Uncle Charlie

Speaker 1 I'd better hunt the wolf, she said as we trekked through fading dusk.

Speaker 1 But why go hunt the wolf? We asked.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 the wolf is hunting us.

Speaker 1 Spooked. Season of the wolf.

Speaker 1 Stay tuned.

Speaker 3 At the University of Arizona, we believe that everyone is born with wonder.

Speaker 5 That thing that says, I will not accept this world that is.

Speaker 5 While it drives us to create what could be,

Speaker 8 that world can't wait to see what you'll do.

Speaker 9 Where will your wonder take you?

Speaker 10 And what will it make you?

Speaker 3 The University of Arizona. Wonder makes you.

Speaker 11 Start your journey at wonder.arizona.edu.

Speaker 12 You ever wonder how far an EV can take you on one charge? Well, most people drive about 40 miles a day, which means you can do all daily stuff no problem.

Speaker 12 Go to work, grab the kids at school, get the groceries, and still have enough charge to visit your in-laws in the next county. But they don't need to know that.

Speaker 12 And the best part, you won't have to buy gas at all. The way forward is electric.
Explore EVs that fit your life at electricforall.org.

Speaker 13 Oh, watch your step.

Speaker 14 Wow, your attic is so dark.

Speaker 1 Dark.

Speaker 1 I know, right?

Speaker 13 It's the perfect place to stream horror movies.

Speaker 16 What movie is that?

Speaker 15 I haven't pressed play yet.

Speaker 16 ATNT Fiber with Al-Fi covers your whole house.

Speaker 7 Even your really, really creepy attic turned home theater.

Speaker 13 Jimmy, what have I told you about scaring your guests?

Speaker 16 Get ATNT Fiber with Al-Fi and live like a gagillionaire.

Speaker 14 Limited availability coverage may require extenders at additional charge.

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Speaker 1 It has been a season.

Speaker 1 My beloved Auntie passed away. I've known her longer than I've known myself.
She called me Auntie's Doll.

Speaker 1 Tease Doll.

Speaker 1 Tease Daw is so smart.

Speaker 1 Tease Doll, did you send me those flowers?

Speaker 1 Or you should have seen Tease Daw in that show.

Speaker 1 So my cousins asked me to leave the service. Tease Dog couldn't say no.

Speaker 1 I had to fly out. So I just asked them to give me a program so I know what to do.

Speaker 1 When I land in Detroit and check my phone, though, no program.

Speaker 1 I rent a car, drive to the church, no program.

Speaker 1 I walk inside the church into a crush of hugs and kisses from people I haven't seen in lifetimes.

Speaker 1 We laugh, cry, touch, remember until the pastor comes, kindly interrupts our reunion, asks if the family would please take their seats near the front.

Speaker 1 We're about to start?

Speaker 1 I haven't got any program. I take stock.
The church, it's full up. Somebody starts playing the organ.

Speaker 1 I'm looking around frantic. Pastor nods at me, says, we're ready to begin.
Ah, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I start this death march toward the podium.

Speaker 1 Right then,

Speaker 1 someone shoves a piece of paper in my hand, thank God,

Speaker 1 because I love my auntie.

Speaker 1 Of all the characters that have ever been a character, she was the biggest character of them all.

Speaker 1 I want to send her off in the style she deserves. I stand in front of the assembled, check the program.

Speaker 1 First up, does anyone have a remembrance?

Speaker 1 And a man I have not seen in decades stands up. He says that growing up, down the street from my aunties and uncles, he marveled that they always moved in a pack.

Speaker 1 And he figured that maybe if he rolled with them, the bullies would think twice.

Speaker 1 So he hung out outside the house for days, hoping that he would be brought into the fold.

Speaker 1 It worked.

Speaker 1 My auntie told this boy to stop hiding in them bushes, come inside.

Speaker 1 And instantly, bad guys stopped messing with him, because the prettiest woman ever to walk the streets of Detroit put him under her umbrella.

