Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
I'm Liz Sour.
And this is Ghosts in The Burbs,
a podcast of ghost stories from Wellesley Massachusetts,
a warning adults who use adult language told me these frightening tales.
These ghost stories aren't for kids.
Halloween is in the air and so is uncertainty and a hell of a lot of terror.
(00:29):
We're on to ghost story number 74 the Harbinger of Halloween.
Now,
if there's one thing I'm going to do when we move to a new neighborhood,
it's find all the new walking trails new to me anyway and track down all the creepy little parks.
(00:52):
We're close to town in a relatively tightly packed neighborhood.
So I thought I'd traversed most of the cut throughs and walking paths in the area.
But there was one piece of conservation land that I hadn't yet heard of and that's Kronk's Rocky Woodland.
The Wellesley Conservation Trust describes it as follows.
Kronk's Rocky Woodland was given to the Wellesley Conservation Land Trust in 1977 by Gertrude Kronk in memory of Corydon P.
(01:21):
Cronk.
This Woodland preserve of native wildflowers was next to their home at 10 Crown Ridge Road and had been in their possession for nearly 30 years.
Kronk's Rocky Woodland is now fenced with a gate at the entrance on Crown Ridge Road and includes a rustic cabin and a marked nature trail.
The Wellesley Conservation Land trust works with wildflower and tree experts to maintain gertrude krude.
(01:47):
Her name's Hard Gertrude Kronk's vision for this woodland sanctuary.
Some of the beautiful wild flowers found here are Jack in the Pulpit,
pink lady slippers,
Jacob's Ladder,
yellow trout,
lily,
black kash,
and many other varieties.
How great are those flower names?
Right?
The park even has its own Facebook page chock full of darling posts of community events,
(02:12):
hot cider and donuts meetups each autumn.
Smores roasts in the outdoor fireplace when it snows images of baby birds in their nests.
Very wholesome cozy.
That little park in an unlikely place may have once been home to the Cranks,
but now something else has claimed the land.
(02:32):
I became aware of the park at this year's annual Fall fest.
I think I've mentioned the elementary school event before.
A festival of burgers and dogs,
apple cider and apple cider donuts,
cotton candy,
a cake walk and a Halloween costume swap all capped off by an outdoor movie.
It's controlled chaos.
It's kids running around just this side of lawless.
(02:53):
It's over stimulation.
It's freezing your ass off sitting on a damp soccer field at night while the kids gorge on candy.
I know I sound like Scrooge but that's because I am try as I might,
I struggle to enjoy large scale children's events.
I think it's a mix of anxiety and the fact that I suspect I never shook off a titch of that postpartum,
(03:15):
that little voice shouting.
What were you thinking?
This is too much,
too fast.
It's too scary.
Why did you ever think that you could handle this?
But I've managed it.
I am managing it but the ceaseless stream of kid centric activities come at you fast one after another.
And for someone who realized late in life that I'm actually an introvert,
(03:38):
these things can be a lot.
Anyone will tell you that there is a great deal of acting involved in parenting,
acting,
patient,
acting,
interested,
acting as excited as everyone else around me seems to be.
And I'm not a very good actress.
My mask slips more than I'd like it to most of the time.
I feel like the worst sort of phony and I certainly carry a lot of guilt about it.
(04:03):
It's not that I don't want to enjoy myself for their sake.
But so many times I find myself looking around and wonder thinking,
how aren't these people worried about all the things that can go horribly irreversibly wrong right now.
I blame it on my wildly overactive anxious brain and its never ending mix of fearful and banal thoughts these days.
(04:25):
The stream goes a little something like this.
I need to chill with the social media.
But what is going to happen.
It took hours for help to come for those poor people hours.
I should be more fucking grateful that I have a house to clean and a healthy family to care for.
My ass is getting flat.
If I could just set aside a fucking time and schedule and stick to it.
(04:46):
Like every other author,
the book would have been done three years ago.
I am so bad at texting people back.
I need to try harder to maintain my miniscule social life and various dysfunctional relationships.
I can't believe what happened since those poor people.
I mean,
the horse has left the gate.
How will anyone stop it now?
What is going to happen next?
(05:06):
I forgot to put out the dry cleaning.
The girls are old enough to pack their own fucking snacks.
I hate our house.
I'm lucky to have a house.
My God.
How could this be happening?
How dare I complain about anything?
Those people would kill to be here right now.
Buck up.
I'll delete Tik Tok again.
I won't drink.
It only buys me two hours of quiet and then the anxiety will scream me awake at 2 a.m. I'll have a valerian root tea.
(05:30):
How can we all just sit here and pretend the world isn't on fire.
I'm going to buy a new planner and use a different pen.
Make a to do list what the fuck is going to happen next?
Racing,
distracting maddening thoughts.
It's a trade off.
Have quieter thoughts but not off when I sit down to write and desperately need to nap in the afternoon or live in the loop for now.
(05:53):
I've chosen to live in the loop.
Give me a month or two and I'll sign back up for numbed out quiet again.
But where was I parenting?
Anxiety kid even,
you know that fucking elementary school parking lot is a death trap.
Ok.
Right.
Fall fest.
(06:13):
Well,
I worked the ticket table this year.
I actually enjoyed it.
To be honest,
I like the women I was with and it's always best to have a job at these things,
idle hands and all that.
I tasked Max with keeping an eye on Kat but knew that might result in trouble,
not that she would intentionally ignore or leave her,
but cat just tends to wander.
Chris was coaching Joey's soccer practice.
(06:34):
So they showed up about an hour late.
I finished my shift and was scanning the crowd for,
for the girls.
When I felt a hand on my arm,
you're the ghost woman trying to hide the fact that I was startled.
I forced a laugh,
I guess.
Yeah,
my sister in law was just in town and she's obsessed with your stories.
Are they real?
(06:56):
I nodded while my eyes darted around us.
Still scanning for the girls.
Where were they?
It was getting dark out.
I should have spotted them already.
It would be so easy.
For someone to take them.
What if they'd wandered into that fucking parking lot?
My wife took her to Cabra then showed her moo God.
Hit the hot spots.
I replied,
distracted.
(07:16):
You guys just moved over this way,
huh?
We were at the kindergarten social.
You threw a couple of years ago.
Oh,
sure.
Why did you move?
That was actually two houses ago.
I explained,
we get antsy.
So this will be your kid's first Halloween in the neighborhood.
Yeah.
Where were the fucking girls?
(07:37):
Two more minutes?
And I was sounding the alarm.
Don come here.
Another dad approached us offering Ted a hearty slap on the back and me a cautious smile.
