Goodnight Elizabeth

New Amsterdam / Counting Crows










Jessie was tired. Not only physically, but weary. The kind of tired that could grow into depressed or chronically fatigued. She wasn’t really sure what any of those things really meant, but she had the sense that she could easily become them.



With a sigh she entered the room she’d come to call the den. It was the biggest room in the modest house she rented. She had rented the house initially because of the dog. But then the dog had passed away and it was too much trouble to move.


She sat in her favorite chair. A large, red, over stuffed job she had picked up off the side of the road years ago, before people told you not to do such things. The chair had seen better days, but it served her well and she’d non of the horrors that people now talked about.


What she liked most about this chair, in this particular room of this house was she could see out the window and watch the tv two houses down. Her neighbors must have an unnaturally big screen, as from these yards away, she could identify the programs and read the print on the screen. It was like being at the drive in, but in one’s own home. It was weird, but it was intriguing.


Tonight they watched the show where teams tried to debunk famous haunted houses. She wondered what it might be like to live in a haunted house. Would she be scared? Would she enjoy the company? If she lived in a haunted house, perhaps the ghost could help her? Do the dishes maybe?


But there was no ghostly helpers. Only herself and a large red chair. Tired from the day and the dirty dishes still in the sink.