Speaker 1 He said that the first thing anybody did once they bought a car was to wax it to a sheen and park it in front of her place on the off chance she she might walk outside and need a ride.

Speaker 1 That a simple glance from her would warm your heart for a week or make you weep.

Speaker 1 He said she was the big sister he never had.

Speaker 1 He conjures her so clearly that when he finally sits down,

Speaker 1 For a moment I see my auntie.

Speaker 1 Before she was my auntie

Speaker 1 this person I know that I don't know of course she was young once of course she was

Speaker 1 but I guess I never understood

Speaker 1 never appreciated took for granted

Speaker 1 she was beautiful

Speaker 1 how can it be On the day we celebrate her memory, I finally meet her for the first time.

Speaker 1 And I'm blinking like a newborn, thinking deep thoughts to myself before realizing I'm still standing there. Frozen in front of hundreds of people.

Speaker 1 The pastor finally has enough of my foolishness and moves to pull me off stage.

Speaker 1 I'm walking. I hear her laughing.

Speaker 1 Louder now.

Speaker 1 I want to tell her, I'm sorry for messing up.

Speaker 1 Tease, dog.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't have it any other way.

Speaker 1 Spook star.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 some memorials bring us closer to our dearly departed.

Speaker 1 Other memorials, well, they bring back other things.

Speaker 1 It's 2014, and our storyteller Todd receives a very sad phone call.

Speaker 1 His grandma has passed away, and Todd, of course, loved his grandmother and he cherished the memories of visiting her as a child.

Speaker 1 But some memories are best left forgotten.

Speaker 1 Spoot.

Speaker 18 I get an envelope in the mail. There's probably easily a hundred, hundred and fifty different photographs in there.

Speaker 18 Most of them were people that I would recognize in my family.

Speaker 18 My mother, she had been driving up from Massachusetts to rural New Hampshire to get my grandmother's house prepared for selling.

Speaker 18 She was going through boxes, getting items together, packing things away,

Speaker 18 and she came across like a stack of old black and white photographs.

Speaker 18 I was flipping through all these photographs, and then probably midway down through the pack, I got to one photograph where my grandmother's standing next to this guy.

Speaker 18 He's got his arm around her.

Speaker 18 He's very tall and thin.

Speaker 18 He's got like a flannel shirt and jeans. There's also another photograph of him in like World War II Army attire.

Speaker 18 I saw the photograph and immediately I felt this kind of sickening feeling in my stomach.

Speaker 18 I knew I had seen this person before,

Speaker 18 but I couldn't quite remember the person's name. And there was something about this person that gave me

Speaker 18 a lot of anxiety.

Speaker 18 I

Speaker 18 called my mom up and we're

Speaker 18 talking about the logistics of the move. We're talking about who's going to get what pieces of furniture, that sort of thing.

Speaker 18 And

Speaker 18 I asked her about this. Who is this person? And I describe him.
It's a tall, kind of slender man.

Speaker 18 And she said, oh, that's your Uncle Charlie.

Speaker 18 It was almost like some sort of trigger.

Speaker 18 I started having like, almost like a flood of memories about this person.

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Speaker 4 at the university of arizona we believe that everyone is born with wonder that thing that says I will not accept this world that is.

Speaker 8 While it drives us to create what could be,

Speaker 8 that world can't wait to see what you'll do.

Speaker 9 Where will your wonder take you?

Speaker 10 And what will it make you?

Speaker 3 The University of Arizona. Wonder makes you.

Speaker 11 Start your journey at wonder.arizona.edu.

Speaker 12 You ever wonder how far an EV can take you on one charge? Well, most people drive about 40 miles a day, which means you can do all daily stuff no problem.

Speaker 12 Go to work, grab the kids at school, get the groceries, and still have enough charge to visit your in-laws in the next county. But they don't need to know that.

