs rooms often was found open after having been closed, despite the fact that it stuck badly, and was very difficult to reopen once it had been shut. Joe managed to execute this maneuver easily and silently. Doors are actually one of Joe's favorite things, and he delights in making them the opposite of whatever Beth wants them to be. He also seems to like to let her cats out if she has confined them to one room; soon he will see that they have the run of the house again. While she was settling into her new home, a friend (called Ellen for the sake of her privacy) came by to help Beth unpack. Joe apparently liked Ellen, and went home with her for a few days (friends share, but sharing a ghost is a bit novel). Ellen first became aware of Joe's presence when she heard a masculine voice call out her name, and no one was there. Her television turned itself on (Joe obviously has a sense of humor here) to the movie Ghostbusters, in Spanish. Her taplights would turn themselves on. He even came to work with her, opening the front door of her office frequently so that the bell would ring, and turning on her radio. She would feel a definite coolness in a room when he was near. When she went back to Beth's for a visit, Joe returned with her. Beth had noticed no sign of Joe during this time. Joe likes to accompany Beth to her office as well, and plays mischievous little tricks while he's there. He turns the copy machine off, and apparently is the culprit behind a scanner going into action in a neighboring office down the hall. The scanner takes several steps to set it into action, but when Joe is around it just automatically does its thing. Joe seems to like modern-day gadgets. Beth sometimes hears her microwave buttons making little beeps, and on a recent morning, her alarm clock woke her with music from a Denver radio station (coincidently the same station Ellen wakes up to on her own alarm clock). Beth had never set her clock to anything but a buzz mode, and had no idea that there was any alternative. Her television also gets tinkered with, suddenly changing to mute with captions for no apparent reason. Joe also seems to have opinions about things, like how long Christmas decorations should be kept up after the holiday season. Beth wanted to leave her lavishly ornamented tree up for a while, vowing to take it down on Valentine's Day. When that date arrived, Beth was tired from work, and wasn't in the mood to put the tree away after all. Sitting in her cozy parlor relaxing. she heard a noise, and walking into the living room to investigate, she found the tree leaning against an adjacent wall. Attempting to straighten it, she felt the tree move away from her to fall on the floor. Joe apparently felt that the time had come for the tree to go. Her cats, obvious suspects in the incident when skeptics hear this story, were not the culprits, of this Beth is convinced. This reporter, after the interview and tour of the home were completed, walked out to discover that her car door, previously definitely and deliberately locked, was now unlocked. It was probably just Joe, saying hello in his own inimitable way.