You heard about that blog about the ghost and Wellesley Don's brow furrowed.
Yeah,
I think Margot reads it.
This is the woman who writes it.
Mom.
(07:58):
Oh,
thank God.
I breathed inwardly.
Hi,
honey.
I was worried that I couldn't find you.
Relief.
Reverted back to panic.
Where's your sister?
The Cotton Candy Line?
But we need more tickets.
I handed K a $5 bill.
You come right back here with your treat.
OK?
Are you OK?
Everything,
ok.
Yeah.
She yelled over her shoulder as she sprinted for the ticket table.
(08:20):
I was surprised to see that the two men were still standing there when I turned back.
So I began awkwardly.
I didn't want to be talking to two men by myself.
Where the fuck was Chris?
I wondered he was just so much better in these situations.
She just moved over to Texan.
Brackets name of street omitted and brackets.
(08:42):
Ted told Don huh.
First Halloween in the neighborhood then Don commented mimicking Ted's earlier statement.
Yep,
the houses are closer together here than they were in our last neighborhood.
Kids are hoping for a big haul.
The men chuckled.
Just keep clear of Cranks.
Don cautioned,
I could smell alcohol on his breath.
(09:04):
That definitely wasn't coffee and his yeti tumbler.
Who are the Crocs?
I asked,
doing my best to hide my annoyance.
Chatting with a couple of dads that I barely knew was fine,
but I sure as shit wasn't going to gossip with them.
Not who,
where it's a park at the top of Crown Ridge.
You don't want the kids going anywhere near it on Halloween night.
(09:25):
Why not?
Are there Satanist putting needles in the candy or something?
Hey,
Liz Trina,
the mom of a boy in Joey's class joined us and slid an arm around Ted's waist.
Isn't this fun?
I nodded.
Hoping I looked like I meant it.
We were just warning her about Crocs.
The smile fell from Trina's face.
(09:46):
How did you get on that subject?
Ted shrugged.
Someone should tell her Trina gave her husband an annoyed look.
What's wrong with the park?
I asked beginning to be intrigued.
Some people say there's a monster who lives there said Don,
it comes out before midnight on Halloween,
Ted added,
(10:06):
but only on odd numbered years said,
Don Trina's lips were pursed tightly.
They call it the Harbinger of Halloween and you can summon it to tell you the future.
Ha I laughed.
Feeling like I might be being made the butt of a joke.
I didn't get,
were they making fun of me for writing ghost stories?
We're serious.
(10:27):
Ted insisted,
just ask Trina.
She saw that thing for herself,
show her your wrist trin,
her eyes widened at the suggestion.
Come on.
She writes about this stuff.
Don pointed out you should show her.
Trina was obviously pissed but managed to fix her features into a semi pleasant expression.
She lifted her sleeve and showed me her wrist,
(10:49):
three thick lines,
curve from half way up her arm down to the pad beneath her thumb.
I stared for a moment then met her eyes.
It's really a thing she said,
pulling down her sleeve.
Stay away from that street Halloween night.
Hello,
Chris boomed beside me,
making me jump.
(11:09):
Sorry,
I'm late.
A couple of the kids' parents were late to pick them up from practice.
He kissed my temple.
Hey,
I'm Chris.
He said,
introducing himself around and shaking hands.
We chatted with the group a few minutes longer.
Then predictably when the girls did not report back after purchasing their cotton candy,
we found reason to excuse ourselves so we could round them up.
(11:30):
What was that about?
He asked when we were far enough distance away from the group.
I'll tell you later.
I replied to buy myself time.
We'd only been in the house for 2.5 months and he was already sending me Zilla listings and he didn't even know about the ghost in our garage yet.
If he knew there was a monster,
a couple of streets over I'd be packing by the end of the week.
(11:51):
The text from Trina came through at 5 13.
The following morning game.
Recognize game.
I thought reading the anxiety laden message.
Hey,
good to see you last night at fall fest.
Hoping your kids were able to calm down faster than ours when they got home last night.
I was hoping maybe we could grab a coffee next week.
Monday or Tuesday.
(12:11):
I know you're probably busy.
So whatever fits your schedule works.
Thanks.
This is Trina Sellers.
By the way,
I texted back,
writing that cat settled down after the fall fest just fine.
After throwing up hot pink halfway through the movie,
I roll emoji crying,
laughing emoji and Monday morning after drop off worked for me,
Trina suggested Cabra and I agreed happily.
(12:35):
I was in the mood for a cinnamon bun.
I know Lindsay or should I say Texan brackets,
real name omitted and brackets.
They moved last year and I haven't spoken with her since,
but I met her through the Wellesley Mother's Forum.
I scrambled for a response but Trina saved me.
(12:55):
I like the monster better.
She admitted.
Isn't that awful of me to say she was such an intense person when I first met her.
And unless you really knew her,
you might not even notice how subtly she'd mellowed.
I just assumed she was micro dosing or something.
But then another friend of mine found your blog and we knew instantly who you were writing about shit.
(13:15):
I muttered,
believe it or not.
I usually try to do my best to throw off some details.
So people who live here won't have an easy time figuring out who I'm writing about.
It was the Banks Trina explained once you or whoever you work with did whatever they did.
And I mean,
I assume they got rid of the monster,
right?
Because she reverted right back worse.
(13:36):
I think more rigid Trina leaned forward.
She tried to get a handful of books banned at the Bates Library.
Good Lord.
I muttered,
I should have let the mimic stay.
Trina laughed.
The monster was more kind and less ignorant.
Apparently I added before biting into a warm cinnamon bun.
(13:58):
Speaking of monsters,
Trina began.
There's one at Kronk's Rocky Woodland of Terror.
I was meaning to go check it out yesterday.
But the day got away from me.
I told her I'd wait until after Halloween,
Trina suggested her smile,
not reaching her eyes just to be on the safe side.
She added,
(14:19):
what exactly is it?
She pursed her lips then said,
I've done a lot of research over the years trying to figure it out.
We call it the Halloween Harbinger.
But the thing isn't technically a harbinger.
Traditionally,
it would have been considered an oracle.
She explained,
you know,
about the math man.
I nodded.
(14:40):
What am I asking?
She laughed.
Of course,
you do anyway,
you know how a harbinger of doom might offer a warning of future events,
useless and unintelligible though.
That warning might be like Mothman flapping around and scaring the shit out of people before the bridge collapsed.
I mean,
who could possibly have guessed what he was trying to warn them about?
Right.
So on the other hand,
(15:01):
an oracle like those from Greek Antiquity,
they offer prophecies about the future.
