Episode 264: Your Urban Legends LVIII - The Pink Room
/It seems only right to end the year with urban legends. Julia has an embarrassing revelation, Eric decides colors are the most haunted, and we discover a “thoroughly” haunted manor.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of illness, child endangerment, child death, car accidents, drug use, drowning, assault, strangulation, infidelity, infertility, and suicide.
Housekeeping
- MERCH! Get the Mothman Crewneck at spiritspodcast.com/merch!
- Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends hitting up your local businesses.
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Check out Exolore: Helping you imagine other worlds, but with facts and science! Every other week, astrophysicist/folklorist Moiya McTier explores fictional worlds by building them with a panel of expert guests, interviewing professional worldbuilders, or reviewing the merits of worlds that have already been built.
Sponsors
- Brooklinen delivers luxury bed sheets, pillows, comforters, & blankets straight to your door. Go to Brooklinen.com right now and use promo code “spirits” to get $25 off when you spend $100 or more, PLUS free shipping.
- Black Friday is a horror comedy from Realm. Learn more about Black Friday at realm.fm, and be sure to listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
- Calm is the #1 app to help you reduce your anxiety and stress and help you sleep better. Get 40% off a Calm Premium subscription at calm.com/spirits.
Find Us Online
If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/spiritspodcast) to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director’s commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more. We also have lists of our book recommendations and previous guests’ books at http://spiritspodcast.com/books.
Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, our last episode of 2021. It's a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week, you know it, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I am still Amanda.
JULIA: I'm still Julia.
AMANDA: And this is Episode 264: Your Urban Legends Number LVIII. Can you believe, Julia, 58 episodes of Your Urban Legends?
JULIA: It feels right that we're ending the year on an Urban Legends episode.
AMANDA: I know. It's our bread and butter, isn't it in so many ways?
JULIA: It is. It's just wonderful. I love it so much
AMANDA: The three of us get together, we read stories that the conspirators send in to spiritspodcast@gmail.com, anytime folks you can-- you can write to us. And it's just, it's always so much fun. It's always a highlight of my week to get to record these and I love seeing people's reactions on Social as well.
JULIA: It just makes me feel closer to our listeners as well. You know what I mean? I feel like we're in the room telling you these stories. And that's what makes it so special to me.
AMANDA: Absolutely. And we are taking a little bit of time off here at the end of the year, but because we love you and we know that you build your routines and your lives like we do around the podcast that we listen to, you're still getting this brand new episode but we are going to be doing things, like thanking our patrons and doing any other timely, you know, announcements in the next episode, but it's gonna sound a little different because listen, when we started the show, we started planning in 2015. That's, like, 100 years ago in podcast terms.
JULIA: Mhmm.
AMANDA: And the show came out in 2016. Here we are with 260 new episodes. And if we were to design the show now, we might do some things a little differently, such as it's nice to be able to get right into the episode. Actually, Julia when you turn on a new episode of a podcast and you're like, what are we getting into today? They kind of, like, they go right for it.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah, I like it. They just grab it by the throat and they tell me about spooky stuff.
AMANDA: Yeah, and if you're a new listener, you can be like, "Let's see what this is about" and a minute into the show, you're enjoying the podcast and not listening to two hosts who you don't know catch up with each other and recommend books to you. So, for that reason, starting with episode 265, the next episode, our first episode of 2022, we're going to be doing all of our checking in, our housekeeping, our thanking of patrons, our announcing of merch and recommending of books and our ads all in one nice chunky little break in the middle of the episode.
JULIA: Yeah, so that way, we can just get to the heart of what you're here for which is spooky ass shit.
AMANDA: Spooky ass shit coming to you quicker, hotter, fresher than ever. So, that'll start next episode, so we want to give you a little heads up so you are not taken aback when we open the show the same way and then we get right into the myth and you're like, "What's happening?" That's what's happening.
JULIA: That's what's happening.
AMANDA: But for the final time, before the episode, and as always, we would love to thank our Supporting-producer level patrons: Uhleeseeuh, Hannah, Jack Marie, Jane, Jessica Kinser, Jessica Stewart, Kneazlekins, Megan Moon, Phil Fresh, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, Scott, and Zazi. And those Legend-level patrons: Audra, Bex, Clara, Drew, Jaybaybay, Lexus, Mary, Morgan, Mother of Vikings, Sarah, Taylor, & Bea Me Up Scotty. Look for yourselves in a brand new position in the next episode, but still, same position in our hearts.
JULIA: Still there. Still the center of our hearts, truly.
AMANDA: Absolutely.
JULIA: Amanda, I know that with a new year, it's a new fresh time for you. What you've been reading, listening to? What do you just want to recommend to our listeners going into the new year?
AMANDA: You know, I know it's a little bit corny Julia, but shopping locally really means so much to me. I'm trying to, you know, reduce my ecological footprint and the strain on our, you know, postal system. And so, I got most of my gifts this year from local businesses.
JULIA: Aw.
AMANDA: And it's something that I always tried to do, but this year just felt particularly urgent and, you know, money that you're able to spend in your community stays in your community and having a small business myself, like I know what a difference that means. That $5 or $10 might not feel like a ton to you, but it makes a huge difference to the businesses near you. So, even though we are past the prime kind of gift buying season for most people's winter holidays, I still think it's a really good idea. And next time you have a housewarming gift to buy or a birthday present or, you know, you want to, like, send something nice to a friend or family member who lives far away, go into a local business that you think is cool, follow them on Instagram, hit up their mailing list, and, you know, they'll ship stuff for you. Like, they're-- they're awesome. And I think getting to know your local businesses and spending money with them is an awesome habit to put into place for next year all year.
JULIA: Build up your community.
AMANDA: Hooray! So corny, but that's my recommendation.
JULIA: But speaking of building up your community, Amanda, why don't we tell our listeners a little bit about the other shows on the Multitude Collective including Exolore, which is hosted by our good, good friend, Dr. Moiya McTier.
AMANDA: Absolutely, who you'll be hearing from again soon with more advice from folklore but if you don't get enough Moiya in your life, which I mean, honestly none of us do. Then you can listen to Exolore, this is where Moiya, who is an astrophysicist and folklorist, no big deal, explores fictional worlds by building them with a panel of expert guests, interviewing professional world builders, and reviewing the merits of worlds that have already been built. No matter what kind of episode is coming out, I love it. And I know that you will love Exolore as well. You might learn, you might laugh, but I know that you will gain an appreciation for how special our planet really is.
JULIA: So, you can subscribe today by searching Exolore in your podcast app or going to exolorepod.com. And trust me, it is a good, good investment in your time.
