News - Tara Laskowski

What Scares You / May 21, 2026

What Scares You, Bill Varner?

Bill Varner’s poems have appeared in Boston Review, Cimarron Review, The Cincinnati Review, Dialogist, Journal of the American Medical Association, New Ohio Review, The National Poetry Review, New Ohio Review, The Penn Review, The Shore, Southeast Review, and elsewhere. He’s been a finalist for the Erskine J. Prize from Smartish Pace and the Maine Literary Award. His chapbook, Leaving Erebus (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019) was selected by Marjorie Maddox as the winner of the Keystone Chapbook Series. He grew up in York, Pennsylvania, and now makes his home in southern Maine.

But what scares him to the bone? Read on to find out…

What is your earliest childhood memory of fear?

I have two brothers, seven and ten years older than I am. We were living in a house with a hatch that opened up directly to the basement’s laundry room. When I was three, my brothers locked me in there. They had a large Frankenstein model four feet high and attached strings to it like a puppet. I was absolutely terrified and just kept slamming my fists against the steel door until they bruised. I can still picture everything—the pile of clothes, the space between the washer and dryer, how many blouses and jeans hung on the clothesline that stretched across the ceiling. Every time I think of it, I feel the same overwhelming fear. I’m terrified just writing this down. I called the Frankenstein model after that “The Cut Monster.” After we moved, I found it again in the attic. I still remember the exact positioning of its arms and face’s shade of yellow. Needless to say, I never went in the attic again.

People often say death is their greatest fear. What are your feelings about death/dying?

My first panic attack about death happened when I was eight, and I continued to have them for years. Having a chronic disease for as long as I have, it’s a good day when I don’t think about death. I’m also a bit of a hypochondriac—but it’s also well-placed anxiety. Death isn’t my greatest fear now. I’ve somewhat come to terms with it. I’ve researched so many near-death experiences. I binge them on YouTube and have a ton of books with theories and beliefs about the afterlife. I do believe in some kind of life after death—at least that consciousness goes on. C.S. Lewis wrote, “We are not a body with a soul. We are a soul with a body.” What scares me the most is the process of dying. The pain, the weakness, and on and on. When I die, I want it to be fast. A widow-maker heart attack for instance. Let’s hope that’s not a premonition. Or maybe it wouldn’t be bad if it is. When I’m 90.

What are your phobias?

Ledges. Not necessarily heights. I like to be up high in a skyscraper behind windows. But get me near a ledge and my legs grow incredibly weak and my arms shake. I’ve often thought that if I was reincarnated, in a past life, I fell from a high place. It just really gives me the willies.

What Scares You / May 15, 2026

What Scares You, Alan Orloff?

Alan Orloff has published fourteen novels and more than sixty short stories. His work has won an Anthony, an Agatha, two Derringers, and two Thriller Awards. He’s also been a finalist for the Shamus Award and has had a story selected for The Best American Mystery Stories. Alan lives and writes in South Florida, where many scary creatures live.

Read on to discover what other scary creatures keep him up at night…

What is your greatest fear?

Not sure these are my greatest fears, but they do get my heart pumping. First, ever since I was in a deadly train crash, I’m a little apprehensive when driving over train tracks. In a battle between pick-up truck and locomotive, truck always loses. Second, ever since a harrowing incident on a golf course in a freak thunderstorm, I’m, uh, respectful of lightning. A guy was pinned under an overturned tractor which was leaking gas as lightning struck all around us. Fortunately, he was rescued unharmed—but definitely not unshaken.

Is there any fear you’ve overcome in your life? How has that changed you?

As a kid, I was afraid of the water. My mother would take me to different pools—one each summer, for maybe five years—for lessons, but I never conquered my fear of drowning. Finally, four decades later, I decided I was being ridiculous. I took some lessons and learned how to swim. Now, I swim for exercise a few times a week. (Of course, I don’t swim in water over my head. Baby strokes, er baby steps!)

What person living today terrifies you the most and why?

Is this a trick question?

What are your phobias?

I have a (well-publicized) cheese phobia. Any dairy, or anything that looks like dairy, grosses me out. Not a fan of white, squishy, oozy, gelatinous food (except, weirdly, mayo and ice cream. Go figure, ice cream doesn’t gross me out!).

What’s the scariest experience you ever lived through?

