Episode 415: Your Urban Legends 101 - I’m Looking For an Apparition
/I’m looking for an apparition. 5’5”. Brown hair. Spooky vibes. Also, a visit from Ma Winchester AND Mother Goose? We are blessed AND scared, the best of both worlds.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of sexual content, abusive relationships, death, urination, enslavement, illness, and dementia.
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Julia recommends A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid.
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at https://spiritspodcast.com/books
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Cast & Crew
- Co-Hosts: Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin
- Editor: Bren Frederick
- Music: Brandon Grugle, based on "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: https://multitude.productions
About Us
Spirits is a boozy podcast about mythology, legends, and folklore. Every episode, co-hosts Julia and Amanda mix a drink and discuss a new story or character from a wide range of places, eras, and cultures. Learn brand-new stories and enjoy retellings of your favorite myths, served over ice every week, on Spirits.
Transcript
[theme]
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends and folklore. Every week, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia. Amanda, there's something about the November hometown urban legends that really does it for me. I think it's just remembering that our original hometown urban legends was our own hometown urban legends, and the fact that we told all Long Island ones the first time. It is very meaningful and special to me, I think, is when the November one rolls around.
AMANDA: It is. And Julia, for completely unrelated reasons as we record this on November 8th, 2024, I am incredibly excited to reach for mythos that we create, and control, and tell each other, and look to my community, my town, my ZIP code, my block. I spent Halloween at a haunted history lecture night at a local bar.
JULIA: Cool.
AMANDA: All about some of the haunted histories of my specific neighborhood of Greenpoint. That is what's feeling really tangible and knowable to me right now is how can I feed and learn from and spend time with the people who I see every day. And part of that, I mean, not to float our own boat, not to toot our own horn, it's the hometown urban legends. It's, you know, returning to where you're from, looking at the good and the bad, and figuring out why we tell each other the stories we tell each other.
JULIA: Yeah, there's something very striking to me right now about taking part in your community, and how urban legends are a part of that, whether it is— we're talking about, like, building community through outreach and through volunteering and stuff like that, all the way to the story that the teens tell each other in the parking lot of the high school.
AMANDA: Yeah. I don't know if it helps resist fascism by telling ghost stories, but it sure makes me feel in community among queer weirdos, and I need that more than ever right now.
JULIA: Depends on the theme of the ghost story, I think.
AMANDA: That's true.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: Well, Julia, would you like to hear— I actually— I have to drop the façade, Julia. Normally, you don't know what legends I'm bringing and vice versa to a given episode.
JULIA: True.
AMANDA: But this one, when I saw it hit the inbox, I messaged you and Bren and said, "Alert, we got a follow-up from Mother Goose, straight from Australia."
JULIA: And I said, "I was confused for one moment," and then I realized what you were talking about.
AMANDA: So Phia, who wrote in with the incredible tales of her witchy, lovely mom, who was known as Mother Goose in the community, has written on not just with an update, but an update from Mother Goose herself.
JULIA: Yes, we all said we wanted to be her or be adopted by her.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: And I still feel that way.
AMANDA: We learned about Macca's, the way Australians talk about McDonald's.
JULIA: I still think about that.
AMANDA: There's so much to learn, and I'm excited to bring it to you. So do you want to hear what Phia and Mother Goose have to say?
JULIA: Obviously.
AMANDA: "Dear Spirits, I can't believe Amanda read my email, so I had to send Ma the Urban Legends Episode 100 that you read about her. She immediately asked me to type this up to reply to you."
JULIA: Hell yeah.
AMANDA: So that was Phia, and now, "This is Ma, Phia's mum, to let you know about Him," in capital.
JULIA: Okay.
AMANDA: "A tiny tale from the graveyard and, shudders, trike girl."
JULIA: Ooh, okay. I— okay. Yeah.
AMANDA: "First, Julia, breathe, he was as opposite to scary or creepy as he could be."
JULIA: Well, when you don't describe him, I fear for the worst. We've done 100 of these.
AMANDA: "Phia was just rarely around when he came through. He was an apparition, five-five, medium build." I just—
JULIA: A short king.
AMANDA: Julia, I can't get over Phia's mom saying, "You know, brown hair, blue eyes, apparition—"
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: "—five-five." Like, it's just— it's so cavalier.
JULIA: I'm looking for an apparition, five-five, brown hair, blue eyes.
AMANDA: "And importantly, Julia, wearing an Australian duster, an Aussie Outback trench coat, honestly, the hottest thing a man can own."
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: "And here's a photo, not of Him, but close."
JULIA: Oh. Oh.
AMANDA: So, Julia, if you check your messages, and perhaps Bren, we can put up the image right here, this is, in fact, the duster. I have to say it's hot.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah. No, that's— Amanda, that's hot. That is hot.
AMANDA: It looks like the wind of the Outback will not penetrate that leather, and it looks like a torrential downpour won't get him wet. And then I want to nestle right up inside of him.
JULIA: And it might not get him.
AMANDA: Julia, Julia. All right.
JULIA: You can't set me up like that.
AMANDA: "He had a bowler hat, which he always took off, a polite, short king, and work boots. He died in 1932 when he was 46 and was a railway worker."
JULIA: No. I was about to ask, how do you know that? But then—
AMANDA: They clearly communicated.
JULIA: We discussed how they would have, like, long talks on the back porch, so I understand.
AMANDA: It's giving— what's the creepy movie with the hot ghost?
JULIA: You gotta be more specific than that.
AMANDA: Time traveler, hot ghost. They age together throughout time. Time Traveler's Wife.
JULIA: Time Traveler's Wife, he's not a ghost, though.
AMANDA: Really? I thought he was a ghost.
JULIA: No. No.
AMANDA: Just a time traveler?
JULIA: Just a time traveler.
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Well—
JULIA: I don't think he's a ghost.
AMANDA: You're probably right. "So the old Queenslander that we lived in was a railway workers' cottage that he lived in with his family. And to this day, he's one of the best housemates I've ever had."
JULIA: Fair.
AMANDA: "I guess he liked the way we lived with a lot of love and a lot of fun. He was the kind of man you could have a beer with and sit in restful silence alongside."
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: "I just left an abusive marriage, and he gave me that little bit of extra security I needed to feel safe enough to have this space for me and my family to heal. He was, frankly, the guardian angel we never knew we needed."