Speaker 12 And the best part, you won't have to buy gas at all. The way forward is electric.
Explore EVs that fit your life at electricforall.org.

Speaker 13 Oh, watch your step.

Speaker 1 Wow, your attic is so dark. Dark.

Speaker 1 I know, right?

Speaker 13 It's the perfect place to stream horror movies.

Speaker 16 What movie is that?

Speaker 15 I haven't pressed play yet.

Speaker 16 ATNT Fiber with Al-Fi covers your whole house, even your really, really creepy attic turned home theater.

Speaker 13 Jimmy, what have I told you about scaring our guests?

Speaker 16 Get ATNT Fiber with Al-Fi and live like a gagillionaire.

Speaker 14 Limited availability coverage may require extenders at additional charge.

Speaker 17 Suffering from dry, tired, irritated eyes? Don't let dry eyes win. Use Sustain Pro.
It hydrates, restores, and protects dry eyes for up to 12 hours. Sustain Pro, triple action dry eye relief.

Speaker 18 When I was maybe nine years old, we used to go and visit my grandparents on a regular basis. I'd say probably once a month.

Speaker 18 Their property, it was kind of in the middle of the New Hampshire woods. Not a whole lot to do around there.

Speaker 18 There was a creek nearby, and I would walk up into the creek and see how far up in the creek I could go. And there was a bit of a clearing nearby.
And I would take a kite and fly kites.

Speaker 18 One of the things that I remember playing with a lot was this small red ball.

Speaker 18 It was a small red ball with like a face painted on it.

Speaker 18 There was a barn in the back of the house.

Speaker 18 I must have spent hours just playing with this ball, just bouncing it.

Speaker 18 There was a bedroom that I had to myself upstairs, a small bedroom with a bed pushed up against the wall. There was a large picture window, and outside that window was a huge oak tree.

Speaker 18 And it seemed like the windows were always open. There was always a breeze flowing through the house.
There was always cooking smells.

Speaker 18 So I remember one night in particular, I had gone to bed and I woke up to see that the door was open.

Speaker 18 I always left that closed.

Speaker 18 And I thought, you know, maybe my mom just came in, maybe my grandmother checked on me or something.

Speaker 18 I fell back asleep. It couldn't have been more than,

Speaker 18 I don't know, maybe 15 minutes later,

Speaker 18 I started hearing this kind of humming noise.

Speaker 18 This deep kind of hilo, hilo humming noise coming from downstairs.

Speaker 18 I could hear it was a man's voice, and I knew there were no other men in the house. So I thought maybe the television was on.

Speaker 18 Try to fall back asleep the best I can, but it took a while.

Speaker 18 When I woke up again, I looked, and at the end of the bed,

Speaker 18 there's a man sitting there.

Speaker 18 He was sitting with his feet flat on the floor and his legs together and his hands on his knees.

Speaker 18 And he wasn't looking at me.

Speaker 18 Instead, he was looking directly out the window.

Speaker 18 I'm completely confused. I'm thinking,

Speaker 18 who is this person?

Speaker 18 He has a very gaunt face, but a young face at the same time.

Speaker 18 Deep-set eyes,

Speaker 18 thinning hair, very high cheekbones.

Speaker 18 The first thing that comes into my head is maybe someone stopped by after I went to bed and I just didn't know about it.

Speaker 18 There were always family members coming and going, so it didn't really surprise me that there would be other people in the house that I didn't necessarily know all the time.

Speaker 18 So he's looking out the window,

Speaker 18 and that's when I could hear

Speaker 18 him talking.

Speaker 18 And the sun wasn't up

Speaker 18 very quietly.

Speaker 18 It was so light.

Speaker 18 I couldn't really

Speaker 18 understand the words that he was saying.

Speaker 18 I just hear kind of a mumbling.

Speaker 18 I asked him who he was, and I didn't get any sort of answer.

Speaker 18 He was just

Speaker 18 talking, and he wasn't necessarily having a conversation with me.