I’ve made three emergency plane landings (as a passenger, not a pilot), complete with fire engines racing down the runway next to the aircraft. Zero stars, DO NOT RECOMMEND. You might want to think twice before flying or traveling on a train with me. On the other hand, I live to tell the tales, so maybe you DO want to travel with me—I’m good luck!

What Scares You / September 12, 2025

What Scares You, Deborah Lacy?

Deborah Lacy’s short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Fault Lines, Shhhh…Murder! , Mystery Weekly Magazine, Murder Most International, and the Anthony Award Winning Anthology Blood on the Bayou She is the editor of the new short story anthology, The Most Dangerous Games, which includes stories from Heather Graham, JD Allen, Alan Orloff, K.C. Selby, P.M. Raymond, and others.

Do dangerous games scare her? Or is it some other sinister thing that brings terror into her heart? Like drinking a coke, perhaps??? Read on to find out…

What is your favorite urban legend?

The song “Love Rollercoaster” by the Ohio Players has a terrible scream in the middle. The urban legend surrounding the song says the cover model was murdered while the song was being recorded.

When I hear that song, even if I don’t hear the scream, I feel the scream inside of me. It sounds and feels like someone is in terrible pain. Different versions of the legend say different things. In one version, the cover model interrupted recording so the manger stabbed her, and the band keep playing. In another, she was burned from the boiling honey poured all over her during the album photo shoot, and it killed her. The one I heard most often was that she was covered in hot honey while lying on a table. The shoot took so long that the honey hardened. When she finally tried to get up, her skin was ripped off her body, killing her.

Never mind sound studios are soundproof by design. Never mind album cover photo shoots didn’t happen while songs are recorded. Never mind that model is still very much alive. The scream sounds real, and the stories were repeated and repeated.

“She was burned from the boiling honey poured all over her during the album photo shoot, and it killed her.”

Do you enjoy scaring other people?

I enjoy scaring other people with my writing, but not in person. If you pick up a short story or a book in a particular genre, you’ve agreed you’d like to be frightened. But in real life, there are enough real things to be frightened of, so I don’t try to scare people.

My 12-year-old next-door neighbor kid has a completely different philosophy.

What’s your favorite horror movie or television series?

Stranger Things. I’m excited about the upcoming last season—November 26, 2025. Here’s the teaser for season 5. Happy Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite monster/villain?

I’m going to pick two because it’s a tie between the Weeping Angels in Dr. Who and Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones.

The Weeping Angels are monsters that look like marble statues that can only move or get close to you when you blink. But as soon as someone tells you, “Don’t Blink” it’s all you want to do. It’s nefarious because blinking is involuntary, but you can only save yourself if you can harness control. The whole concept is diabolical.

Cersei Lannister is another of my favorite villains. She’s truly evil, but as you get to know her family, and see what other people in power did to her, you realize how easy it was for her to become evil. Throw in some ambition, and the position of women in royalty, and you get the toxic cocktail that is Cersei.

What Scares You / August 11, 2025

What Scares You, Curtis Smith?

Curtis Smith has published over 125 stories and essays, and his work has been cited by or included in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best American Spiritual Writing, The Best Small Fictions, The Best Microfictions, and the Norton anthology New Micro. He’s worked with indie publishers to put out five story collections, two essay collections, seven novels, and one book of creative nonfiction. His 2020 novel The Magpie’s Return was named one of Kirkus’s best indies of 2020, and his 2023 novel The Lost and the Blind was a finalist for Foreword Reviews’ Best Indie of the year. His latest novel, Deaf Heaven, came out in May 2025.

But what strikes fear in his heart? Read on to find out…

What is your greatest fear?

If I’m being honest, my greatest fear isn’t some evil force from the outside world—it’s the inner worry that someday I’ll stop being productive—and in turn, stop being self-sufficient—and all this will domino into becoming a burden to those I love. And unlike the thousands of frivolous fears I’ve entertained over the years, there’s a decent chance this one is waiting for me somewhere down the road. My only reassurance lies in the fact that today is not that day.

What is your earliest childhood memory of fear?

I was four or so when I got lost in the neighborhood supermarket. My mother doesn’t remember this—and perhaps it was nothing more than her turning at the aisle’s end while I considered a cereal box’s cartoon figures. But when I looked around and found myself alone, the world opened up and swallowed me. I still remember how tall the shelves were and how small I felt. I think all of us carry cornerstones of fear—and I’m sure every moment of panic in my life contains a bit of that long-ago afternoon.

“I was four or so when I got lost in the neighborhood supermarket. …When I looked around and found myself alone, the world opened up and swallowed me. I still remember how tall the shelves were and how small I felt.”

What is the scariest thing you remember from childhood?

There were a number of books that frightened me—not the text so much as the images. And of course, the more they scared me, the more I returned to them. One was from a Ripley’s Believe it Not (bought at my elementary school’s book fair—thanks, Scholastic!). Those pages were filled with pen-and-ink renderings of oddities—and this one was about a woman from some royal European family who was afraid of the dark and refused to sleep at night. I can still see the picture of her holding a candle, her eyes wide. Another was from a little booklet about Abraham Lincoln I bought on a family trip to Washington, D.C. Near the end was a photograph of the four hanged conspirators—one a woman—all with hoods over their heads. I was probably nine or so, and for a year, maybe two, I couldn’t lie down to go to sleep without those images looking down from the foot of my bed.

What Scares You / June 4, 2025

What Scares You, Amy Mason Doan?

Amy Mason Doan is the bestselling author of the just-released novel The California Dreamers, as well as Lady Sunshine, The Summer List and Summer Hours. Before turning to fiction, Amy worked as a reporter and editor for The Oregonian, San Francisco Chronicle, Wired, Forbes, and other publications, where she interviewed everyone from beer-brewing monks to billionaire CEOs. Amy has an M.A. in Journalism from Stanford University and a B.A. in English from U.C. Berkeley. Amy grew up in Danville, California, and now lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family.

But what terrifies her to bits? Read on to find out…

Is there any fear you’ve overcome in your life?

Public speaking. I’ve quit jobs because they wanted me to do it, but I’ll stand up in front of crowds now to promote my books. As a midlist author, it’s important. I underwent hypnotherapy to get up the guts for my book launch before my first novel came out in 2018.

And now people say, “You’re such an extrovert! You’re a natural up there!” etc.

I. Am. Not.

I just know how to fake ease quite well now. I’m proud of my courage, and there are nice moments—especially when I’m done. But it’ll never be fun for me.

What are your phobias?

Veins! Omg, veins.

This girl in seventh grade knew I didn’t like wrist veins. I’d made the mistake of telling her they bugged me. So one day in our English class she decided it’d be hilarious if she pantomimed digging hers out with a pencil across the room from me. I nearly fainted.

Unfortunately, I have “difficult” veins for phlebotomists, whatever that means. They aren’t visible, and it can be hard to get an IV going with me. Once my mom was sitting with me as I got prepped for a knee surgery in San Francisco (skiing injury in Tahoe!).

And the nurse said, “Oh, you’re a tough one. And she kept poking and poking me, and I was bleeding quite a lot from one arm that had a lot of failed attempts.

My mom, who also hates veins, got so woozy at the sight she had to put her head between her knees. All the doctors and nurses rushed to help her, ignoring me as I bled out…

Kidding. I was fine. But my mom and I still laugh about that day.

“The nurse said, “Oh, you’re a tough one. And she kept poking and poking me, and I was bleeding quite a lot from one arm that had a lot of failed attempts.”

What Scares You / May 6, 2025

What Scares You, Gary Fincke?

I’m thrilled to feature one of my favorite people and writers today on What Scares You. Gary Fincke, or Dr. Fincke, as I’ve called him most, was one of my writing professors at Susquehanna University and solidly one of the reasons I’m still a writer today. He’s not only an excellent writer but a fabulous teacher as well, one of the good ones who is concerned about figuring out what a student is trying to do and help them get there.

Dr. Fincke has published twelve collections of stories, including Sorry I Worried You, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Prize and The Killer’s Dog, winner of the Elixir Press Fiction Prize. His stories have appeared in such journals as The Missouri Review, The Kenyon Review, Black Warrior Review, CrazyHorse, The Idaho Review, and Cimarron Review. His most recent flash collection is The History of the Baker’s Dozen (Pelekinesis 2024). His newest book is For Now, We Have Been Spared, a collection of poetry published in March by Slant Books. He is the Emeritus Charles Degenstein Professor of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University, where he founded and then directed the Writers Institute and the nationally recognized undergraduate creative writing major for more than two decades.

And now? Let’s find out what scares him…

What is your earliest childhood memory of fear?