AMANDA: Well, Julia, I know that you and I are going to be doing our best to relax and watch bad TV and spend some time just offline, just fully offline. But we hope that our listeners in this liminal week between years get the chance to do that as well.
JULIA: Yes, I really do. Take a deep breath. It's a new year.
AMANDA: All right folks, we will see you next Wednesday as always with a brand new episode, but in the meantime, enjoy Spirits Podcast Episode 264: Your Urban Legends LVIII. Happy end of the year Spirits and conspirators.
JULIA: Hello, end of the year. Time’s fake anyway, so it is the end of the year but also it doesn't matter if when the year begins and when it ends for you.
ERIC: Whoa, whoa.
JULIA: I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I'm like, my new year is not going to change start January 1st, so why bother?
ERIC: Yeah, I mean, that makes sense.
AMANDA: Yeah, Jewish New year already happened, Lunar New Year hasn't happened yet. It's just, like, what is this even, man?
JULIA: Exactly.
AMANDA: I do know, Julia, that you are wearing your Mothman sweatshirt, which should bring blessings to any time of year.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: I need good luck today, so Mothman it is.
AMANDA: Yay!
ERIC: Mothman coming to save the day.
JULIA: Yeah, always.
AMANDA: My only objection is that if I were the Mothman sweatshirt with overalls, which has been my winter uniform this year, no one can see the butt except for me.
JULIA: Yeah, but, you know, the butt lives in your heart.
AMANDA: Julia, that's so true.
JULIA: Thank you. So, guys, I know we love a good love story, right? You know?
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: On this podcast --
AMANDA: Of course.
JULIA: -- we love a good love story.
ERIC: I mean, famously, our last episode was about that.
JULIA: That's true. But this time, let's talk about not the spirit of Christmas, a Hallmark movie in which a woman falls in love with a ghost.
AMANDA: Mhmm.
JULIA: But instead, a ghost love story. The ghost that fell in love with my grandpa.
ERIC: Aw.
AMANDA: Wouldn't you watch that movie? I would.
ERIC: I'd watch it.
JULIA: I'd also would. Yeah. So, this is from Nicole and they write, "Hello, my three favorite drinking buddies. I've been marathon listening to Spirits for the last three months or so. And I am so close to being caught up. I'm just going to dive right in and it's a bit of a long one, so strap yourselves in." Get-- get ready. Get strapped, y'all.
AMANDA: Oh, I'm strapped in.
ERIC: I'm strapped.
JULIA: This story did not happen directly to me, but has sort of become an inside joke in my family. because let's be honest, when my grandpa came home from vacation and said, I think a ghost was flirting with me. Everyone in the room chuckled.
AMANDA: I need to know! Thank you so much. Please send me these kinds of messages.
JULIA: So, let's take it back 10 years to 2011. My aunt was living in San Antonio, Texas, in a large house in the middle of the city. She was sure it was haunted and had taken pictures of what she believed to be the ghost's reflection in a window and a swirl of smoke coming from a candle that looked very distinctly like a woman's face.
AMANDA: Oh.
ERIC: Oh, that's too much detail from smoke.
JULIA: I think that, like, that was some sort of way of either fortune-telling or divination was to, like, blow out a candle and then look at the smoke and see if a shape formed. And then, you could tell the future by that, but I am not 100% sure.
ERIC: That seems tough. That seems like you'd have to be, like, real quick on the draw. Because smoke goes away pretty quick. My tarot card, you're like, here's a car. I know what this card means. I have this knowledge. I can-- I can add it to your life. It's like smokers like, "Okay, what's that look like? Oh, it's gone. It's gone. It's-- it's over. I've missed it."
JULIA: Fair, fair.
ERIC: Light another candle.
AMANDA: But it does involve my favorite and most haunted of senses; smell.
JULIA: That's true. That's true. Candle being blown out; very distinct smell. To continue; My grandparents went down to Texas. We live in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving and stayed with my aunt, her husband, and her baby. Right away, there was nothing out of the ordinary. No voices or footsteps or cold spots, but my grandparents could tell that something was off. Most of the trips stayed that way. No encounters, just a general feeling of offness until the night before my grandparents left.
AMANDA: Okay, can I have a quick straw poll here?
JULIA: Sure.
AMANDA: If you had relatives or in-laws staying with you, and they said, "Something's just off here." What would you do? I think I'd probably just be insulted and not take them seriously and then later pin that as the start or like an exit ramp, you know, off which I could have avoided, like, a movie trilogy's worth of hauntings. I just want to own up to that right now.
JULIA: I feel like, yes, I also would be insulted. But also, depending on what the scenario is, like, if I knew I lived in a haunted house, and my relatives were, like, "Something feels off." I'd be like, "Yeah, it's probably the fact that the house is haunted. Do you want me to pitch in to get you a motel for the night or like an Airbnb? I don't know. "
AMANDA: You also definitely would have warned them in advance because you're a gracious hostess.
JULIA: Well, it seems like this woman did as well, you know?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Like, she's like, "Hey, I've taken pictures of what I think are ghosts and I'm pretty sure my house is haunted. You guys can't complain about offness when you go to someone's house and they're like, hey, it's haunted."
ERIC: I think it really depends on the genre of relative.
JULIA: Okay.
AMANDA: That's true.
ERIC: That gives you this, if it is a dad or an uncle, probably something wrong with the electrical. If it is an aunt, someone like that, probably a ghost. If it's a cousin, they're just fucking with you.
AMANDA: That's true.
ERIC: Probably.
AMANDA: That's true.
ERIC: I'm also not saying, like, just women are the ones that are more likely to, like--. No, I'm just saying like, like, a dad would always like-- is, like, something's unlevel --
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
ERIC: -- in there's a room. They just got a-- they just got an inherent sense for that. So, yeah, I mean, there's-- there's a big range, I think.
AMANDA: You can be any gender and fit the genre of dad or auntie, like, we know what we're talking about here
JULIA: Right. But also, what we know from watching a bunch of horror movies is, like, stereotypically we put it in the, "Oh, I sense something is wrong but no one's going to believe me category."
AMANDA: Yeah, this is a definite, like, cul de sac off the highway of our story or the main street of our story but my, like, grandfather's aunt I hear stories about some times and obviously she died before I was born but she, like, rode in, like, donkey races and, like, played softball and was really into tools. And like, how to pegboard with, like, her garage filled with, like, all of her tools and stuff. And just, like, was, like, famously a spinster. And when I was, like, I don't know, 20 or 21, I was like, "Oh, she's lesbian. Aunt [11:01] was lesbian. Yeah. Great." And I just-- I just want to send some love out to anyone this holiday season or new year's season, who hears stories of relatives you never met and you're like, "I'm not the only queer one."
