Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff?
Speaker 1: Your podcast or what um feels like the End Times. No,
Speaker 1: that's a different podcast. Well, welcome to Cool People Who
Speaker 1: Did Cool Stuff. I'm your host, Margaret Killjoy, and every
Speaker 1: week I bring you a story about cool people in history.
Speaker 1: Except today. Sophie. Did you know that today is the
Speaker 1: extra special Halloween Fiction Special? Um? I did because I
Speaker 1: asked you to do it right. This we Today's episode
Speaker 1: is so special. It's a special twice, the extra special
Speaker 1: Halloween Fiction Special. It is definitely not a filler episode
Speaker 1: because we ran a three parter, but but it is
Speaker 1: special special, that's what you're saying. Yes, it's extra special cool.
Speaker 1: And today I have an extra special guest, So if
Speaker 1: you do you want a guest who guests guests? Who
Speaker 1: it is? I kind of kind of blue that one.
Speaker 1: This is a filler episode. I'm pretty sure it's sucking me.
Speaker 1: Today we have the Webby Award winning Sophie lift Him
Speaker 1: and On as our guest. Sophie, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: You really love to introduce me like that. It's so funny.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well. It's Halloween. Anderson looks great in her
Speaker 1: Halloween costumes. I have a bunch of candy that probably
Speaker 1: no kids are going to take, but I will leave
Speaker 1: it out for them. Anyways, How are you, Margaret, I'm good.
Speaker 1: It has just occurred to me that there is a small,
Speaker 1: a close to zero but non zero chance that some
Speaker 1: neighborhood kid it's going to walk up the long gravel
Speaker 1: driveway to my house. I hope that doesn't happen. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, you'll know because we're in troub will inform
Speaker 1: you and then you can just hide. Oh that's a
Speaker 1: good point. Yeah, that's a good point. Or I'll give
Speaker 1: them like a can of soup, I mean, honestly dried,
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing kids have probably gotten on Halloween ammunition.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Los Angeles and you would and
Speaker 1: you would go to a house and they'd like give
Speaker 1: you like a toothrush or something, so or they'd be like,
Speaker 1: here's our sugar free, gluten free soulless. Yeah, they're like,
Speaker 1: we don't believe in candy in this household. Here is
Speaker 1: this thing that you definitely do not want seven year
Speaker 1: old meat, but um, go off. So, I mean a
Speaker 1: can of soup sounds lovely compared to that. Yeah, I could.
Speaker 1: Some of them are fruit I have, like canned fruit
Speaker 1: that's sugary, sugary. There you go, you've you've done it.
Speaker 1: There was there was there was a year that this
Speaker 1: person like ran out of candy and then they just
Speaker 1: sort of like giving people like touching with their hand.
Speaker 1: I have like a very bad memory of it. They
Speaker 1: would like handfuls of like cereal they had in their house,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't even like like a solid like sugar cereal.
Speaker 1: It was like the kind that you're is. It was
Speaker 1: like the kind that you were like, mom, how dare
Speaker 1: you buy this? Oh? Like the ones that are basically
Speaker 1: granola or whatever. No, it was like it was like
Speaker 1: it was like you were eating like bark, like tree bark.
Speaker 1: It was that bad um. And they were like, I
Speaker 1: ran out of candy. Here's some tree bark that I've
Speaker 1: touched with my hand. So all I'm saying is soup
Speaker 1: not bad, canned fruit not bad. Somebody's old not delicious.
Speaker 1: Cereal that they've touched with their hand very bad. Okay,
Speaker 1: good to know a couple of rounds of two, two
Speaker 1: three or a can of soup people can pick. There
Speaker 1: you go, solid option. Yeah, and then the cops will.
Speaker 1: I'll be like, oh, look, you have a nice outfit,
Speaker 1: you're dressed up like the police. And then then it's
Speaker 1: actually them. Then Halloween's really scary, I know, just like
Speaker 1: the Frankenstein's Monster came to the door earlier, where I
Speaker 1: thought it was a costume, um and it wasn't a costume. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that happens, well, Sophie. Today is okay, it's Halloween for us,
Speaker 1: but for everyone else it's two days after Halloween, which
Speaker 1: is even spookier. And so I was thinking, I was thinking,
Speaker 1: why don't I read us a ghost story? I mean,
Speaker 1: I would love that, because I've asked you to do it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, well, fortunately for you, both the
Speaker 1: you in the singular Sophie Lichtman, Today's guest and the
Speaker 1: greater you plural, which is the original reason for the
Speaker 1: words yeah and for for use for y'all. Fortunately for you,
Speaker 1: I have written such a story. And I'm even on
Speaker 1: tour right now temporarily at my house, reading people stories
Speaker 1: from my book of stories called we Won't Be Here Tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Is that published by one a K Press?
Speaker 1: And can people buy it? It? Is? It is available?
Speaker 1: And if you want to hear a story from it.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm going to read today. I love that
Speaker 1: Margaret was in town for her work tour and she
Speaker 1: read another story about a witch that was also really amazing,
Speaker 1: and so I'm just going to plug that. So you
Speaker 1: should buy Margaret's books so you can read that story
Speaker 1: as well. So it was really good spooky stories. Usually
Speaker 1: I basically just protagonize all the witches and such. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you were reading the witch story and I
Speaker 1: was like, Markers, is this about you? This is a
Speaker 1: little bit about you? Right, it's not not? And then
Speaker 1: you were in the middle of Reagan. Do you won't. Oh,
Speaker 1: I guess this is kind of a little bit about me.
