Togo (Goes) on Assignment (In Daylight, Ghosts Disappear)

Chapter 5: "Why?" is the Essential Question, Scene 14

Togo Goes on Assignment is published weekly as a series. If you came in late, you might want to go back to the beginning. Or, if you’re cut from the same adventuresome cloth as Togo, feel free to read on and figure things out as you go. If you’ve been reading along and just forgot what happened in the last episode, you can click here.

Eager to leave his hotel room, Togo grabbed his computer with the camera still plugged in and made his way to the hotel dining room. Nikki had a corner table and was already enjoying a cup of coffee.

“Did you know this hotel is haunted?” Togo asked breathlessly.

Nikki tilted her head and looked at him with what appeared to be genuine concern. “I’ve heard that,” she began, “but I don’t think it’s true.”

“Well, then, how do you explain the fact that the bedsheets were literally thrown off of me first thing this morning? That’s a known ghost behavior!” Togo stammered. “And I have video proof!”

He flipped up the lid on his laptop and hit “Play.” Nikki and Togo leaned in closely as Togo fast-forwarded through several hours of Togo sleeping peacefully interrupted occasionally by loud snoring.

“I would think that the snoring would have scared off any ghosts or spirits,” Nikki said as she tried to suppress a laugh. 

“I was not snoring,” Togo asserted. “I breathe loud sometimes. It’s an ancient meditation technique.” 

Nikki nodded, “Are you sure you’re not snoring, because I really think that . . .”

“Shhh!” Togo said. “We’re coming up to the point of the haunting.”

Nikki smiled briefly and then turned her attention back to the screen. 

The recorded image of Togo began to move around under the covers and they could hear quiet, but clear barks coming from Togo. Suddenly, he leaped to his feet and the covers flew from the bed.

“See,” Togo said. “I was viciously attacked in my sleep by a ghost.”

“Let’s watch the video again,” Nikki suggested. “I’m pretty sure that I didn’t see a ghost.” 

“Of course not!” Togo chided. “Ghosts are ghostly and transparent.”

Togo hit “Play” again. The resolution was excellent since he had left every light in his room on all night. As the video neared the end, Nikki hit “Pause.”

“When you started stirring, were you having a dream?” she asked.

“Why, yes?” Togo replied. “I was having a great dream about rolling around in the grass and jumping around and barking. It was great fun!”

Nikki started up the video again, this time in slow motion. Frame by frame they watched as Togo began to stir and bark and, suddenly, he jumped to his feet, tail wagging. And, in the slow-motion replay, they could see his tail get momentarily tangled in the sheet until intense wagging sent it shooting across the room.

Nikki sat back. “That’s the explanation. It was your tail.”

Togo looked at his tail in the chair behind him. It wasn’t moving a bit at the moment. Togo figured it was a little embarrassed. But he knew Nikki was right. He had often been told that he had excellent tail-wagging prowess.

“Okay, I’ll concede the point,” Togo sighed. “But that doesn’t explain the ghost lady who chased me down the hall last night and pounded on my door. That, most certainly was the apparition that the hotel manager told me about.”

Nikki reached inside her purse and pulled out Togo’s wallet, sliding it across the table to him.

“I tried to return this last night. You dropped it in my car. I took the stairs because the elevators were running slow,” she said. “I saw you walking down the hall and I hurried to catch up with you. But then you started running and slammed the door in my face. I knocked and called out to you, but you never answered. I finally left since I knew I could bring it to you this morning.”

“Oh,” was all Togo could think to say.

“I was hoping you were all right,” Nikki continued. “Since you ate a lot of ice cream yesterday, I thought you might be having some kind of intestinal emergency.”

Togo blushed just a bit. 

“Yes. That’s exactly what you witnessed,” he said, surprised she offered him an easy way out. 

“Now that the matters of the ghost and your stomach are settled,” she said, ”what’s our next move?”

Togo gazed out the window, in deep thought. 

Communications Officer Doug, the Dove

“Just before I went to sleep last night,” Togo said, “my communications officer, Doug, the Dove, sent me additional pictures from some of our agents. I think that we need to spend some time looking over the evidence we have so far. And then, I think we need to pay a visit to Margot Lance. Things could get pretty rocky from here on out. Are you with me?”

“Definitely,” Nikki said. “Let’s get to work.”

“But first,” Togo asserted, “let’s eat. I hear they have a terrific breakfast buffet.”