JULIA: Haha, you did it. So, we're picking back up the night before Brooke's grandparents have left the house. So, my grandpa woke up in the middle of the night because he felt someone nudging his shoulder. It was a soft touch as if whoever was trying to get his attention, didn't want to make a big fuss or wake anyone else up if they didn't need to. My grandpa didn't roll over or even open his eyes because he assumed it was my grandma asking for something. "What?" He said half asleep, but there was no answer, just more tapping on his shoulder. "What is it?" -- grandma's name redacted -- No, a woman's voice replied. Confused, my grandpa rolled over to face that side of the bed and asked if it was my aunt, his daughter. "No," the voice said again. This time my grandpa opened his eyes since there should not have been any other women in the house. He didn't have his glasses on and it was very dark, but in the ambient light he could make out a vague woman shape with curly hair wearing either a dress or a night gown. He froze assuming that it was the ghost my aunt had got a picture of a few weeks before and asked who she was. The ghost brushed his hair back out of his face and caressed his cheek just for a moment. "Eleanor," she said and disappeared.
ERIC: We stan a team ignorant King. This motherfucker-- this motherfucker kept his eyes closed to three questions. before he's like, "Fine. I'll take a look." Love it.
JULIA: I mean, also half asleep. If someone's like, "Rose, what's wrong?" And there's like, "No."
ERIC: I mean, if someone's touching you to get your attention, though I feel like that is, like, I'm going to need to have my eyes open. If someone's trying to wake me awake for some-- for some reason in the middle of the night. I'm just saying. I like the guy. I'm on this guy's side.
JULIA: I feel like we might be, like, hitting a wall as, like, all three of us like childless people because I feel like if your child is, like, nudging you in the middle of the night you don't necessarily open your eyes right away.
ERIC: Mmh. Mmh. Okay.
JULIA: At least from my experience trying to wake my parents up.
ERIC: But I get-- I get your point. I get, like, if there's the habit of just being like, "I'll turn, whatever."
JULIA: Whatever, whatever you want. So, no one knows if Eleanor thought grandpa was familiar to her or thought he was a lover from the past or if she just took him as handsome.
AMANDA: Or a lover for the future, baby.
ERIC: Got 'em!
JULIA: But it sounds like a very loving touch and maybe some soft flirting if you ask me. I will not disclose who my aunt believes the ghost is now that she knows its name to protect anyone who may be living in the house now as she has since moved out. And due to the multiple times she's moved since she was in the US military, the pictures of Eleanor have been "Misplaced." Dun dun dun.
ERIC: That's suspicious.
JULIA: Thank you guys so much for reading and I absolutely cannot wait to hear what you think of my probably very poorly recounted ghost love story. Stay creepy, stay cool.
AMANDA: Love it.
ERIC: Well, we can walk on over from that story straight over to mine. So, this comes to us from Cece and she writes in with an email called, "The Walkers and the Runners."
JULIA: Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
ERIC: I am writing to you about some rural legends. These were handed down from a family member from the south, I think Texas or Oklahoma area or from covens of witches I hung with in the north, I think Michigan from personal experience.
JULIA: Real, like, spread here in terms of --
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: -- story geography.
ERIC: I agree.
AMANDA: I think also probably the, like, no a lot of Southerners and then later no a lot of Northern witches. I bet you're not the only one. I bet people do that.
JULIA: Yeah.
ERIC: Here are the two stories. The first one is titled, "The Walkers faster headline of female."
AMANDA: I'm not liking already the dramatic tension inherent in the fact that we go from walking to running.
JULIA: Mhmm.
ERIC: Mhmm, yeah.
AMANDA: That's usually not very good reason coming from person a like me who hates running.
ERIC: The walkers. There is a general experience held by many in the United States but also by many around the world. When you're on a child on a long trip and somewhere along the way, your brain starts imagining things. Like men running behind or alongside the car. These are the walkers. This is something I always would think of on long road trips because I specifically on road trips, we had a station wagon and I was the lone person facing the other way.
JULIA: Wow.
ERIC: My sisters had the middle and then I have the back with, like, my Gameboy, a whole little setup. I just got to hang out back there chillin' but I always would, like, to look out the window and be like, :Would it be crazy if you just saw something, like, right in the woods?" We would also drive through the night for our vacation so we'd leave at, like, midnight and get there in the morning --
JULIA: Yes.
ERIC: -- so you'd, like, --
AMANDA: Damn!
ERIC: -- sleep but, like, you sometimes wake up and you're just, like, "What if that happened?"
AMANDA: Wow, of all my anxiety thoughts, I never had that one but now I will.
ERIC: Luckily, you don't spend a lot of time driving places so-- so this will be a brief and momentary experience for you in the times you are.
AMANDA: No, for sure. Like, not now but I mean, I think this is a 3 versus 4 kid difference because I never had a road to myself. Are you fucking kidding me? No, no, no, I was, you know, next to my brother who didn't fight with me or sometimes sandwiched between the twins who fought with each other and then Connor, I guess had his own row and then could stretch out. Or the cooler took my seat but yeah, not-- not a thing I experienced.
JULIA: Damn that cooler. The fifth sibling.
ERIC: The fifth sibling.
JULIA: Eric, no, I had similar experiences because much like you, we would drive to a lot of our vacations. Like, my parents loved the yearly let's-drive-24-hours to get down to Florida.
AMANDA: Damn.
ERIC: Oh, gosh. Yeah.
JULIA: Which I also much like you were explaining like, oh, yeah, I was sitting in the backseat with my Gameboy and my, you know, all my stuff. I was I would, like--
ERIC: Gotta have that Gameboy. Gotta have that Gameboy!
JULIA: My only child status, I had, like, four books from the library, the Gameboy.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: At some point, we, like, upgraded to a portable DVD player, so I could watch DVDs --
AMANDA: Oh yeah.
JULIA: -- in the back.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
JULIA: Yeah. I felt like I was almost either always sleeping or too distracted by the media that I brought with me to really pay too much attention to the outside.
ERIC: Yeah, I mean, road tripping is just-- it's a– it's a delightfully weird and bad experience but also great at times.
JULIA: Mhmm. I want to do more adult road trips, I feel like.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: I know
ERIC: So, Cece continues since we've only on in about one second.
JULIA: Sorry, Cece!
ERIC: According to the legend I know, they are fairy creatures. One of illness and poison. The Walkers are trying to get to the children. They're chasing after the responsible for the first big heavy illness of the child that they will experience. For some, it's chickenpox. For others, it's scarlet fever and other illnesses that they could have. Should the Walkers catch up to the child, they will fall ill. Should the child succumb to the illness, their remaining life will be consumed by the Walker. Should the child survive, the Walker's life is then linked with the child. And when the child passes away, they will in the same way.
