GHOSTS AND MEMORY One. A Notable Social Event, Two. The Guidance Counselor, Three. A Hatchet, Several Candlesticks, a Pincushion, and a Top Hat, Six. A Long Chain of Yesterdays, Twenty-two. The Sandbox Initiative, Thirty-six. A Blackness Went Fluttering By, Forty. The Soldiers of the 115th Regiment, Fifty-four. Bouquet, Seventy-three. Bullets and What It Takes to Dodge Them, Seventy-four. Knees, Seventy-five. The Man She Is Trying to Forget, Eighty-two. Unseeable, Untouchable, Ninety-two. Euphemisms
GHOSTS AND FORGETFULNESS Four. Milo Krain, Five. Amnesia, Eleven. A Moment, However Small, Twenty-four. Thirteen Visitations, Thirty-six. A Blackness Went Fluttering By, Forty-six. Playtime, Ninety-two. Euphemisms, Ninety-four. The Ghost Letter
GHOSTS AND REFLECTIONS Sixty-eight. Another Man in a Mirror, Seventy. A Man in a Mirror, Ninety. Bilateral Symmetry
GHOSTS AND REPETITIONS One. A Notable Social Event, Six. A Long Chain of Yesterdays, Fourteen. Elephants, Eighteen. A Blight on the Landscape, Thirty-one. A Time-Travel Story with a Little Romance and a Happy Ending, Sixty-nine. The Apostrophes, Seventy-four. Knees, Seventy-six. The Eternities, Ninety-five. A Matter of Linguistics, Ninety-eight. Numbers
GHOSTS AND DUPLICATIONS Three. A Hatchet, Several Candlesticks, a Pincushion, and a Top Hat, Twenty-seven. The Midpoint, Thirty-five. New Life, New Civilizations, Thirty-seven. The Prism, Thirty-eight. His Womanhood, Thirty-nine. There Are People, They Had Lives, Forty-two. The Way the Ring of a Moat Becomes Comforting to a Fish, Fifty-six. Instrumentology, Eighty-two. Unseeable, Untouchable, Eighty-seven. An Inherited Disorder, One Hundred. The Most Terrifying Ghost Story Ever Written
GHOSTS AND ACCELERATION Twenty-four. Thirteen Visitations, Twenty-seven. The Midpoint, Twenty-eight. The Whirl of Time, Thirty-two. The Phantasm vs. the Statue, Forty-seven. All His Life, Seventy-three. Bullets and What It Takes to Dodge Them
GHOSTS AND STASIS One. A Notable Social Event, Six. A Long Chain of Yesterdays, Twenty-eight. The Whirl of Time, Thirty. A Story Swaying Back and Forth, Thirty-two. The Phantasm vs. the Statue, Thirty-six. A Blackness Went Fluttering By, Forty-nine. A Story Seen in Glimpses Through the Mist, Sixty-three. Which Are the Crystals, Which the Solution, Sixty-eight. Another Man in a Mirror, Seventy-six. The Eternities, Ninety-eight. Numbers
GHOSTS AND PSYCHIC PHENOMENA Fifteen. The White Mare, Forty-three. Spectrum, Forty-four. Every House Key, Every Fire Hydrant, Every Electrical Outlet, Fifty-three. A Matter of Acoustics, Fifty-four. Bouquet, Sixty-two. Real Estate, Eighty-six. Extraordinary Gifts, Ninety-seven. Telephone, Ninety-eight. Numbers
GHOSTS AND SOCIAL AWKWARDNESS One. A Notable Social Event, Nine. How to Play, Fifty-six. Instrumentology, Sixty-three. Which Are the Crystals, Which the Solution, Sixty-nine. The Apostrophes, Seventy-five. The Man She Is Trying to Forget, Seventy-nine. I Like Your Shoes, Eighty-one. A Source of Confusion, Eighty-five. A Life, Eighty-six. Extraordinary Gifts, Eighty-seven. An Inherited Disorder, Eighty-eight. Prayer from an Airport Terminal, Eighty-nine. Hatching, Ninety-two. Euphemisms
GHOSTS AND SCHOOL LIFE Two. The Guidance Counselor, Forty-three. Spectrum, Forty-seven. All His Life, Sixty-one. The Abnormalist and the Usualist, Seventy-four. Knees, Seventy-eight. Detention, Ninety-eight. Numbers
