Many of you know that a ghost inhabits our cottage on the trout stream, and that he has a playful sense of humor. He’s set fire to our truck, made the doorknob to our front door fall off and been responsible for starting up our electric stove in the middle of the night. We rarely spend the winter months in the cottage, so I’ve often wondered what Fred did during the times we were absent. Because the cottage is shut down in the winter—no heat, no water—I worried that Fred would suffer in the frigid winter months. But, thinking about ghosts, I don’t believe they experience the elements the way living protoplasm does. So does Fred leave the house when we aren’t here, or does he remain? Since we live across the stream from the cemetery, there are plenty of folks there who could potentially become Fred’s companions, so he could choose to move in with the folks they haunt. I’m not certain “haunt” is the right word for what ghosts like Fred do on a daily basis. I’m not an expert on ghosts. I only know Fred and only because he has made his presence known by the pranks he’s played, but I am a writer so let’s assume in my writerly imagination that I know a lot about Fred and his life.

I’m certain because he has chosen to introduce himself to us that he’s possibly a lonely ghost. Since we are spending this winter in the cottage, Fred is around. His favorite prank this year is riding the icicles off the roof as they melt from the ridge of our house. It’s a harmless pastime as the icicles would be sliding off the metal roof anyway, so it’s entertainment for Fred. Fred appears to be an incredibly old ghost, a Civil War veteran who built a house in the village shortly after the conflict. There are a number of them buried in the cemetery. In fact, we found one of their gravestones several years ago in our yard. It’s apparently the case that families of the deceased often replaced the original headstone with newer ones and one of Fred’s pal’s headstones was one of those replaced. We now use it as part of a walkway to our garden. We’re not being insensitive. Everyone around here does that with these old headstones. We like to think it gives the person originally buried under it someplace familiar to wander to when graveyard life gets too hectic. But back to Fred.

Early this year Fred arrived from one of his “haunts” or journeys as I like to think of them with a companion, a large long-haired yellow cat by the name of Jasper. Of course, Jasper or “Jazz” as we like to call him is also a ghost and has taken to bothering our gray cat with pinches and nips that wake our cat from his sleep. And sleep is especially important to Marley as he is getting on in years and prefers life without much variety. Marley surprised us several months ago by inventing a game which he plays at bedtime with my husband. We call it “Head Under the Bed.” Marley goes upstairs at night and waits for my husband. He then sticks his head under our king-sized bed and waits for my husband to ruffle his fur (we call this “rumpling”). After a few minutes of rumpling, Marley then seeks another location for his head under the bed and waits for round two of rumpling. After my husband brushes his teeth, Marley finds another location, sticks his head under that section of the bed and gets his final rumpling. He then jumps on the bed and curls up on my chest, or sometimes my neck. But back to Jazz, the ghost cat.

Could it be possible that Jazz taught Marley this game? Or is Marley so smart that he invented it himself? Marley has never been a cat who liked to play, so we’re a little surprised at this recent foray into the world of gaming. You know how cats sometimes pop out of sleep and look across the room as if someone is there? What are they seeing? Perhaps they’re better at perceiving the world of spirits than we are. “Head Under the Bed” is such a whimsical and amusing new behavior for Marley, and he was never a cat with a sense of humor. It seems so like the sense of humor that Fred has displayed. I’m certain Fred would want a companion cat with as much of a playful nature as he himself has. That would be Jazz. Marley thanks you for helping him amuse himself at night.

Tune in soon when Alice arrives. You’ll love her!