When the ghost of Sherron Watkins visits Kenneth Lay on Christmas Eve, he refuses to acknowledge the ghost's existence. "Why do you doubt your senses?" asks Watkins. Lay replies, "Because a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!" He is a man without epistemology. He appears to have no faith in anything, meaning he does not believe in things for which there is no empirical support. The above quotation implies that he has no belief in reason, either: he does not believe the empirical data provided by his senses. He believes whatever is convenient for him at the time. If it does not suit him to believe in the ghost of Sherron Watkins, then he does not believe in it. After a while, though, Lay cannot ignore the reality of Sherron Watkins and so decides that he "must" believe in him.
Watkins tells Lay that, for his failure to engage in "charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence," he will be punished. Watkins herself was punished by being forced to wear "the chain she forged in life" and walk the Earth for eternity. This Christmas, Watkin's ghost feels compelled to come to Lay and warn him of his impending fate.
Ken should have listened to ghost number three.
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