JULIA: So, there's no real winning here.
AMANDA: No, not really.
ERIC: I think the kind of goal is, like, if they get the energy from the child they win, but if they got a real powerful kid, no good for you.
JULIA: How strong is your baby?
ERIC: So, the Walker takes the place of a guardian angel ensuring as little harm comes to the child as possible. There's your deal right there.
JULIA: Okay.
ERIC: If they become linked, you have to now protect the child because you're protecting yourself.
JULIA: Sure, sure. That makes sense.
ERIC: I had chickenpox as a child and it did almost kill me. And I was told this story by a group of witches that explained why every single car crash I've ever been in I survived. I was even T-boned in the driver's side by a semi-truck, but when the police and fire department arrived, they were surprised to see very little blood at all. Even though my vehicle was pretty much completely crushed.
JULIA: Wow.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: Damn.
ERIC: After a stranger helped me climb out of the wreckage, I was just standing a few feet away. And when I described the stranger to passers by, witnesses said that there was no such person that was there that evening. I told my witch friends they said it must have been my Walker, who was the person responsible for my chickenpox.
JULIA: Oh, hell no, bro. Don't like that. Don't like the, "Oh, someone helped me out of the wreckage, and then they didn't exist."
AMANDA: Yeah, I also just don't like the word witnesses in this case. Like, I know why it's here, but I'm just like, "Oh, no!"
JULIA: I don't want you to witness that. Stop it.
ERIC: So, I think before we run on over to the Runner story.
AMANDA: No!
ERIC: We should walk to get a refill.
JULIA: All right. Let's go.
AMANDA: No running with glassware. That's very prudent. Okay, let's go
JULIA: Amanda, the holidays are stressful, but what if we had comedy that could come right to our ears and tell us stories about someone else's stressful holiday, honestly?
AMANDA: Yeah, only if it kind of takes down capitalism and reminds me of Shaun of the Dead though. Can you do that?
JULIA: Absolutely. Because Amanda, I'm going to tell you a little bit about Black Friday which is a Realm Production. Realm is kind of like part podcast studio, part magical refuge and they create original fiction podcasts including official continuations of popular franchises. Like maybe Orphan Black? I don't know.
AMANDA: Ooh? Oh, yeah.
JULIA: But the one that I want to tell you about today is Black Friday. It is about Bob who is working on Thanksgiving but also just found out that he got laid off from his corporate job. Then has to deal with some zombies at a store and that's not good. That's not fun. That's not fun for Bob.
AMANDA: No. No, it's not.
JULIA: But it stars Fred Armisen. You know, that Saturday Night Live veteran and also has a great and, like, honestly pretty diverse cast. They have a bunch of LGBTQ actors. They have Latino, and Black actors. I feel like you guys would just really enjoy this if you like Spirits and you like things like gore, but also giggling? Gore and giggles.
AMANDA: Office space, you know, British sitcoms, you'll enjoy it.
JULIA: Exactly. So, you can learn more about Black Friday at realm.fm. And be sure to listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
AMANDA: Julia, we are also sponsored this week by Brooklinen. And I have been fully spoiled and fully converted my loungewear over to Brooklinen. I put on a Brooklinen tank top yesterday after a bath. And I was just like, "Gosh, it's amazing how getting dressed doesn't feel like a compromise and a bummer when I'm able to put on my Brooklinen tanks, and loungewear, and t-shirts, and sweatpants, and shorts. It's really cute, like fleecy, but also cool shorts. I really, really love them. And of course, we've talked about the Buttery Soft aka my bed, aka it's a real problem. I have trouble getting out of it because it is so damn comfy. And sleeping on other sheets, I just, I'm spoiled now. And that's just the god honest truth, because Brooklinen's goal is to create beautiful, high quality home essentials that don't break the bank. And whether you are getting a gift for somebody or a gift for yourself and just kind of up in your comfort game at home, that is the place to do it. You can get comfortable this season and save while you do it by going to brooklinen.com. Use the promo code "spirits" for $20 off with a minimum purchase of $100 That's brooklinen, b r o o k l i n e n.com and enter promo code "spirits" for $20 off of the minimum purchase of $100. One more time, that's brooklinen.com promo code "spirits".
JULIA: Amanda, it's nearly the New Year and probably the New Year when a lot of people are going to be listening to this, which means we have to just take a moment to pause and reflect on just how bad your brain might have been these past couple of months.
AMANDA: Mhmm.
JULIA: This past year really.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And let's just, like, take a second. We're gonna inhale and exhale very slowly. And then open up our phones and put on our Calm app because that is what really just saved me this season. And thank God we're partnering with Calm because they are the number one mental wellness app to give you the tools that you need to improve the way that you feel. You can clear your head with guided daily meditations. You can improve your focus with their curated music tracks, and you can drift off to dreamland with Calm's imaginative sleep stories. Not only just for adults with stories about trains, but they also have children's ones as well.
AMANDA: That's true. A friend asked me today for sort of, like, calming focus music to listen to while on a deadline and I said, "Girl, get yourself the Calm app." And she did!
JULIA: Yeah. And if you go to calm.com/spirits, you'll get a limited time offer of 40% off a Calm premium subscription which includes hundreds of hours of programming and new content is added every week, so you can sleep more, stress less, live better with Calm.
AMANDA: You deserve it. For listeners of Spirits, Calm is offering a special limited time promotion of 40% off a Calm premium subscription at calm.com/spirits. That's C A L M.c o m/spirits for 40% off unlimited access to Calm's entire library. That's calm.com/spirits. And now, let's get back to the show.
ERIC: So, it's the end of the year. What are we rounding out the year with drink-wise everyone?
JULIA: So, I know we actually already kind of recommended the Groenfell Meadery, but I did have another one of their meads recently.
ERIC: Heck yeah.
AMANDA: Yeah!
JULIA: And oh, oh baby was it good.
AMANDA: Yeah, I had the Sour Cherry recently with a friend and god it was delicious.
JULIA: Yeah, I'm a big fan of the Oaked Amber Mead, which I usually I don't like oak things but it really adds a kind of -- some meads not Groenfell -- but some meads could be a little too sweet for me but the --
AMANDA: Totally.
JULIA: -- Oaked Amber Mead is, like, almost like drinking a very nice amber ale with that little hint of, like, dry sweetness. It's beautiful. It's delightful.
AMANDA: In between cans of mead, I have been enjoying, not all on the same night because I'm not that young anymore, one of my favorite whiskey producers Van Brunt here in the city makes a Campfire Whiskey which is a blend of smoked corn whiskey and rye. It is delicious. Has a hint of smoke at their Taproom in Red Hook Brooklyn, they make a cocktail with this. And because it's seasonal, I always make sure that I grab a bottle in the Fall or Winter time, so that has been my absolute favorite recently.
JULIA: That sounds delicious.
AMANDA: Mhmm.
ERIC: I've been going back to my personal favorite Christmas ale, Fitmas, which I just feel like it has the right attitude for a Christmas ale.
JULIA: And the right name.
ERIC: It's got Santa wearing a big barrel.
AMANDA: Oh yeah.
ERIC: And it's just– makes you want to-- make you want to go to town on some Christmas sale.
JULIA: Hell yeah, dawg. That sounds --
AMANDA: Delish!
JULIA: -- delicious and delightful.
AMANDA: Tis the season, bud.
JULIA: Tis the season.
ERIC: It is. It is of the season. So, now, we will continue our story about the Runners from Cece.
AMANDA: Do we have to? Do we have to? Do we have to?
JULIA: Yeah, the Walkers already had me concerned.
ERIC: I mean, we don't have to, but it feels like we've already set it up and we have to --
AMANDA: Okay, okay.
ERIC: -- like, pre record the whole thing and I don't --
JULIA: No, we're not gonna do that.
ERIC: I think we just got to do it.
AMANDA: This is our job and I love it. And I love you guys, and I love our listeners. Okay, okay, I'm ready. I'm ready.
ERIC: I mean, you won't have to run after this.
AMANDA: Okay.
ERIC: They're running.
AMANDA: All right. Phew.
ERIC: So, this story is about Amanda McLoughlin [25:45] had to run. Not much is known about the Runners, but what we do know is that they are seen best in late summer or early fall running between bodies of water. In the evening, just after the sun has set when there's still a gray hazy light over the world you can see them best. They look as though a shadow has been detached from its person. Kind of like, vague, hazy person-shaped figure is out there.
JULIA: Hey, this is kind of rude that this listener wrote in an email specifically about me during the summer.
ERIC: That's you?
JULIA: Mhmm. Mhmm.
ERIC: You're just kind of a hazy figure running between bodies of water,?
JULIA: You got me.
ERIC: You got her. They always run between two bodies of water as though they ran out of one and directly into the other. I'm from Michigan, a place that has more shoreline by volume than anywhere else in the world, so it's not frequent that in my home state, you can see a lake and upon sitting close by each other, or even a lake in a river. You know, a lot of water around each other.
JULIA: That's a fun fact that I didn't know about Michigan. Fascinating.
AMANDA: Right on.
ERIC: I was just in Michigan this summer, and it's true. There was Lake Michigan, and there's a little river, and then we were on the lake and then there's a whole bunch of other water all over the place pretty much.
AMANDA: Love it.
ERIC: There was a lot more water in my one week in Michigan that I-- that I see most of the time I'm in Ohio.
JULIA: That's fair. Honestly, maybe they should switch with Minnesota because Minnesota is what, the land of a thousand lake?
ERIC: They got a thousand lakes, but do they have enough volume of lake?
JULIA: Yeah, you got me there. Minnesota is bigger. Yeah,
ERIC: That's true. They got some puddles that they call lakes up there.
JULIA: And I'm sorry, it's actually 10,000 lake, not a thousand lake. 10,000.
ERIC: 10,000 lakes? I mean, some of those are 100%. I knew-- It rains a little and there's a little puddle. It's like that's another one.
JULIA: It's a new one.
AMANDA: The-- the county where my grandfather's from in Ireland is the Lake County Leitrim, which I have previously been describing as the West Virginia of Ireland. Because the ratio of sheep to people is closest, I think, in West Virginia than any other state in the US. But maybe I'll have to describe it as the Minnesota of Ireland.
JULIA: Or the Michigan apparently.
AMANDA: Wetland of 10,000 lakes.
JULIA: I just realized that's why Land of Lakes is named that.
AMANDA: It sure is!
JULIA: Oh my god.
AMANDA: The weather.
ERIC: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA: That's embarrassing. That's embarrassing for me.
AMANDA: No, it's not.
ERIC: It is between a little pond that sits in the forest next to my parents house, and the main river that runs through the town my parents live in that I have seen the runners. They rise out of the pond like a ghost of someone long fallen in, and they begin to run. And they run all the way through the town into the river where they just vanished.
JULIA: What?
ERIC: Nothing stops them from their path. No cars, no walls, no lamps, they pass through them all with ease. Reminder, lamps are important, since they're kind of shadowy figures.
JULIA: Mhmm. Mhmm.
ERIC: They're not just, like, bumping into light poles.
JULIA: Which would be very funny, but not what happened.
ERIC: They appear harmless, but there is a pattern. During the winter and the spring, they are quite quiet. Only one or two a week of maybe appearing. During the Summer and Fall, you might as well be watching the Boston Marathon. Hundreds of thousands of these shadows, and as with most things of this nature, adults seem to not be able to see them without some severe altercation in the state of your mind. So, you know what, you know, it's legal up in Michigan, just saying. Just saying.
JULIA: That kind of brings up a question for me, because whenever I hear these stories, it's like there's tens of thousands of these spirits running around all through the summer. I'm like, "Can I get, like, secondary confirmation? Are you the only one seeing these? Is everyone else seeing these? Is it something that's talked about in your town?" I need to know.
AMANDA: But on the other hand, there is, like, the high-pitch tones that only people under a certain age can hear. And that when I was a kid was kind of, like, confirmation to me that all these novels in which kids can see things that adults pretend are not there or can't perceive was totally true. It feels a little bit magical in that way.
JULIA: Yeah.
ERIC: You guys are a bit younger than me so it was this a thing, like, it was a thing of, like, kids started getting cellphones people would make their ringtones just that high-pitch noise, so that their --
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: -- parents couldn't hear them.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: Was that still happening? Because I feel like it was, like, we're kids, that we're the first ones with cellphones so we're doing this. Like, I wasn't sure if it, like, passed on since you guys are a few years younger.
JULIA: I don't recall that being a thing, but Amanda, you might speak to it better than me.
AMANDA: I think I heard of people doing it or people joking doing it, but like, I got my first phone like going into middle school. And so, the schools knew enough to ban phones or you had to have them off.
ERIC: Mhmm. Mhmm.
AMANDA: Or silent mode was, like, a must.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: I think phones were prevalent enough that kids needed to find, like, a more substantial workaround.
JULIA: Mhmm. Mhmm.
