No such thing as ghosts…

Was that the last leaf falling, the first­­ yet to be carved pumpkin grinning its empty way to the grave­? Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween… Shhhhhh you might wake the dead.

“I saw a ghost once,” they said.

Well, I’ve seen one or two along the way. Poor things; shivering in corners, attempting to make amends, not able to remember who they were, not knowing what they are. Lost things just trying to make themselves heard.

Not that we listen. No such thing as ghosts, they don’t exist, they’re a figment of an overactive imagination, a piece of undigested beef. Shadows, that’s all.

So why is it that on Halloween, the night of All Hallows, I listen for them?

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

“Come in. I have a treat for you,” I say, and then, drawing close, I whisper in their overactively imagined ears, “You don’t exist by the way.”

And then they don’t. They leave with a smile, sometimes a wave, even a thumbs-up once. They vanish.

See, I told you. There’s no such thing as ghosts.