Ghost Stories
Story by Danielle Gallo. Illustration by Gary Oliver.
I
don’t know that I believe in ghosts.
I believe in that crawling feeling in
the small of your back, when you’re
alone in the basement at night fixing a
fuse. I’ve known the primal paranoia
when you’re alone in nature: the
ancient brain that makes your eyes go
wide at noisy lizards rustling through
grasses, sounding (in the dry season)
like stampeding bears. As for ghosts, I
believe in suspended disbelief; there is,
in the absence of proof either way, no
reason to plant my feet on one side or
the other of the debate.
But I know that I’ve experienced
what some might consider to be ghosts
since I’ve moved to West Texas, and
I’ve heard some hair-raising ghost sto-
ries too. While I don’t necessarily
believe that ghosts are real, or really the
departed spirits of people that haunt a
Cenizo
place, I do love a good ghost story.
One night, down in Lajitas many
years ago, I was hanging out with
some friends at the Ocotillo. We were
all in the restaurant industry and
we were keep-
ing our friends continued on page 22
Fourth Quarter 2014
21