Speaker 18 He was just sitting at the edge of the bed, just staring out the window.

Speaker 18 The whole situation just seemed very odd to me, but I built up the courage to say, please stop.

Speaker 18 I'm trying to sleep.

Speaker 18 And

Speaker 18 immediately he stopped talking.

Speaker 18 But he just remained

Speaker 18 completely still, sitting at the end of the bed.

Speaker 18 I didn't know what else to say to make him leave.

Speaker 18 So I rolled over and tried to fall back asleep. And

Speaker 18 probably an hour later, I woke up and there was nobody at the end of the bed again.

Speaker 18 The next morning, I went downstairs and my grandmother was in the kitchen. She was preparing breakfast.

Speaker 18 I asked her, who was the man that was in my bedroom last night?

Speaker 18 And I remember her stopping and just pausing, not necessarily looking at me.

Speaker 18 And she said, that was Uncle Charlie.

Speaker 18 And I said, well, who's Uncle Charlie? Where did he go?

Speaker 18 She just said, he's not here anymore.

Speaker 18 I knew that she had a brother that was named Charlie. So I kind of put that together to understand that this was who this person was.

Speaker 18 The next night, I went to bed. I fell asleep pretty quickly.

Speaker 18 In the middle of the night, I woke up and I rolled over in bed

Speaker 18 and I see him sitting there again.

Speaker 18 His feet on the floor and his hands on his lap and

Speaker 18 his gaze is outside the window, transfixed like there was something out there.

Speaker 18 I'm laying there and I'm thinking

Speaker 18 He's here again.

Speaker 18 I don't know who this person is. I've never seen him before.

Speaker 18 I'm just going to tell him to go away and to leave me alone.

Speaker 18 And just as I'm about ready to say something,

Speaker 18 he started

Speaker 18 mumbling. And there was fog.

Speaker 18 Just like last night.

Speaker 18 And I start to listen a little more carefully.

Speaker 18 And I'm starting to pick up on

Speaker 18 certain words and certain phrases, and I realize that he's actually

Speaker 18 telling a story.

Speaker 18 He's talking about this friend that he's with, and they're in a hole.

Speaker 18 And I start to realize he's talking about

Speaker 18 a war.

Speaker 18 He was telling me how his friend stood up and got his head above ground.

Speaker 18 and was immediately shot and fell to the ground right in front of him.

Speaker 18 And then, almost as a train of thought, he went immediately to another story of another friend.

Speaker 18 His friend was wounded,

Speaker 18 and he grabbed the man's hand and started trying to pull him to safety.

Speaker 18 And all of a sudden, the body got very light.

Speaker 18 And he looked, and half of his friend was gone.

Speaker 18 I can still see his mouth.

Speaker 18 It was absolutely terrifying.

Speaker 18 I asked him, I said, please stop. I don't want to hear anymore.

Speaker 18 And he actually

Speaker 18 stopped talking.

Speaker 18 But he was still sitting at the end of the bed, just staring out the window, which wasn't anymore comforting to me.

Speaker 18 So like the night before,

Speaker 18 I just rolled over and I covered my head with the blanket and I tried to go back to sleep.

Speaker 18 When I finally woke up again and looked, he was gone.

Speaker 18 Over the course of maybe three years, I would see Charlie.

Speaker 18 It didn't always happen every single time I would go visit my grandmother at her house. But it was always in the summertime months.

Speaker 18 That's when Charlie would come in and visit in the middle of the night.

Speaker 18 I would never feel Charlie come into the room. I would never feel him sitting at the edge of the bed.
It was always this very silent

Speaker 18 presence.

Speaker 18 He would tell stories about

Speaker 18 paratroopers blown off course and

Speaker 18 hanging from the trees.

Speaker 18 He would tell stories about how hungry he was, how badly his feet hurt, and how the farmland smelled like gunpowder.

