LOOKING FOR A GHOST -- by Jane Kelley

A few years ago, I was honored to be the James Thurber House Children's Writer in Residence. For a month, I taught writing workshops to kids and adults in Columbus, Ohio. And I also got to stay in the house where he and his family lived until 1917.

The windows on the top floor were to my room.

Some of the stories James Thurber wrote were based on things that actually happened in this house—including “The Night The Ghost Got In.”  Many of the past Writers In Residence had their own ghost encounter. Since my novel The Girl Behind The Glass is about a haunted house, I expected that I would too.

But I didn’t. I slept undisturbed. I heard no thumps. I felt no cold breezes. As a writer I've learned that you can’t always wait for inspiration to pay you a visit. Sometimes you must be brave and go look for it. Especially if it is something disturbing. So one night, I did.

 

 

I waited until dark. I turned off all the lights. With only the faint glow of my cell phone, I crept down the same stairs where James Thurber had heard the thumps almost a hundred years ago. All my senses were alert. But I didn’t see or feel anything. And then, as I turned the corner and stood upon the bottom step, I saw something glowing beneath the dining room floorboards. 

 

 

I gasped and grabbed the newel post. I seemed to see the light pulse. Or maybe I was the one who was trembling?

 

As I leaned closer to take this photograph, I realized what it was. Someone had left the light on in the basement.

 

Jane Kelley is haunted by many of the other characters she created, including the ghost in The Girl Behind the Glass.