Bosca Dubh

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Practical Haunting Considerations

I’m not sure what exactly to call this thing–it’s part essay, part story. It’s mostly true, but exaggerated a bit and loose with details. I’ve written a couple of other things like it that I’m still shopping around.

It started as the dream I recount–being dead, but returning to work every night to complete a project. (It was an operating system migration that did me in: we went from green screen terminals to Windows 3.1 to OS/2 to OS/2 Warp to OS/2 Warp done better to Windows NT in the five years I worked downtown, and if I never have to install another operating system or manage another round of application suite testing it will be too soon…) And my best friend downtown, Molly, was the only person who could see me in my dream, and was quite adamant that I be dead and stay dead.

And I do, in fact, spend my lunch hour in the winter roaming around the woods on snowshoes. Winter in Minnesota can be brutal; the only sane responses to it are hibernation or facing the beast in its pointy teeth. And on more than one occasion, Penny has sent Matt out to look for me when I didn’t return at the expected time (poor Matt…).

Our last house, I think, was haunted. There was a night when both Kelly and I heard the heavy front door swing open, and voices on the porch, and we both chose to pretend it didn’t happen. And occasionally lights would turn themselves on or off for no apparent reason. Perhaps, when it comes time to haunt a place, I’ll go back there, where I may have some company.