ERIC: Gotcha. Gotcha. My ringtone was the mini version of The Late Show with Conan O'Brien if anyone's remembering.
AMANDA: Oh, you're such a hipster. I love you.
JULIA: I think my first ringtone was that song Bad Day. I couldn't tell you who sings it.
ERIC: Bad day.
JULIA: But you had a bad day.
ERIC: Wow.
AMANDA: Oh no, yeah.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Mine was On Love, in Sadness by Jason Mraz.
ERIC: Beautiful. I think-- I think a lot of this sums up who we are.
AMANDA: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Yeah, yeah.
ERIC: I remember sitting on the porch on one warm late summer evening and counting them with my sisters as they ran past.
JULIA: Okay, so there's my secondary confirmation.
ERIC: Yes, exactly. Yep. And my sister's friend fondly remembers counting the shadows with us. So, a couple of people counting all the shadows as they go.
JULIA: My brain is just like, "All right, what is the, like, logical scientific reasoning behind this? What are the shadows? Is it like the transference of heat from the water after the sun goes down, and it's creating, like, clouds of some kind?" I don't know.
ERIC: Who knows? As I have gotten older, I've lost the ability to see them. But if I smoke a joint, which once again is legal in Michigan, and I do my best to simultaneously pay no attention while paying attention, I can still see them. So, you got to really be in that, like, zoned in zoned out mode.
JULIA: Expanded mindset.
ERIC: We know they aren't ghosts as the pond is a field runoff pond that only exists for six months out of the year, and there is no record of death caused by that pond or burials underneath it. Furthermore, they can be seen at any body of water, even the ones here in Vermont, where I live now. They are harmless, and we have not noticed them affect wildlife in any way or that they cause damage to anything. They're not even that spooky. In fact, they don't seem to notice people at all.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Hmm.
ERIC: So, I mean, all in all, pretty, pretty good.
AMANDA: Pretty good. Listen, I would just regard this, like, bird migration or Northern Lights. Like, that's a cool thing that happens and I'm just going to make sure I'm not in the way of the birds as they migrate.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Oh, that was awesome. Thank you, Eric and thank you Cece. Would you guys like to hear about a haunted house turned haunted hotel in Australia?
JULIA: Obviously.
ERIC: Of course.
JULIA: Of course.
AMANDA: This comes from Phobi, she/her titles this: Mama psychic? Haunted house turned haunted hotel.
ERIC: Nice.
AMANDA: She writes. So my parents are of the kids go where we go school of parenting.
JULIA: Sure.
AMANDA: And my mom is psychic. Or so she says and believes. And while the rest of our families are nay-sayers, when I think about the events below, I find myself not able to say nay. When I was 8 or 9-years-old, we moved from Canada to Australia for a work project my dad took on. He's an engineer by trade, but a dabbler by nature. We moved to Australia for about a year, maybe more. I had to move up a grade. Side note, did you know all the schools over there require school uniforms? They do and my schools were hideous and itchy. Skirts everyday sucks.
JULIA: Yeah.
ERIC: Ugh. No good.
AMANDA: My dad had decided to tackle a real-estate project. Redeveloping an old-timey mansion in central Melbourne into a boutique hotel.
JULIA: Already a bad idea. Already terrible.
AMANDA: Julia, what are you thinking? What are-- what are the risks here?
JULIA: Any-- any media in which someone is like, "We're gonna flip to this place and we're gonna make money off of it. This old place with a lot of history. It'll be fine." Never works out. Guys, it's always haunted.
ERIC: I don't think we've established this but I just feel like Australian ghosts are way more intense.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Yeah.
ERIC: I just feel like they're rare and, like, do a good haunt on you.
AMANDA: I couldn't agree more. This house was a grand mansion with soaring ceilings, three floors and a cellar. It was a huge and ornate thing, curly, cute, and crown molded and wainscotted as fuck. At 8-years-old, it was the largest building I've ever seen. And it had once been someone's home. This didn't compute. How can I correlate what I was seeing with my current definition of single family home? This massive pale stone edifice with its grand columns and multiple chimneys, which seemed to nip at the sky. It even had a small ballroom with partially intact crystal chandeliers. Can you remember the first time you realized a staircase could be fancy or stone could be beautiful? For me, that happened there. Had these people been far flung royalty? Nope, just really wealthy and in Melbourne.
JULIA: Sure.
AMANDA: My father would often bring us along when he was stopping in to visit the worksite or my mom would bring us there to meet my dad for lunch.
JULIA: Okay, at the very least, thank god it's not like, "We're going to move our whole family into this place as we renovate it."
AMANDA: Oh, yes. A real Conjuring situation, that wouldn't have been good.
JULIA: It'd be real bad.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: We've just started the British version of the TV show Ghosts, which I think has been adapted for CBS here in America. And it's literally this. It's literally about a couple gets gifted an old house that they turn into a hotel and there's a bunch of ghosts.
JULIA: Mhmm.
AMANDA: How are you enjoying the British version? I didn't realize it was adapted because the American one -- I'm getting so many ads for it. And I'm kind of annoyed at this point.
ERIC: We've only watched a couple episodes but it does star someone who was in a recent season of Taskmaster and that's good. And overall, it's-- it's just light, delighted, little fun-- little fun thing.
JULIA: Nice.
AMANDA: Nice.
ERIC: Nice.
AMANDA: There were also times when we had to dress up so we could be shown off to potential investors viewing the property. As a kid, I had many dimples and was very adorable and got trained to be polite and chatty when smiled at. To lend my dad and his partners that aura of wholesome family values and trustworthiness. My dad is a great human, but it's also real estate, so you know, you got to sell yourself a bit. While the cellar and main floor were off limits as they were occupied by architects, designers, and workmen, we had a run of the upper floors during these visits. Each bedroom had a different color theme reflected in the stonework and tile of the fireplace and mantel.
JULIA: Oh.
AMANDA: Yes, the fireplace in each room blew the fuck out of my mind back then and now.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah.
AMANDA: Time had passed and save the stairs and something of the ballroom on the main floor, I can't recall a lot about the interior. But I distinctly remember three of the bedrooms on the uppermost floor. The green room, the blue room, and the pink room.
ERIC: See, once you started naming rooms, you're in for a bad time. And if you've named them by color, and now yeah, color-- naming a room by color, I'm gonna say is worse than naming it via some other method. I feel like that is the spookiest way to name your rooms.
AMANDA: I think so too. When I turned nine, my mom took me on a tour of the White House because I was that kind of kid.
ERIC: I was literally thinking about the White House names of rooms.
AMANDA: Yes.
ERIC: While I was making this thing.