Speaker 18 His voice would kind of come and go, and it would be understandable for a while. And then it would go back to kind of a mumbling.

Speaker 18 So I never quite understood what he was talking about.

Speaker 18 I asked my grandmother a number of times more about Charlie, and I tried to get some more answers out of her.

Speaker 18 But she was very skillful at changing the subject. And

Speaker 18 as a kid, he was just another family member that was coming into the room and telling me stories.

Speaker 18 So

Speaker 18 I just kind of stopped asking questions anymore about it and who this person was.

Speaker 18 Once I got to be in my teenage years, things got too busy and I wasn't visiting as much. And over the course of time, it's just one of those things that I kind of forgotten had actually happened

Speaker 18 until I saw this picture again.

Speaker 18 So I'm on the phone with my mom and I say, okay, then, who's Uncle Charlie? Who is this person? Because I remember this person and he would basically scare the heck out of me.

Speaker 18 She pauses on the other end of the phone and and says, there's no way you met Charlie because he died in 1946,

Speaker 18 decades before you were ever born.

Speaker 18 I nearly dropped the phone out of my hand.

Speaker 18 My mom says, Charlie was your grandmother's older brother. In World War II, he was over in France and spent most of his time in France.

Speaker 18 He came back from the war and I believe he died just a couple years after that.

Speaker 18 I just couldn't believe it. I didn't understand

Speaker 18 all the thoughts were running through my head. You know, well, then why was he there?

Speaker 18 My mom, she basically wrote it off to me being a kid with an overactive imagination. But I know that what I experienced was true.

Speaker 18 And it happened so frequently that

Speaker 18 there had to have been something.

Speaker 3 At the University of Arizona, we believe that everyone is born with wonder.

Speaker 5 That thing that says, I will not accept this world that is.

Speaker 8 While it drives us to create what could be,

Speaker 8 that world can't wait to see what you'll do.

Speaker 9 Where will your wonder take you?

Speaker 10 And what will it make you?

Speaker 3 The University of Arizona. Wonder makes you.

Speaker 11 Start your journey at wonder.arrizona.edu.

Speaker 12 You ever wonder how far an EV can take you on one charge? Well, most people drive about 40 miles a day, which means you can do all daily stuff no problem.

Speaker 12 Go to work, grab the kids at school, get the groceries, and still have enough charge to visit your in-laws in the next county. But they don't need to know that.

Speaker 12 And the best part, you won't have to buy gas at all. The way forward is electric.
Explore EVs that fit your life at electricforall.org.

Speaker 17 Suffering from dry, tired, irritated eyes? Don't let dry eyes win. Use Sustain Pro.
It hydrates, restores, and protects dry eyes for up to 12 hours. Sustain Pro, triple action dry eye relief.

Speaker 18 At this time, I knew that the house was going to be sold. They were going to be putting it on the market within a couple weeks.

Speaker 18 I thought I could go back, spend the night.

Speaker 18 I could help out with moving boxes, moving furniture.

Speaker 18 And at the same time, it was an opportunity for me to be in my grandmother's house one last time before it got sold.

Speaker 18 So I bought a plane ticket, jumped on a flight to New Hampshire, and got a rental car.

Speaker 18 It's about a two-hour drive up to the house.

Speaker 18 When I arrived at the house, the sun had already kind of started to go down a little bit.

Speaker 18 I parked the car and the first thing I notice is how much the house has kind of fallen into disrepair.

Speaker 18 There's paint peeling off the sideboard and some of the floorboards of the front porch had kind of rotted through.

Speaker 18 I walked up to the front door. It was unlocked and I went inside.

Speaker 18 Most of the furniture had already been taken for an estate sale.

Speaker 18 The movers were scheduled to come the following day, so most of the other items had been boxed up and they were stacked neatly and kind of pressed up against the wall.

Speaker 18 That's when I noticed that red ball that I'd played with when I was a young child.

Speaker 18 It was just in the middle of the floor. I'd forgotten how much I played with that ball.