GHOSTS AND MULTIPLICITY Three. A Hatchet, Several Candlesticks, a Pincushion, and a Top Hat, Sixteen. Many Additional Animals, Eighteen. A Blight on the Landscape, Twenty. Things That Fall from the Sky, Twenty-nine. Minnows, Thirty-three. Footprints, Thirty-seven. The Prism, Thirty-nine. There Are People, They Had Lives, Forty-three. Spectrum, Forty-four. Every House Key, Every Fire Hydrant, Every Electrical Outlet, Forty-five. The Walls, Forty-six. Playtime, Fifty-three. A Matter of Acoustics, Fifty-six. Instrumentology, Fifty-eight. A Sort of Fellow, Sixty-four. Countless Strange Couplings and Separations, Sixty-six. 666, Sixty-nine. The Apostrophes, Seventy-one. Turnstiles, Seventy-five. The Man She Is Trying to Forget, Seventy-six. The Eternities, Seventy-seven. Too Late, Eighty-one. A Source of Confusion, Eighty-seven. An Inherited Disorder, Eighty-nine. Hatching, Ninety. Bilateral Symmetry, Ninety-eight. Numbers, Ninety-nine. The Census
GHOSTS AND SINGULARITY Six. A Long Chain of Yesterdays, Twelve. A Gathering, Thirty-three. Footprints, Thirty-six. A Blackness Went Fluttering By, Thirty-eight. His Womanhood, Forty-two. The Way the Ring of a Moat Becomes Comforting to a Fish, Fifty-seven. When the Room Is Quiet, the Daylight Almost Gone, Fifty-eight. A Sort of Fellow, Eighty-five. A Life, Eighty-seven. An Inherited Disorder, Ninety-two. Euphemisms, One Hundred. The Most Terrifying Ghost Story Ever Written
GHOSTS AND THE APOCALYPSE Twelve. A Gathering, Fifteen. The White Mare, Thirty. A Story Swaying Back and Forth, Thirty-four. Passengers, Thirty-six. A Blackness Went Fluttering By, Forty-one. Action!, Sixty-five. Rapture, Eighty-one. A Source of Confusion
GHOSTS AND THE POSSIBLE Nineteen. An Ossuary of Trees, Thirty-one. A Time-Travel Story with a Little Romance and a Happy Ending, Forty-five. The Walls, Fifty-one. The Runner-Up, Sixty-one. The Abnormalist and the Usualist, Sixty-eight. Another Man in a Mirror, Seventy-two. A True Story, Seventy-five. The Man She Is Trying to Forget, Eighty-two. Unseeable, Untouchable, Ninety-five. A Matter of Linguistics
GHOSTS AND THE DIMLY POSSIBLE BUT HIGHLY UNLIKELY Fourteen. Elephants, Thirty-eight. His Womanhood, Forty-one. Action!, Fifty-two. So Many Songs, One Hundred. The Most Terrifying Ghost Story Ever Written
One A Notable Social Event → Heartbreak, the Past, the Unlucky, Never Getting Up Again, Memory, Repetitions, Stasis, Social Awkwardness
Two The Guidance Counselor → Solitude, Blowing a Hole in the Bottom of the Boat, Memory, School Life
Three A Hatchet, Several Candlesticks, a Pincushion, and a Top Hat → Storytelling, Houses, Memory, Duplications, Multiplicity
Four Milo Krain → Language, the Unlucky, Forgetfulness
Five Amnesia → Companionship, the Past, Forgetfulness
Six A Long Chain of Yesterdays → Time, the Past, Memory, Repetitions, Stasis, Singularity
Seven The Hitchhiker → Time, Borrowed Stories, the Lucky
Eight Wishes → Language, the Unlucky
Nine How to Play → Pop Culture, Houses, the Unlucky, Social Awkwardness
Ten The Scales of Fortune → Balance, the Lucky, the Unlucky
Eleven A Moment, However Small → Space, Borrowed Stories, the Lucky, Forgetfulness
Twelve A Gathering → Solitude, Companionship, Imbalance, Ecology, the Lucky, Singularity, the Apocalypse
Thirteen Mira Amsler → Pop Culture, Film, the Future, the Unlucky
Fourteen Elephants → Animals, Technology, Storytelling, Borrowed Stories, the Senses, Repetitions, the Dimly Possible but Highly Unlikely
Fifteen The White Mare → Animals, the Bible, Color, the Unlucky, Psychic Phenomena, the Apocalypse
Seventeen Bees → Animals, Balance
Eighteen A Blight on the Landscape → Plants, Balance, Ecology, the Unlucky, Repetitions, Multiplicity
