September 19, 2026 • 21 mins
In this classic installment of SMNTY fiction, we spin a modern fairy tale of heartbreak and the ghost of memories after a haunting loss.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie. And Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And welcome to Stuff I Never Told You, a production
of iHeartRadio. And today we are bringing back another fiction
episode for you. I was thinking about this one because,
(00:27):
as mentioned in our upcoming.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
A recap on Dragon Con.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We're recording a lot of stuff right now, so the
schedule's a little mess. But there were a lot of
run-ins with exes at Dragon Con this year, which Dragon
Con is a big nerd convention that happens in Atlanta.
And this fiction is about losing somebody and kind of
(00:55):
the grief of, like, them being in your social media
are like not being able to escape them in your
life somehow, or just having all these like reminders of them.
And I was thinking about this too, in terms of
how technology has advanced so much since I wrote this. And,
(01:16):
you know, we have our technology.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Movie series with Bridget. We've already picked out the next movie.
I was watching the trailer for artificial today.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Um, And just how that might look now that some
of that stuff has gotten turbocharged. But also, you know,
the protagonist in this story is not meant to be...
He's just sad.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He's not meant to be a bad guy or anything
like that. But if you did write this in a
way where he was a bad guy, all the ways....
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I just got to thinking, like, after somebody breaks up,
do people interact with AI and have it maybe be
their ex? Like, try to find a way to interact
with it like that. Or when we're talking about flock
cameras and what we see, how that's being used for
people to stalk their exes. And the way technology is
used like that, it's just been on my mind. A
(02:18):
little update, perhaps.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah. But please enjoy this classic episode. Hey, this is Annie.
And Samantha.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And welcome to Stuff I've Never Told You, a production
of iHeartRadio. It is time for another edition of Sminty Fiction. Yeah.
As always, do not panic if this is not your thing.
Just something we're doing once a month or so, where
(02:56):
we do a dramatic reading.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yes. I like to think it's a dramatic reading. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
With the soundscaping of our amazing super producer, Christina, who
deserves all the recognition and props because she makes these
sound so good.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
She kills it. She really, really does. Yes, in a
good way.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And this one has no real trigger warning, but it's
a little sad, I guess. So if you're tender emotionally,
for whatever reason, maybe not for you. I think it
will be fine. I think it's kind of goofy, honestly.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
But, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And as always, a disclaimer, I wrote this for an
idea me and my ex had where we were going
to have five people to submit ideas for... a music
video of one song and play all of the film
submissions at once simultaneously on different screens in the same room.
So you could look at all the different screens playing
(03:51):
and see all these different interpretations of this one song.
We got the idea from a museum exhibit we really liked.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So I wrote this.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
But yeah, it's not super refined or edited or anything. Also,
a lot of these were written with the intent of
being simple.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
In mind.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So it's like a single narrator, which is sad because
I want Samantha.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
To be more involved in these. It's okay. The next one,
it should be you. No, thank you. I would love it.
I would love it. Speaking of different interpretations, that would
be great. I just do my own interpretation of it all. Yes,
I would love it. I would love it.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And yes, I did want to release this one as
it comes out as Christmas Eve because we are in
the midst of cuffing season, which is a term I
originally learned from you, Samantha.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It's true. I just had to teach someone else that yesterday. Yes,
which it is essentially what, like dating time?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Essentially, you want to be cuffed or snuggled up with
someone because it is cold and it's the holidays. Ah.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Right. Okay. Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And I did just, I also just learned about dating
terms like situationships, which is, quote, a romantic or sexual
relationship that is not considered to be formal or established,
and roaching, meaning someone is sleeping around with a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Of people while in a relationship. Oh, roaching's new.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm learning new terms all the time
when it comes to the dating world. I actually want
to come back to that and do like a kind
of terminology update about these things.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
What is sexist and what isn't.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But that is for later. For now, please sit back, relax,
and enjoy this fiction called The Right to Be Forgotten.
There once was a man named Will, and Will was
in love. Her name was Hannah. Will and Hannah were perfect.