Speaker 18 I picked it up and it was all cracked from age and I put it on top of one of the packing boxes in the middle of the living room.

Speaker 18 I went upstairs on the second floor, saw the room where my grandmother used to stay and where I used to stay upstairs as well.

Speaker 18 Luckily, I found a mattress. I pushed the mattress onto the floor and

Speaker 18 basically had my bed for the night.

Speaker 18 It was about nine o'clock in the evening.

Speaker 18 I closed the door to the bedroom. I lay down and I brought a book with me and basically I read till I fell asleep.

Speaker 18 About two hours later, I was laying in bed

Speaker 18 and

Speaker 18 I woke up to notice that the door had been opened.

Speaker 18 My first thought was that the house was old and it probably swung open on its own.

Speaker 18 But I wasn't quite so sure.

Speaker 18 I couldn't fall back asleep.

Speaker 18 I could see the oak tree that was right outside the window.

Speaker 18 And that oak tree looked exactly as it did when I was eight years old.

Speaker 18 Almost for like a split second, I was eight years old again.

Speaker 18 That's when I started hearing that humming sound.

Speaker 18 This high-low, this hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, and it would kind of alternate a little bit.

Speaker 18 My body just completely freezes.

Speaker 18 I would hear these noises every time I would see Charlie,

Speaker 18 I started to think, well, maybe

Speaker 18 that's an appliance or something in the kitchen.

Speaker 18 Maybe this whole time I'm just making this whole thing up

Speaker 18 until I start hearing the sounds of footsteps in the room below me.

Speaker 18 I know I'm alone in the house. I know there's nobody else there.

Speaker 18 But I hear the footsteps.

Speaker 18 And they're walking in circles, it sounds like.

Speaker 18 And then what sounds like boxes kind of being shoved off to the side.

Speaker 18 I get this like tingling sensation like all through me. The hairs on the back of my neck are going up.

Speaker 18 And then there's this very powerful smell of dirt.

Speaker 18 A very rich, earthy, wet kind of smell.

Speaker 18 It filled the room.

Speaker 18 And I turn and I look at the end of the bed

Speaker 18 and there's someone sitting at the end of the bed.

Speaker 18 Just as I had remembered him.

Speaker 18 I could see his hands sitting on his knees.

Speaker 18 And I recognized how enormous his hands were. They massive, massive hands.

Speaker 18 And I could see his face. I could see his jawline.
I could see his nose. The moon allowed all this to be seen.

Speaker 18 He's not saying a word.

Speaker 18 I was completely shocked.

Speaker 18 Here it was after all this time.

Speaker 18 And I'm seeing the same person that was at the end of the bed when I was a kid.

Speaker 18 At this point, I realize I'm not eight years old anymore. I'm going to do something about this.

Speaker 18 And I reach down and I find my cell phone. And I turned on the light.
And I shined it toward him.

Speaker 18 And there's nobody there.

Speaker 18 I'm not sure what to do at this point. I'm not even moving a muscle.
I'm just laying in bed.

Speaker 18 And I see that red rubber ball that I'd played with so much as a kid come rolling down the hall.

Speaker 18 It was almost like a starter's pistol went off.

Speaker 18 Every single muscle in my body just moved.

Speaker 18 I just need to get out of the house.

Speaker 18 I jumped up out of bed. I went down the steps.
I get to the front living room and all the boxes, they were all scattered around.

Speaker 18 I turned and looked behind me and in the kitchen, all the drawers were pushed open. All the doors were wide open.

Speaker 18 I kept running. I got to the front door.

Speaker 18 In the corner of the room, kind of in the corner of my eye,

Speaker 18 I thought I saw a person standing there, pressed up against kind of the where the two walls come together.

Speaker 18 I got out to the car. The doors were unlocked.

Speaker 18 But then that's when I realized I left my wallet, my keys, everything I left up in the room.