JULIA: Beautiful.
AMANDA: Short king. I love this.
JULIA: Short king. Short King. Did we get his name or it's just Him?
AMANDA: Just Him.
JULIA: It's okay. I mean, I feel like we got so much more information about Him. I want to know what his name is, but names have power, and maybe he didn't want to share it, and that's fine.
AMANDA: I feel like that might be private to Ma and to Him, but I— I'm lowkey, extremely romanticized by this story. This is great.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Okay. So second story is Mini Local Graveyard Story. "One night in the neighborhood cemetery, as the kids went ahead for Macca's," McDonald's.
JULIA: Like you do.
AMANDA: "I found a new ghost staring down at his headstone. The lost-looking spirit was startled when I asked if he was okay. He mentioned looking for his estranged brother, Phillip. So I got comfy and started chatting away. 'Was he alive or had passed when you had been living?' But he had no idea, so I said I'd look around as I moved on to harass and tease the nuns like usual."
JULIA: As you do.
AMANDA: "A kind one told me that she remembered his family. Phillip had passed about 13 years back, and she told me to search the church records. A week later, I found Phillip buried on the other side of the Brisbane River in Toowong Cemetery. I went back to his grave, took a photo of his headstone, which had his etching on it, and sent it to the Toowong Cemetery to be printed and left on Phillip's grave. By the time I had returned, he had moved on, and I never saw him again, but I hope he found his brother."
JULIA: Aw.
AMANDA: That's really nice.
JULIA: That's really nice.
AMANDA: Thank you, Mother Goose.
JULIA: You're very sweet.
AMANDA: "And then finally, the little girl on the trike.
JULIA: Already hating it, but go on.
AMANDA: "This is the only spirit in our suburb that freaked me out."
JULIA: My suspicions were correct.
AMANDA: "She was also the only spirit I met that was all white with black eyes."
JULIA: Hmm. Hate that.
AMANDA: "And if my name makes her run away, I'm glad the kids feel safer. I have a few more ghost stories I can tell if we can convince Phia to type them up for me, including the time I adopted a ghost child and had weekly tea dates with her elderly parents."
JULIA: I want that, first off. Secondly, I want to know what was about the ghost child that was so creepy, besides the appearance and besides that kids on tricycles are inherently creepy because of The Shining.
AMANDA: They are inherently creepy. Because Mother Goose is in such regular contact with spirits and not fazed by them at all, and like, "Hey. Like, how can I help you? What's going on? Like, how are we negotiating the space together?" I just— I find that a, like, lovely and radically accepting point of view. For her to be like, "No, fuck, that little girl on a trike," I need to know more about her.
JULIA: Hey, fuck that kid.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: So she signs off, "Sending you a piece of good old Aussie sunshine. Stay creepy, protect yourself, and stay cool. Love, Mother Goose."
JULIA: Thanks, Ma.
AMANDA: Thanks, Ma.
JULIA: Thanks, Ma. I want to be you, Ma.
AMANDA: Thanks, Ma. And thank you, Phia. Thank you for typing this up. Let me— Phia, let me know what merch you want, and we'll send you some merch for you and Mother Goose, okay?
JULIA: Oh, big promise to make on the podcast, Amanda.
AMANDA: We're here, Julia. We have a new merch store. We're ready.
JULIA: Well, you know who else we should probably send merch to, Amanda?
AMANDA: Who?
JULIA: Ma Winchester and the rest of the Winchesters.
AMANDA: The Winchesters. Well, we loaded them up good with merch at the live show in the winter, but yes, let me know. Let's go.
JULIA: Well, I do have an email from Ma Winchester herself.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: And it is titled, Amanda, The Winchester Creepy Kids.
AMANDA: Hell yeah, dude. We met these kids as adults. They're perfectly lovely and non-creepy, so let's hear how they were as child— as children.
JULIA: "Hey, ladies, it's Ma Winchester. It's been a bit since I wrote, partially because I was trying to decide which story to send you next. Should it be my most interesting happy birthday message, my unseen friends at work, or my creepy children?" I think we know which one she settled on.
AMANDA: I do, but I do need to know the rest of those.
JULIA: "While pondering this dilemma, I remembered a few things that solved my quandary, my own experiences. So here are the Winchester creepy kid stories."
AMANDA: Yay.
JULIA: "I have creepy kid stories for two out of my three daughters, maybe ironically, they are the two that have written to you previously." I don't think that's ironically. I think that aligns perfectly
AMANDA: No, I think if you're a mythology queer or a former creepy kid, we got you here on Spirits.
JULIA: Exactly. "Before we delve into their stories, though, I will tell you a little about my time as a creepy child. There are two occurrences that stick out to me from my own childhood and teenage years, though I will say more probably happened that I have shut out." Because of the trauma, sure.
AMANDA: Well, Ma Winchester is embarking on a career as a writer, so I think as she begins to, you know— or continues to unearth stories, maybe more will come up in a way that she can, you know, process and package for our enjoyment, sure, but also for her own processing.
JULIA: It's unlocking. It's giving unlocking.
AMANDA: Call me a skeleton key bitch, because it's giving unlocking.
JULIA: All right. "I have a cemented but vague memory from when I was really young, maybe four or five at most. I was sitting on the couch one day when I went to put my feet down and felt something grab at my ankles."
AMANDA: Okay. A distinct sensation that is not like a piece of hair, you know, touching my toe, which does make me think there's a mouse, but there is none.
JULIA: "I ran for my mother and told her something was under the couch. She, of course, told me it was probably a cat. I knew the difference between what I felt and a cat paw."
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: "To this day, I cannot describe what it was, but it was bigger than a cat paw, and it wasn't human."
AMANDA: Oh, boy.
JULIA: "For years after this happened, when getting on or off the couch, my bed, et cetera, I would jump from afar so as not to have my legs within reaching distance." I also remember doing that as a kid, probably because I saw a scary TV show or a movie where someone gets grabbed from their bed. But I used to, like, from halfway across the room, launch myself into bed as a kid.
AMANDA: Well, you also had, like, a semi-lofted bed, right? Like your bed was, like, fairly tall that I remember.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah. It was, like, not crazy tall, but it also wasn't on the ground. Like, I think there was a good, like, maybe two feet or three feet of space under the bed.