Speaker 1: I love that. My favorite thing about going on this
Speaker 1: tour is like realizing what's um the weird subtext of
Speaker 1: all of these stories. You're like, oh, who did that? Okay? Yeah, yeah, okay. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to read this story and you can feel
Speaker 1: free to to interrupt as you as you wish. This story.
Speaker 1: It's called it bleeds, it burrows, it breaks the bone.
Speaker 1: The land was beautiful, though the house was not. The
Speaker 1: house was as decrepit as only a house made in
Speaker 1: the eighties could be carpet paint and mold, too big,
Speaker 1: too empty. Sarah nails herself was as decrepit as only
Speaker 1: a girl made in the eighties could be skin teeth
Speaker 1: and aches, too small, too empty. The land was an
Speaker 1: endless field of snow with pines like iron bars, pines
Speaker 1: like a cage. Twenty minutes to a neighbor, an hour
Speaker 1: to a store, three twist city. That was Minnesota. The
Speaker 1: Feds might not find her in Minnesota. They might not
Speaker 1: break her, They might not bind her. They might not
Speaker 1: throw her into a prison full of men. Trans girls, arsonists.
Speaker 1: They belong in prisons full of men. Sarah watched the
Speaker 1: roads of the window, the one over the desk, the
Speaker 1: one framed in spiderwebs and dead flies. Nothing ever came
Speaker 1: up that road, nothing but Darnell once a week with groceries.
Speaker 1: It bleeds. The walls of the house said, not now, Josephine,
Speaker 1: Sarah whispered, you just when her grocery still all bleeding.
Speaker 1: So I was like, Okay, we're grocery shopping, got it.
Speaker 1: What did we buy? The walls are bleeding? Continue enjoying, Yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: not now, Josephine, Sarah whispered, it burrows. The walls said louder,
Speaker 1: now more insistent. Please not now, it bleeds, it burrows,
Speaker 1: it breaks the bone. Sarah put her hands to her face,
Speaker 1: holding back tears. Not now, later, the house said, when
Speaker 1: you sleep, when you dream, when it bleeds, when it breaks. Yes, Josephine,
Speaker 1: we'll talk tonight. I look forward to it, the house said, Sarah,
Speaker 1: in her despair, did too. The bedroom faced west, and
Speaker 1: the setting sun cut in through the window, onto the
Speaker 1: bed and onto Sarah. No blankets, just sheets and a
Speaker 1: cranked up thermostat. It wasn't even four thirty, a few
Speaker 1: days from midwinter, the sun scarcely bothered to rise at all.
Speaker 1: A poster hung from a single thumb tack, lost among
Speaker 1: decades old show fliers and political screeds. In photocopied high contrast,
Speaker 1: three punk women with nineties hair, posed with guitars under it.
Speaker 1: Cursive script read we don't have to win, we just
Speaker 1: have to survive. Sarah had always wanted to win her
Speaker 1: whole life. She'd set that compound in Virginia on fire
Speaker 1: in order to win. She had killed two neo Nazis
Speaker 1: with a little more than a gas can and a
Speaker 1: kitchen timer. She'd wrecked thousands of hours of their planning,
Speaker 1: plodding a million dollar arsenal. Gutted and twisted by flame,
Speaker 1: Sophie that the thing about killing Nazis is that it's
Speaker 1: a net gain of human life. The other thing about
Speaker 1: killing Nazis is that, for some indiscernible reason it's illegal.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it is. It probably because a lot of
Speaker 1: them are making up the laws and enforcing the laws. Yes,
Speaker 1: that that probably the the Nazi um what's it called
Speaker 1: when people tell lawmakers my brain doesn't work. It's Halloween.
Speaker 1: The Nazi lobby very powerful. I'm saying that if I'm
Speaker 1: being sarcastic, but now I think you're actually just sort
Speaker 1: of right. Friends within her movement found friends within an
Speaker 1: allied movement who found friends within a third movement, and
Speaker 1: those friends hit her in Minnesota. The people who were
Speaker 1: hiding her didn't know why they were hiding her. They
Speaker 1: didn't want to know, which is what friends of friends
Speaker 1: of friends are for. They hired someone to look after her,
Speaker 1: to show up once every couple of weeks with food
Speaker 1: and hormones and whatever she needed, and that was it.
Speaker 1: That was her life, now, hiding, running Minnesota under the posters.
Speaker 1: In the bedroom sat a chair, an ugly chair, steel
Speaker 1: legged and upholstered, with cracked vinyl on the chair, her notebook,
Speaker 1: Nothing but Tally's in that notebook, days twenty four hours
Speaker 1: reduced to a single Tally. Her life was reduced to
Speaker 1: the passage of time. Now, Sarah, the house asked, now
Speaker 1: is fine? Josephine said, The ghost appeared in the doorway.
Speaker 1: She was hazy, only distinct wherever Sarah focused her attention.
Speaker 1: Sarah had read the news reports almost twenty years back.
Speaker 1: Josephine Declare had disappeared at age thirty nine, presumed dead
Speaker 1: of exposure somewhere in the pines. Search teams hadn't tried
Speaker 1: very long, and they never found a body, survived only
Speaker 1: by an aunt and a cousin. The haunted sins died.