AMANDA: And I remember the tour guide walking us around and then being-- and then being like, "What do you think this room is called?" And like, pointed around, and somebody was like, "The blue room?" And he was like, "Uh, yeah." And I was like, "What do you expect? It is called the blue room. Like, it is blue. Like, what? The dishes room? Like, that will be a much worse name."
JULIA: The China room which I think --
AMANDA: God!
JULIA: -- isn't a real room in the White House.
AMANDA: Oh god, I'm annoyed of that person. It was 2001, come on. All right. I spent a lot of time up playing on the third floor as I waited for my parents. Time would stretch into an infinite tediousness particular to a kid stuck waiting for their parents to finish boring adult stuff. For me, sigh note that was typified by Home Depot Expo.
JULIA: Yes.
AMANDA: And my parents would go there. I'm like, "You can't even play with tools. It's just carpet!"
JULIA: Just anytime my dad would be like, "Do you want to go for a drive, Julia?" I'm like, "Yeah, Dad. Yeah." I'm like 4-years-old. "Let's go on a drive!" And then we pull into the parking lot of Home Depot. I'm like, "You lied to me!"
AMANDA: Oh no. I remember wanting to spend my time particularly in the green room where the creamy walls and ceiling seemed to stretch an impossible height, and the fireplace and surround were made of green marble. I had never seen green marble before and thought I could have spent ages trying to pick out and name all the different shades of green and grey between the fine white veins. But even though I always started out in the green room it didn’t take long before I was in the blue room… and then it would be time to go.
JULIA: Mmh.
AMANDA: Allow me to be clear, we were allowed on the main and upper floors because it meant we would be out of the way. These areas were all pre-demolition. So, aside from admiring the stonework, there should have been not much to occupy me for more than 15 minutes or so. If the mansion was a man, you would say he'd fallen on hard luck. Time hadn't been kind to it in other words.
JULIA: Aw.
AMANDA: The floors of the empty rooms were dusty and grit covered. Some of the walls and ceiling showed cracks or water damage. Chunks of molding had fallen and most of the windows were cracked or covered by clear plastic sheeting where they're missing all together. So, it's a mystery to me how I passed so much time in the blue room. Often, like, two or three hours per visit. It was the smallest and objectively there wasn't much to see. Blue stone, fireplace, decorative ceiling medallion with a missing light fixture, and a single cracked window. Around this time, I began to develop an impression of a young boy shorter than I was at the time. Kind of stout with pale blond hair in a sort of bowl cut. Clothes of a kind I'd never seen before, an oversized pointed white collar edged generously in lace. Lacy cuffs at the sleeves of his Powder Blue Coat, in short pants, white long socks down to dark shoes. In his left hand hanging at his side, was some kind of toy that I can never make out. On his down tilt of his face was an unhappy pout, long blond hair hanging in his eyes. But the way in which I experienced this impression is a bit odd. Just a few moments after leaving the building and in quiet moments later that day, I would just see the kid in my mind. I also remember feeling very cold and often getting goosebumps while playing in the house despite blazing Australian heat outside. This of course, made perfect sense to my kid brain. Like, yeah, I mean the house is cold. Why else would they have so many fireplaces? In all the other rooms, walls and stonework were cracked and chipped and very, very dusty. Showing where time had breathed its dry breath and neglected caressed the house with long phantasmal fingers. Except the pink room. At the top of the grand stairs, the pink room was separated from all the other rooms by a long gallery. My sister, 10-years-older than me. spent a lot of time in the pink room and was always upset on the ride home. At the time, I assumed that like me, she'd rather spend time playing with friends or watching cartoons and didn't want to be there.
JULIA: No, she didn't want to leave. She didn't want to leave the pink room.
AMANDA: So strong was the draw of the blue room for me that I only saw the pink room inside once. On a visit just before they were about to start demoing the upper floors, I heard my mom calling for me. She was shouting and in fact was using her sharp tone which usually meant that I was in trouble but her voice wasn't coming from downstairs like it usually was, but from across the hallway in the gallery. Weird. My outgoing social butterfly of a mom usually spent her time downstairs charming whomever and smoothing over my dad's engineer-iness with the crew. I crossed the gallery. My mom stood in the middle of a big room. My then 19-year-old sister, leaning heavily against her, practically collapsed against her. I could tell from her face that my sister had been crying. My mom told me that I had to stay in the room until she called for me and then she half-dragged my sister down the stairs. I had no idea was going on. Do they have a fight? My mom didn't say I couldn't look around, so I did. It was a huge room and pink. Entirely pink. The painted walls swirled with soft shades of blush and coral and rose. The trim was all in a reddish toned wood, like cherry or something. On the very long wall opposite the door, there were two sets of double French doors, which led to a long stone veranda. Julia shaking her head just more and more and more.
ERIC: Yes, I'm in.
AMANDA: I peered through the doors with their perfect glass. I tugged the curling leaf inlaid brass handles but couldn't open them, so I turned around. There was a fireplace much grander than in any of the other rooms. It was long and wide and made from slabs of red, pink and white stone. It had a double fire guard of what looked like brass, anchored into the stone that swung on a hinge. Never seen that before. It sounds cool as fuck. I swung it open and shut and it moved quietly but very, very slowly because it was very very heavy. The grate closest to the fire looks like a sheet of metal with punched out crosses and fleur-de-lis. On top of that was an outer guard of florid brass swirls. It smelled like pennies. The room was also so cold, so I moved on to the other doorway in the room. Beyond that door relay the ensuite bathroom, also pink, and I didn't like pink but this room was changing my mind. I give it my bedroom in this bathroom twice over. There was a pedestal sink made to look like Aphrodite posed as in The Birth of Venus but with two winged cherubic Cupids at each shoulder holding aloft the basin of the sink.
JULIA: This is the coolest house I've ever heard of.
ERIC: It's very cool.
AMANDA: It was amazing. There was a huge wide mirror – beautiful brass taps and the glass was speckled like old mirrors but I thought that was kind of perfect. I stood there for ages looking at all the carvings in the mirror frame. Either gold or painted to look like gold. There were flowers and nymphs and angels, but my neck started to ache because I was looking at it for so long, so I went back into the big empty bedroom. The floor seemed clean so I sat down, I looked up to stretch my neck and I caught sight of the ceiling and laid down to stare at it. It's I'm kind of stucco-y treatment so the ceiling appeared to be covered in swishes and swirls and seashells. The room was so cozy and warm now. I woke up much later to my mom standing in the doorway telling me it was time to go. She didn't actually even cross into the room but waited impatiently from the hall for me to wake up, get to my feet, and walk out into the hallway.
JULIA: Mom knows what's up.