AMANDA: Yeah. I would say it was, like, typical from, like— if you had a bed frame and then a box spring, like that amount of distance was just like—
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: —open. So, I mean, it was maximally scary.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah. It was. It was a little spooky. "The second incident happened when I was a teenager. I was asleep in my bedroom, which I had seen in a dream before we bought the house, but that's besides the point." Ma'am, ma'am.
AMANDA: Respectfully.
JULIA: I was asleep in my bedroom when I was woke in the middle of the night. I noticed the sensation of something sitting on my feet. Though, when I looked, nothing was there. Hmm, it's interesting that both incidents involved my feet. Do you think that there could be something about them that attracts spirits?"
AMANDA: Now, Julia—
JULIA: Are you gonna say ghosts have foot fetishes?
AMANDA: I— that's not my bag.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: But I'm curious if perhaps you have especially lovely feet—
JULIA: Uh-huh.
AMANDA: —that spirits who may have appreciated feet in an esthetic and/or sexual way during life may just be excited about. Now, I'm uncomfortable because it began when you were a child, but if this has continued to adulthood, perhaps you just got really hot feet.
JULIA: I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know anymore.
AMANDA: We've talked about all kinds of unwanted, you know, touching from ghosts. It's never okay.
JULIA: Hey.
AMANDA: It's not okay because they're on the deadly plane, but I wonder if that's the case.
JULIA: It's very possible, I guess, is a thing that I am going to say on this podcast.
AMANDA: On the other hand, you know how some people have, like, particularly, like, a sense that, like— you know, if you get like, touched near the neck, you get ticklish—
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: —or whatever. I definitely have that where if something like brush up my hair, brushes up against my neck, I'll be like, "Oh, my God."
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: Maybe your feet are particularly sensitive, and so you can sense like a brush from the ghostly plane that would otherwise touch, like, your shoulder or your hand that— and you wouldn't sort of, you know, notice.
JULIA: Yeah. There's also a lot of pressure points in your feet, so maybe that has something to do with it. I don't know. Who can say?
AMANDA: Maybe something to do with your key. I don't know.
JULIA: "I was terrified at the time, but looking back, I think I might be able to blame a cat for this one, just not a cat that was visible to anyone."
AMANDA: Ah.
JULIA: "Ghost cat."
AMANDA: Okay. Fair. And cats love to wrap up against your ankles and your feet.
JULIA: That's true. "In addition to these specific instances, I also remember being terrified of a back room at my grandmother's house, believing that vampires were only going to suck my blood when it's warm, and a very scary sleepover party when I was about 12. That's enough about me, though. Let's move on to my creepy children." Ma, ma, ma, ma.
AMANDA: I'm curious to know, too. Did you realize you were a creepy kid before having children, or did becoming the parent of creepy children make you be like, "Oh, wait, this is in the blood."?
JULIA: Oh, wait, none of this was normal. "Katie was a very active child. I would have said that she only stopped moving and talking when she was asleep, but she didn't even stop then. There were a few nights when I was awake a little later and out of the bedroom would come little Katie. On one of these occasions, I asked what she was doing up, and she looked at me, then walked to the bathroom. I followed, expecting to see her doing her, quote-unquote, 'business,' but instead she began brushing her teeth."
AMANDA: Not— famously, not a thing kids enjoy doing or will do unprompted most of the time.
JULIA: "Another time, when asked why she was up, she turned around and went back into her room. When I went to make sure that she was back in bed, she was sitting on the edge of her toy box, as though she was using the toilet. I quickly got her up and into the bathroom." That's very—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: "—similar to the story I told fairly recently, too. These occurrences led me to believe that she was sleepwalking, most likely to the bathroom, and my presence confused her."
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: "These were amusing stories to share with others, the things she used to say in her sleep, however, did have a tendency to freak me out a little."
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: "There are two conversations I remember having with her while she was sleeping. First, I had gone to check on her before going to bed myself, when she began patting her pillow. She began empathetically saying, 'Right here, right here. Put them right here.' I asked her what she wanted right there, and she replied, 'The Green fingernails.' Yikes."
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: "But that wasn't even the weirdest one."
AMANDA: No.
JULIA: "The final creepy Katie story was, again, when I checked on her before I went to bed. This time, she stated, and remember she was sleeping, 'No, I don't want it there,' while pointing across the floor. I asked her what she didn't want there, and still pointing, she responded, 'The body.'"
AMANDA: Oh, Katie, I love your boundaries, but I hate how they're coming out.
JULIA: "I didn't see anything where she was pointing, but Katie does talk to ghosts now, so who knows what was really there."
AMANDA: I love how assertive Katie was in this moment where she's—
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: —like, "The fingernails, yes, the body, no. I want this here. I don't want that there."
JULIA: "The fingernails, I want, very cool, awesome green. Love it. That body, nah, nah, nah, nah."
AMANDA: I don't know, man. As someone who has, like, short nails, but also paints them, trimming my nails when they're painted is fun, because you sometimes have like, "Oh, those are my purple fingernails or whatever."
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: But I immediately went in the sort of like goblin direction of, like, a green pigmented, you know, fingernail.
JULIA: Yeah. I think of the dead man's toenails, which is a type of shell—
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: —that you can find on Long Island very often, except, like creepy green.
AMANDA: My mom loves those shells and says they remind her of me, and I'm like—
JULIA: Oh.
AMANDA: —"Mom—"
JULIA: Kind of nice. Kind of cute.
AMANDA: "—they're called dead man's toenails."
JULIA: "SW's creepy kid story is a little different. As she was awake here, but she inadvertently scared us all. When SW was around three years old, she began talking about her, quote, 'invisible visitor.'"
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Very fun thing for a three-year-old to say also.
AMANDA: A scary way to say invisible friend. Again, mine was an anthropomorphic bee, we understand this. But invisible visitor somehow sounds way creepier.
JULIA: Just imagine a three-year-old saying invisible visitor, though.
AMANDA: I mean, incredible vocal control, SW. Good job.
JULIA: "We thought it was cute, normal childhood imaginary friend stuff, though she never referred to him as a friend." That's a sign. That's a sign. That's all I'm saying.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: "We were able to get a bit of a description out of her. She was very verbal and a precocious child, so we were aware that her visitor was an older man. One day, she told us that the visitor's name was Mortz, M-O-R-T-Z."