The prophecy might be coded or confusing,
but at least it attempts to offer a hint.
We don't really have modern day oracles.
We have psychics,
but none seem all that great at accurately predicting things.
So the Halloween harbinger is more of a Halloween oracle.
(15:22):
Hm.
The odd oracle of October.
I suggested Trina offered a hesitant smile because it only comes on odd numbered years.
I said,
all right,
perfect.
She laughed.
Well,
so the odd oracle of October.
Yeah.
So for the most part,
the legend seems to have died out.
Thank goodness.
(15:44):
Not for long.
Once you publish your story,
Claire commented,
making me feel guilty.
She'd been excited all morning to tag along on this coffee.
She loved Halloween stories.
I suspect that this was going to be an urban legend situation,
but Claire had a feeling it was going to be a good one.
My best friend Jenny's older brother Ricky told us about it.
(16:05):
We were at our house the afternoon of Halloween,
early nineties,
we were obsessed with Aladdin.
So we decided to go as Jasmine and Aladdin,
we'd written the names on a slip of paper and I got lucky and pulled Jasmine.
She laughed at the memory.
We planned to go to another friend's house early evening to watch Friday the 13th and then go out and trick or treat.
We were getting ready to go when Ricky poked his head into Jenny's room to see what we were up to.
(16:30):
He was a senior in high school,
a little out there called himself straight edge.
You know,
he always had a big black Aron on the back of his hand and sharpie,
oh my God.
Core memory unlocked.
I exclaimed,
I haven't thought about that in years.
I know.
Right.
He was very sweet.
He sat down on Jenny's bed and asked where we were going.
(16:52):
We told him the neighborhood,
we all lived over in poet's corner.
So he was surprised,
stay clear of Crocs.
He warned us,
oh,
I can see him clear as day in my mind,
so mature,
so cool.
She chuckled.
Of course,
we took the bait and asked why.
So he told us the story two years before a girl at the high school,
(17:14):
a junior had been killed riding her bike home on Weston Road.
Oh,
no,
I groaned.
It was really sad.
I was in seventh grade at the time so I didn't know her,
but it was really a town wide tragedy.
It had been a hit and run.
She was coming home from cross country practice at the high school and it took months for the police to find the woman who did it.
(17:36):
The girl was like super popular.
Three varsity athlete volunteered for charity just like an all around nice girl,
by all accounts.
Well,
she was killed in early November and kids started talking pretty soon after she died.
That previous Halloween night.
There were rumors about something happening up at Cronk the year before we didn't know what Cronk was.
(17:56):
But apparently high school kids would park down at Roche then walk up there and sneak into the little cabin to drink and stuff.
Ricky told us that there were rumors about Ouija boards and satanic rituals that the girl had sold her soul.
But something went wrong that a demon had attached to her from the Ouija board that she became possessed and had ridden her bike straight into traffic.
(18:16):
But Ricky claimed he knew the truth about that night.
His friend Keith had been there.
He was dating the girl's best friend and he saw everything that happened in that cabin.
It was Halloween night and three couples went up to the cabin to smoke pot and drink beer.
Trina raised her eyebrows up and down comically making me laugh.
(18:37):
One of the guys actually did bring along a Ouija board and they tinkered around with it a bit.
Then Keith decided they should tell scary stories and it was the girl's boyfriend,
Chad who told them about the Halloween Harbinger.
He told them all to close their eyes and imagine a large ancient being made of roots and rotting branches,
(18:57):
hugging the ground just outside the cabin waiting for its moment every other year on Halloween night for someone to call out to it.
The creature was sinewy and strong and smelled of autumn rot and it knew things about the future that humans had no business knowing it could be summoned and would offer a truth or answer a question.
(19:18):
Chad told them to hold the image of the creature in their minds and then open their eyes.
He told them to repeat after him,
Harbinger of Halloween come to us with the truth.
He said it three times and they all repeated it together.
Then they sat in silence waiting,
probably giggling a little bit and Chad said,
we're ready for you and something tapped at the door.
(19:41):
Everyone screamed,
they all looked at each other and started accusing Chad of playing a practical joke,
but he was just as scared as everybody else.
He opened the door thinking he would be one of their friends but no one was there.
So he closed the door all freaked out and the girl,
the one who ended up being killed was like,
so do we get to ask it a question?
Keith and his girlfriend were like,
(20:02):
no way but everyone else wanted to do it.
So,
Chad had them all close her eyes again.
Imagine the being in their minds just outside the cabin door.
Holy shit.
I interrupted.
What have you heard this?
No,
but oh my God plot twist.
They created a Tulpa bingo said,
Claire,
(20:23):
how's that?
They all focused their intentions at the same time,
they were just scared enough and just believing enough to bring something that hadn't existed before into being.
Huh?
Yeah,
maybe you're right.
It does sound like that Chad had been making up the story as he went along until things took a turn.
Yeah.
And since the group believed him,
(20:44):
they managed to summon it.
I said excitedly,
they sure did.
At least that's what Keith told Ricky.
Anyhow,
they went through the motions.
The thing tapped at the door this time,
Chad went to open it even though there wasn't anything there they could see anyway.
He invited it in to sit with them.
He sat back down and said,
go ahead,
ask it a question.
(21:06):
After a minute,
Keith asked if he was going to be rich,
like jokingly.
He said,
they heard a voice go in your early days.
You'll want for nothing.
In your later days.
It's everything you'll need.
Oof,
I whispered.
Yeah.
So there were other questions I can't remember what they were.
But then Chad's girlfriend asked,
am I going to get into Boston College?
(21:28):
And the voice responded.
Your acceptance is guaranteed.
But due to the wheels of fate,
your attendance is not.
Oh,
no.
According to Ricky,
they all thought it was just another kid screwing around with them,
you know,
talking through the chimney or something.
And they didn't really think too much about it until that girl's hit and run accident.
(21:49):
Did she get accepted to BC?
I asked Trina nodded.
Yikes.
That is so sad.
It was.
And Ricky swore to God that he thought Keith was telling the honest to God truth.
He said,
Chad felt super guilty about what had happened.
He felt responsible.
So you guys decide to try it out.
(22:11):
Yep.
We went to that little pre trick or treating party,
then went out for candy and found ourselves at the top of Crown Ridge,
Jenny and I decided to peel away from the group.
We couldn't convince anyone else to come with us.
The park is small but at night with that dark cabin set back in there.
It's pretty terrifying.
(22:32):
We followed the trail to the cabin and found the door unlocked.
We were actually pretty surprised that there weren't any kids back there now that I think about it.
