I normally wouldn’t permit dictionaries to be used as a baseball bat. But I was desperate. Let me back up. I’m Ingrid Nova, a librarian at a small historic library in a small town outside of London. Despite what you may have heard about so-called “tricks” played by children, I can tell you what really happened. It was a Friday evening, and I wanted to reshelve the books before the weekend. As I went section to section, from fairy tales to nonfiction, when I got to my personal favorite: Mystery. Detectives, like I wanted to be as a child. Like my sister Raven. Dreams come true for the eldest… There have been many stories of a “ghost” in this library. Everyone who has lived here for more than 15 years knows that there is no such thing. But you see, dear reader, I have only lived here for 14 years. And I know ghosts are real. As I was putting away my sister’s memoir, The Desk of Raven Nova, I heard a bump. Normally things do go bump at night, but this bump, well it was quite loud. But of course, as any aspiring detective-turned librarian, I went to investigate. I slunk downstairs to the cellar. Walking through the long, neverending corridors was like a labyrinth, but when I turned the corner I reached the warm light of my bedroom. But something wasn’t right. My bedsheets, gone. A chilling sensation filled the room. A phantom popped out behind my bed. It came across the room TOWARDS ME. Panic filled my head. It might be Raven! She loves pranking me! I still had the dictionaries and encyclopedias with me. Bringing the Oxford English Dictionary up above my head, playing along. I gently swung hoping to tap her on the shoulder, expecting her laugh to fill the room. But the book passed right through the ghost. Before it passed through me.
In which Ingrid encounters a ghost
