Indie and the Ghost

When I talk to people about my Spooky America books, one of the most common questions they ask is, “Have you ever seen a ghost?” The answer isn’t as easy as a simple yes or no. Have I seen, truly seen, without a doubt, a ghostly spirit? No. Have I experienced strange sensations that felt otherworldly, which I can’t definitively explain away? Yes.

For instance, I grew up with lots of creepy things in my backyard, and not all of them were my family, but I don’t have 100% proof that the shed in my backyard was really haunted. And maybe I just dreamed the ghostly encounter I had in my cabin at the Highlights Foundation in Pennsylvania, but maybe I didn’t.

The thing is, as much as I want to believe in ghosts (and do, in theory), I am also very science-minded, and I try to rule out all other possibilities before I jump to the supernatural. Which is why recent events have me a bit on edge. You see, I didn’t see a ghost, but I’m pretty sure my cat did.

On August 25th, I went to three estate sales with my husband and my dad. I didn’t buy anything, but I think I still might have brought something (or someone) home with me.

When I returned home from the shopping trip, I sat at my desk for a couple of hours working. During this time, our cat Indigo was sleeping on the couch. Then I went to take a nap, and when I woke up, my husband showed me the following video.

Some things to know before you watch…

Indie is a little over a year old. We adopted him when he was less than two months old, and he’s been an indoor cat ever since. He is the friendliest, least skittish cat I’ve ever owned. He greets strangers at the door, lets everyone pet him, and is not afraid of dogs or vacuum cleaners. Loud, unexpected noises will make his tail fuzz, but usually just for a moment. He almost never hides from anything. This is what he looks like right now:

The room in this video is my home office. It’s technically supposed to be the dining room, which is why it’s open to the kitchen. This house was built in 1930, and we have lived here a little over a year. Nothing in the room is new. The desk, chair, pillow, shoes, and rug have all been here for the cat’s entire life. Most of them I’ve owned for much longer.

Lastly, the video is over five minutes long, but Indie was acting this way for five minutes before my husband started recording and continued to act strangely for several minutes longer.

Here’s the video:

The following day, everything seemed to go back to normal. Indigo entered my office without concern, played with his toys, slept in his bed, and jumped on my desk as if nothing was wrong. However, on September 3rd, he started acting strangely again, staring at the same spot in the room, this time from all the way on the other side of the couch in our living room. The wooden chair wasn’t there anymore, and the dog was sleeping on the rug by my desk, and it was a different time of day than the last time he saw something, but his reaction was very similar. He stayed away from the room for a couple of hours, keeping an eye on it from afar.

Indie keeping an eye on the spooky spot in my office from a safe distance.

I’m trying not to let Indie’s strange behavior bother me too much. Even though it’s pretty weird. Even though I spend a lot of my time sitting right next to whatever he saw. Even though I’m sitting there right now. After all, who knows what goes through my crazy cat’s head? Our dog Uno has no concerns about my office, and my husband and I haven’t felt any uncomfortable presences. Still…

In my book The Ghostly Tales of Austin, I mention that some cultures believe spirits can follow the living home after a funeral. For this reason, they bury their deceased quickly and take an alternate path home. Maybe the next time I visit an estate sale, I’ll ignore my GPS and take the scenic route back to my house.

Speaking of my Spooky America books, I’ll be reading stories from The Ghostly Tales of Dallas at Interabang Books on Friday, September 29th at 4:00PM. Bring the family for some spooky fun! I’ll try not to let any uninvited guests tag along…

August in Texas

After forty-four days of over 100°F temperatures in Dallas this summer (twenty-one of them consecutive) we are finally getting a break from the excessive heat. The high in Richardson today is only 93°. Those of you who haven’t lived in this particular level of hell might be thinking, “Does seven degrees really make that much of a difference?”

Yes. Yes it does.

There are a few clouds in the sky today and a breeze. My outdoor cats are playing rather than sleeping under the porch all day, and I sat in the swing for a few minutes this afternoon without my shirt immediately sticking to my skin. We are not done with our 100+ days; they will continue into September. But today’s blissful 93° reminds me that autumn still exists somewhere, and it will visit us eventually. That’s a good feeling.

The sky over the Richardson ISD Administration Building during my walk this morning

This summer’s unusually oppressive heat reminds me of a poem I wrote several years ago. This tritina was first published in the Texas Poetry Calendar in 2015. I wrote this one when I lived in Austin, so a few details no longer apply. The African dust doesn’t seem to affect this area as much, and we don’t have to watch out for rattlesnakes in our neighborhood here. Instead of limestone peeking out from the parched ground, here the dry earth opens up during the summer, cracking into deep ravines that will twist your ankle if you’re not careful. But the sentiment of the poem remains the same. We’re all holed up in the AC, waiting out these oven-like afternoons, appreciating all the under-100 days we get, and looking forward to the first real signs of fall.

August in Texas
	by Carie Juettner

Dust from Africa hovers in the Texas sky,
turning the cloudless blue into a gritty gray,
filling my lungs with a sleepy silt that rattles

when I breathe. I suck in air, listen to the rattle
of the mower next door, kicking brown exhaust into the sky,
and glance at the thermometer—one hundred degrees in the gray

shadow of the porch. August is a heavy month—heavy heat, heavy gray
stones peeking out from the dead grass where a rattle-
snake coils in the shade of a rosemary bush, her tongue tasting the sky.

I squint at the sky, eyes burning in the gray sunlight, heart rattling for September.

Beware of Delaware!

Happy Book Birthday to The Ghostly Tales of Delaware!

My fifth book in the Spooky America series, The Ghostly Tales of Delaware, makes its debut in the world today, and I can’t wait to share it with readers. This latest collection of haunted history has some of the creepiest and most unique ghosts that I’ve come across so far. Witches? Headless horseman? Phantom screams? Haunted bathtubs? This book has it all! The scariest stories in the book (in my opinion) are “Screams in the Night at Lums Pond State Park” in Chapter 3 and “The Haunting of Maggie’s Bridge” in Chapter 10, but my favorite story might be “Bullies Beware” in Chapter 6. I like the idea of a ghost coming back to haunt the people who teased him.

The Spooky America books are recommended for readers ages 8-12, but they can be enjoyed by anyone who likes ghosts and learning local history. They’re perfect for reading around a campfire on a fall night or sharing with friends at a sleepover. And you don’t have to live in Delaware to enjoy these stories. In fact, you might like them more if you’re not in the state where these creepy characters reside. You’ll feel safer knowing there’s not a headless soldier waiting to follow you down a dark road or a swamp monster ready to leap out at you from the woods.

If you or a middle grader in your life would like a signed, personalized copy of The Ghostly Tales of Delaware, you can buy one directly from me. The books are $15 each, including shipping, and you can pay via Venmo, PayPal, or check. Just contact me and let me know how many you’d like, who they’re for, and where to send them.

The Spooky America books are also popular with cats.

One more thing… the Spooky America books are adaptations of the Haunted America series for adult readers. I couldn’t have brought Delaware’s ghost stories to kids without the amazing work of the original text, The Haunted History of Delaware by Josh Hitchens. To learn more about Josh and his books, plays, ghost tours, and horror podcasts, visit his website: joshhitchens.com.