Ghosted Again: The Spooky Truth Behind Homeowners Who Vanish After Getting a Painting Estimate

Posted by David Chism | Wed, Oct 30, 2024

 Ghosted Again: The Spooky Truth Behind Homeowners Who Vanish After Getting a Painting Estimate

This is where it hap­pened… I can feel it.” Dan Lee­dor said the words slow­ly, his eyes sweep­ing the dim­ly-lit room, absorb­ing every detail. This wasn’t his first rodeo, unfor­tu­nate­ly. As Lead Esti­ma­tor at Tudors Down Paint­ing, he’d seen more than his share of disappearances.

You think so?” said Jack­ie Lar­son. She hung on every word Dan said, watch­ing him as he inves­ti­gat­ed the space. I mean, it makes sense. Artie loved to sit in that chair in the evening, just scrolling on his phone and play­ing Wordle.”

And we already ruled out the bath­room,” Dan said. This is def­i­nite­ly it.”

Dan moved toward a plush brown chair posi­tioned between a goose­neck lamp and the pel­let stove. His eyes nar­rowed. Cozy, invit­ing, and warm… Just the place where a 67-year-old man could be very, very comfortable. 

Sud­den­ly, with­out any warn­ing, the specter-meter in Dan’s hands start­ed squeal­ing, grow­ing even loud­er as he raised it toward the chair. 

I’m cer­tain of it,” Dan said. This is where Artie was last seen. The aura-print is still remark­ably strong. And his phone is miss­ing too?”

Yes,” Jack­ie said with a sob. 

It all checks out. He request­ed the esti­mate at 10:53 pm, prob­a­bly just before turn­ing in.”

And then he… dis­ap­peared?” Jack­ie asked, the tears real­ly flow­ing now. Actu­al­ly dis­ap­peared, you’re saying?”

We’ve seen it before, yes. All the time.” Dan ran his squeal­ing specter-meter over the chair again as if to empha­size his point. 

But he…”

Shh…” Dan put a fin­ger to his lips, then low­ered his head toward the fine­ly-tuned instru­ment in his hand. The squeal had turned into a hiss­ing crack­le, almost like when some­one clicks on a walkie-talkie. I think he’s here.”

Jackie’s eyes widened, and she peered ner­vous­ly around the room, clutch­ing her hands togeth­er just under her chin.

Mic me,” Dan said to his assis­tant, a not entire­ly enthu­si­as­tic apprentice.

Click­ing the mic into place, Dan spoke soft­ly: Artie… we’re here. Can you hear us?”

Noth­ing.

Can you hear us?”

Noth­ing.

Try say­ing some­thing,” Dan said, hold­ing the mic toward Jack­ie. She took it, then spoke shakily. 

Artie… baby. It’s me, Jack­ie. Your wife. Are you… here?” 

A few sec­onds went by, then the lights flick­ered soft­ly. Just bare­ly notice­able. Then, the specter-meter began to crack­le again. 

Artie? Hon­ey? It’s me, Jack­ie. You can talk to us.”

Jack­ie?” said a hoarse voice from beyond, bare­ly a whis­per through the specter-meter… The apprentice’s eyes shot open wide, sud­den­ly a believer.

Artie, baby! I’m here!”

I… I just want­ed a ball­park,” said the voice on the oth­er end. You know, a price per room. For the paint job.”

I know, baby, I know,” Jack­ie said. She looked plead­ing­ly at Dan. Please, what can we do?”

Dan sighed. We’ll delete his con­tact info from our pipeline, then he’ll be back in no time. Don’t you worry.”

Thank God,” said Jack­ie… Thank you so much!”

Dan motioned that it was time to pack up. 

I think our work here is done,” he said. Then, with a long­ing look at the shab­by walls and chipped trim, Done before it even started.”

About David Chism

David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.

     
   
       

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