Willy looked at me and I’m sure he could see that I was not joking, I was as serious as a heart attack. After I told him what I had seen he asked me to describe the ghost. I told him that his clothes were dirty and he was a small guy. His hair was combed back and greasy. He was smoking a cigarette and his eyes were totally black, I couldn’t even tell if there was any white coloring around his pupils. They were totally dark and black. He just stood there staring at me, then turned away and disappeared.

Willy said, “Hey Frank, don’t worry, you’ve just been visited by Arnold. Sometimes he comes around the shop and visits us. Arnold’s not going to do you any harm. I’ve never seen him, but a few of the office workers and some of the mechanics have mentioned seeing him. I’ve only smelled his cigarette around the shop, but I’ve never seen him. He must really like you if he actually appeared to you.”

I was not comforted by his words, in fact I was even more fearful to be standing in the shop knowing this was a ghost that others had seen. I asked, “So Willy, who is this guy Arnold?” He said, “Arnold was a mechanic who worked here the year before I started working here, that would be about eight years ago. I wasn’t a friend of his, he was a quiet guy and for the most part kept to himself. He was from Mexico and got involved with an Anglo woman in town who he was going to marry. He found out she was messing around with one of the guys who worked at the Baptist Church. It was a typical story of a woman seeing another guy on the side. Arnold took it pretty bad because one morning he was found dead from a gun shot to the head, he had committed suicide. He shot himself out back, sitting on a chair right against the wall where you actually saw his ghost. Scary stuff, huh?”

I was speechless. I decided I had seen enough of ghosts, and I spent the rest of the day thinking about what I had seen and decided not to speak about this to anyone. I asked Willy if he could keep this information to himself. He said he would. And that was the last we ever spoke about the ghost.

After the Christmas holidays, my wife and I decided to open a mountain bicycle repair shop so I quit my job at the garage. I haven’t had any further ghost sightings and I’m glad for that. Just thinking right now about that experience causes the palms of my hands to sweat. You bet I believe, I believe in ghosts after seeing Arnold’s ghost at the garage, I believe.”

You may purchase this specific book,
New Mexico Ghost Stories, by sending a $20 check or money order to:
Red Rabbit Press
108 South Stagecoach Road
Moriarity, NM 87035