AMANDA: Okay, Mortimer, let's go.
JULIA: "I then began questioning this being an imaginary friend. I had realized that she had never called him a friend, though she didn't seem too creeped out by him. I enlisted the help of everyone around me to try and figure out how this little child might have come up with such a name, as to me, it is very close to the translations of the word death."
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: That, too.
JULIA: "There were no characters on any of the programs she watched that had anything similar to this name. After a bit, we got used to it and would blame Mortz for things that happened or when items went missing. Now, at the time, Pa Winchester and I get together on a weekly basis, Saturday nights to play D&D with a few of our friends." Adorable.
AMANDA: Incredible.
JULIA: Every time I learn more about the Winchesters like— and their casual day-to-day life, I'm like, "Hell yeah. Love that for them."
AMANDA: The Winchester family, impeccable vibes.
JULIA: "SW was a bit younger than her sisters, so they would stay home with her. On one of these nights, we got a call from my oldest daughter. We will call her Claire and Katie. They were quite concerned, shaking in their proverbial boots might be closer to the truth."
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: "Due to something that SW had said. She had told them that he was coming that night, and she seemed scared of the prospect."
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: "I suggested they ask anyone else who is in the home to please leave, and then we headed home. By the time we arrived home, SW had calmed down. Her sisters, however, were still pretty jittery. I believe we had a group sleepover in the living room that night, as no one wanted to be alone. SW eventually stopped talking about Mortz, though, items would still disappear from time to time, then show up in a spot that we had searched repeatedly. SW doesn't remember any of this now, but it will forever be branded in the memories of the rest of us. As a side note, I do have a theory about who Mortz may have been. If I am correct, it would mean that there were two separate entities, Mortz and the invisible visitor. SW was so young at the time that it wouldn't surprise me that she used the term invisible visitor for both. As far as who Mortz is, the identity is connected to one of the other stories I will be sending you, so I will keep that to myself for now." Damn, Ma.
AMANDA: Incredible.
JULIA: Damn, Ma Winchester.
AMANDA: What a cliffhanger.
JULIA: What a cliffhanger, and that is the end of the email, Amanda, so we're just gonna have to live in suspense here.
AMANDA: Ugh. I mean, as usual with the Winchester family, I need to hear now from Katie and Claire about their memories of their creepy younger sister's invisible visitor.
JULIA: We gotta know. We gotta know.
AMANDA: But you're right, Julia. Imagining a three-year-old saying invisible visitor is everything.
JULIA: Kind of adorable.
AMANDA: Very, very cute.
JULIA: I will say also, SW, as someone who has written in before—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —I am sorry you don't remember these aspects of your creepy childhood, because—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —the content for us, but also probably an okay thing for you, as a person.
AMANDA: I mean, maybe hearing this will bring some things back, but I love it. And I definitely remember, too. My youngest siblings are six years younger than me, so I remember them coming home from school and, like, saying a word they'd never said before. And being like, "Where did you hear the word respect? Like, where did that come from?" You know? Or whatever.
JULIA: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
AMANDA: Right. Or, like, maroon. Like, when did you learn about maroon?
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: And it's— I too would question like, "Wait, where do you know either the Latin word for death or a cute nickname for an Uncle Mortimer? Like, please tell me.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: All right, Julia. Let's head on back to the kitchen and refill our cups before we get into more urban legends.
JULIA: Let's do it.
[theme]
JULIA: Hey, it's Julia, and welcome to the refill. Let's get started, of course, by thanking our newest patrons. There's a quite a few of you today, so I'm really excited. Thank you to Wil Rae, Deer Blood, Christina, and Barbara. Thank you so much for joining our Patreon. It's because of you we get to do this show and do it in such a fun and exciting way. It's literally our jobs, but I'm always excited to show up to work. It's a wild concept. And you too can go to patreon.com/spiritspodcast and join those folks, as well as our supporting producer-level patrons, Uhleeseeuh, Anne, Hannah, Jane, Lily, Matthew, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, and Scott. As well as our legend-level patrons, Audra, Bex, Chibi Yokai, Michael, Morgan H., Sarah, and Bea Me Up Scotty. Join at patreon.com/spiritspodcast and get cool rewards like recipe cards for every single episode, cocktails and mocktails, ad-free episodes, bonus urban legends, and so much more. Check it out one more time, patreon.com/spiritspodcast. Also, we need your urban legends, and now you can call us and leave an urban legend on our voicemail. Our number is 617-420-2344, 617-420-2344. Call us, leave like, you know, not more than a minute of your voicemail. And if we like it, we'll play it on the show, so check it out. Also something for you to check out is my recommendation for you this week. I love gothic novels, and this one is really doing it for me, and is very Spirits coded. It is a novel that kind of deals with a writer of fairy tales and his house after he has died, and his son who has inherited it. It's called A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid, and it deals with a lot of, like, Fae folk lore. There's mentions of selkies. One of the main characters is a, like, unseen character called the fairy king. And I think y'all would really enjoy it. It's coming as a high recommendation for me. I'm about halfway through, and I am really, really enjoying it. That's A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid. I also think that you would love another show here at Multitude, and that is Join the Party. Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators that make each other laugh each and every week. DM Eric and the players, our own Amanda, myself, and Brandon, welcome everyone to the table, from longtime tabletop RPG players to folks who have never touched a role-playing game before. Hop in on our current campaign, which is getting close to ending. It is a pirate story set in the world of plant and bug people. Or you can marathon through our completed campaigns like the Camp-Paign, which is a Monster of the Week game set at a weird summer camp. Campaign Two for a modern superhero game, and Campaign One for a high fantasy story. And once a month, we release the Afterparty where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. So what are you waiting for? Pull up a chair and join the party. Search for Join the Party in your podcast app or go to jointhepartypod.com. We are sponsored this week by Uncommon Goods. Spark something uncommon this holiday with just the right gift from Uncommon Goods. The busy holiday season is here, and uncommon goods, really, for me, makes it less stressful with incredible handpicked gifts for everyone on your list all in one spot. I cannot stress to you how the variety of gifts at Uncommon Goods really does make it easy for me to find something for everyone. They are gifts that spark joy, wonder and delight, and it