Dean Poling

A thump tapped his shoulder.

The man turned his head, expecting to see someone behind him, someone he had not heard enter his office, the someone who had tapped his shoulder with such a heavy thump. 

No one was there.

Only the man. Alone in his office. 

No one was behind him. 

Which meant no one had entered the office. No one delivered the solid tap that had touched his shoulder.

No one caused the sudden chill that shook him either. It was a reaction from deep inside. A response to the expectation of finding someone has sneaked up on him to surprise him with a tap on his shoulder then to discover, surprise again, that no one had tapped his shoulder.

Two surprises folded one upon the other. Not a jolt of a shock but a tremor of shock like ripples vibrating across the spot in a lake where a rock has been tossed and sunk.

Like the echoes of a tap from no where on one’s shoulder, like a rock never being tossed but the lake water rippling anyway.

The chill ran cold.

Could it be the ghost of a friend or foe from the past? Some prankster ghost playing a trick on him? 

Could it be the spirit of some family member? A long-lost blood relation reaching out from the afterlife to warn him of something? Of something? Of what?

Could it be a herald tapping his shoulder to prepare the man for what comes next? A thumping tap to take care of business, get his affairs in order, to make peace and prepare to go?

Or, more likely, the man thought, it is a muscle spasm. Some new, unexpected twist to aging. A tic within his body, a tap from within rather than an outside tap on his shoulder. A new physical condition to go along with the aching back, the weakening legs, the faltering eyesight.

A tap, a nerve spasm, as indicative of age and decay and death as a tap from a ghost, or the bony-fingered thump of some Grim Reaper treading silently behind him.

A reminder that time is fleeting no matter the cause. A warning that the end follows us all, follows us as closely as a sudden tap on our shoulder.

Don’t turn around, don’t turn around, stay focused on what lies ahead. Make the most of the time we are given.

Dean Poling is an editor with The Valdosta Daily Times.