My earliest memory of fear is being afraid of rain falling on my bare head. There, that identifies me as born squeamish. I was four and walking with my mother when it started to rain. I still had a toddler’s lisp, so I insisted “I’ll fry” if my head got wet. My mother walked me into the A&P and coaxed a cardboard box from the manager. I wore it all the way to my grandmother’s house, square-headed as a primitive robot. My kindly grandmother set the box aside and patted my head. My aunt, who also lived there, looked at me as if she had work to do to make a man out of me.

My earliest “earned fear” arrived when I was five and playing a few blocks from home with a girl who lived in a house near the railroad tracks. Three older boys, maybe ten or eleven, emerged from where a creek ran on the other side of the tracks, then crossed and stood us against the back door of a house and terrorized us by firing BB guns over our head. The girl cried. I did my manly best by not saying a word. Not then. Not ever. But we never played together again.

What is your dumbest fear?

More confessions from childhood. I was seven, and my aunt, the one who used the word pantywaist on me when I showed any signs of regressing back to being afraid of getting my hair wet, told me a story about ants crawling up a friend’s nose while she fell asleep on a backyard sunbathing blanket. The ants, she said, made an ant hill in her head. You’d think a bright 2nd grader with all As on his report card could distinguish between fact and fiction, but all that summer I worried about ants invading me. Every tickle caused by tiny insect feet made me brush myself off with the sort of fury required for a swarm of bees. Thirty years later, I wrote a poem about it that was eventually selected to become a poster for a series produced by Penn State. Even better, that incident and a character based on my aunt became the opening scene of a story called “Rip His Head Off” that helped the story collection Sorry I Worried You win the Flannery O’Connor Prize.

“My aunt told me a story about ants crawling up a friend’s nose while she fell asleep on a backyard sunbathing blanket.”

What Scares You / March 31, 2025

What Scares You, P.M. Raymond?

P.M. Raymond is an award-winning author from New Orleans, Louisiana who “knows a thing or two about good gumbo, grits, and café au lait.” Her short story, “Double Dutch Dare,” will be in the upcoming anthology The Most Dangerous Games (Level Best Books), edited by Deborah Lacy. She’s also got a short story collection, Things Are As They Should Be, publishing in 2026 from Uncomfortably Dark Horror. She is a 2025 Killer Shorts Screenplay and Horror2Comic Semifinalist, the Sisters in Crime 2024 Eleanor Taylor Bland Award Winner, and 2024 Claymore Award Finalist. Her work has appeared in Punk Noir, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Dark Yonder, among others.

But what scares her? Read on to find out…

What is the scariest thing you remember from childhood?

I remember distinctly when I was young that commercials for horror movies of the time didn’t hold back! The commercials were terrifying. I particularly remember Phantasm, It’s Alive, and Last House on the Left. Specific snippets from these films live rent-free in my head. But the movie that truly scared me, the one I still haven’t watched in full to this day, is The Exorcist.

What are your phobias?

I don’t have any real phobias, but I do have a laundry list of things I dislike! However, I wrote a story about AIBOHPHOBIA, a fear of palindromes, for Flash Fiction Magazine in 2022. If you look closely at the phobia’s name you can see it is a palindrome of the word “phobia.” It’s a very twisty story.

What is your favorite urban legend (or one that’s really stuck with you/freaked you out)?

The Rougarou! The legend traveled from France (where it is called a ‘loup-garou’) to the southern part of Louisiana. This Cajun folklore bad boy prowls the swamps and bayous at night seeking out misbehaving children. Or so the legend goes. The Rougarou is similar to a lycanthrope but not exactly. Although its French name translates to “werewolf” and can transform under a full moon, the Rougarou is more like a humanoid creature with the head of a wolf or dog but the body of a man.

The myth is meant to inspire fear and obedience. Aside from naughty children, one of the Rougarou’s other favorite meals is a Catholic who doesn’t observe Lent properly. Its origin is rooted in Catholicism. This werewolf hybrid suffers no fools!

What intrigues me about the Rougarou is the other ways it is said to shapeshift. It can transform into any white animal like a dog, a rabbit, or a bird. The Rougarou is also spoken of as a curse, something that an individual can be doomed to become. One legend involves an unlucky person bitten by a Rougarou. The unlucky soul will turn into a Rougarou every night for 100 nights until the curse is lifted. It is also said that the creature will knock at your door but can’t enter if there are thirteen stones or coins lining the threshold. There is so much to this Louisiana legend that I am still discovering. The Rougarou and all its incarnations have definitely stuck with me.

What Scares You / December 16, 2024

What Scares You, Daniel DiFranco?