Nineteen An Ossuary of Trees → Plants, Storytelling, Houses, Ecology, the Senses, the Possible
Twenty Things That Fall from the Sky → Plants, the Senses, the Lucky, Multiplicity
Twenty-one A Story with a Drum Beating Inside It → Plants, Balance, Music, the Lucky
Twenty-two The Sandbox Initiative → Technology, Ecology, Memory
Twenty-three Renewable Resources → Plants, Time, Technology, Ecology, the Future, the Unlucky
Twenty-four Thirteen Visitations → Time, Houses, Forgetfulness, Acceleration
Twenty-five The Office of Hereafters and Dissolutions → Time, Imbalance, Numbers, Borrowed Stories, the Unlucky
Twenty-six An Obituary → Time, Imbalance, the Past
Twenty-seven The Midpoint → Childhood, Old Age, Time, Balance, the Past, the Future,
Duplications, Acceleration
Twenty-eight The Whirl of Time → Time, the Future, Never Getting Up Again, Acceleration, Stasis
Twenty-nine Minnows → Animals, Solitude, Time, Space, the Past, Multiplicity
Thirty A Story Swaying Back and Forth → Animals, Plants, Time, Balance, Stasis, the Apocalypse
Thirty-one A Time-Travel Story with a Little Romance and a Happy Ending → Companionship, Childhood, Time, Technology, Storytelling, Literature, the Past, Repetitions, the Possible
Thirty-two The Phantasm vs. the Statue → Space, Acceleration, Stasis
Thirty-three Footprints → Imbalance, Borrowed Stories, the Bible, the Unlucky, Multiplicity, Singularity
Thirty-four Passengers → Space, Technology, the Cosmos, Ecology, the Future, the Unlucky, the Apocalypse
Thirty-five New Life, New Civilizations → Space, Imbalance, Technology, Pop Culture, Borrowed Stories, the Future, Duplications
Thirty-six A Blackness Went Fluttering By → Solitude, Time, Space, the Cosmos, the Past, Memory, Forgetfulness, Stasis, Singularity, the Apocalypse
Thirty-seven The Prism → Technology, the Cosmos, the Senses, the Unlucky, Duplications, Multiplicity
Thirty-eight His Womanhood → Companionship, Balance, Technology, Duplications, Singularity, the Dimly Possible but Highly Unlikely
Thirty-nine There Are People, They Had Lives → Animals, Space, Imbalance, Duplications, Multiplicity
Forty The Soldiers of the 115th Regiment → Time, the Senses, the Unlucky, Memory
Forty-one Action! → Film, Never Getting Up Again, the Apocalypse, the Dimly Possible but Highly Unlikely
Forty-two The Way the Ring of a Moat Becomes Comforting to a Fish → Balance, the Senses, Duplications, Singularity
Forty-three Spectrum → Companionship, Color, Art, the Senses, Psychic Phenomena, School Life, Multiplicity
Forty-four Every House Key, Every Fire Hydrant, Every Electrical Outlet → Companionship, Childhood, Houses, the Senses, Psychic Phenomena, Multiplicity
Forty-five The Walls → Solitude, Old Age, Numbers, Houses, the Past, Multiplicity, the Possible
Forty-six Playtime → Animals, Plants, Childhood, the Unlucky, Forgetfulness, Multiplicity
Forty-seven All His Life → Childhood, the Lucky, Acceleration, School Life
Forty-eight Take It with Me → Balance, Color, the Senses
Forty-nine A Story Seen in Glimpses Through the Mist → Solitude, Space, the Senses, Stasis
Fifty A Lifetime of Touch → Old Age, Art, the Senses
Fifty-one The Runner-Up → Borrowed Stories, Music, the Unlucky, the Possible
Fifty-two So Many Songs → Companionship, Old Age, Music, the Dimly Possible but Highly Unlikely
Fifty-three A Matter of Acoustics → Space, Houses, the Senses, Psychic Phenomena, Multiplicity
Fifty-four Bouquet → Solitude, Companionship, Old Age, the Senses, Memory, Psychic Phenomena
