A Passionate Belief in Ghosts

by Tom Tolnay

About the Author: Tom Tolnay's stories have appeared in Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, Twilight Zone, Mystery Weekly, and many other periodicals in the US, Canada, and UK.

Excerpt

“Believing in ghosts prevents one from becoming bored to death,” Herbert replied, placing his meaty palms flat on each side of the china plate to brace himself for the repudiation.

After masticating and swallowing a lump of under-cooked potato, George grinned impertinently across the oval table. “Personally I prefer the presence of a flesh-and-blood woman to waylay boredom.”

Herbert’s hairless upper lip twitched. “Precisely the difficulty I have with your literary jottings—too much attention to surfaces.”

As the squabble expanded between the authors, the soft night air of London acquired an edge, and the mellow light from the gas lamps on the street below transformed into a ghostly phosphorescence, bands of which were reflecting onto the walls of the flat.

Eyeing the last stalk of asparagus in the serving dish, George said wryly, “It seems to me if you’ve seen one ghost, you’ve seen them all, and that hardly sounds like an antidote to boredom.”

“Au contraire. All of us have long-dead relatives who have a tendency to appear at the most inopportune times, and what about those sorrowful souls who drift about the corridors of country inns or wander beside the Thames in the moonlight?—you can hardly call them boring.”

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