Personal Space

[poliphilo]

I was sitting quietly by myself in someone else's space.

I was a little anxious.

I could feel that I didn't fit. The walls were full of memories and habits and aspirations that weren't mine.

Not ghosts, not hostile, just not to do with me.

The weather of another personality.

All houses are haunted houses.

I am sitting now in my own space. Settled. Attending to my own weather. Listening to the noises I don't normally bother to hear: the hum of the computer, the clock that goes plonk, plonk, plonk quite slowly like water dropping into a galvanised tank and the other clock that goes tick tick tick quite fast like an insect.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

Do you suppose that when you're gone you'll occupy the same space, and give the living the same feeling?

I often wonder why ghosts seem so obsessed with routine. Is it simply a refusal to accept their condition that they cling to the trappings of their former life? You'd think the undiscovered country would inspire them to explore a bit, not become housebound.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. Most ghosts are muddled, traumatized human souls who don't want to move on into the afterlife. They're stuck- and the stuckness manifests in obsessive, repetitive behaviour.

And then, of course, some ghosts aren't souls at all- just impressions left behind in the ether.