Dorianne Woolfe

A Welcome Haunting

'My Dad said that if he could, he'd come back to me after he died, and he never has.' This was the reason I gave when my six-year-old daughter Olivia asked me why I didn't believe in ghosts, while I was tucking her into bed at our holiday cabin in the woods. Her scrunched-up worried face relaxed a little as she thought through my logic. I stroked her fluffy blonde hair to soothe her - she was always scared to sleep at first when we took a trip up here, but once we'd got through the first night she'd be fine. She closed her eyes and her body softened as the fear of forest ghouls drifted away and sleep started to settle on her. She took me a little by surprise when she asked, eyes still closed: