Thursday, 4 December

Euripper:

To make such plans and then have them go astray due to spirits is most disconcerting. Here are some little known facts about ghosts you may find interesting. (I purloined these from Tilbotson’s Spirit Guide, fifth revised edition, pub. 1908).

• Ghosts don’t need to eat but may choose to do so if the fancy strikes them. Most prefer breakfast meats to the exclusion of all other delicacies.
• Ghosts are not invisible! They can be easily tracked by use of “recanted illumination” a method of my own devising. (My note: nowhere in the book does Tilbotson explain this. I’m thinking he gave it up as a bad idea but failed to properly extract all references to it in later versions of his book.)
• Ghosts must work like their earthbound counterparts! Each day they must haunt for a minimum of six hours.
• Ghosts can be killed but it is hard to do. One must very much want the ghost dead and be prepared to suffer the consequences. When one kills a ghost (using methods I describe in the later chapter of nine) the ghost leaves the spirit plane and returns to Earth -- often with fresh memories of who it was who “killed” him. Rather than being grateful for the return to old normal, often these ex-ghosts are keen on revenge. One man, a Mr. C______ of Dorchester dispatched a troublesome haunt only to discover his new footman was the same ghost come back to life. A grim scene followed in which much blood and many entrails were spilled like so much stew over the side of a boiling pot. This began a tit for tat exchange of murders which each adversary passing in and out of the fleshly realm at least several dozen times. Finally, after several decades, the two reached an accord and became, of all things, homosexual partners. They now share a flat in London’s East End.
• Ghosts are also a concern on other planets.

Good reading, hey so? Does any of it apply to your current situation vis Pendergast?

Look before you act,

Osmeraldo