Dead in a Ditch: 01/03/25

"Dead in a Ditch" by Ray Newman (2024) is a short story about a ghost watching life go by as haunts the spot where he died. It's a short story published on a website, one I stumbled upon just after it had been published. I'm still not exactly sure how I pulled that off. Maybe it's like the Hell Girl site and only shows up at midnight to certain readers.

The unnamed narrator describes his haunting spot as "bad from day one" and explains that he's stuck standing knee high in a water filled ditch at the side of the road where he crashed his car.

From this vantage point at the side of ride we get a meditation on life and the passage of time. First it's how the remains of the narrator's life disappear. It's his car and body being taken away. It's an impromptu memorial set up at the site that eventually withers and decays.

Then it's the life of his girl friend continuing. A marriage. A baby. A funeral. And finally her own funeral, all witnessed and extrapolated from what the ghost can see in the cars that pass from his vantage point.

This short story reminds me quite fondly of the film Ghost Story (2017)

Five stars

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