Speaker 1: The cousin and environmentalist inherited the house and donated it
Speaker 1: to the movement. Sarah wasn't the first person who had
Speaker 1: been on the run at Josephine Declaire's house. Now, Sophie,
Speaker 1: if you are stuck at a house in Minnesota and
Speaker 1: you needed something to eat, what do you think what
Speaker 1: would keep you going through those cold Winter Nights. Potatoes.
Speaker 1: That's right, Sophie, potatoes. Potatoes. If you, dear listener, are
Speaker 1: on the run for murdering Nazis and I know at
Speaker 1: least of you are, Potatoes are your best friend, except
Speaker 1: for the fact that you can't eat them roll. This
Speaker 1: is the single biggest down to side the potatoes, which
Speaker 1: is why we're also sponsored by ovens. Mm hmm. Eating
Speaker 1: food before you eat it. The concept of ovens like
Speaker 1: energy efficient ovens, m and like not just being someone
Speaker 1: who eats cold chili out of a can, but someone
Speaker 1: who eats warm chili out of a can. You can
Speaker 1: you can make your life that much better by heating
Speaker 1: your food before you eat it. I mean, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: solid point. It's like getting your mattress off the ground.
Speaker 1: It is an important step in the development of a person.
Speaker 1: Are you saying it's time for an advert? Is that
Speaker 1: what's happening here? Yes? Ah? And we are back from
Speaker 1: those ads and the pines aren't angry, Josephine said from
Speaker 1: the doorway. Straight black hair framed her beautiful face. She
Speaker 1: had crow's feet and green eyes that were always wet
Speaker 1: with tears, and she had the smallest mouth a doll's
Speaker 1: mouth a mouth, Sarah longed to kiss what. They're not angry,
Speaker 1: They're just disappointed, Sarah asked, trying and failing to get
Speaker 1: herself for the ghost to laugh. They're just passionate, Josephine said.
Speaker 1: They suffer, are they sorrow? But they do not speak.
Speaker 1: I'm tired of riddles, Sarah said, tell me a story.
Speaker 1: Tell me about yourself, tell me how you lived, how
Speaker 1: you died. You think I'm not real, Sarah nails. You
Speaker 1: think I'm in your head. I can't tell you about
Speaker 1: myself because you wouldn't believe me. Then why can't I
Speaker 1: see you? Two years is a long time to be
Speaker 1: by yourself, Josephine said, it isn't. It isn't. Sarah, on
Speaker 1: the bed, started to cry a little. I wish you
Speaker 1: could hold me, she said, I wish I could too.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the pines. Then tell me about this passion.
Speaker 1: It bleeds, Josephine said, her countenance wavering in the last
Speaker 1: light of the day. It burrows, it breaks the bone.
Speaker 1: That's the hard part about dating a ghost, Sophie. Right
Speaker 1: when you said it burrows, and then you did that pause, Bill,
Speaker 1: one of the lights in my studio flickered and one out.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, okay, okay, I'm just saying the vibe,
Speaker 1: the vibe is there. Yea. Yeah. And we had actually
Speaker 1: a different guest on, but something mysterious happened in the
Speaker 1: middle of the first to take at trying to record
Speaker 1: this and for legal reasons we can't discuss, but hopefully
Speaker 1: that won't happen to Sophie. Yeah, I mean the lights
Speaker 1: are flickering. We don't know. Yeah, this is not a bit.
Speaker 1: The lights are actually flickering. My part is a bit,
Speaker 1: but Sophie's part is not a bit. It'll be fine.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried. Yeah. People ask my Halloween plans and
Speaker 1: I was like, I've been on tour. My Halloween plans
Speaker 1: is to sit in my spooky house in the woods
Speaker 1: by myself watch movies. I know you deserve that so much.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited replacing driving time with sleeping, which it
Speaker 1: turns out if you do while you're on tour, if
Speaker 1: you replace the time that you're driving with sleeping, um,
Speaker 1: you crash. Yeah. This is really fun and clever to
Speaker 1: interrupt my own story like this. Yeah, I'm like, Margaret,
Speaker 1: you're going on a tangent. It's your own story. I know,
Speaker 1: I know. Sarah didn't even bother trying to sleep at
Speaker 1: night anymore. Whenever she slept at night, she dreamt of
Speaker 1: police raids, different every time, but every time she was
Speaker 1: dragged away in handcuffs, or shot in the back as
Speaker 1: she ran, or shot in the front as she fought,
Speaker 1: or subject to things worse than violence. So she was awake,
Speaker 1: sitting in the cold vinyl and steel chair reading trashy
Speaker 1: romance when the wolves came, the same pack of seven,
Speaker 1: two parents and their children. They circled the house counterclockwise, silent,
Speaker 1: ten nights in a row, and they were always silent.
Speaker 1: She put down the book and went to the kitchen.
Speaker 1: Darnell before she moved to the house in the Pine,
Speaker 1: Sarah hadn't held a landline in ten years at least yep,
Speaker 1: A voice said on the other end of the line,
Speaker 1: distant and tinny. He was talking to her by speaker phone,
Speaker 1: like always, can you come a few days early? I'm
Speaker 1: running low? Damn girl, did you eat ten days of
Speaker 1: food and five? Darnell always accented the word girl when
Speaker 1: he was talking to her about her A lot of
Speaker 1: siss people did that. It was sweet and it was irritating,
Speaker 1: an equal measure, like Darnell himself. I gave it to
Speaker 1: the wolves, Sarah said, mumbling, you did what I They
Speaker 1: were hungry. They're outside my house. They howl like the wind,
Speaker 1: and they pad and they plod, and they were hungry.
Speaker 1: And now, yeah, Darnell said, yeah, sure, can you bring
Speaker 1: extra meat anything, A couple of pounds at least. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure this mental health sabbatical is doing you good.
Speaker 1: Listen to me, the house said not now, Sarah said,
Speaker 1: company is coming. We'll talk tonight. Listen to me. Now.
Speaker 1: Sarah nails what. She put down her quilty and turned
Speaker 1: her attention from the snow falling outside. Josephine wasn't there.
Speaker 1: She could talk anywhere in the house, but she usually
Speaker 1: only appeared in the bedroom only to watch Sarah she slept,
Speaker 1: and as she didn't sleep, it's why Sarah slept in
Speaker 1: that room under the house. A tunnel at the end
Speaker 1: of the tunnel, a path beyond the path, a lake
Speaker 1: on the lake, a boat across the lake, a bike.
Speaker 1: A bike lays open the world. There's no tunnel, Josephine.
Speaker 1: I've been over every into this house. Under the house
Speaker 1: a tunnel. You're not real remember under the house a tunnel.
Speaker 1: At the end of the tunnel a path. Who built
Speaker 1: the tunnel? Huh? The gods of the pines? Are they?
Speaker 1: Who is burrowing? Bleeding? You have company coming, the house
Speaker 1: said and grew quiet. Sarah turned back to the window
Speaker 1: and watched the truck come out from the trees, crawling
Speaker 1: through snow and ice and four wheel drive. The truck
Speaker 1: stopped just outside, and Darnell stepped out with a heavy
Speaker 1: bag of groceries under each arm. He told you would
Speaker 1: come back to groceries. I'm really glad we're full circling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you wouldn't have enough food otherwise. Anyway, did
Speaker 1: she buy potatoes? You know? I I assume she's a
Speaker 1: smart character? Okay, so definitely, yeah, even like it. It
Speaker 1: doesn't even be written into the main text. It's it's
Speaker 1: just assumed. Got it, got it? Got it? Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: all Sarah watching through the window, and his smile crept
Speaker 1: up into his eyes. He obviously thought she was crazy.
Speaker 1: He was probably right whatever, but it was just as
Speaker 1: obvious he liked her anyway. She went to the door
Speaker 1: to let him in. He stomped his big brown boots
Speaker 1: on the mat, then strode inside. You've got to let
Speaker 1: me get a couple of guys out here. Fix his
Speaker 1: place up, Darnell said. He went into the kitchen sat
Speaker 1: at the table while Sarah put the food away, like
Speaker 1: he did every time he came, her only living contact
Speaker 1: two years. Look at this floor, the linoleum. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's coming up anyway, and it's linoleum. It's a shame
Speaker 1: the old house has gone. You know, a rum runner
Speaker 1: house had to have a good wooden floor. As Sarah
Speaker 1: had heard it, the old house had burned down in
Speaker 1: the seventies before the current monstrosity was built. Before Josephine
Speaker 1: had lived here, bootlegs had used it on their way
Speaker 1: across the border more fugitives. He kicked at the floor.
Speaker 1: I know a guy can get his lamb in it
Speaker 1: pretty cheap. I don't own the place, Sarah said, And besides,
Speaker 1: I'm just here, so you're feeling better. Darnell cut in, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but for how long nails. Even when she's temporary, you
Speaker 1: got to make the most of it. Don't be afraid
Speaker 1: to settle in. Don't be living life like you're on
Speaker 1: the run. That's what my dad says. Your dad left
Speaker 1: you when you were ten? Yeah, dark joke. Magpie also
Speaker 1: the most consistent laugh out of an audience when I
Speaker 1: do this, when I read this at an event, different
Speaker 1: lines get different jokes, But that is apparently the funniest
Speaker 1: line in the story. Will you tell it an audience?
Speaker 1: You can see Magpie space. She knows, she knows that shade,
Speaker 1: and so she makes this space like it's really funny.
Speaker 1: I'm being slighter. I really like it, just like that
Speaker 1: slight shade where it's like, I know I'm being an asshole.
Speaker 1: Your dad left when you were ten, Yeah, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't afraid to settle in before he skipped down. If
Speaker 1: Sarah liked men, she would have liked Darnell. He was handsome, smart,
Speaker 1: never condescending, self educated, alive. She'd take a dead woman
Speaker 1: over a living man, which wasn't fair to any of
Speaker 1: the three parties involved. Hey, so I got you something
Speaker 1: for Christmas, Darnell, said Solstice. Sarah corrected, sure, pagan Christmas. Whatever.
Speaker 1: He reached into his pocket, pulled out a compass, said
Speaker 1: on the table, it's not much right, but I was
Speaker 1: reading about the lady who lived here. How she just
Speaker 1: disappeared in the snow one day. And I grew up
Speaker 1: not too far from here. And I don't go in
Speaker 1: much for woo woo ship. But the land here is cruel,
Speaker 1: just passionate. What did you call it? Sarah asked, sitting
Speaker 1: down a jar of pickles, trying not to look at
Speaker 1: startled as she was. The land don't care about us.
Speaker 1: So first I thought I'd get you a gun, but
Speaker 1: I couldn't really afford it, and besides it might be
Speaker 1: a bad idea for reasons and mental health stuff. And
Speaker 1: I thought, get you a compass. You ever lost, pick
Speaker 1: a direction and stick with it, doesn't matter the direction.
Speaker 1: Dad teach you that too. Yeah, and he's a piece
Speaker 1: of ship, sure, but he's right sometimes just fully saying
Speaker 1: fuck that Dad. Yeah, not the best dad in any
Speaker 1: of these stories. Thank you, Sarah said. She picked up
Speaker 1: the compass. It was solid, came with a hard plastic
Speaker 1: folding lid. She slipped it into her pocket. I have
Speaker 1: something for you, too, Sarah said. She went to the
Speaker 1: living room picked up the quilt. She tied off a
Speaker 1: final thread and cut it. Yeah, she heard from the kitchen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll be in town later. Tonight or tomorrow. Yeah, something
Speaker 1: came up. No, it's not a big deal. I'm fine.
Speaker 1: He was on the phone. Sarah walked back into the kitchen,
Speaker 1: clutching the quilt to her chest. Yeah, hey, I've got
Speaker 1: to go. He hung up, put the phone on the table.
Speaker 1: She stared at the phone. He stared at her. Oh ship, sorry, nails,
Speaker 1: no cell phones, Sarah said, I know. I'm sorry. Here, look,
Speaker 1: I'm turning it off now. It might be too late.
Speaker 1: They might know where I am. You've got to go.
Speaker 1: If you're worried, let me stay over. I'll keep you safe. No,
Speaker 1: no sleeping over. You are friend zoned. Friends get quilt,
Speaker 1: so don't complain. Now leave, Leave. She thrust the quilt
Speaker 1: into his hands. This is this is amazing nails. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna use. I'm going to use that. You are a
Speaker 1: friend zone. Friends get quilt, so don't complain. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it took a long time, and I'm glad you like it.
Speaker 1: Now go. He cast a long look over his shoulder
Speaker 1: on his way out the door. It was obvious he
Speaker 1: was worried about her. That may sense She was worried
Speaker 1: about herself too, but not weird enough to share her
Speaker 1: bed with you respectfully. You are in the friend zone
Speaker 1: and you are not coming out. Yeah, yeah, exactly, everyone
Speaker 1: knows and it's fine. I actually I really consciously I
Speaker 1: was like, I want to write a like sweet story
Speaker 1: where like the person in the friend zone is just
Speaker 1: chill with it's just like, yeah, that's that's that's our relationship.
Speaker 1: It's fine, you know, because I feel like that's actually
Speaker 1: most of my experiences of of putting people in this
Speaker 1: terrible zone that is people are like, oh, it's the
Speaker 1: zone where I got a quilt. Okay, like whatever that
Speaker 1: has that has not been my experience, but your healthier relationships. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I try to write, um, it's utopian. The stories
Speaker 1: that utopia. Yeah, I'm like that that that you know
Speaker 1: who you are. That did not happen, that was there
Speaker 1: was no chill quilt situation. Oh did they at least
Speaker 1: not get a quilt out of it? There was no
Speaker 1: QUI that's great. I'm glad they got nothing out of
Speaker 1: it if they weren't going to handle that. Yeah, today's
Speaker 1: subtweeted episode little Personal, Sophie calmed down back to the
Speaker 1: story please, Yeah, speaking of personal, the first time Sarah
Speaker 1: met Josephine was a summer night, not a week after
Speaker 1: the arson, while Sarah slept on her back in the
Speaker 1: bed in the house in the Pines. In her dream,
Speaker 1: Josephine had been sitting on the ugly chair, gazing out
Speaker 1: the window, a bottle of pills balanced precarious on the sill.
Speaker 1: Josephine had been crying maniacal hysterical laughter, sobs that shook
Speaker 1: the house, that shook the bed, that woke Sarah up.
Speaker 1: When Sarah woke up, and the pills were gone because
Speaker 1: they were the dream, but Josephine was still there, still ghostly. Hello,
Speaker 1: Sarah asked. He was too scared to be scared. What's
Speaker 1: your name, Josephine asked, Sarah Nails. I'm sorry I'm in
Speaker 1: your house. I'm not Sarah Nails. I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 1: You're something new to look at, something beautiful, like the land,
Speaker 1: like the snow, like blood, like the birds, moth, dear
Speaker 1: death moon. Tell me something about yourself, Sarah said, I'm dead,
Speaker 1: Josephine said, besides that, I'm lonely, me too, Josephine. Sarah
Speaker 1: had never seen ghosts, not once in her life. She
Speaker 1: hadn't believed in them, and she hadn't disbelieved in them.
Speaker 1: Most interesting was to realize she wasn't afraid of them.
Speaker 1: The things she was afraid of were far worse than
Speaker 1: a dead woman. Will you come into bed with me?
Speaker 1: Sarah asked, I can't. Josephine said, I can't touch you.
Speaker 1: Josephine stared for a long moment, her eyes glistening with life.
Speaker 1: I can watch though, that will do mm hmm okay,
Speaker 1: And you know who else will watch you while you sleep? Yeah?
Speaker 1: The security systems that we advert Yeah, probably to be honest. Yeah. Well, oh, Sophia,
Speaker 1: I bet you didn't know this. But every week we
Speaker 1: asked our guest if there's something positive that they would
Speaker 1: like to be sponsored by. Yeah, first time hearing about that?
Speaker 1: Super interesting? Are you asking me what I'd like to
Speaker 1: be sponsored by? You are the only guest now that
Speaker 1: the other one is from this realm? Yeah? That was awkward.
Speaker 1: The concept of giving your dog a toy or treat
Speaker 1: and the look in their eye that says, this is
Speaker 1: everything I've ever wanted and is just pure joy. That excellent.
Speaker 1: That is today's sponsor the joy of a dog, and
Speaker 1: also today's sponsor not getting caught, which totally ties into
Speaker 1: the missing other guy. Yeah, and then all these other
Speaker 1: ones and we are back. And so if you did
Speaker 1: you know that a few pounds of hamburg or worns
Speaker 1: enough to feed the pack of wolves. Sarah knew it.
Speaker 1: Sarah knew Sarah knew it. Well, I did. I did
Speaker 1: not know that, But I'm glad Sarah. She was sure
Speaker 1: that the wolves knew it. Oh. Still, She filled a
Speaker 1: big wooden salad bowl with raw pink meat and went outside.
Speaker 1: The moon was behind clouds, so she flicked on her
Speaker 1: keychain flashlight. They were waiting for her. Standing twenty ft
Speaker 1: from the door. The mated pairs stood still. Their children
Speaker 1: played in the snow teeth that throat, the same games
Speaker 1: everyone plays years ago. Sarah would have named the wolves.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't have been right. They didn't have names. They
Speaker 1: didn't need names. They were not pets, not companions, not friends,
Speaker 1: not enemies. They were wolves. She set the bull down
Speaker 1: on the stoop. Every time they came, it was the same. First,
Speaker 1: the mother came forward, skittish. Sarah didn't go back inside,
Speaker 1: but she didn't hold out a hand either. The wolf
Speaker 1: grabbed the meat in her mall, then darted back a
Speaker 1: few feet, then looked over her shoulder and met Sarah's gaze.
Speaker 1: The pack trotted into the forest, and Sarah was alone
Speaker 1: again with less food. He's Sarah, Darnell asked, he wasn't
Speaker 1: calling from his own number, that cetera. On edge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to say this, but Darnell hesitated.
Speaker 1: Some guys in suits came to my door asking about
Speaker 1: Some guy said his name was Richard something. Hold on,
Speaker 1: I've got it written down, Richards Stillman. They were looking
Speaker 1: for Richard Stillman. Sarah knew Stillman, Darnell said, said he
Speaker 1: might be dressed like a girl might be hiding out.
Speaker 1: Said if I knew anything about that, that I should
Speaker 1: let them know that it would be a good idea.
Speaker 1: What did you say. I didn't say ship, didn't say yes,
Speaker 1: didn't say no. I took their business card. Yeah, they're FBI,
Speaker 1: and I called a lawyer, and now I'm calling you, Oh,
Speaker 1: perennial sponsor of this podcast. Not talking to the Feds. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: don't talk to cops. Don't talk to feds. Hi, Margaret
Speaker 1: Killjoy here, boy, the world sure is a mess right now? Huh?
Speaker 1: Seems like every day there are more and more reasons
Speaker 1: to get out into this recent protest. That's why when
Speaker 1: I get arrested, there's only one strategy. I trust, I
Speaker 1: shut the funk up. I say, I would like to
Speaker 1: remain silent, I would like to talk to my lawyer,
Speaker 1: and then I shut the funk up. In the United
Speaker 1: States of America, it's constitutionally protected and recommended by the
Speaker 1: National Lawyers Guild. That's s h U t th h
Speaker 1: E f U c k u P. Once again, that's
Speaker 1: s h U t t h E f U c
Speaker 1: k u P. Because you can't talk yourself of custody,
Speaker 1: but you can talk yourself into a conviction. Providing identification
Speaker 1: to law enforcement required in some states and situations, giving
Speaker 1: name an addressed expedient in most circumstances, never discussed the
Speaker 1: events leading to arrest with anyone except your lawyer, doctor,
Speaker 1: or therapist. Posting pictures of protests and actions on social
Speaker 1: media may lead to complications. If you have already talked
Speaker 1: to cops or experienced confusion about talking to cops, call
Speaker 1: your attorney immediately, as these may be signs of more
Speaker 1: serious legal problems. The concept of not talking to cops
Speaker 1: does not provide legal advice in the foregoing statements are
Speaker 1: for informational purposes only if you have specific legal questions.
Speaker 1: Consultant attorney. Sarah took a moment to still her mind.
Speaker 1: Best if you don't visit anymore. Thanks, Darnel. Sorry for
Speaker 1: all the trouble. Yeah, Ship, I'm sorry, Sarah. Not your fault.
Speaker 1: It might have been his fault, of course, it might
Speaker 1: have been the phone thing, or god knows what else.
Speaker 1: Take care of yourself. Yeah, same to you. She hung up.
Speaker 1: They were coming. There was no way they weren't. If
Speaker 1: they weren't here now, they'd be here soon. Contingencies. She
Speaker 1: had planned for contingencies. She went into the basement under
Speaker 1: the house. A tunnel, Josephine said, not now, at the
Speaker 1: end of the tunnel a path. There's no tunnel under
Speaker 1: the house. There was no tunnel in the basement. She'd
Speaker 1: been over every inch of it when she first arrived.
Speaker 1: She had inventoried everything, she'd studied everything. The house was
Speaker 1: her own prison, and she'd searched every crack and every brick.
Speaker 1: The house was full of a lot of things, including
Speaker 1: a veritable pharmacy of expired prescriptions. In the bedroom closet,
Speaker 1: including ghosts, no tunnels, gasoline, though there was plenty of gasoline.
Speaker 1: Sara found the five gallon jugs just where she'd first
Speaker 1: seen them. She picked one up and started towards the stairs.
Speaker 1: It was heavy enough to pull her to the side
Speaker 1: as she walked. You can't solve every problem with fire.
Speaker 1: Josephine didn't usually talk to her in the basement. She
Speaker 1: didn't like the basement. Even ghosts were scared abasements. Watch me,
Speaker 1: Sara said. Violence begets violence. The walls said, you killed people,
Speaker 1: and now other people are coming for you. What would
Speaker 1: you have me do? Just lay down and die? Josephine
Speaker 1: was quiet. She was thinking yes, no, I refused, Josephine,
Speaker 1: you hear me, I fucking refuse. Think about Darnell. What's
Speaker 1: going to happen to Darnell if you kill the people
Speaker 1: coming after you? Sarah put the jug down at the
Speaker 1: base of the stairs and stood up straight. Nothing good,
Speaker 1: Sarah said, is that what you want me to say?
Speaker 1: Nothing good? Though? Arrest him and I'll have to prove
Speaker 1: in court he wasn't an accessory. Maybe he'll plee out
Speaker 1: and go to prison. It was never nice to get
Speaker 1: your friend locked up, and we're still to do it
Speaker 1: to a black man exactly, Josephine said, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to prison, Sarah said. She picked up the jug and
Speaker 1: started slowly up the stairs. You don't have to go
Speaker 1: to prison. I'm not going to prison. I'm not just
Speaker 1: gonna kill myself. Okay. The walls were silent. In response,
Speaker 1: Sarah got four jugs of gas up the stairs to
Speaker 1: by the front door for the most dramatic effect. The
Speaker 1: other two positioned best to bring down the building. She
Speaker 1: had plenty of time to plan the whole thing, but
Speaker 1: never let it get over complicated to kitchen timers. Some
Speaker 1: flares that was it might not even kill anyone. What
Speaker 1: made you do it, Sarah asked, as she took the
Speaker 1: cap off the last flare. Same as you end of
Speaker 1: my rope. I'm not at the end of my rope.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to argue, Josephine said. Sarah sat down
Speaker 1: in her favorite chair, by her favorite desk, by her
Speaker 1: favorite window. She was going to miss that chair. She
Speaker 1: was going to miss watching the wind blow the snow
Speaker 1: in the winter, and the grass in the summer, and
Speaker 1: the pines all year round. A man was after me,
Speaker 1: Josephine said, her voice was quieter than usual. Eyes with
Speaker 1: fire behind them, hands with blood inside them. A gun,
Speaker 1: a gun, always a gun. A man who thought I
Speaker 1: was his. You should have fought him. You would have won,
Speaker 1: Sarah nails. He would have won, and I would have
Speaker 1: been his, and he would be sitting in this house
Speaker 1: right now, and I would have been sitting in this
Speaker 1: house right now. And it's better to be eaten by
Speaker 1: wolves than be married sometimes, you know, Yeah, yeah, valid,
Speaker 1: a new theme for well, I guess it's more about
Speaker 1: poisoning husbands was the previous one. Wait? What did when
Speaker 1: he said the shreek goes a big sleigh shut? Yeah? Wolves.
Speaker 1: So I took pills, more pills than other days, and
Speaker 1: I went out to the pines and I gave myself
Speaker 1: to the forest, the snow, the moon. Yes, the wolves.
Speaker 1: I followed the wolves. I gave myself to the wolves,
Speaker 1: not to the man. I'm sorry that happened to you, Josephine.
Speaker 1: I'm not sorry. It's not going to happen to me though.
Speaker 1: Then the tunnel, there is no tunnel, Josephine, you're in
Speaker 1: my head. Of course. The sunset, and no Feds had
Speaker 1: arrived not yet. Sarah wished Darnell had brought her a
Speaker 1: gun after all. Sarah made herself tea thick and black.
Speaker 1: I re light in the house was off. The half
Speaker 1: moon lit up the world, and the wind blew the
Speaker 1: shadows of the trees against the wall. Behind her. Two
Speaker 1: flares sat on her lap. The wolves arrived and circled
Speaker 1: the house. There was no meat for them, not unless
Speaker 1: Sarah decided to die like Josephine. They bleed, Josephine said.
Speaker 1: Sarah saw her reflection in the window, but didn't turn
Speaker 1: to look back at her friend, her lover of sorts.
Speaker 1: They burrow, they break the bone, who, Sarah asked? The pines,
Speaker 1: the land, yeah, and the moon, and the snow shore shore,
Speaker 1: Sarah said, And the wolves, the wolves. Sarah stood up
Speaker 1: and looked at Josephine. The ghost stared at her, her
Speaker 1: eyes moist with tears like they always were. Headlights broke
Speaker 1: through the window ship. Sarah said. I thought I'd have longer.
Speaker 1: Everyone always does. Sarah looked at the gas cans, bright
Speaker 1: red and plastic and out of place by the door.
Speaker 1: She couldn't do it to Darnell. There were pills enough
Speaker 1: in the bedroom of course, she could avoid prison. At least.
Speaker 1: She didn't want to die, but it was bound to happen. Eventually.