(05:52):
They adored each other, the kind of love that is
pure and fun and steady and unyielding and beautiful.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
The kind that makes people jealous.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
They took goofy pictures together and went on adventures and
stayed in and knew each other truly, heart and.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Soul, complete. There was no Will without Hannah. They got
married in a blur of bright, bright happiness.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
He remembered thinking wildly it was impossible to feel this
happy and that he was worthy of it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And they were going to live happily ever after. But
they didn't.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Then Hannah was gone and Will's world was shattered. All
meaning was lost. Nothing made sense without Hannah. There was
no point without Hannah. Tears, a bone-deep grief, and an
unending well of physical aching loss, sitting aimlessly, staring, staring, staring,
at a picture of them together, so wonderfully willing to
(06:58):
be silly around each other, so happy, so complete.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It was night.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
He'd woken up suddenly, gasping, a hand over his racing heart,
dreaming of Hannah, that he was screaming for her to
come back, but she couldn't hear him. He blinked away
the image, eyes adjusting to the dark.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Nothing. Always nothing. He was alone.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He sat up slowly, the familiar cocoon of grief encasing him.
He got up, went to the fridge and poured himself
a glass of water, gulping it down. A picture of
the two of them, blissful, unknowing, smiled back at him.
Then his skin started to prickle. Cold crept up his spine.
(07:47):
Behind him, a woman sat up in the bed. A
woman who had not been there, who could not be there.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
It was Hannah.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
She looked the same, but different. Hazy around the edges,
soft focus. She watched him, solemn, still. She was wearing
her favorite pajamas, bright suns and stars and moons that
clashed with her serious expression.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Will turned.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
He stared in her direction, set his glass down, slowly
made his way over to her, sat on the bed
next to her, hid his face in his hands, hid
the tears streaming down his cheeks, tears that should be
impossible with how much he'd cried in the past days, weeks, months.
(08:39):
When he opened his eyes, the woman was gone. He
laid down and pulled the covers around him and laid
awake until the light turned purple and blue and the
sun rose and he rose with it to face another
meaningless day. The toaster dinged. Hannah was waiting in the kitchen, smiling.
Will blinked once, twice, reached into the cabinet, retrieving a
(09:03):
jar of peanut butter. He started slathering on his toast
in a numb haze, autopilot, a zombie as he had
been since he lost Hannah and a crater was left
in his soul, festering. The jar knocked over. Will jumped
at the sound, staring at the overturned jar warily. He
reached to upright it.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So did Hannah.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Their hands almost touched. But Hannah pulled away at the
last second. Will ignored her, tired of the fathomless grief
she brought, unwilling and unable to face her. But he'd
never been good at ignoring her. And she'd always been persistent.
(09:47):
He was sitting in traffic, listening to a voicemail from
his boss.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Take your time. We understand, she says, though Will knows
they don't.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
He hangs up, numb again. all the sound around him
falling away in its shadow. Next to his ear, a
woman laughed.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
He jerked, whipping around, afraid of what he'd see and
what he wouldn't. But there was no one.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
After a long moment, he brought his frantic breathing under
control and turned back to the road, tense.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
No one was there, he told himself.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He sat at his desk, feeling fake and corporeal, as
though he might fade from existence at any second. A
co-worker approached, her eyes shining with compassion that could not
penetrate the sheath of sadness around him.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
How are you? she asked.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
He didn't respond and after a moment, she left. He
turned back to his laptop, eyes burning, throat tight, so
utterly dead inside and wondering if it might be better
to be dead outside too. An image of Hannah pops
up in his social media feed, smiling, happy. He snapped
(11:08):
the lid of his laptop shut. He stands up roughly,
his chair rolling away, loud in the quiet space. He left,
his steps quick, imagining Hannah was right behind him, the
weight of her gaze unbearable. He drives home, turning up
the radio as loud as it will go, desperate to
drown everything out, to drown her out. The song is
(11:32):
so loud he can barely hear his own voice as
he joins in, belting out the lyrics, determined to feel
something else, to think of anything else. or not think
at all to prove to himself that he could be happy.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
He glanced at the.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Passenger side, and Hannah was there, shouting the words along
with him. His heart stuttered to a stop, and he
jerked the wheel.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Another driver honking at him.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
He swallowed, tamping back his panic, ramrod still, determined not
to look back at the passenger seat, even though it
took everything he had not to. When he got home,
He shakily opened his laptop, navigating to the pictures folder.