has that exactly what I wanted feeling. They scour the globe for original, handmade, absolutely remarkable things, and somehow they know exactly the perfect gift for every single person that you know. I love a lot of the stuff on their website. I am definitely getting my friends a customized sweatshirt that will have an embroidered picture of their dog on it. I know they're going to love it, and I really love how customizable a lot of the products are. So if you're looking for something that screams unique to the person you are buying it for, Uncommon Goods has that for you. And when you shop at Uncommon Goods, you're supporting artists and small independent businesses. Many of their handcrafted products are made in small batches, so you should shop right now before they sell out for the holiday season. And with every purchase you make at Uncommon Goods, they give $1 back to a nonprofit partner of your choice. They've donated more than $3 million to date. To get 15% off your next gift, go to uncommongoods.com/spirits. That's uncommongoods.com/spirits for 15% off. Don't miss out on this limited time offer. Uncommon Goods, we are all out of the ordinary. This episode is also sponsored by BetterHelp. And listen, I am taking a moment to thank someone in my life. This is going to be my husband, Jake. I love you. You're the best. You're so supportive. You are a wonderful, wonderful partner. And this month is about gratitude. And along with the person that I just shouted out, there is another person that we don't thank enough, and that is ourselves. It's sometimes really hard to remind ourselves that we are trying our best to make sense of everything in this chaotic, chaotic world we are living in, and that isn't always easy. So here is a reminder to send some thanks to the people in your life, yourself included, and I know someone I am also very grateful for is my therapist. Every week, I sit down with her and I'm able to hash out the things that are frustrating, or chaotic, or that I just need to help make sense of. And she really does help me with that. And I think that everyone would benefit from having a little bit of therapy in their lives. So if you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. You just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/spirits today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P, .com/spirits. And then one final thing I want to tell you about is Brimstone Valley Mall. This is a audio fiction show about a band of misfit demons trying to make it to the biggest gig of the millennium. Here's how it goes. The year is 1999, lurking somewhere between hot topic and the food court, five misfit demons from hell kill time inciting sin in a suburban shopping mall. When the lead singer of their band goes mysteriously missing, the demons only have two weeks to find him before they have to play the biggest gig of the millennium, or face the wrath of Satan herself. Listen, if you like 90s themed things, if you like Spirits, if you like things that are creepy and cool and funny, you're gonna love Brimstone Valley Mall, and they just released their second season. So you can catch up on the first season and now enjoy the second season as it is releasing each and every week. Check it out. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcast, or go to brimstonevalleymall.com right now to get started. Check it out. That's Brimstone Valley Mall.
LUCY: Before there was internet fraud and phone scams, there were always swindlers. Female swindlers, too. Discover the stories of women from the past, who not only survived but thrived as con artists and thieves. How did they use their feminine characteristics to swindle in a world where men made the rules? Join me, Lucy Worsley, historian and author and my all-female team in Lady Swindlers, wherever you get your podcasts.
JULIA: And now, let's get back to our show.
[theme]
JULIA: Amanda, we are back. And what has been the drink of choice for you lately?
AMANDA: Well, per your excellent recommendation, I made a pumpkin simple syrup.
JULIA: Yes.
AMANDA: It surprised me somehow that there was actual canned pumpkin in the simple syrup—
JULIA: Oh.
AMANDA: —but there is.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: And it is totally delicious. We've been putting it in iced coffee, and the other day, I had just a little bit with some seltzer, just as like a little, like, vaguely autumnal pumpkin-y shrub. It was totally delicious.
JULIA: Yeah. And you can add it to any cocktail as well, which I would highly recommend, especially like— they have a Pumpkin Spice RumChata that I think would also be really good. Like that might be too much pumpkin flavor.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: But I love a pumpkin spice, anything this time of year. And it's also like—, it's good shit. Like, all five ingredients that make up pumpkin spice are delicious and great for you, so—
AMANDA: I know you've been on the, you know, flavorful, simple syrup game for a very long time, but if you are enjoying cocktails, mocktails, or amending a coffee or tea drink, highly recommend having some of that on hand.
JULIA: Hell yeah. And I have been— Jake's been on a kick of, like, aperitifs and digestifs as a thing he's enjoying lately, so like—
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: He recently— like, we went to a bar, and after dinner, he was like, "I'm gonna have a Sambuca." I'm like, "You're gonna have a Sambuca. Who are you?" But the thing that he's been really loving lately, because it works as both a aperitif and a digestive is a Negroni. And a Negroni, I think, is kind of, like, in some ways, a controversial cocktail, because I think a lot—
AMANDA: It is. I was gonna say not my bag. Like, I don't, like, love that anise flavor, and therefore, I'm kind of like, "Eh."
JULIA: Yeah, but, like, I think it— what's really interesting about it is it's one of those cocktails that kind of transforms as you drink it, as you sip it, as it waters down a little. And I— I've been enjoying it. Like I'll have a little sip of whatever Jake is having it, and it's really nice, you know?
AMANDA: I love that for you. And shout out, as always, to Greenpoint's own St. Agrestis, who make a Phony Negroni. So if you are sober, not drinking for whatever reason, they have, A, the most beautiful little, like, cylindrical bottles, like a gentle tapered pyramid that I love as a bud vase. But also they have a non-alcoholic Negroni and many other kinds of drinks where, if you miss that, or you just want a kind of, like, slightly bitter taste to have during your, you know, your day, so delicious. If you can get it, totally do.
JULIA: Yeah. I— yeah. I think there's a lot of really good mocktails that are kind of coming onto the scene as of late. And even my local, like, beer and wine distributors have a lot of, like, zero alcohol spirits and whatnot, so—
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
JULIA: —it is— the game is changing out there.
AMANDA: It's a great time to be a lactose intolerant enjoyer of ice cream. It's a great time to be someone who— and wants to enjoy NA beverages for whatever reason. And we love and support you, and we'll keep bringing you recommendations for mocktails and NA bevies as we find them.
JULIA: Hell yeah. Amanda, I have a story here—
AMANDA: Ooh.
JULIA: —that is from Logan, he/they. And just stick with me here, because I think people are going to really like this one. But Logan starts with, "Hi, my name is Logan. And I just want to start by saying, I love you all's show ever since I discovered Multitude, Spirits and Join the Party have been my podcast rotation. And my first episode with the infamous Fact or Fiction with Eric Silver—"
AMANDA: Hey.
