There Is a Tide..... (Details)
citation: Collier's, August 2, 1952, 130(5):50-53
alias: None
teaser: I believe in ghosts. I believe in the ghost of Harris L. Gruener. I have to: he came to haunt me right in my own apartment
summary: After assuring the reader he is perfectly ordinary, the narrator says he saw a ghost in his living room at 3 AM one morning, while worrying about an opportunity to elimate a rival at work. The ghost was a man standing at the window, staring at the streets below.
Dsmissing the idea the man might be a burgler, the narrator watches as the man considers some problem. When the ghost turns, the narrator sees his face briefly, noting he is wearing a bathrobe. The ghost walks off, disappearing down the hallway.
Because the man looked as if he were struggling with his conscience, the narrator wonders if instead of a ghost, he saw a future vision of himself; that to take the opportunity at work will bring regret.
At work, his rival, Ted, seeks the narrator's opinion of a new advertising campaign. The narrator knows the campaign will fail. Because he does not like Ted, the dilemma is whether to tell Ted, or let the campaign, and Ted, fail. The memory of the ghost however, gets in the way of his decision.
After some false starts, the narrator discovers the first inhabitants of his apartment were Mr. and Mrs. Harris L. Gruener.
That night, the narrator again wakes at 3 AM, worrying about Ted's advertising campaign. He knows from experience with his previous employer, Ted's advertising campaign will fail. By doing nothing, the narrator will have Ted's job.
Again, the ghost appears. Concerned the ghost has something to do with his problem at work, the narrator resolves to find Harris L. Gruener.
The next day, the narrator goes to an address in Brooklyn he found in the phoe book for Harris L. Gruener. A woman at the door directs him to the back yard. There he meets a man he recognizes as the ghost, but a dozen years older. He explains to the old man what he's seen.
Gruener admits he used to live in the narrator's apartment, then begins crying. He explains he did pace in that apartment for three nights twelve years ago. He'd been a senior vice-president of an investment firm, who'd made his career at the expense of others. When the tables were turned, he lost a promotion and his job to someone else.
Having lost everything, Gruener contemplated suicide by sleeping pills.
He left a letter with Dr. William Buhl, asking him to falsely certify the
death as heart failure. Not able to go through with it, Gruener moved in
with his son and his family; an absurd end to my life.
When Gruener paced the apartment, he was hoping for some sign to help him decide whether to seek the presidency of his company — which caused his downfall — or change his life entirely. He hypothesizes the narrator saw him because they were both trying to make similar decisions.
Gruener continues bemoaning his condition, explaining that the financial
burden he's imposed on his son, impoverished his son's life as well: a whole
life was lost in exchange for something that should never have been — a
few more useless years for me.
That night, the narrator again considers the problem with Ted, recalling
a quotation by Brutus in Shakespear's Julius Caesar: There
is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries.
He sees Gruener's ghost for the third time. Realizing this is the tide in
his life, he mutters out loud to himself, Do it! Damn
it, go ahead; all it takes is nerve.
The next day, the narrator takes Ted to lunch. He tells Ted he can prove he saw a ghost by taking him to meet Gruener, in Brooklyn. When they examine the phone book however, Gruener's name is no longer there.
That afternoon, the narrator returns to the house in Brooklyn. Not only does the woman answering the door not recognize him, she tells him the elder Mr. Gruener died twelve years ago. Later, when the narrator telehones Dr. Buhl, he's told Gruener died of heart failure.
Meeting Gruener helped the narrator make his decision, and that helped Gruener make a different decision twelve years earlier.
words: 6,785
genre: Time Distortion
similar: Second Chance
people: Unnamed Narrator, Ted Haymes, Louisa, Harris L. Gruener, Mrs. Gruener, Jr., Dr. William Buhl, Brutus
places: New York, NY: McCreedy & Cluett, East Sixty-eighth Street, Thomas L. Persons Company, Manhattan, Brooklyn
comments: Forthcoming