The Short Version

The old man was standing, hanging onto the rail with an exaggerated unbalance, while the girl sat in the seat next to the aisle. There were other seats all around them, all empty, but he'd been sitting in this particular seat every day for a year now, because he needed to see the street signs, and it wasn't his fault that he'd missed the earlier bus. Which is true, of course, but he explained all of this to her twice without even remotely catching her attention. People listen to some awfully loud music these days, he thought.

The long version of the story includes more details about the ill-fated seance and subsequent exorcism, the stranger with the bleeding ears, and the entire incident between Timmins and his wife that resulted in rummaging through trash cans in the alley and inadvertently finding the ghost's necklace around the demonic ham. It was actually a very funny coincidence.

But this is the short version of the story, which is that the power had gone out and the old man's alarm clock did not go off.

"Such awfully loud music indeed," he muttered to himself.