JULIA: "—and I've been obsessed ever since. Love y'all. Now—"
AMANDA: That's my husband.
JULIA: That is your husband.
AMANDA: Yay.
JULIA: "Now to my story, so I took lots of classes in high school at the local community college near me, and my favorite was my upper level Spanish class. My professor was so much fun and always made class a joy to be in. In this class, there were about 12 of us, so it was a little bit more conversational, and all the students got to know our professor extremely well. She was also very welcoming of my newfound identity as part of the queer community, so I always felt very loved and welcomed in her classroom."
AMANDA: Absolute shout out to affirming teachers then and now. I certainly wouldn't have been the person I was without them in middle and high school. And if that's you, or if you had one like that, I love that and I hope that they know."
JULIA: "We were talking one day during class as she went down one of her many rabbit trails and told us the story of her haunted house. So I thought that I would share it with you, with her permission, of course."
AMANDA: Hell yeah.
JULIA: "She started the story saying that her house was an old plantation. Stick with me. The big, creaky house had been built in the 18th century and was on a ton of land, and had later been used as a halfway house on the Underground Railroad to help usher enslaved people to the north to escape the atrocities of the Antebellum South."
AMANDA: Amazing.
JULIA: "Naturally, this caused a lot of frustration in the area, but they were never caught. She had said that when her family moved there about 15 years prior, that there was always some just bad energy in the house, but she couldn't put her finger on it exactly. She had grown up Catholics, so she honestly thought that any sort of ghosts or spirits were just some sort of hoax. This was— this was until the house started taking things from her."
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: "She showed us her enormous, I'm talking two carat diamond wedding ring, and said that this one was actually her third ring."
AMANDA: No, no.
JULIA: "She said that over the years of living in that house, she had lost two rings, and they had never turned up. They looked high and low all over the house, and could just never seem to find it. They chalked it up to being a weird coincidence, and went on with their lives as normal. Fast forward about two years, and is the height of the BlackBerry era in the late 2000s."
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: UH-hmm. PIPNE.
AMANDA: Now, yeah, something—
JULIA: Oh, no, not quite PIPNE, but—
AMANDA: So I think we've talked about this on Join the Party. I don't know if we necessarily touched on it on Spirits.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: But my favorite era to consume media is what I call PIPNE, pre-iPhone, post-9/11. So— and I define that as, like, before the widespread adoption of the iPhone, so I would say that as, like, you know, late 2001 to, sort of like, you know, late 2012, like kind of the Obama second term vibes. Because in a heist movie, you can access the internet, but not on the go necessarily. And it's just like— it's a good era for media.
JULIA: Yeah, I would call it like before every TV show character had smartphones. Like I am—
AMANDA: Exactly.
JULIA: —watching Gossip Girl for the first time—
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: —and everyone has flip phones, and I'm like, "What is happening here?"
AMANDA: It's PIPNE, baby. So I would say BlackBerry era died as the adoption of the iPhone continued.
JULIA: So BlackBerry era died when PIPNE died.
AMANDA: Exactly, yes.
JULIA: Gotcha.
AMANDA: If this is late BlackBerry era or late PIPNE.
JULIA: So they continue, "Her husband decided to get one and brought it home, and that very afternoon, it went missing."
AMANDA: No! Julia, a brand-new phone?
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: Come on. The BlackBerries were expensive.
JULIA: They were. "The craziest part of it all was that when they called the phone from the landline and they could hear the ringtone in the house, but they couldn't find it anywhere."
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: That's wild.
AMANDA: That is wild.
JULIA: "She remembered about her rings, and was sick of things going missing, and just couldn't take it anymore. She and her husband had previously told some of their friends about this missing item phenomenon, and they had recommended to her a medium. At this time, she was unimpressed by the idea, and was the biggest denier of any sort of supernatural activity. But after thousands of dollars of jewelry gone missing and a brand-new smartphone to boot, she decided to give it a shot and asked her friend for the phone number of the medium, and called her."
AMANDA: Good.
JULIA: "A few days later, the medium came to the house, and from the second that she stepped on the property, she said she felt an extremely oppressive presence. As she advanced in the house, she said that it felt more and more apparent. The professor told her what had happened, and the medium started investigating around the house and concluded that the rings and the phone were still in the house."
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: "My professor looked at her in shock, because this just wasn't possible. They had looked in every nook and cranny of the house for years. There was no way that these things were still there. The medium went on to say that they were in a different dimension, but they were still in the house."
AMANDA: A wild thing to say.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: Even as a medium.
JULIA: Well, it's very— Amanda, have you seen the movie Poltergeist?
AMANDA: No.
JULIA: Okay. Well, there is like a idea that, like, the child in the movie gets kidnapped and brought to another dimension, but is still in the house.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: And that's kind of the vibe I'm getting here.
AMANDA: I completely understand it from a, like, metaphysics perspective. I think it's wild for the medium to be like, "Oh, I mean, yeah, they're like— they're in the house, but in a different dimension."
JULIA: I don't know. She said it so casually.
AMANDA: Right.
JULIA: But the professor agrees with you, Amanda, because he continues, "My professor just stood there in disbelief. How could this be real? There's no other dimension in my house."
AMANDA: Right.
JULIA: "The medium reassured her, saying that the spirits in her house could be appeased and maybe even convinced to return their items if the right offerings were given. My professor obliged, and the medium started doing the necessary rituals, and then left. She said that she would return in a few weeks if the items had not turned up, and try some more things to have the items returned. My professor stood there in shock, as there was no way that, quote-unquote, 'magic' had just taken place in her house. She was not this woman. What had just happened had been some sort of a joke. She goes about the rest of her day, cleaning up and other various tasks. And As the day winds down, she and her husband are going to bed when they hear a large crack in the kitchen."
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: "Loud enough that they both jumped in fright, and my professor's husband went downstairs to check it out. He stays down there for about two minutes, looking around and calls upstairs, 'Honey, you need to come down here.'"
AMANDA: Oh, baby.
JULIA: "She goes down the stairs to find her husband looking over the counter of the kitchen and the cell phone had appeared exactly where he last saw it, next to the kitchen sink."
AMANDA: Stop. Oh, my God.