As 2024 comes to a wrap (How did that happen?), I got to catch up with an old friend with a brand new book. Daniel DiFranco is a writer/musician/teacher from Philadelphia. He is the author of two novels, Panic Years (Tailwinds Press, 2018) and the hot-off-the-presses Devil on My Trail (Unsolicited Press, 2024). His short stories can be found in Smokelong Quarterly, Monkeybicycle, Fractured Lit, and others.

But what makes his teeth chatter in the dead middle of the night? Read on to find out…

What is your greatest fear?

Having my leg fall asleep when I need to run, like from a fire or murderer.

What are your phobias?

I’m not in love with heights, particularly when presented with megalophobia [a type of anxiety disorder in which a person experiences intense fear of large objects.] I don’t know if I’d call it “fear” so much as it producing a fight or flight response, which I don’t usually enjoy.

Do you have a recurring nightmare? What was your worst nightmare ever?

YES! The recurring one is my worst nightmare! I’m getting chills even thinking about it. It’s always my grandparent’s house, but it’s not. You know how dreams are weird with that. It becomes cavernous and labyrinthine. There’s a top floor and everyone knows it’s haunted, but they just stay out of it. For some reason, I’m always forced to go up there for something. Maann, I’m getting weirded out writing this. There’s a lady in white that emerges (my heart is literally racing right now) and I don’t think terror is a strong enough word to describe what it invokes in me. I don’t know who she is or what she wants because I always wake up in a panicked dread when she comes near me. If anyone reading this is a dream analyst, please help. Though, the first movie I saw in a theater was Ghostbusters, and I cried and screamed at the opening scene in the library. God, this lifelong nightmare can’t be because of something as stupid as that, could it?

What scares you most about the writing process?

The part where you edit and rewrite and edit and rewrite and then your piece gets published and you’re mortified at how bad your own writing is. I’m always editing—even pieces that have been published. There’s a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing going on. There’s a version of me that is really fucking great and can see through all superfluous and bad choices. I just want to know where that guy is hiding. He’s in there, lurking. Waiting to pounce and humble me.

What Scares You / December 3, 2024

What Scares You, Polly Campbell?

Polly Campbell is the author of You, Recharged: How to Beat Fatigue (Mostly), Amp Up Your Energy (Usually), and Enjoy Life Again, (Always), and three other books. We first met when she invited me to be a guest on her podcast Simply Write w/Polly, where she gives practical, inspirational, and real advice for writers and creators. Find her at simplywrite.substack.com, on Instagram @PollyLCampbell, and at https://pollycampbell.com.

And find out what terrifies her right here…

What is your greatest fear?

Easy. My child going missing. Like just having her out there in the world, without knowing where, or who she is with, or if she’s OK. Nightmare.

What is your weirdest fear?

Oh well, it’s that age old classic movie The Wizard of Oz. I mean, doesn’t this family favorite freak everyone out? Yeah. I really do not like that movie, not the actors dressed up like characters, nor the green melting witch, nor the flying monkeys, nor Munchkins. The whole thing is very creepy. I didn’t show it to my daughter because I refuse to watch it with her.

What is your favorite urban legend?

Totally the story of Bloody Mary. But is it a legend or truth? The story where you can repeat the name Bloody Mary in the bathroom mirror and conjure the ghost of the woman. Oh yeah. Heard about her as a child, and it sticks with me today.

Do you have a recurring nightmare?

Yes. There is a big creature energy, traipsing across the lower hills toward me. Looks like an angry Bigfoot, and it has been showing up in my dreams since I was a young child. I could always see him coming, down from the mountain, over the hill, across the river until he hit the field, and then found me wherever I was in a bed, or a shopping cart, college dorm room, car, even my first apartment. He would always find me and scoop me up and take me away, but we never got to an end. He just separated me from my life. This creature dream has followed me, but now I’m less afraid, because while it gets me every time, I’m never injured and I always wake up at home. Also, he is pink. But a very menacing pink.

“Looks like an angry Bigfoot, and it has been showing up in my dreams since I was a young child. I could always see him coming, down from the mountain…He would always find me and scoop me up and take me away. Also, he is pink. But a very menacing pink.”

Have you ever had any paranormal experiences or premonitions?