He began deleting them with self-destructive impulsivity, determined to erase
her from his life. Hannah watched him from the door,
(12:22):
her arms crossed. He refused to look at her. She
pushed herself off the frame, slowly taking the seat next
to him. He tensed but did not turn. Tears burned
in his eyes. Hannah's pixelated face stared back at him,
her usual blinding smile almost obscured by the gray notification
asking him if he was sure he wanted to permanently
(12:44):
delete these items. He hovered the mouse over the image
indecisively as Hannah watched. He closed that at the notification,
breathing ragged. He called his best friend, overcome with desperation.
He hesitated, heart racing, before he said, I've been seeing her, Hannah. Hannah.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
His friend was clearly taken aback. Where? He asked.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Everywhere, Will whispered. In my apartment, my office, my car,
my bed. Like a ghost or something? His friend asked.
Will didn't respond.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
He couldn't. And the words hung dead between them.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
His friend said he was worried about him. That loss
can mess with people. Asked if he was okay. He
wasn't okay. Hannah was gone. Of course he wasn't okay.
He was eating takeout, mindlessly watching something on TV, something
he'd never seen before but didn't care about so as
(13:46):
not to trigger any memories of Hannah. But she was
there anyway. She was at his side, standing over him, shouting, muffled, distorted.
He turned the volume up. The next morning, he woke
out of a restless sleep to the sound of water
running The shower, he realized after a moment. Dread and
(14:08):
anticipation gripped him, and as if in a dream, he
stood and slowly made his way to the bathroom, heart
drumming in his ears. As he got closer, he could
hear a woman humming. He held his breath as he
gently pushed the bathroom door open. Through the shower curtain,
he saw the silhouette of a woman. He jerked away,
(14:30):
leaning heavily against the sink, heart galloping, panting. He squeezed
his eyes shut, took a slow breath, then another. The
humming cut off abruptly, as did the sound of running water. Still,
he kept his eyes shut for a long moment before
he had the courage to open them.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
The woman was gone. She was gone. That should be
a relief.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Right? Then why did he feel such monumental love? His
whole body trembled as he turned back to the sink.
His eyes landed on a glass with two toothbrushes in them. Suddenly,
he picked one up and threw it away. Will softly
(15:17):
drank his beer. It was night and he was cooking.
Music played. The tears in his eyes made the light
both too bright and too blurry. He saw her and smiled.
She was laughing and joking and dancing like they used to.
But she's not real, he told himself. She's not real.
(15:41):
The song, soft at first, gets louder and louder. That night,
he couldn't sleep. Hannah wasn't there. He unlocked his phone,
the blue light garish in the dark. He was crying again,
but he almost didn't notice. He shook when he opened
the video he'd been avoiding ever since his life was
(16:03):
torn asunder. The sight of her, shining, happy, laughing, twirling
around in a wedding dress, brought a gas to his lips.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Fairy lights illuminate her in the dark.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Will sobbed at the soothing sounds of her life that
were now like a knife ripping him apart and exposing him.
Her smile, her happiness, a condemnation. Another man stepped into frame,
beaming at her, hugging her to him. Will's heart stuttered, dropped.
They were in love. Hannah had moved on and found
(16:39):
love with another man. People crowded them, laughing, smiling, the
music soft and sweet. They looked at each other, the
look in her eyes, the same look she used to
fix on Will, as though she really saw him and
saw the good in him, the value, and loved him,
cared for him.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
And she had.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
But now she had moved on to another person, And
Will was alone with only the ghost of her. Memories
like a haunting keeping him from moving on. She'll fade,
people told him. But Will didn't want her to fade.
There was no Will without Hannah. He was a fragment
without her. The ghost of her would haunt him forever.
(17:24):
Anytime he laughed or cried or drank that beer that
she loved or watched that movie that made her laugh
or sat on their couch or did or felt anything
because they did everything possible experienced everything together. But at
least the ghost of her was better than not having
her in his life at all. That brings us to
(18:10):
the end of this fiction portion. I know you're probably mad.