It is pretty strange,
you know,
you'd think some kids,
whether they knew about the whole Harbinger thing or not,
would be there trying to creep themselves out on Halloween.
Um,
Jenny and I sat on the floor in that damp creaky cabin and we imagined the thing and we chanted Harbinger of Halloween come to us with the truth.
(22:59):
We sat there basically holding our breath and then there was this tiny scrape at the door,
not exactly a knock or a tap,
but something we freaked out.
It was the only way out of there unless we wanted to bust through a window.
So we were frozen.
We didn't know what to do.
I was crying,
Jenny was shaking.
She was so scared.
(23:19):
The scraping happened again and we both screamed at the top of our lungs.
Jenny was like we have to let it in and ask it a question.
It's the only way it'll go away.
I tried pulling her back from the door but she was too determined.
Trina blew out of breath.
She opened the door.
Nothing was there that we could see anyway,
but something was with us.
(23:40):
I could feel it.
I was on the edge of hysteria.
I was so terrified.
Jenny said something like,
can my parents keep the house?
This sort of shook me out of the moment.
What was she talking about?
Keep the house?
She hadn't said anything about moving.
Then the smell filled the cabin.
It smelled like damp and woods and autumn leaves and a raspy voice that was all around us said the house is gone,
(24:07):
but the will of your father provides security.
Once again,
shiver me timbers.
I breathed God,
that's scary.
Yeah,
I couldn't take it.
I started to leave the cabin but Jenny insisted that I had to ask a question.
I yelled at her that I didn't want to ask anything.
I just wanted to leave.
The monster didn't like that.
As I walked through the door,
(24:27):
I felt something like a hand but not a hand because it was rough and massive.
Grabbed my arm.
I wrenched away and it left these scratches.
We both ran out of the park and down the hill and called my mom from our friend's house to come pick us up.
I had the scrapes from my parents because it looked like a dog or something had scratched me and I knew they would be super uptight about finding the family with the dog and causing a whole scene about it.
(24:52):
That's why I think the scar looks so bad.
If I treated it properly,
it probably wouldn't be so noticeable.
Now,
I considered her for a moment.
Did it come?
True?
Yeah.
Her parents got divorced and they had to sell the house.
They moved away but not far but too far for us to see each other very often since we didn't drive yet.
(25:15):
Things were rough for them.
Ricky had to put off college and then about a year or so later,
her father passed away the will of her father.
I said in disbelief.
Yeah,
he left everything to the kids,
including his life insurance.
I was too curious to wait until after Halloween,
(25:37):
when I went to check out the small piece of conservation land for myself at 11 o'clock in the morning on a non Halloween day.
I couldn't help but wonder what I would do if confronted by the harbinger.
Would I ask a question or would I run?
It was a gray overcast day.
When I walked up to the park,
the place is about an acre or so of rocky woodland.
(25:57):
Set smack dab in the middle of a residential street.
You can't get too deep into the trees to not see the abutting homes,
but still,
it manages to give you a quiet feeling of isolation.
Once you've moved toward the park center,
a moss covered rock and tree root laden path carpeted by oak leaves,
pine needles,
pine cones and acorns wine throughout the little park.
(26:20):
Logs outline a trail that zigs and zags until you land in front of a small wooden cabin perched at the park's highest point.
Look up from the path if you dare risk a twisted ankle and you'll see adorably simple wooden bird houses nailed to several trees,
look to the side of the path and you'll find laminated informational sheets,
stuff to post in the ground or clipped to the foliage itself with fun details about the park and its inhabitants.
(26:45):
A full page spread offers the history of a hitching post placed near the center of the park.
It reads,
this hitching post was brought by Gertrude Green Cronk from her father's lumber business,
the MD Green lumber company in Auburn,
New York.
It stood at the entrance to the house at 10 Crown Ridge Road.
Then when Gertrude was 92 in 1986 it moved with her to Ohio and was placed in her daughter's Carol's yard.
(27:11):
Carol has recently moved and wished the post to return to the post.
Arrived back here from Ohio.
I know it's weird.
It's a little bit jumpy but arrived back here from Ohio about five years ago,
five years ago,
from when it didn't say kind of wild,
right?
A hitching post in New York then to Wellesley,
(27:32):
then to Ohio and back.
I don't know why,
but I don't like it.
Other transplants exist along the zigzagging path.
Some one seems to have repurposed a set of old wooden lawn chairs and placed them higgledy,
piggledy along the trail,
like the wooden logs that line the way the chairs sit and deteriorate in the elements.
The cabin itself looks,
(27:53):
I mean,
creepy but harmless.
I certainly wouldn't want to spend any time in there after dark though,
before I left the park through the front gate.
I couldn't help myself.
I whispered what will happen next.
Then beat feet down the road,
the sky had been gray and threatening all morning but the raindrops began the second.
(28:14):
I latched the gate behind me.
By the time I'd made it home,
I was soaked.
I dried off,
slipped into cozy clothes,
made ramen noodles and downloaded Tik Tok again.
Then scrolled through images of horror from distant lands until I had to go pick up the kids from school.
We had soccer and reading an architectural project and math homework to busy ourselves with.
(28:35):
And I just bought a new planner.
I could copy the birthdays and appointments from the old to the new I'd give gel ink another try.
It just might make everything easier to manage.
(29:00):
That's a wrap for this set of ghost stories.
I know how frustrating my schedule can be for listeners,
but I've learned that when I focus on schedule rather than story,
I end up putting things out that I regret when a good interview comes up.
I'll be certain to share it.
In the meantime.
Thanks to your generous support on Patreon,
I'm writing.
Uh Fuck,
(29:20):
I cannot get through this.
So I'm just gonna keep going.
Um Thanks to your generous support on Patreon.
I'm starting two writing courses this November through Gotham Writers Workshop.
I feel like I've got a handle on short stories with plenty of room for improvement,
of course.
But my grasp of writing a novel length tale that anyone would actually want to read remains an elusive little fucker.
(29:42):
So fingers crossed something in one of these courses.
Clicks.
I'm wishing you all the happiest of Halloween's watch Arachnophobia.
Then watch the burbs and what lies beneath and all of the Ghostbusters movies straight through.
Start to finish.
Head on over to ghost in the burbs dot com.
For all the links,
including those to merch.
As always,
(30:02):
all merch proceeds go to a charity of my choosing and until the end of the year,
those profits will be donated to heading home inc dot org.
I'll update you later and let you know about our donation.
This has been ghosts in the burbs.
Good night,
sleep tight.
And don't forget your night light.