JULIA: "The spirits had been pleased and decided to return the phone. To this day, the rings are still missing, but my professor has always continued to tread lightly in their home as to not have the spirits steal any more of their precious belongings. I hope that you and your families are well and have a great rest of your spooky season. With much love, Logan."
AMANDA: Logan, that is a good one. I love that your professor told you this story. I can't believe, because Julia, we've all lost something, and then be like, "Oh, my God, where is it? Where is it?" Looking for your keys or your wallet, and then it's sort of in an obvious place. But this is like— they called it multiple— it emitted a noise, and yet they were unable to find it. And then for it to appear somewhere so obvious makes me a little bit creeped out.
JULIA: I had kind of a similar experience happen to me recently, Amanda, where we were gifting our friends a dining room table that we weren't using anymore, but was from my, like, childhood home originally. So it was, like, kind of like an emotional deal to give it—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —to someone else, but I knew it was going to go to a good home. And Jake was like, "Okay, well, you know, the annoying thing is, when we took this apart last time, when we moved, I lost all of the original hardware for the table, so we're probably gonna have to go to Home Depot and, like, get a new set of hardware and all this other stuff." I'm like, "Oh, okay, that's annoying." And so the day that we were gonna go get the hardware and then bring it over to their house, Jake was like, "I'm just gonna look in the basement, like, one more time, you know?" We were just packing up all of our Halloween decorations as well, so we had kind of shifted all of our boxes around."
AMANDA: Stuff was around, yeah.
JULIA: And he opened up one box to put something that we forgot to put away in there and he was like, "Motherfucker," and he pulled out this paper bag. I'm like, "What is that?" He's like, "It's all the hardware for the table." I'm like—
AMANDA: Dang.
JULIA: —"That's wild, that's wild."
AMANDA: Amazing.
JULIA: I was like, "Okay, that confirms for me, at least, that this is the table is going to the right home now."
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: You know what I mean?
AMANDA: It's facilitating the move, yeah.
JULIA: Yes. It was like, "Okay, you guys can put me over there. That's fine."
AMANDA: Fair enough. Well, thank you, Julia, for reading that. Thank you, Logan. I have a final story for us today, Julia, from TJ, she/her titled haunted hospitals.
JULIA: Hit me with it. Ooh. We love a haunted hospital, and we did ask a couple of like nurses and hospital workers and stuff like that—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —to send in some haunted hospital stories, so hit me with them.
AMANDA: TJ came through. I was excited just by the subject line to your point, but also by the first line of this email, which is, "Many of the women in my family are spooky bitches."
JULIA: Cool. Love it.
AMANDA: "In fact, just telling my own stories of experiences with spirits would easily enough fill several episodes of your podcast, so I'm limiting myself to sharing stories from working in the medical field. And don't worry, all names in the stories have been changed."
JULIA: Hell yeah.
AMANDA: "When I was 18, I got a job working as a CNA in an assisted living home." It's a certified nurse assistant, I believe.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: "This was a small facility housing about 10 residents at a time, that meant I'd work alone for the night shifts when the real spooky shit happened."
JULIA: Hmm, of course.
AMANDA: "Now during the day, I had some weird experiences too, including hearing whispered voices while I walked the halls when I knew for a fact that no one was currently in those halls, and the time when a woman walked through the door right past me and my boss. I asked my boss, 'Who's that lady?' As she didn't seem bothered by a stranger walking through the halls of the facility, and my boss responded with, 'What lady? What are you talking about?"
JULIA: I thought the boss was gonna be like, "That's just the ghost. Don't fucking worry about it."
AMANDA: I— that would have creeped me out less, I think, than what happened, which is the boss and TJ searching through the entire facility and nobody was there.
JULIA: No.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Oh, no.
AMANDA: "So at night, I would do hourly checks in each of the rooms. One night, one of the residents, Rachel was awake and pacing in her room. She asked me to please take the kids out of the room as she was too tired to be babysitting right now."
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: "Now, Rachel had dementia, and it wasn't uncommon for her to experience hallucinations, so I told the kids to leave the room so she could get some sleep, hoping this would help her feel a little more calm. She began laughing when I said this, saying, 'TJ, that's not gonna work. These girls never leave this room.' She then said, 'The girls asked me to tell you something, they think you should date David.'"
JULIA: Stop giving dating advice, ghosts. You don't know.
AMANDA: "At the time, I was, in fact, being pursued by a man named David, who I just didn't feel sure about, because he seemed like a bit of a player."
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: "Important for me to say, I had never once mentioned David by name at work."
JULIA: No. Why would you?"
AMANDA: "Assuming this was a coincidence, I kind of laughed and was like, 'Yeah, I don't think I really want to date him. Thank them for me, though.' And Rachel responded with, 'They said you'd say that, TJ. They say he's quite a player.'"
JULIA: You're right. The ghosts were right. The ghosts are on the money.
AMANDA: "Officially freaked out, I bid Rachel good night and left her room. I never did date David, strictly because this interaction was too weird for me, and also—"
JULIA: You said, "No, no, no."
AMANDA: "—he had vibes of a player."
JULIA: The ghosts are like the drunk girls at a party or like in the bathroom, who are like, "You look so cute with him. You should date him." And you're like, "No, girl, you're just drunk."
AMANDA: "A different night, I was sitting on a couch where you can see the entirety of the building. As I was sitting there, I heard the dryer open. I looked up surprised, because I hadn't seen any residents walk into the laundry room. And as I watched, the clothes were thrown out into the hallway one item at a time."
JULIA: That's terrifying. That's so spooky. If it was all one pile, like I don't know, maybe I could explain that away. It was creepy.
AMANDA: That one's still creepy.
JULIA: But like the procession, the continued act— if one had gone, you're like, "Okay. Well, something happened there." No. Piece by piece, buck wild.
AMANDA: So TJ walked into the laundry room, there was nobody there, and clothes continued to come out of the dryer one at a time.
JULIA: Was it, like, spinning so maybe, like they were just slowly flying out? Like, I don't know.
AMANDA: I don't know, either. Remember the story about the dorm laundry room where—
JULIA: Yes.
AMANDA: —clothes kept going missing?
JULIA: Yes.
AMANDA: That, at least, was like someone needs these clothes. This is like something doesn't want these clothes to finish drying.