Speaker 18 But

Speaker 18 I am not going back in that house.

Speaker 18 I spent the rest of the night. in the car, in the front seat, waiting for dawn to happen, waiting for the sun to come up.

Speaker 18 Once the sun came up, I very slowly went back to the house and I walked inside the living room and all the drawers in the kitchen were closed.

Speaker 18 The boxes were just as they were, almost as if nothing at all had ever happened.

Speaker 18 I looked for that red ball. I went upstairs.
I went into the same room where I'd last seen it. There was no sign of it.

Speaker 18 The moving truck came up the drive, and the rest of the day was just filled with chaos with movers and boxes and packing.

Speaker 18 And I stood there for a while trying to figure out, did I dream this whole thing?

Speaker 18 I'm pretty sure my grandma saw Uncle Charlie too. Even though she never admitted it.
But she knew who this person was

Speaker 18 and told me his name.

Speaker 18 Maybe the reason that she never really said a whole lot about it was that

Speaker 18 she just didn't want to scare me further.

Speaker 18 They always say that people that kind of have like unfinished business are the ones that wind up showing up and presenting themselves. And maybe that's just what it was.

Speaker 18 Maybe he had seen so many things during the war and he just wanted someone to listen and someone to hear these stories.

Speaker 18 The house went on the market, and it never sold. Very few people came to look at the house.
It was so remote that I think that probably dissuaded people from being interested in it.

Speaker 18 So my mother decided to move from Massachusetts up to the house. And now we take our kids up there and

Speaker 18 they sleep in the same room.

Speaker 18 I'm waiting for that day

Speaker 18 that one of them comes down and says that there was someone sitting at the edge of the bed.

Speaker 18 I certainly don't want that to happen,

Speaker 18 but I'm almost expecting it.

Speaker 1 Thank you, thank you, thank you, Todd, for sharing your story with the spooked. The original score for that piece was by Lalene St.
Just.

Speaker 1 It was produced by Eric Yanez.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Brush yourself off. You've made it this far.
Initiation complete. You are one of us.

Speaker 1 official spookster thank you for walking this path with spook and i know you're thinking it

Speaker 1 contemplating cogitating should i tell glenn the story i've never told anybody else should i

Speaker 1 the answer is always yes

Speaker 1 why

Speaker 1 Because there's nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener. Let me know.
Spooked at snapjudgment.org.

Speaker 1 I promise to only share it with a million of the coolest people on the planet spooked at snapjudgment.org

Speaker 1 spooked is brought to you by the team that keeps a respectful distance from any wolves they may happen upon at the zoo except for mark ristich

Speaker 1 actually the zookeeper explicitly asked me to reiterate that mark's lifetime ban means for his entire life now there's davy kim zoe frigno Ann Ford, Eric Yanez, Taylor DeCot, Marissa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Doug Stewart, Elliot Lightfoot, Paulina Creeky, Juan Diego Baltrán, Sasha Wilson, and Daniel Shimski.

Speaker 1 The spook theme song is by Pat Macedi Miller. My name is in Washington.
And the more I search the shadow for mystery, for wonder,

Speaker 1 The more I am surprised that what I often find instead is beauty.

Speaker 1 The mystery is beautiful. The shadowlands are beautiful.
This path is not an oppressive cloak. No.

Speaker 1 These are butterfly wings.

Speaker 1 Yes, there are thorns on these roses, but would it smell as sweet any other way? I think not.

Speaker 1 Our lessons are hard-earned. All the better to be remembered, my dear.
This kind of beauty is hidden. It must must be uncovered.
It must be revealed. It must be unveiled.

Speaker 1 It's only there if you know how to look.

Speaker 1 But how do you look?

Speaker 1 Step one:

Speaker 1 never,

Speaker 1 ever,

Speaker 1 never, ever, ever, never, never, ever,

Speaker 1 never,

Speaker 1 ever

Speaker 1 turn out

Speaker 1 the lights.