I'm Liz Sour.
And this is Ghosts in The Burbs,
a podcast of ghost stories from Wellesley Massachusetts,
a warning adults who use adult language told me these frightening tales.
These ghost stories aren't for kids.
Halloween is in the air and so is uncertainty and a hell of a lot of terror.
(00:29):
We're on to ghost story number 74 the Harbinger of Halloween.
Now,
if there's one thing I'm going to do when we move to a new neighborhood,
it's find all the new walking trails new to me anyway and track down all the creepy little parks.
(00:52):
We're close to town in a relatively tightly packed neighborhood.
So I thought I'd traversed most of the cut throughs and walking paths in the area.
But there was one piece of conservation land that I hadn't yet heard of and that's Kronk's Rocky Woodland.
The Wellesley Conservation Trust describes it as follows.
Kronk's Rocky Woodland was given to the Wellesley Conservation Land Trust in 1977 by Gertrude Kronk in memory of Corydon P.
(01:21):
Cronk.
This Woodland preserve of native wildflowers was next to their home at 10 Crown Ridge Road and had been in their possession for nearly 30 years.
Kronk's Rocky Woodland is now fenced with a gate at the entrance on Crown Ridge Road and includes a rustic cabin and a marked nature trail.
The Wellesley Conservation Land trust works with wildflower and tree experts to maintain gertrude krude.
(01:47):
Her name's Hard Gertrude Kronk's vision for this woodland sanctuary.
Some of the beautiful wild flowers found here are Jack in the Pulpit,
pink lady slippers,
Jacob's Ladder,
yellow trout,
lily,
black kash,
and many other varieties.
How great are those flower names?
Right?
The park even has its own Facebook page chock full of darling posts of community events,
(02:12):
hot cider and donuts meetups each autumn.
Smores roasts in the outdoor fireplace when it snows images of baby birds in their nests.
Very wholesome cozy.
That little park in an unlikely place may have once been home to the Cranks,
but now something else has claimed the land.
(02:32):
I became aware of the park at this year's annual Fall fest.
I think I've mentioned the elementary school event before.
A festival of burgers and dogs,
apple cider and apple cider donuts,
cotton candy,
a cake walk and a Halloween costume swap all capped off by an outdoor movie.
It's controlled chaos.
It's kids running around just this side of lawless.
(02:53):
It's over stimulation.
It's freezing your ass off sitting on a damp soccer field at night while the kids gorge on candy.
I know I sound like Scrooge but that's because I am try as I might,
I struggle to enjoy large scale children's events.
I think it's a mix of anxiety and the fact that I suspect I never shook off a titch of that postpartum,
(03:15):
that little voice shouting.
What were you thinking?
This is too much,
too fast.
It's too scary.
Why did you ever think that you could handle this?
But I've managed it.
I am managing it but the ceaseless stream of kid centric activities come at you fast one after another.
And for someone who realized late in life that I'm actually an introvert,
(03:38):
these things can be a lot.
Anyone will tell you that there is a great deal of acting involved in parenting,
acting,
patient,
acting,
interested,
acting as excited as everyone else around me seems to be.
And I'm not a very good actress.
My mask slips more than I'd like it to most of the time.
I feel like the worst sort of phony and I certainly carry a lot of guilt about it.
(04:03):
It's not that I don't want to enjoy myself for their sake.
But so many times I find myself looking around and wonder thinking,
how aren't these people worried about all the things that can go horribly irreversibly wrong right now.
I blame it on my wildly overactive anxious brain and its never ending mix of fearful and banal thoughts these days.
(04:25):
The stream goes a little something like this.
I need to chill with the social media.
But what is going to happen.
It took hours for help to come for those poor people hours.
I should be more fucking grateful that I have a house to clean and a healthy family to care for.
My ass is getting flat.
If I could just set aside a fucking time and schedule and stick to it.
(04:46):
Like every other author,
the book would have been done three years ago.
I am so bad at texting people back.
I need to try harder to maintain my miniscule social life and various dysfunctional relationships.
I can't believe what happened since those poor people.
I mean,
the horse has left the gate.
How will anyone stop it now?
What is going to happen next?
(05:06):
I forgot to put out the dry cleaning.
The girls are old enough to pack their own fucking snacks.
I hate our house.
I'm lucky to have a house.
My God.
How could this be happening?
How dare I complain about anything?
Those people would kill to be here right now.
Buck up.
I'll delete Tik Tok again.
I won't drink.
It only buys me two hours of quiet and then the anxiety will scream me awake at 2 a.m. I'll have a valerian root tea.
(05:30):
How can we all just sit here and pretend the world isn't on fire.
I'm going to buy a new planner and use a different pen.
Make a to do list what the fuck is going to happen next?
Racing,
distracting maddening thoughts.
It's a trade off.
Have quieter thoughts but not off when I sit down to write and desperately need to nap in the afternoon or live in the loop for now.
(05:53):
I've chosen to live in the loop.
Give me a month or two and I'll sign back up for numbed out quiet again.
But where was I parenting?
Anxiety kid even,
you know that fucking elementary school parking lot is a death trap.
Ok.
Right.
Fall fest.
(06:13):
Well,
I worked the ticket table this year.
I actually enjoyed it.
To be honest,
I like the women I was with and it's always best to have a job at these things,
idle hands and all that.
I tasked Max with keeping an eye on Kat but knew that might result in trouble,
not that she would intentionally ignore or leave her,
but cat just tends to wander.
Chris was coaching Joey's soccer practice.
(06:34):
So they showed up about an hour late.
I finished my shift and was scanning the crowd for,
for the girls.
When I felt a hand on my arm,
you're the ghost woman trying to hide the fact that I was startled.
I forced a laugh,
I guess.
Yeah,
my sister in law was just in town and she's obsessed with your stories.
Are they real?
(06:56):
I nodded while my eyes darted around us.
Still scanning for the girls.
Where were they?
It was getting dark out.
I should have spotted them already.
It would be so easy.
For someone to take them.
What if they'd wandered into that fucking parking lot?
My wife took her to Cabra then showed her moo God.
Hit the hot spots.
I replied,
distracted.
(07:16):
You guys just moved over this way,
huh?
We were at the kindergarten social.
You threw a couple of years ago.
Oh,
sure.
Why did you move?
That was actually two houses ago.
I explained,
we get antsy.
So this will be your kid's first Halloween in the neighborhood.
Yeah.
Where were the fucking girls?
(07:37):
Two more minutes?
And I was sounding the alarm.
Don come here.
Another dad approached us offering Ted a hearty slap on the back and me a cautious smile.
