"Not What You Think"

November 27, 2018; Flash Fiction

Ghosts are real, but not in the way you know. They aren’t scary; they aren’t the little girls in pigtails standing at the foot of your bed, when you know you don’t have kids. Ghosts aren’t the shadowy figures throwing open doors and cabinets when you’re home alone, nor the apparitions stalking past your doorway. Ghosts simply live in a human world full of non-humans. At the grocery store, a crowd of ghostly customers mill through aisles, just like you. Random shivers are simply you bumping into one, and I can assure you that they always apologize, even if you can’t hear. At the amusement park, ghosts wait patiently in line for empty cars that are not empty at all. Food mysteriously vanishes from carts, money scattered haphazardly in its place.

Everyone always assumes ghosts are scary, but does anyone consider that ghosts think the same of us?