I know you're probably mad at the ending. I like
to call this one the reverse sixth sense.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Uh-oh. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
The name comes from this legal push from a few
years ago where a man was suing companies like Google
for the quote, right to be forgotten. And it's become
somewhat of a term in regards to the internet and
data collection and this whole idea of the right to
be forgotten or to know what data is being collected
and to have control over it. And again, I don't
know why, but I really like applying these technical terms
(18:43):
to human nature. Other titles were The Ghost of You
in a Modern Day Fairy Tale. But this one has
also been on my mind because I've been thinking about
the power of breakup stories and how a breakup can.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Really wreck you and your life and I.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Just, like, all those things where you see pieces of
the other person everywhere, of the life you had everywhere,
all the things and items and places that remind you
of times you spent together. I don't know. It feels
like a ghost to me. It feels like something hanging over. Like,
it's always there, whether you want it to be or not.
(19:20):
And I've also been thinking... Because we were talking about...
This year has been called the year of the breakup
album with Taylor Swift and Adele dominating the charts. And
you and I have talked before about, you know, ending
up in someone else's song or.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yes. Yes, things like that. And I.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Don't... It's strange to me that these exes I have
in my life, where I'm so convinced it's a good
thing we broke up, still have this... I don't know
if it's power, but I still think, oh, I wonder
what they would think if they knew I were talking
about them. Or I wonder what they would think about
my conversations now about how I think relationships should look
(20:01):
or how sex should look, like all of these things.
It just amazes me. It makes sense if you spend...
So much time with someone, you make these memories with people.
And perhaps the part of you thinks, you know, it's
forever and then it's not. But it is, I'll just
catch myself thinking, why do.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I care what he thinks? Still do. Right? Right?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And it cracks me up that I've had like the
most stereotypical breakups. story that you can imagine with the
ice cream and the crying and the cookies and all
of this stuff. And I never would have thought it
would have been like that and that it would have
lasted as long as it did because it did. Yeah. Yeah,
(20:46):
so Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Merry Christmas. Get yourself a box of cookies and cry. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Do whatever, you know, makes you happy, is healthy for
you self-care wise. We are so thrilled to have you
as a listener, all of you. So thank you. As always,
if you would like to contact us, you can. Our
email is stephendiamomstuff at iheartmedia.com. You can find us on
Twitter at MomStuffPodcast or on Instagram at Step Home Never
(21:14):
Told You. Thanks as always to our super producer, Christina.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Making it all happen. Yes. And thanks to you for listening.
Step Home Never Told You is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie. And Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And welcome to Stuff I Never Told You, a production
of iHeartRadio. And today we are bringing back another fiction
episode for you. I was thinking about this one because,
(00:27):
as mentioned in our upcoming.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
A recap on Dragon Con.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We're recording a lot of stuff right now, so the
schedule's a little mess. But there were a lot of
run-ins with exes at Dragon Con this year, which Dragon
Con is a big nerd convention that happens in Atlanta.
And this fiction is about losing somebody and kind of
(00:55):
the grief of, like, them being in your social media
are like not being able to escape them in your
life somehow, or just having all these like reminders of them.
And I was thinking about this too, in terms of
how technology has advanced so much since I wrote this. And,
(01:16):
you know, we have our technology.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Movie series with Bridget. We've already picked out the next movie.
I was watching the trailer for artificial today.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Um, And just how that might look now that some
of that stuff has gotten turbocharged. But also, you know,
the protagonist in this story is not meant to be...
He's just sad.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He's not meant to be a bad guy or anything
like that. But if you did write this in a
way where he was a bad guy, all the ways....
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I just got to thinking, like, after somebody breaks up,
do people interact with AI and have it maybe be
their ex? Like, try to find a way to interact
with it like that. Or when we're talking about flock
cameras and what we see, how that's being used for
people to stalk their exes. And the way technology is
used like that, it's just been on my mind. A
(02:18):
little update, perhaps.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah. But please enjoy this classic episode. Hey, this is Annie.
And Samantha.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And welcome to Stuff I've Never Told You, a production
of iHeartRadio. It is time for another edition of Sminty Fiction. Yeah.
As always, do not panic if this is not your thing.
Just something we're doing once a month or so, where
(02:56):
we do a dramatic reading.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yes. I like to think it's a dramatic reading. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
With the soundscaping of our amazing super producer, Christina, who
deserves all the recognition and props because she makes these
sound so good.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
She kills it. She really, really does. Yes, in a
good way.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And this one has no real trigger warning, but it's
a little sad, I guess. So if you're tender emotionally,
for whatever reason, maybe not for you. I think it
will be fine. I think it's kind of goofy, honestly.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
But, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And as always, a disclaimer, I wrote this for an
idea me and my ex had where we were going
to have five people to submit ideas for... a music
video of one song and play all of the film
submissions at once simultaneously on different screens in the same room.