You heard about that blog about the ghost and Wellesley Don's brow furrowed.
Yeah,
I think Margot reads it.
This is the woman who writes it.
Mom.
(07:58):
Oh,
thank God.
I breathed inwardly.
Hi,
honey.
I was worried that I couldn't find you.
Relief.
Reverted back to panic.
Where's your sister?
The Cotton Candy Line?
But we need more tickets.
I handed K a $5 bill.
You come right back here with your treat.
OK?
Are you OK?
Everything,
ok.
Yeah.
She yelled over her shoulder as she sprinted for the ticket table.
(08:20):
I was surprised to see that the two men were still standing there when I turned back.
So I began awkwardly.
I didn't want to be talking to two men by myself.
Where the fuck was Chris?
I wondered he was just so much better in these situations.
She just moved over to Texan.
Brackets name of street omitted and brackets.
(08:42):
Ted told Don huh.
First Halloween in the neighborhood then Don commented mimicking Ted's earlier statement.
Yep,
the houses are closer together here than they were in our last neighborhood.
Kids are hoping for a big haul.
The men chuckled.
Just keep clear of Cranks.
Don cautioned,
I could smell alcohol on his breath.
(09:04):
That definitely wasn't coffee and his yeti tumbler.
Who are the Crocs?
I asked,
doing my best to hide my annoyance.
Chatting with a couple of dads that I barely knew was fine,
but I sure as shit wasn't going to gossip with them.
Not who,
where it's a park at the top of Crown Ridge.
You don't want the kids going anywhere near it on Halloween night.
(09:25):
Why not?
Are there Satanist putting needles in the candy or something?
Hey,
Liz Trina,
the mom of a boy in Joey's class joined us and slid an arm around Ted's waist.
Isn't this fun?
I nodded.
Hoping I looked like I meant it.
We were just warning her about Crocs.
The smile fell from Trina's face.
(09:46):
How did you get on that subject?
Ted shrugged.
Someone should tell her Trina gave her husband an annoyed look.
What's wrong with the park?
I asked beginning to be intrigued.
Some people say there's a monster who lives there said Don,
it comes out before midnight on Halloween,
Ted added,
(10:06):
but only on odd numbered years said,
Don Trina's lips were pursed tightly.
They call it the Harbinger of Halloween and you can summon it to tell you the future.
Ha I laughed.
Feeling like I might be being made the butt of a joke.
I didn't get,
were they making fun of me for writing ghost stories?
We're serious.
(10:27):
Ted insisted,
just ask Trina.
She saw that thing for herself,
show her your wrist trin,
her eyes widened at the suggestion.
Come on.
She writes about this stuff.
Don pointed out you should show her.
Trina was obviously pissed but managed to fix her features into a semi pleasant expression.
She lifted her sleeve and showed me her wrist,
(10:49):
three thick lines,
curve from half way up her arm down to the pad beneath her thumb.
I stared for a moment then met her eyes.
It's really a thing she said,
pulling down her sleeve.
Stay away from that street Halloween night.
Hello,
Chris boomed beside me,
making me jump.
(11:09):
Sorry,
I'm late.
A couple of the kids' parents were late to pick them up from practice.
He kissed my temple.
Hey,
I'm Chris.
He said,
introducing himself around and shaking hands.
We chatted with the group a few minutes longer.
Then predictably when the girls did not report back after purchasing their cotton candy,
we found reason to excuse ourselves so we could round them up.
(11:30):
What was that about?
He asked when we were far enough distance away from the group.
I'll tell you later.
I replied to buy myself time.
We'd only been in the house for 2.5 months and he was already sending me Zilla listings and he didn't even know about the ghost in our garage yet.
If he knew there was a monster,
a couple of streets over I'd be packing by the end of the week.
(11:51):
The text from Trina came through at 5 13.
The following morning game.
Recognize game.
I thought reading the anxiety laden message.
Hey,
good to see you last night at fall fest.
Hoping your kids were able to calm down faster than ours when they got home last night.
I was hoping maybe we could grab a coffee next week.
Monday or Tuesday.
(12:11):
I know you're probably busy.
So whatever fits your schedule works.
Thanks.
This is Trina Sellers.
By the way,
I texted back,
writing that cat settled down after the fall fest just fine.
After throwing up hot pink halfway through the movie,
I roll emoji crying,
laughing emoji and Monday morning after drop off worked for me,
Trina suggested Cabra and I agreed happily.
(12:35):
I was in the mood for a cinnamon bun.
I know Lindsay or should I say Texan brackets,
real name omitted and brackets.
They moved last year and I haven't spoken with her since,
but I met her through the Wellesley Mother's Forum.
I scrambled for a response but Trina saved me.
(12:55):
I like the monster better.
She admitted.
Isn't that awful of me to say she was such an intense person when I first met her.
And unless you really knew her,
you might not even notice how subtly she'd mellowed.
I just assumed she was micro dosing or something.
But then another friend of mine found your blog and we knew instantly who you were writing about shit.
(13:15):
I muttered,
believe it or not.
I usually try to do my best to throw off some details.
So people who live here won't have an easy time figuring out who I'm writing about.
It was the Banks Trina explained once you or whoever you work with did whatever they did.
And I mean,
I assume they got rid of the monster,
right?
Because she reverted right back worse.
(13:36):
I think more rigid Trina leaned forward.
She tried to get a handful of books banned at the Bates Library.
Good Lord.
I muttered,
I should have let the mimic stay.
Trina laughed.
The monster was more kind and less ignorant.
Apparently I added before biting into a warm cinnamon bun.
(13:58):
Speaking of monsters,
Trina began.
There's one at Kronk's Rocky Woodland of Terror.
I was meaning to go check it out yesterday.
But the day got away from me.
I told her I'd wait until after Halloween,
Trina suggested her smile,
not reaching her eyes just to be on the safe side.
She added,
(14:19):
what exactly is it?
She pursed her lips then said,
I've done a lot of research over the years trying to figure it out.
We call it the Halloween Harbinger.
But the thing isn't technically a harbinger.
Traditionally,
it would have been considered an oracle.
She explained,
you know,
about the math man.
I nodded.
(14:40):
What am I asking?
She laughed.
Of course,
you do anyway,
you know how a harbinger of doom might offer a warning of future events,
useless and unintelligible though.
That warning might be like Mothman flapping around and scaring the shit out of people before the bridge collapsed.
I mean,
who could possibly have guessed what he was trying to warn them about?
Right.
So on the other hand,
(15:01):
an oracle like those from Greek Antiquity,
they offer prophecies about the future.
