Ghost Story

I saw it three times. In my house.

This was five years ago when I was pregnant with my son, our middle child. Our house keeper, Rosa, told me that pregnant women see apparitions more often than other people, maybe because they bear souls within them that lie between worlds.

The first time, what I saw looked like a little puff of grey smoke floating quickly along the baseboard in the boiler room. Very surprising. Something told me it was a dog.


I saw it again in the basement a week or so later. It didn't alarm me for some reason. I like having dogs around, and being pregnant, the hormones that allowed my tissues to soften and stretch seemed to be having the same effect on my brain.

I didn't like it so much when I saw the thing moving along the ground in the upstairs bathroom. Had it gotten lonely? Was it seeking company in its confusion? I also didn't like it when I became aware that it had come into our bedroom and was under the bed. All my life I've been scared of things under the bed. What's that about? Fear of subconscious conflicts, uncomfortable truths?

It was under my bed. I was talking to it in my mind. "Go on doggy, its ok , umm, go into....the light, good boy..." I heard it growl. This was the only time I ever heard it make a noise. And the last.

I have no dread of the ghost dog anymore. I wouldn't mind if it were around, I wouldn't have to worry about what was in the kibbles I was feeding it. But I haven't seen it since the night it growled.

I'm sorry for its confusion. I wonder why it was hanging around here, I wonder what it was hoping for.