Excerpt from “Recollections of a Future Ghost”

One of my most favorite places to investigate is Old South Pittsburg Hospital in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. Yes, I know, you’re looking at the name of that town and thinking, “Shouldn’t there be an ‘h’ at the end of that?” I also used to think that. But, truly, that’s how it’s spelled.

When I wrote Memoirs of a Future Ghost, it was originally much longer than what was eventually published. I broke it up in to two sections and the second section is what will be released on Halloween. That meant that some of my favorite chapters had to be held back. This is one of those chapters that I’ve been itching to share with you all. So, without further ado, here is a brief glimpse at the chapter “Old South Pittsburg Hospital” from Recollections of a Future Ghost.

“Jordan! Jordan! Jordan! Jordan!!” the shouts reverberated through the walls.

“What?! What?! What?! What?!” Jordan’s answering yells responded.

I muttered, “What. In. Fresh. Hell?!” Looking at my watch, I saw it was four o’clock in the morning. The sun was still playing hide and seek below the horizon, and I had just fallen asleep an hour before. Tucked into a queen-sized air mattress next to me was Tammy. I looked at her to see if she was still sleeping.  If so, the shouts were all part of a dream and I could drift back to sleep. But, she was as wide awake as I found myself.

“What on Earth?” she groggily wondered aloud.

The shouts continued from next door. “Jordan!  Oh, my gosh!  Wake up!” 

“What, Jeremy?” Jordan hollered back.

“Well,” I heavily sighed, “I guess we’re getting up now.”

We rolled off the air mattress, refusing to step out of our sleeping bags, waddling across the room, through the Jack and Jill bathroom, and into the adjoining bedroom, rubbing sleep from our eyes. We came upon my friend Michael, a guest on this evening’s investigation, still asleep in his sleeping bag on the floor near the bathroom door. An Iraq War veteran, it seemed that Michael was able to sleep through not just Jordan’s and Jeremy’s panicked shouts, but also whatever paranormal shenanigans had awoken them.

We glanced left toward the beds at the far side of the room to discover Jordan and his friend Jeremy, standing, running their hands through their hair, looking absolutely bewildered. Earlier in the day, Jeremy expressed excitement that he could experience his first paranormal encounter. Now that it had finally happened, he didn’t look all that happy. Tammy and I just stood there, staring, refusing to wobble any closer.

“What. The actual. F*ck, y’all?!” I asked, using my best disgusted mother voice.

Jeremy turned and was as pale as the white walls surrounding him.

“I had just fallen asleep, Heather, and I swear that someone came into this room and sat on my bed.”

I looked at Tammy, she looked at me, we both shrugged our shoulders at one another, turned around, and shimmied back toward our room, our sleeping bags hindering us, making us look like the slowest potato sack race in history.

Jordan and Jeremy followed us through the Jack and Jill bathroom and into our girls’ room.

“I had just fallen asleep,” Jeremy continued, dragging his sleeping bag behind him, “when I heard footsteps. In. The. Room. Something walked toward my bed. I thought maybe it was Michael or one of you. And then, I heard it walk right up to the bed and felt the bed dip when whatever it was sat down on the edge, right next to me. I opened my eyes, and there was no one there!”

“I swear,” Jordan said, “all I heard was my name being shouted, and I think I levitated out of my sleeping bag!”

I just shook my head and rolled back onto the queen-sized air mattress. Tammy gracefully joined me, and we both looked over Jordan and Jeremy who promptly announced that there was no way they were staying in their room for the rest of the night. As they made themselves comfortable on our room’s couch, Michael emerged from the adjoining room, bleary-eyed and bushy-headed.

“No way am I staying in there alone!” He plopped down on the floor and began softly snoring a few minutes later. It seemed our after-investigation sleep had turned into a slumber party.

“Welcome to Old South Pittsburg Hospital, boys,” I muttered, “where the nurses are still checking on their patients, twenty years after they all left.” And then I promptly fell back asleep.

I can’t wait for you all to read my next book! You can pre-order your own signed copy here or you can click on any of the links to the right of this post and order from another site.