The prophecy might be coded or confusing,
but at least it attempts to offer a hint.
We don't really have modern day oracles.
We have psychics,
but none seem all that great at accurately predicting things.
So the Halloween harbinger is more of a Halloween oracle.
(15:22):
Hm.
The odd oracle of October.
I suggested Trina offered a hesitant smile because it only comes on odd numbered years.
I said,
all right,
perfect.
She laughed.
Well,
so the odd oracle of October.
Yeah.
So for the most part,
the legend seems to have died out.
Thank goodness.
(15:44):
Not for long.
Once you publish your story,
Claire commented,
making me feel guilty.
She'd been excited all morning to tag along on this coffee.
She loved Halloween stories.
I suspect that this was going to be an urban legend situation,
but Claire had a feeling it was going to be a good one.
My best friend Jenny's older brother Ricky told us about it.
(16:05):
We were at our house the afternoon of Halloween,
early nineties,
we were obsessed with Aladdin.
So we decided to go as Jasmine and Aladdin,
we'd written the names on a slip of paper and I got lucky and pulled Jasmine.
She laughed at the memory.
We planned to go to another friend's house early evening to watch Friday the 13th and then go out and trick or treat.
We were getting ready to go when Ricky poked his head into Jenny's room to see what we were up to.
(16:30):
He was a senior in high school,
a little out there called himself straight edge.
You know,
he always had a big black Aron on the back of his hand and sharpie,
oh my God.
Core memory unlocked.
I exclaimed,
I haven't thought about that in years.
I know.
Right.
He was very sweet.
He sat down on Jenny's bed and asked where we were going.
(16:52):
We told him the neighborhood,
we all lived over in poet's corner.
So he was surprised,
stay clear of Crocs.
He warned us,
oh,
I can see him clear as day in my mind,
so mature,
so cool.
She chuckled.
Of course,
we took the bait and asked why.
So he told us the story two years before a girl at the high school,
(17:14):
a junior had been killed riding her bike home on Weston Road.
Oh,
no,
I groaned.
It was really sad.
I was in seventh grade at the time so I didn't know her,
but it was really a town wide tragedy.
It had been a hit and run.
She was coming home from cross country practice at the high school and it took months for the police to find the woman who did it.
(17:36):
The girl was like super popular.
Three varsity athlete volunteered for charity just like an all around nice girl,
by all accounts.
Well,
she was killed in early November and kids started talking pretty soon after she died.
That previous Halloween night.
There were rumors about something happening up at Cronk the year before we didn't know what Cronk was.
(17:56):
But apparently high school kids would park down at Roche then walk up there and sneak into the little cabin to drink and stuff.
Ricky told us that there were rumors about Ouija boards and satanic rituals that the girl had sold her soul.
But something went wrong that a demon had attached to her from the Ouija board that she became possessed and had ridden her bike straight into traffic.
(18:16):
But Ricky claimed he knew the truth about that night.
His friend Keith had been there.
He was dating the girl's best friend and he saw everything that happened in that cabin.
It was Halloween night and three couples went up to the cabin to smoke pot and drink beer.
Trina raised her eyebrows up and down comically making me laugh.
(18:37):
One of the guys actually did bring along a Ouija board and they tinkered around with it a bit.
Then Keith decided they should tell scary stories and it was the girl's boyfriend,
Chad who told them about the Halloween Harbinger.
He told them all to close their eyes and imagine a large ancient being made of roots and rotting branches,
(18:57):
hugging the ground just outside the cabin waiting for its moment every other year on Halloween night for someone to call out to it.
The creature was sinewy and strong and smelled of autumn rot and it knew things about the future that humans had no business knowing it could be summoned and would offer a truth or answer a question.
(19:18):
Chad told them to hold the image of the creature in their minds and then open their eyes.
He told them to repeat after him,
Harbinger of Halloween come to us with the truth.
He said it three times and they all repeated it together.
Then they sat in silence waiting,
probably giggling a little bit and Chad said,
we're ready for you and something tapped at the door.
(19:41):
Everyone screamed,
they all looked at each other and started accusing Chad of playing a practical joke,
but he was just as scared as everybody else.
He opened the door thinking he would be one of their friends but no one was there.
So he closed the door all freaked out and the girl,
the one who ended up being killed was like,
so do we get to ask it a question?
Keith and his girlfriend were like,
(20:02):
no way but everyone else wanted to do it.
So,
Chad had them all close her eyes again.
Imagine the being in their minds just outside the cabin door.
Holy shit.
I interrupted.
What have you heard this?
No,
but oh my God plot twist.
They created a Tulpa bingo said,
Claire,
(20:23):
how's that?
They all focused their intentions at the same time,
they were just scared enough and just believing enough to bring something that hadn't existed before into being.
Huh?
Yeah,
maybe you're right.
It does sound like that Chad had been making up the story as he went along until things took a turn.
Yeah.
And since the group believed him,
(20:44):
they managed to summon it.
I said excitedly,
they sure did.
At least that's what Keith told Ricky.
Anyhow,
they went through the motions.
The thing tapped at the door this time,
Chad went to open it even though there wasn't anything there they could see anyway.
He invited it in to sit with them.
He sat back down and said,
go ahead,
ask it a question.
(21:06):
After a minute,
Keith asked if he was going to be rich,
like jokingly.
He said,
they heard a voice go in your early days.
You'll want for nothing.
In your later days.
It's everything you'll need.
Oof,
I whispered.
Yeah.
So there were other questions I can't remember what they were.
But then Chad's girlfriend asked,
am I going to get into Boston College?
(21:28):
And the voice responded.
Your acceptance is guaranteed.
But due to the wheels of fate,
your attendance is not.
Oh,
no.
According to Ricky,
they all thought it was just another kid screwing around with them,
you know,
talking through the chimney or something.
And they didn't really think too much about it until that girl's hit and run accident.
(21:49):
Did she get accepted to BC?
I asked Trina nodded.
Yikes.
That is so sad.
It was.
And Ricky swore to God that he thought Keith was telling the honest to God truth.
He said,
Chad felt super guilty about what had happened.
He felt responsible.
So you guys decide to try it out.
(22:11):
Yep.
We went to that little pre trick or treating party,
then went out for candy and found ourselves at the top of Crown Ridge,
Jenny and I decided to peel away from the group.
We couldn't convince anyone else to come with us.
The park is small but at night with that dark cabin set back in there.
It's pretty terrifying.
(22:32):
We followed the trail to the cabin and found the door unlocked.
We were actually pretty surprised that there weren't any kids back there now that I think about it.