AMANDA: My sister never went into that old house again. The next morning she came to breakfast wearing a sweater which as it was summer -- February in Australia -- I shrugged it off as just being a weird thing, like older sisters are incomprehensible. At breakfast, my mom announced that she called her cousins who lived outside the city and my sister was going to stay with them and there are many raucous kids in the country for a bit.
JULIA: Fucking yikes. What happened in that room?
AMANDA: My sister went to go pack. We shared a room so I followed her to get my teddy bear so she wouldn't get lonely without me in the countryside. My sister didn't notice me until she started changing and then screamed for me to get out. Since she was a teenager and I wasn't yet 10, that wasn't unusual. But I went back downstairs and said, "Mom, what's wrong with Mandy's neck?" A big dark bruise ringed her neck under her turtleneck.
JULIA: No!
AMANDA: My mom scolded me for not starting my chores. And my sister spent two months out clubbing and suntanning with our loud country cousins. A little after that, my dad pulled out of the redevelopment project due to disputes over fair treatment for the workers. And two days before we'd be going back to Canada, my dad had to swing by the site one last time. I made for the staircase but my mom would not let go of my hand or let me go upstairs. The next day, I asked my mom about the boy as he'd been on my mind for so long. I expected her to say, like, "Oh, no honey, you're confused. That guy was from a commercial, or a bus stop movie poster, or someone we saw once." My Mom replied, "That's the boy you play with at the old mansion." I don't really get it. It came up a few years later actually, at a family party we were hosting. My sister and I were on the back veranda with her mom and her sister as my dad doesn't let anyone smoke in the house. My aunt brought up the real estate project in Australia and my sister didn't say anything but she was clearly upset. My aunt followed her in and I asked my mom what was wrong. My mom explained that the old mansion in Australia had been thoroughly haunted. The house had been owned by a very wealthy land and cattle owner during colonial times. He was very affluent that when his first wife died and left him with two children he was able to just import a new bride from England. His new bride was much younger and very delicate. She crossed the ocean to begin her new life with dreams of love and adventure, but her husband was very unkind. He had lots of affairs and didn't hide them. And as much as he was cruel and crass and unfaithful though, he did shower his young bride with gifts and fineries. To the point where he constructed her house so luxurious that the whole neighborhood spoke of it. It was sumptuous, but so was his guilt, and pink was her favorite color.
JULIA: Of course it was.
AMANDA: Eventually her heart hardened. She wasn't able to have kids but her husband had many, many children with the other women that he was sleeping with. She ended up dying by suicide in that house. My mom wouldn't tell me how, and I'm kind of glad I don't know. And as my mom spoke, an image of the bride formed in my mind. Not because my mom described her appearance, but because I remembered what she looked like. From when I was looking in that mirror and I saw her fair complexion and her delicate hands stroking my hair as she stood with me in front of that enormous guilt-framed mirror. And my neck hurt, I realized not because I kept looking at the frame of the mirror, but because I had kept my head down. My instinct had kept me from meeting her eyes in the glass. Her hands were gentle, and in fact, she just struck me as lonely. She stroked my hair. In fact, until I fell asleep in that warm room. It was hard to believe that earlier in the day, she had taken my pretty older sister, 19, and looking a lot like the woman I saw in the mirror and tried to strangle her. Between one visit to the old house and the next, my sister had had a birthday and went from being 18 to being 19. Just like the bride. Before then, the bride's ghost had drawn her to the pink room and in my mom's words, basically scolded and scorned her and warned her off from her husband. My mom had made me stand in the bride's pink room because she knew that that would calm the ghost and distract her from my sister, so she and my mom could leave safely.
JULIA: Holy shit!
ERIC: Bold play by mom.
AMANDA: And the blonde little boy? He was the husband's son from his first marriage and the new bride had grown to resent him fiercely. He became taken with me and kept me with him to play so I wouldn't go across the hall to the pink room. I don't know how he died. I didn't ask. My mom didn't tell me. He was just lonely, too. He didn't mean any harm and had quite liked me. Not quite like the spirit of the little boy in the other house, but that's another story. With fondness and affection, Phobi.
JULIA: Okay, okay. Okay, hold on. Let's-- let's break this down really quick.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: One, I'm still very annoyed by the beginning of the story where they're like, "My mother claims she's psychic," and then all this shit happens and you guys still don't fucking believe her. Come on. Come on.
ERIC: She's got-- she feels like she's got the deets.
JULIA: I think she knows what's good. Also, to turn on the mother very quickly, you use your younger child --
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -- to basically sedate a ghost that tried to kill your other child. What are you doing? That's bad parenting. Have them both removed from the house immediately.
AMANDA: I totally agree and, like, if the ghost is tied to that room then I think it's probably likely that, like, she can't leave, right? That, like, as if you run out the stairs or there's-- there's multiple of you together then you, you know, you can fight her.
JULIA: That might be where her-- she has the most strength perhaps. You know, based on just all of the ghosts’ of media that I've seen in the past.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
JULIA: Oh, oh boy. It's incredibly well-written but a lot of bad choices were made in that story.
AMANDA: Yes, extremely well-written. This is going to stick with me for a while but thank you so much Phobi. I hope I'm not pronouncing your name wrong. P-h-o-b-i, thank you so much.
ERIC: Gotta say I think I called it about Australian ghosts.
AMANDA: Mhmm.
JULIA: You did.
ERIC: Way up there. Way up there on the intensity.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
JULIA: Yeah, that-- that went hard and I appreciate it.
AMANDA: So listen, we're going to drop the mic here. I can't think of anything creepier and hotter or colder to leave you with conspirators. And we will see you next week for a brand new episode, brand new year. But remember.
JULIA: Stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool. Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Alison Wakeman.
JULIA: Keep up with all things creepy and cool by following us @spiritspodcast on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. We also have all of our episode transcripts, guest appearances, and merch on our website. As well as a forum to send us in your urban legends, and your advice from folklore questions at spiritspodcast.com.
AMANDA: Join our member community on Patreon, patreon.com/spiritspodcast for all kinds of behind-the-scenes goodies. Just $1 gets you access to audio extras with so much more like recipe cards with alcoholic and non-alcoholic for every single episode, director's commentaries, real physical gifts, and more.
JULIA: We are a founding member of Multitude, an independent podcast collective, and production studio. If you like Spirits, you will love the other shows that live on our website at multitude.productions.
AMANDA: Above all else, if you liked what you heard today, please text one friend about us. That's the very best way to help keep us growing.
JULIA: Thanks for listening to Spirits. We'll see you next week.
AMANDA: Bye.
Transcribed by: John Matthew M. Sarong
Edited by: Krizia Marrie Casil