So you could look at all the different screens playing
(03:51):
and see all these different interpretations of this one song.
We got the idea from a museum exhibit we really liked.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So I wrote this.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
But yeah, it's not super refined or edited or anything. Also,
a lot of these were written with the intent of
being simple.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
In mind.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So it's like a single narrator, which is sad because
I want Samantha.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
To be more involved in these. It's okay. The next one,
it should be you. No, thank you. I would love it.
I would love it. Speaking of different interpretations, that would
be great. I just do my own interpretation of it all. Yes,
I would love it. I would love it.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And yes, I did want to release this one as
it comes out as Christmas Eve because we are in
the midst of cuffing season, which is a term I
originally learned from you, Samantha.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It's true. I just had to teach someone else that yesterday. Yes,
which it is essentially what, like dating time?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Essentially, you want to be cuffed or snuggled up with
someone because it is cold and it's the holidays. Ah.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Right. Okay. Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And I did just, I also just learned about dating
terms like situationships, which is, quote, a romantic or sexual
relationship that is not considered to be formal or established,
and roaching, meaning someone is sleeping around with a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Of people while in a relationship. Oh, roaching's new.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm learning new terms all the time
when it comes to the dating world. I actually want
to come back to that and do like a kind
of terminology update about these things.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
What is sexist and what isn't.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But that is for later. For now, please sit back, relax,
and enjoy this fiction called The Right to Be Forgotten.
There once was a man named Will, and Will was
in love. Her name was Hannah. Will and Hannah were perfect.
(05:52):
They adored each other, the kind of love that is
pure and fun and steady and unyielding and beautiful.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
The kind that makes people jealous.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
They took goofy pictures together and went on adventures and
stayed in and knew each other truly, heart and.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Soul, complete. There was no Will without Hannah. They got
married in a blur of bright, bright happiness.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
He remembered thinking wildly it was impossible to feel this
happy and that he was worthy of it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And they were going to live happily ever after. But
they didn't.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Then Hannah was gone and Will's world was shattered. All
meaning was lost. Nothing made sense without Hannah. There was
no point without Hannah. Tears, a bone-deep grief, and an
unending well of physical aching loss, sitting aimlessly, staring, staring, staring,
at a picture of them together, so wonderfully willing to
(06:58):
be silly around each other, so happy, so complete.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It was night.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
He'd woken up suddenly, gasping, a hand over his racing heart,
dreaming of Hannah, that he was screaming for her to
come back, but she couldn't hear him. He blinked away
the image, eyes adjusting to the dark.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Nothing. Always nothing. He was alone.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He sat up slowly, the familiar cocoon of grief encasing him.
He got up, went to the fridge and poured himself
a glass of water, gulping it down. A picture of
the two of them, blissful, unknowing, smiled back at him.
Then his skin started to prickle. Cold crept up his spine.
(07:47):
Behind him, a woman sat up in the bed. A
woman who had not been there, who could not be there.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
It was Hannah.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
She looked the same, but different. Hazy around the edges,
soft focus. She watched him, solemn, still. She was wearing
her favorite pajamas, bright suns and stars and moons that
clashed with her serious expression.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Will turned.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
He stared in her direction, set his glass down, slowly
made his way over to her, sat on the bed
next to her, hid his face in his hands, hid
the tears streaming down his cheeks, tears that should be
impossible with how much he'd cried in the past days, weeks, months.
(08:39):
When he opened his eyes, the woman was gone. He
laid down and pulled the covers around him and laid
awake until the light turned purple and blue and the
sun rose and he rose with it to face another
meaningless day. The toaster dinged. Hannah was waiting in the kitchen, smiling.
Will blinked once, twice, reached into the cabinet, retrieving a
(09:03):
jar of peanut butter. He started slathering on his toast
in a numb haze, autopilot, a zombie as he had
been since he lost Hannah and a crater was left
in his soul, festering. The jar knocked over. Will jumped
at the sound, staring at the overturned jar warily. He
reached to upright it.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So did Hannah.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Their hands almost touched. But Hannah pulled away at the
last second. Will ignored her, tired of the fathomless grief
she brought, unwilling and unable to face her. But he'd
never been good at ignoring her. And she'd always been persistent.
