Haunted Halloween 2011: Guest Post - Cat Patrick

I’m afraid of everything.

I blame it on my parents, who callously moved me into my own room when I was five. (I’d been sharing with my sister, then we moved to a bigger house and voila! Torture.) My evil parents let me pick my plush carpeting (coral) and magical wallpaper (unicorns and rainbows) and forced me to sleep in a gloriously large room next to the bathroom for easy access, with a lovely walk-in closet that anyone except a fearful 5-year-old would love.

I just knew there were ghosts in that closet. Specifically, ghost—I thought it was a little girl. It wasn’t that I was afraid she’d do anything to me. The terrifying threat of a merely seeing her was enough. Then I’d know that ghosts were real, and be stuck with that knowledge like the creepy kid in Sixth Sense. I didn’t want that for myself.

Afraid of my closet and everything else, I’m jumpy. I blame that one exclusively on my mom. She got carried away with the whole Peek-a-Boo thing and extended it way beyond the baby years. To this day, she thinks it’s really funny when other people gasp or jump: I’ll admit that I inherited that gene even if I don’t particularly like to be the person gasping or jumping. If you’re startled, I’ll laugh: It’s a fact. So, in college, one of my favorite pastimes was to strategically place a cardboard cutout of a (hot) guy that I’d received as a birthday joke outside the doors of my roommates’ bedrooms, inside their closets or next to the shower curtain in the morning. Those were some funny times. (I'm still laughing.) 

Once in college, some friends and I were playing a Where’s Waldo slash Hide-and-Seek sort of game with the cardboard cutout. We’d take turns hiding him in the house, then the others would try to find him. It was a hilarious night; one of those nights when you go to bed giggling.

But in the pitch dark middle of the night, something strange happened. I woke from a dead sleep, and at first I was unsure why. I was on my side, my arm dangling from the mattress. Then the cloud of sleep lifted and I realized that what woke me was a touch: Something or someone had gently grazed my hand. I opened my eyes to see a ghost.

It was a little girl, and she was smiling.

Knowing my tendency to be skittish, you’d think that I went barreling into the next room or down the stairs and out of the house, screaming like I was being chased by zombies. But it was the middle of the night and I’d been sleeping so hard that all I did was roll over, tuck in my hand, ignore the goose bumps and go back to sleep.

I've never forgotten my ghost sighting.

As an adult, I’m still a little afraid of closets, and I still believe in ghosts. Semi-recently, one of my daughters told me there was a ghost in her room, and tugged me by the hand to investigate. I sat down on her floor and said, “There’s no ghost in here.” 

“Yes there is,” she said. 

“Where?” 

“Right next to you.”

It might not have been my finest parenting moment when I sprung to my feet and quickly suggested that we have a dance party, but it’s the truth. The other truth is that I don’t sleep with my arms out of the covers anymore for fear that the little girl or someone scarier will touch my hand again. You might think I dreamed the whole thing. And maybe I did. 

But you know what? I'm not so sure.

It's possible that the little girl ghost haunted my closet in the unicorn room--that I was right, Mom.

It's possible that she watched me--laughing, too--as I startled my roommates in college.

It's possible that she wanted to tell me something that night, so she reached out and touched my hand.

You might think I was dreaming. And who knows? Maybe I was.

But maybe, just maybe...

she's real. 

 

Available now from Little, Brown! 

Synopsis: Each night when 16 year-old London Lane goes to sleep, her whole world disappears. In the morning, all that's left is a note telling her about a day she can't remember. The whole scenario doesn't exactly make high school or dating that hot guy whose name she can't seem to recall any easier. But when London starts experiencing disturbing visions she can't make sense of, she realizes it's time to learn a little more about the past she keeps forgetting-before it destroys her future.

Part psychological drama, part romance, and part mystery, this thought-provoking novel will inspire readers to consider the what-if's in their own lives and recognize the power they have to control their destinies.

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