Fifty-five The Mud Odor of the Snow Melting in the Fields → Solitude, Houses, the Senses, Never Getting Up Again
Fifty-six Instrumentology → Companionship, Balance, Music, Duplications, Social Awkwardness, Multiplicity
Fifty-seven When the Room Is Quiet, the Daylight Almost Gone → Companionship, Childhood, Time, Imbalance, the Senses, the Unlucky, Never Getting Up Again, Singularity
Fifty-eight A Sort of Fellow → The Senses, Multiplicity, Singularity
Fifty-nine A Lesser Feeling → Time, the Senses, the Unlucky
Sixty A Small Disruption of Reality → Space, the Senses
Sixty-one The Abnormalist and the Usualist → Balance, the Bible, School Life, the Possible
Sixty-two Real Estate → Space, the Bible, Houses, Art, the Unlucky, Psychic Phenomena
Sixty-three Which Are the Crystals, Which the Solution → Solitude, Heartbreak, Imbalance, the Unlucky, Blowing a Hole in the Bottom of the Boat, Stasis, Social Awkwardness
Sixty-four Countless Strange Couplings and Separations → Space, the Senses, the Unlucky, Never Getting Up Again, Multiplicity
Sixty-five Rapture → The Bible, the Unlucky, the Apocalypse
Sixty-six 666 → Space, Numbers, the Bible, Houses, the Unlucky, Multiplicity
Sixty-seven Lost and Found → Companionship, Childhood, Imbalance
Sixty-eight Another Man in a Mirror → Heartbreak, the Unlucky, Blowing a Hole in the Bottom of the Boat, Reflections, Stasis, the Possible
Sixty-nine The Apostrophes → Solitude, Companionship, the Senses, the Unlucky, Repetitions, Social Awkwardness, Multiplicity
Seventy A Man in a Mirror → Solitude, Heartbreak, Houses, the Senses, the Unlucky, Blowing a Hole in the Bottom of the Boat, Reflections
Seventy-one Turnstiles → Companionship, Imbalance, Multiplicity
Seventy-two A True Story → Companionship, Heartbreak, the Senses, Never Getting Up Again, the Possible
Seventy-three Bullets and What It Takes to Dodge Them → Heartbreak, Old Age, Memory, Acceleration
Seventy-four Knees → Companionship, Houses, the Past, Memory, Repetitions, School Life
Seventy-five The Man She Is Trying to Forget → Heartbreak, Memory, Social Awkwardness, Multiplicity, the Possible
Seventy-six The Eternities → Heartbreak, Time, Repetitions, Stasis, Multiplicity
Seventy-seven Too Late → Companionship, Heartbreak, Numbers, Letters, the Unlucky, Multiplicity
Seventy-eight Detention → Companionship, Childhood, School Life
Seventy-nine I Like Your Shoes → Companionship, Numbers, Letters, Houses, Social Awkwardness
Eighty The Ghost’s Disguise → Old Age, Family
Eighty-one A Source of Confusion → Childhood, Family, Balance, the Cosmos, Social Awkwardness, Multiplicity, the Apocalypse
Eighty-two Unseeable, Untouchable → Childhood, Time, Technology, Numbers, Film, the Past, Memory, Duplications, the Possible
Eighty-three Ghost Brothers → Companionship, Childhood, Balance
Eighty-four A Second True Story → Animals, Companionship, Childhood, the Lucky
Eighty-five A Life → Heartbreak, Family, the Unlucky, Blowing a Hole in the Bottom of the Boat, Social Awkwardness, Singularity
Eighty-six Extraordinary Gifts → Companionship, Family, the Unlucky, Psychic Phenomena, Social Awkwardness
Eighty-seven An Inherited Disorder → Family, Time, Imbalance, Borrowed Stories, Duplications, Social Awkwardness, Multiplicity, Singularity
Eighty-eight Prayer from an Airport Terminal → Family, the Unlucky, Social Awkwardness
Eighty-nine Hatching → Companionship, the Unlucky, Social Awkwardness, Multiplicity
Ninety Bilateral Symmetry → Space, Balance, Reflections, Multiplicity
Ninety-one Parakeets → Animals, Houses, Color, Language, the Unlucky
