
        from FUGUE FOR AN OCTOBER AGE                             GHOSTS  6
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             Ginny's face shines bright in the light of an  approaching  car.
        "Well, that  was  a very old blanket, maybe an army blanket and they
        gave blankets like that to the Indians during the siege of Fort Pitt.
        They  said they were peace offerings but what they were really, were
        infected with smallpox."
             We speed past an automobile graveyard, a gas station, a pizza
        parlor. "Ah," I say. "Civilization."
             "So you think he was a ghost, too?" Penny says.  "Is that what
        you're saying, Aunt Ginny?"
             "Not necessarily.  I only said that he seemed to be mocking us."
             "But  to  do  that, he'd  have to be a ghost, wouldn't he?  Mr.
        Crane, what do you think?"
             "I don't know what to think."
             "Well, I know what to think. I think he was a ghost."
             Ahead  is  a  dangling  cluster of red and green traffic lights.
        The rain has stopped; in fact, the road here is  completely  dry.  I
        recognize the intersection.  I make a right turn and then a left and
        in a little while we are back on the expressway.

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