It is pretty strange,
you know,
you'd think some kids,
whether they knew about the whole Harbinger thing or not,
would be there trying to creep themselves out on Halloween.
Um,
Jenny and I sat on the floor in that damp creaky cabin and we imagined the thing and we chanted Harbinger of Halloween come to us with the truth.
(22:59):
We sat there basically holding our breath and then there was this tiny scrape at the door,
not exactly a knock or a tap,
but something we freaked out.
It was the only way out of there unless we wanted to bust through a window.
So we were frozen.
We didn't know what to do.
I was crying,
Jenny was shaking.
She was so scared.
(23:19):
The scraping happened again and we both screamed at the top of our lungs.
Jenny was like we have to let it in and ask it a question.
It's the only way it'll go away.
I tried pulling her back from the door but she was too determined.
Trina blew out of breath.
She opened the door.
Nothing was there that we could see anyway,
but something was with us.
(23:40):
I could feel it.
I was on the edge of hysteria.
I was so terrified.
Jenny said something like,
can my parents keep the house?
This sort of shook me out of the moment.
What was she talking about?
Keep the house?
She hadn't said anything about moving.
Then the smell filled the cabin.
It smelled like damp and woods and autumn leaves and a raspy voice that was all around us said the house is gone,
(24:07):
but the will of your father provides security.
Once again,
shiver me timbers.
I breathed God,
that's scary.
Yeah,
I couldn't take it.
I started to leave the cabin but Jenny insisted that I had to ask a question.
I yelled at her that I didn't want to ask anything.
I just wanted to leave.
The monster didn't like that.
As I walked through the door,
(24:27):
I felt something like a hand but not a hand because it was rough and massive.
Grabbed my arm.
I wrenched away and it left these scratches.
We both ran out of the park and down the hill and called my mom from our friend's house to come pick us up.
I had the scrapes from my parents because it looked like a dog or something had scratched me and I knew they would be super uptight about finding the family with the dog and causing a whole scene about it.
(24:52):
That's why I think the scar looks so bad.
If I treated it properly,
it probably wouldn't be so noticeable.
Now,
I considered her for a moment.
Did it come?
True?
Yeah.
Her parents got divorced and they had to sell the house.
They moved away but not far but too far for us to see each other very often since we didn't drive yet.
(25:15):
Things were rough for them.
Ricky had to put off college and then about a year or so later,
her father passed away the will of her father.
I said in disbelief.
Yeah,
he left everything to the kids,
including his life insurance.
I was too curious to wait until after Halloween,
(25:37):
when I went to check out the small piece of conservation land for myself at 11 o'clock in the morning on a non Halloween day.
I couldn't help but wonder what I would do if confronted by the harbinger.
Would I ask a question or would I run?
It was a gray overcast day.
When I walked up to the park,
the place is about an acre or so of rocky woodland.
(25:57):
Set smack dab in the middle of a residential street.
You can't get too deep into the trees to not see the abutting homes,
but still,
it manages to give you a quiet feeling of isolation.
Once you've moved toward the park center,
a moss covered rock and tree root laden path carpeted by oak leaves,
pine needles,
pine cones and acorns wine throughout the little park.
(26:20):
Logs outline a trail that zigs and zags until you land in front of a small wooden cabin perched at the park's highest point.
Look up from the path if you dare risk a twisted ankle and you'll see adorably simple wooden bird houses nailed to several trees,
look to the side of the path and you'll find laminated informational sheets,
stuff to post in the ground or clipped to the foliage itself with fun details about the park and its inhabitants.
(26:45):
A full page spread offers the history of a hitching post placed near the center of the park.
It reads,
this hitching post was brought by Gertrude Green Cronk from her father's lumber business,
the MD Green lumber company in Auburn,
New York.
It stood at the entrance to the house at 10 Crown Ridge Road.
Then when Gertrude was 92 in 1986 it moved with her to Ohio and was placed in her daughter's Carol's yard.
(27:11):
Carol has recently moved and wished the post to return to the post.
Arrived back here from Ohio.
I know it's weird.
It's a little bit jumpy but arrived back here from Ohio about five years ago,
five years ago,
from when it didn't say kind of wild,
right?
A hitching post in New York then to Wellesley,
(27:32):
then to Ohio and back.
I don't know why,
but I don't like it.
Other transplants exist along the zigzagging path.
Some one seems to have repurposed a set of old wooden lawn chairs and placed them higgledy,
piggledy along the trail,
like the wooden logs that line the way the chairs sit and deteriorate in the elements.
The cabin itself looks,
(27:53):
I mean,
creepy but harmless.
I certainly wouldn't want to spend any time in there after dark though,
before I left the park through the front gate.
I couldn't help myself.
I whispered what will happen next.
Then beat feet down the road,
the sky had been gray and threatening all morning but the raindrops began the second.
(28:14):
I latched the gate behind me.
By the time I'd made it home,
I was soaked.
I dried off,
slipped into cozy clothes,
made ramen noodles and downloaded Tik Tok again.
Then scrolled through images of horror from distant lands until I had to go pick up the kids from school.
We had soccer and reading an architectural project and math homework to busy ourselves with.
(28:35):
And I just bought a new planner.
I could copy the birthdays and appointments from the old to the new I'd give gel ink another try.
It just might make everything easier to manage.
(29:00):
That's a wrap for this set of ghost stories.
I know how frustrating my schedule can be for listeners,
but I've learned that when I focus on schedule rather than story,
I end up putting things out that I regret when a good interview comes up.
I'll be certain to share it.
In the meantime.
Thanks to your generous support on Patreon,
I'm writing.
Uh Fuck,
(29:20):
I cannot get through this.
So I'm just gonna keep going.
Um Thanks to your generous support on Patreon.
I'm starting two writing courses this November through Gotham Writers Workshop.
I feel like I've got a handle on short stories with plenty of room for improvement,
of course.
But my grasp of writing a novel length tale that anyone would actually want to read remains an elusive little fucker.
(29:42):
So fingers crossed something in one of these courses.
Clicks.
I'm wishing you all the happiest of Halloween's watch Arachnophobia.
Then watch the burbs and what lies beneath and all of the Ghostbusters movies straight through.
Start to finish.
Head on over to ghost in the burbs dot com.
For all the links,
including those to merch.
As always,
(30:02):
all merch proceeds go to a charity of my choosing and until the end of the year,
those profits will be donated to heading home inc dot org.
I'll update you later and let you know about our donation.
This has been ghosts in the burbs.
Good night,
sleep tight.
And don't forget your night light.
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