(09:47):
He was sitting in traffic, listening to a voicemail from
his boss.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Take your time. We understand, she says, though Will knows
they don't.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
He hangs up, numb again. all the sound around him
falling away in its shadow. Next to his ear, a
woman laughed.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
He jerked, whipping around, afraid of what he'd see and
what he wouldn't. But there was no one.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
After a long moment, he brought his frantic breathing under
control and turned back to the road, tense.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
No one was there, he told himself.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He sat at his desk, feeling fake and corporeal, as
though he might fade from existence at any second. A
co-worker approached, her eyes shining with compassion that could not
penetrate the sheath of sadness around him.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
How are you? she asked.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
He didn't respond and after a moment, she left. He
turned back to his laptop, eyes burning, throat tight, so
utterly dead inside and wondering if it might be better
to be dead outside too. An image of Hannah pops
up in his social media feed, smiling, happy. He snapped
(11:08):
the lid of his laptop shut. He stands up roughly,
his chair rolling away, loud in the quiet space. He left,
his steps quick, imagining Hannah was right behind him, the
weight of her gaze unbearable. He drives home, turning up
the radio as loud as it will go, desperate to
drown everything out, to drown her out. The song is
(11:32):
so loud he can barely hear his own voice as
he joins in, belting out the lyrics, determined to feel
something else, to think of anything else. or not think
at all to prove to himself that he could be happy.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
He glanced at the.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Passenger side, and Hannah was there, shouting the words along
with him. His heart stuttered to a stop, and he
jerked the wheel.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Another driver honking at him.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
He swallowed, tamping back his panic, ramrod still, determined not
to look back at the passenger seat, even though it
took everything he had not to. When he got home,
He shakily opened his laptop, navigating to the pictures folder.
He began deleting them with self-destructive impulsivity, determined to erase
her from his life. Hannah watched him from the door,
(12:22):
her arms crossed. He refused to look at her. She
pushed herself off the frame, slowly taking the seat next
to him. He tensed but did not turn. Tears burned
in his eyes. Hannah's pixelated face stared back at him,
her usual blinding smile almost obscured by the gray notification
asking him if he was sure he wanted to permanently
(12:44):
delete these items. He hovered the mouse over the image
indecisively as Hannah watched. He closed that at the notification,
breathing ragged. He called his best friend, overcome with desperation.
He hesitated, heart racing, before he said, I've been seeing her, Hannah. Hannah.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
His friend was clearly taken aback. Where? He asked.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Everywhere, Will whispered. In my apartment, my office, my car,
my bed. Like a ghost or something? His friend asked.
Will didn't respond.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
He couldn't. And the words hung dead between them.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
His friend said he was worried about him. That loss
can mess with people. Asked if he was okay. He
wasn't okay. Hannah was gone. Of course he wasn't okay.
He was eating takeout, mindlessly watching something on TV, something
he'd never seen before but didn't care about so as
(13:46):
not to trigger any memories of Hannah. But she was
there anyway. She was at his side, standing over him, shouting, muffled, distorted.
He turned the volume up. The next morning, he woke
out of a restless sleep to the sound of water
running The shower, he realized after a moment. Dread and
(14:08):
anticipation gripped him, and as if in a dream, he
stood and slowly made his way to the bathroom, heart
drumming in his ears. As he got closer, he could
hear a woman humming. He held his breath as he
gently pushed the bathroom door open. Through the shower curtain,
he saw the silhouette of a woman. He jerked away,
(14:30):
leaning heavily against the sink, heart galloping, panting. He squeezed
his eyes shut, took a slow breath, then another. The
humming cut off abruptly, as did the sound of running water. Still,
he kept his eyes shut for a long moment before
he had the courage to open them.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
The woman was gone. She was gone. That should be
a relief.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Right? Then why did he feel such monumental love? His
whole body trembled as he turned back to the sink.
His eyes landed on a glass with two toothbrushes in them. Suddenly,
he picked one up and threw it away. Will softly
(15:17):
drank his beer. It was night and he was cooking.