Ninety-two Euphemisms → Language, Memory, Forgetfulness, Social Awkwardness, Singularity
Ninety-three Roughly Eighty Grams → Solitude, Companionship, Heartbreak, Imbalance, Language, the Unlucky
Ninety-four The Ghost Letter → Letters, Literature, Language, the Past, Forgetfulness
Ninety-five A Matter of Linguistics → Time, Language, the Senses, Repetitions, the Possible
Ninety-six Dusk and Other Stories → Companionship, Old Age, Literature
Ninety-seven Telephone → Childhood, Technology, Houses, Language, the Senses, Psychic Phenomena
Ninety-eight Numbers → Numbers, the Unlucky, Repetitions, Stasis, Psychic Phenomena, School Life, Multiplicity
Ninety-nine The Census → Imbalance, Numbers, Borrowed Stories, the Bible, Multiplicity
One Hundred The Most Terrifying Ghost Story Ever Written → Letters, Storytelling, Literature, Language, Duplications,
Singularity, the Dimly Possible but Highly Unlikely
A NOTE ON BORROWED STORIES Several of the stories in this collection transform, echo, haunt, or needle at various preexisting materials, either conspicuously or obliquely. “The Hitchhiker,” for instance, references the Twilight Zone episode of the same title; “Footprints,” the spiritual poem known as either “Footprints” or “Footprints in the Sand.” “New Life, New Civilizations” borrows its central philosophical dilemma from Star Trek. “The Office of Hereafters and Dissolutions,” “A Moment, However Small,” and “The Census” pattern themselves after stories in Giorgio Manganelli’s Centuria. “The Runner-Up” owes a debt to the movie Amadeus, and “Elephants” to an anecdote contained in Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina. Finally, “An Inherited Disorder” shares a set of obsessions with Adam Ehrlich Sachs’s similarly titled Inherited Disorders.
Acknowledgments
I owe thanks to my editor, Edward Kastenmeier, and his colleague Caitlin Landuyt, who, among many other acts of assistance, helped me devise and satisfy this book’s system of organization; to my agent, Jennifer Carlson, and her associates at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner, particularly Arielle Datz; to the book’s art director, Kelly Blair, for bringing great sympathy and imagination to both the cover design and the interior illustrations; to my copyeditor, Lisa Silverman, and my publicist, Abigail Endler; to production editor Victoria Pearson and proofreader Amy Brosey-Láncošová, for their meticulous work; to Kyle Minor, for surprising me with an author photo that actually looks like I do to myself; to the editors of the magazines and anthologies where several of these stories were originally published, especially Deborah Treisman at The New Yorker, Eliza Borné at the Oxford American, Stanislav Rivkin at Porter House Review, Ben Samuel at Bomb, Doug Carlson at The Georgia Review, and Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto, the co-editors of Tiny Nightmares: Very Short Tales of Horror; to Brad Mooy and everyone else associated with the Arkansas Literary Festival, where roughly a quarter of the stories in this book were first tested out before an audience, and to Sam Chang and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where a dozen of the others were; to Kathleen McHugh, for her help with the earliest manifestations of these stories; to Karen Russell, Brad Minnick, and Amy Frankel, for lending their eyes, their enthusiasm, and their sensibilities to the collection; and most especially to Amy Parker, for her encouragement, inspiration, and creative attention, and for awakening many of the ghosts in these pages.