JULIA: Someone was like, "I need to dry my own clothes. Fuck you!"
AMANDA: Or just having fun, I guess.
JULIA: Or just having fun.
AMANDA: That could be a ghost cat, I guess. I know cats love a dryer.
JULIA: Cats do love dryers.
AMANDA: "My scariest experiences, though, happen in a three-night sequence."
JULIA: No, no, that's a spooky number.
AMANDA: Already too spooky.
JULIA: I love the number three, but it is loaded as a number.
AMANDA: Too spooky. If we're not talking about the Trinity, Julia, too spooky. "One night, I heard screaming coming from a residence room. I'll call her Verla."
JULIA: That's a wild name to choose, but okay, go ahead.
AMANDA: Incredible. "I ran to the room quickly. As I entered the room, I felt the most intense feeling of dread I've ever felt in my life. It was like a wall, like a weight, so heavy I could barely move. It also felt at least 10 degrees colder as I passed through the doorway than to the rest of the building."
JULIA: Uh-uh.
AMANDA: "But I was worried, so I pushed through the heaviness as quickly as I possibly could, but my body was moving so slowly as I turned on the light and walked to Verla's bed. She was pale as a sheet. Her hand shakily held in the air, pointing to a corner of the room. She said in a broken, raspy voice, 'Make him leave.' I spoke to the corner in a halting voice. My voice literally wouldn't come out right, telling whatever it was that it had to go. I told myself at the time I was speaking to help Verla feel better, though I actually, literally, fully believed something had to be there. The air lightened a little bit after I spoke, so I sat at the edge of Verla's bed and sang with her until she fell asleep."
JULIA: Aw.
AMANDA: You're great, TJ.
JULIA: You're really good at your job, TJ.
AMANDA: "The next night, nothing major happened, though, I felt little pockets of colds with that heavy feeling of dread I'd felt the night before as I walked around at work."
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: "The calm little old dog Muffin who lived at the facility."
JULIA: Muffin.
AMANDA: "I had never heard him bark before this night, and he spent most of the night barking at different corners around the living room."
JULIA: Not a fan of that. Muffin, go to sleep.
AMANDA: "He refused to calm down no matter what I did. And the third night began uneventful, but I was feeling uneasy after the past two buck wild nights at work."
JULIA: Yeah, I don't blame you.
AMANDA: "At about 3:30am," witching hour—
JULIA: Witching hour.
AMANDA: "—I was sitting on the couch working on homework when that same feeling came across me. All of a sudden, I was so cold that I shivered. Like the first night, I couldn't really move my body and without the need to protect Verla motivating me through that feeling, I felt like I literally couldn't move. I couldn't force myself. Now, the first thing I noticed was poor little Muffin cowering in between the couch I was sitting on and the chair in the corner."
JULIA: Muffin.
AMANDA: "Then I saw the figure in the corner of the room."
JULIA: Muffin.
AMANDA: "It was so tall, its head was brushing against the eight-foot ceiling. It started as a shadow, and then slowly became so solid, it could have been an actual man standing in front of me."
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: "He had a terrifying face set in a grimacing scowl. And at this point, my memory becomes fuzzy. I can't pull up any image beyond what his face looked like."
JULIA: Oh, boy. Okay.
AMANDA: "He spoke to me, I can't remember what he said, though I can remember the feeling of my stomach dropping as he spoke."
Jullia: Hate that. Hate it. Hate it.
AMANDA: "He spoke for what felt like, I'm not exaggerating, an hour, and I couldn't repeat a single word he said if you ask me, now, though I know whatever he did say absolutely horrified me."
JULIA: Oh, I got chills. I don't like that.
AMANDA: "Eventually, it all just stopped. I was left sitting on my couch in shock and shivering like a switch had flipped with the air in the room, feeling completely normal and warm once more."
JULIA: I feel like I would be so concerned that I, like, got possessed and I didn't remember it. So I would be, like, checking all of my things, being like, "Is this exactly where it was when I left?"
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: "Is the dog still exactly where it was when I left it? Like, are we good here?"
AMANDA: Yeah. What time is it?
JULIA: That's scary. Losing time is fucking terrifying.
AMANDA: It is. "I left work after that night and called my boss telling her I'd never come back."
JULIA: Good for you. Fuck yeah.
AMANDA: Right. Yes, I like this for you, TJ.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: "I couldn't bring myself to even tell her what exactly had happened. She did bring in a man the next day who did some kind of ritual and then begged me to keep working there." So I wanna know more about that.
JULIA: What gave her the impression? Did you say something like, "I was very scared last night, and so now, I got to— I got— I can't work there anymore."? Or were you just like, "This is my two weeks' notice. I'm not telling you why. We're just going. We're— I'm not coming back."?
AMANDA: I have to imagine the boss knew something about what was happening there.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: A, because this feels like a thing that not just TJ was experiencing, but also because they had, like, seen the apparition, and, like, walked through the facility together, like shits happened.
JULIA: Uh-hmm. Well, apparently, she didn't see the apparition. She was like, "What lady are you talking about?" Jesus.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Okay.
AMANDA: "I did come back for my next shift the next week, and happily, never felt that feeling in this home again. While weird things continue to happen, they never felt so scary or dark as the events of those three days."
JULIA: Like, I just got a, like, anxious feeling right, like, you know, at the bottom of my sternum. I hate that.
AMANDA: Yeah. That's like— put my shoulders down. TJ, that was incredibly creepy and very well told. Now, TJ has a couple other stories from working in an old hospital.
JULIA: Obviously, I want to hear those. Obviously.
AMANDA: I have them, Julia, and I'm going to save them for the bonus urban legends episode coming at the end of November.
JULIA: Oh, you're killing me, Amanda. You're killing me.
AMANDA: Sorry, gonna have to wait.
JULIA: It's okay. It's okay.
AMANDA: Well, TJ, thank you for taking care of your residents. I'm glad they had you. That sounds terrifying. Thank you to Mother Goose, to Ma Winchester, Phia, everybody who's written in with their follow-ups and Logan for your lovely, haunted teacher story.
JULIA: Yeah. And remember the next time that your brand-new BlackBerry goes missing to another dimension, stay creepy.
AMANDA: Protect yourself and stay cool.
JULIA: Later, satyrs.
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