Music played. The tears in his eyes made the light
both too bright and too blurry. He saw her and smiled.
She was laughing and joking and dancing like they used to.
But she's not real, he told himself. She's not real.
(15:41):
The song, soft at first, gets louder and louder. That night,
he couldn't sleep. Hannah wasn't there. He unlocked his phone,
the blue light garish in the dark. He was crying again,
but he almost didn't notice. He shook when he opened
the video he'd been avoiding ever since his life was
(16:03):
torn asunder. The sight of her, shining, happy, laughing, twirling
around in a wedding dress, brought a gas to his lips.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Fairy lights illuminate her in the dark.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Will sobbed at the soothing sounds of her life that
were now like a knife ripping him apart and exposing him.
Her smile, her happiness, a condemnation. Another man stepped into frame,
beaming at her, hugging her to him. Will's heart stuttered, dropped.
They were in love. Hannah had moved on and found
(16:39):
love with another man. People crowded them, laughing, smiling, the
music soft and sweet. They looked at each other, the
look in her eyes, the same look she used to
fix on Will, as though she really saw him and
saw the good in him, the value, and loved him,
cared for him.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
And she had.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
But now she had moved on to another person, And
Will was alone with only the ghost of her. Memories
like a haunting keeping him from moving on. She'll fade,
people told him. But Will didn't want her to fade.
There was no Will without Hannah. He was a fragment
without her. The ghost of her would haunt him forever.
(17:24):
Anytime he laughed or cried or drank that beer that
she loved or watched that movie that made her laugh
or sat on their couch or did or felt anything
because they did everything possible experienced everything together. But at
least the ghost of her was better than not having
her in his life at all. That brings us to
(18:10):
the end of this fiction portion. I know you're probably mad.
I know you're probably mad at the ending. I like
to call this one the reverse sixth sense.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Uh-oh. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
The name comes from this legal push from a few
years ago where a man was suing companies like Google
for the quote, right to be forgotten. And it's become
somewhat of a term in regards to the internet and
data collection and this whole idea of the right to
be forgotten or to know what data is being collected
and to have control over it. And again, I don't
know why, but I really like applying these technical terms
(18:43):
to human nature. Other titles were The Ghost of You
in a Modern Day Fairy Tale. But this one has
also been on my mind because I've been thinking about
the power of breakup stories and how a breakup can.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Really wreck you and your life and I.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Just, like, all those things where you see pieces of
the other person everywhere, of the life you had everywhere,
all the things and items and places that remind you
of times you spent together. I don't know. It feels
like a ghost to me. It feels like something hanging over. Like,
it's always there, whether you want it to be or not.
(19:20):
And I've also been thinking... Because we were talking about...
This year has been called the year of the breakup
album with Taylor Swift and Adele dominating the charts. And
you and I have talked before about, you know, ending
up in someone else's song or.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yes. Yes, things like that. And I.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Don't... It's strange to me that these exes I have
in my life, where I'm so convinced it's a good
thing we broke up, still have this... I don't know
if it's power, but I still think, oh, I wonder
what they would think if they knew I were talking
about them. Or I wonder what they would think about
my conversations now about how I think relationships should look
(20:01):
or how sex should look, like all of these things.
It just amazes me. It makes sense if you spend...
So much time with someone, you make these memories with people.
And perhaps the part of you thinks, you know, it's
forever and then it's not. But it is, I'll just
catch myself thinking, why do.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I care what he thinks? Still do. Right? Right?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And it cracks me up that I've had like the
most stereotypical breakups. story that you can imagine with the
ice cream and the crying and the cookies and all
of this stuff. And I never would have thought it
would have been like that and that it would have
lasted as long as it did because it did. Yeah. Yeah,
(20:46):
so Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Merry Christmas. Get yourself a box of cookies and cry. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Do whatever, you know, makes you happy, is healthy for
you self-care wise. We are so thrilled to have you
as a listener, all of you. So thank you. As always,
if you would like to contact us, you can. Our
email is stephendiamomstuff at iheartmedia.com. You can find us on
Twitter at MomStuffPodcast or on Instagram at Step Home Never
(21:14):
Told You. Thanks as always to our super producer, Christina.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Making it all happen. Yes. And thanks to you for listening.
Step Home Never Told You is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
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Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
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