Once when we were touring the Portland Underground, tunnels used historically to capture and hold—Shanghai—men and women who would then be drugged, carried aboard ships and used as unpaid labor aboard, I felt cold air blow by me and a very strong scent. I didn’t know what it was but the word horehound kept jumping into my mind. I asked the guide about it later, asked her if she knew what it was, and she did. She told me, based on records, one of the young women who had died while held in the tunnel prison used to love horehound treats brought by her captors. A fact the guide hadn’t shared on tour. The story gave me chills and huge empathy for this young girl who was held. But also, totally fascinated me.

What scares you most about the writing process?

Hitting send on a manuscript or article. My breath catches every time.

What is your greatest fear as a writer?

That I’ll never be able to do it. That I will empty of ideas or the ability to write them. Yet still I will be compelled to sit down each day to write, and have nothing. To sit down ready to work and not have anything to work with. Ever.

What’s your favorite horror movie or television series?

I’m more of a crime or suspense series type. The series Ozark was one of my all-time favorites. Though I did love the movie Barbarian.

What’s the scariest place you’ve ever been?

I was a teenager on a cranky old interstate bus, more like a brightly colored school bus, on a narrow mountain pass in Colombia when the drug trade was at its peak and Americans were not popular. The last thing I was told when I got on was to keep my head down and not do anything to draw attention. The bus was stopped in the middle of the night by military rebels. We were ordered to get off and stand in a line alongside the road while they went through our papers and passports. I stuffed my passport into the seat before I got off so I couldn’t be identified or my passport stolen. As the militants came down the line, the bus driver started yelling at these men, who were all holding guns. Just started looking at his watch and screaming in Spanish, words that I could not understand. The soldiers stopped abruptly halfway down the line of passengers, turned off their flashlights and let everyone back onto the bus.

I just remember feeling very young and vulnerable and isolated and female and it was very scary.

What’s creepier: clowns, dolls, or wax figures?

Oh clowns. No doubt. They can get away with all kinds of shit.

What Scares You / November 20, 2024

What Scares You, C. Matthew Smith?

C. Matthew Smith is author of the novel Twentymile, as well as short stories that have appeared online and in magazines and anthologies such as Mystery Weekly and Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir. His second novel is due out late 2025. He lives with his family in Newnan, Georgia, and from what I hear, they KNOW how to do Halloween right.

But what scares him? Let’s find out.

What is your greatest fear?

Hands down, my greatest fear is heights. I don’t consider it irrational by any stretch–you fall from a significant height, and you either die or wish you had. But what my brain considers a significant height is admittedly pathetic. You get me above say eight to ten feet, and my mind starts spinning. You get me way up, and all I can think about is how I’m getting down. Eiffel Tower? Empire State Building? I’ve done them because my family wanted to do them. I didn’t enjoy them for a second, and I wasn’t up there any longer than I had to be.

What is the scariest thing you remember from childhood?

This will date me, but I have a vivid memory of watching a TV commercial for Stanley Kubrik’s The Shining. That movie was released in 1980, so I would have been five at the time. The ad included a clip of Jack chasing Danny through the snowy shrubbery maze with the axe. Seeing a child roughly my own age depicted in such danger absolutely terrified me. Maybe my mind has pasted this on over the years, but I also have a vague recollection of my parents realizing what I had just seen and the trouble it was about to cause them getting me to sleep.

Have you ever had any paranormal experiences or premonitions? How did you deal with it?

We live in a house built in 1894, and naturally a number of people have died in it. I’m a pretty rational guy, but we’ve had a number of experiences in the house that defy explanation and make it hard for me to be too much of a skeptic when it comes to the notion of ghosts. It started with this scent showing up now and then around the house—an old timey floral scent befitting a perfume. I smelled it. My wife, Cindy, smelled it. It’s not a scent you’d encounter in nature. It couldn’t have just drifted in on a breeze. In addition, Cindy and I both have experienced what feels like a hand pressing down on our chests when we slept in one particular room. It was unlike any sleep paralysis I’d ever experienced. Most concerning is that every now and then something in the house will disappear and later appear in a spot you know you searched but that you also know you hadn’t left the item. For example, this Fitbit charging cord went missing a few years back. We looked everywhere. We eventually threw up our hands and went to Best Buy to get a new one. When we came back in the house, the damn cord was draped across a chair in the living room. No way all four of us would have missed that just lying there. So I guess whatever ghost we have is a prankster.

“Every now and then something in the house will disappear and later appear in a spot you know you searched but that you also know you hadn’t left the item…So I guess whatever ghost we have is a prankster.”