Elias Jackman would tell you he doesn't believe in ghosts. At least, that is what he tells everyone else. He would say the figure standing at the edge of the trees was only a trick of the light. He would insist the voice he thought he heard belonged to the wind. He would explain away every shadow, every strange sound, and every fleeting glimpse of a familiar face. Then he would walk home wondering if someone who had tried speaking to him?
One of the things I enjoy most about writing The Man Who Came Out West is exploring the space between belief and doubt. Elias is not a man who eagerly chases ghost stories. He is practical, hardworking, and far more concerned with surviving another winter than chasing spirits across the prairie.
Yet grief has a way of making even practical people wonder.
His older brother, Gideon, was larger than life in Elias's eyes. He was the brother who seemed capable of anything. The brother who knew exactly what to do. The brother Elias assumed would always be there.
Then one day he wasn't.
The truth is that most ghost stories are not really about ghosts. They are about the people left behind.
That idea would not have seemed unusual in the nineteenth century. During Elias's lifetime, Spiritualism was sweeping across America. Traveling mediums drew crowds. The Fox sisters may very well be the most famous mediums the century produced. Families gathered around séance tables hoping for messages from departed loved ones. Newspapers reported strange happenings, spirit communications, and unexplained phenomena with surprising seriousness.
Today it is easy to dismiss those beliefs as superstition, but the people living through that era had their reasons.
Loss was everywhere.
Death claimed everyone. It didn't discriminate. During the American Civil War black crepe became so popular actual Victorian mourning laws had to be temporarily altered to accommodate the demand. The Victorians had mourning down to an art form. Because of this people often sought out help, to reach out to their loved ones. Mary Todd Lincoln is one such woman who was well known for having spiritualists and mediums come to her home.
For someone like Elias, the appeal is easy to understand.
Imagine losing not only the person you admired most but your own spouse and child.
Imagine carrying questions you never had the chance to ask.
Imagine wondering whether they were proud of the life you built after they were gone.
Wouldn't a small part of you want to believe? Ask questions?
But what if the ghosts that were following you were tired or had negative intent?
Most of us like to imagine spirits as kindly grandparents, loyal friends, or beloved family members stopping by one last time. Folklore, however, is filled with less comforting possibilities. Some spirits are said to wander because they can't find peace. Others linger because they refuse to release old hurts. A few seem to delight in spreading fear wherever they go.
A ghost remembers who it was.
A wraith remembers only what wounded it.
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