Speaker 1: She walked up the stairs, her boots heavy on the
Speaker 1: ugly faded carpet. She walked into the bedroom, opened the closet,
Speaker 1: box after box of sleeping pills, A good night's rest,
Speaker 1: of a long night's rest. She turned and saw two
Speaker 1: things at once, Josephine on the chair by the window
Speaker 1: and the poster on the wall visible through Josephine's translucence.
Speaker 1: We don't have to win, we just have to survive.
Speaker 1: Are you real? Sara asked, I need to know, and
Speaker 1: I need to know right the funk? Now, what do
Speaker 1: you think? Are you real? Our ghosts real? Is the
Speaker 1: tunnel reel? A car door slammed out of time? I
Speaker 1: love you, Sara nails. Josephine said that was real enough.
Speaker 1: I love you too. Sara sprinted for the hallway, careene
Speaker 1: down the stairs and ran out the side door of
Speaker 1: the house, grabbing her coat from the chair as she went.
Speaker 1: The flares and the pills spilled from her hands into
Speaker 1: the snow. The wolves stood back, nervously watching her. Headlights
Speaker 1: came from the front of the house. She followed the
Speaker 1: wolf tracks around back. The wolves followed her at a distance. Curious, dispassionate,
Speaker 1: Sarah traced the tracks down into the gully that marked
Speaker 1: the end of the yard. They only ran another twenty
Speaker 1: feet before they stopped suddenly, at the side of a
Speaker 1: boulder set against the ravine's wall. The wolves den in
Speaker 1: the distance. There was shouting, then howling, then shooting. Then
Speaker 1: a wolf screamed. It wouldn't be long. Sarah had always
Speaker 1: been small for a boy, and she got down onto
Speaker 1: her belly, and she squeezed between the rock and the
Speaker 1: earth and made it into the den, though it ripped
Speaker 1: her coat and soaked her in snow. She turned on
Speaker 1: her flashlight. There were the bones, animal bones, animal bones,
Speaker 1: and a human as an animal too, And there were
Speaker 1: the old bones and the skull. Josephine was real, and
Speaker 1: she given herself to the wolves. Past the midden was
Speaker 1: a tunnel waist high cut by human hands into the earth,
Speaker 1: reinforced with old timber. Bootleggers tracks lead here. A voice
Speaker 1: called from just outside, a man's voice, low and angry.
Speaker 1: People get angry. The land doesn't I can't fit, though
Speaker 1: this will fit, another man said Sarah heard gas and
Speaker 1: turned to look as a metal canister rolled into the
Speaker 1: den smoke. She turned her back on it and crawled.
Speaker 1: She crawled through the tunnel, which was endless until it ended.
Speaker 1: She came up in a part of the wood she'd
Speaker 1: never seen before, and the half moon showed her the path.
Speaker 1: The path, too, was endless, until it ended at the
Speaker 1: shore of the lake. The lake was frozen over and
Speaker 1: the rowboat had rotted through, and she set out on
Speaker 1: foot across the ice. It creaked and it cracked, and
Speaker 1: it held. The bike's engine turned over and it filled
Speaker 1: the world with its roar, and Sarah Nails took off
Speaker 1: up a gravel road. She reached a fork, and she
Speaker 1: took out her compass. North. Somewhere up north was a border,
Speaker 1: and beyond that border was hope. Not a lot of it,
Speaker 1: but maybe enough. Look at you ending your story hopefully. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as I told you, it's the utopian story and the compass.
Speaker 1: It was a good gift, I know, I know, exactly
Speaker 1: better than a gun in this particular circumstance, probably for
Speaker 1: the average person. If you're thinking to yourself, gunn or compass,
Speaker 1: spooky but hopeful. Thanks, that's kind of Like, that's kind
Speaker 1: of you, Margaret. I picked the name killed Joy at
Speaker 1: a younger stage in my life before it became a
Speaker 1: professional optimist who tells people about how it's worth doing things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all going north towards the hope. I love that. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny even like some of the stories that were
Speaker 1: written earlier in like the this book has a bunch
Speaker 1: of stories written over the course about five or six years,
Speaker 1: and some of the earlier ones end a little bit
Speaker 1: less hopefully. Um, and that absolutely just relates to like
Speaker 1: where I was at when I was writing these given stories.
Speaker 1: Sarah cool people who did cool stuff. Yeah, be like Sarah.
Speaker 1: Don't do anything illegal ever, obey all the laws. Wait wait,
Speaker 1: I have a better one. Don't do things just because
Speaker 1: someone that talks to you on a podcast suggested you
Speaker 1: do them. That's what I got co signed, co signed
Speaker 1: so hard. Oh my goodness, this is really great market
Speaker 1: and a great story. Uh do you wanna plug where
Speaker 1: it's from one more time? Well, it's from my new
Speaker 1: book We Won't Be Here Tomorrow, available from a K Press,
Speaker 1: which is a collection of short fiction with stories like
Speaker 1: this one. If you want to hear some of the
Speaker 1: other stories you can actually listen to about a year
Speaker 1: ago on it could happen here, But you could search
Speaker 1: Margaret Kiljoy it could happen here or something, and you
Speaker 1: probably find two stories I wrote there also that are
Speaker 1: also in this book. But there's so many more. Besides
Speaker 1: so many stories. I don't know why I'm trying to
Speaker 1: make this sound spooky this Halloween. Halloween. Well, yeah, thanks
Speaker 1: everyone for listening to. Possibly my new trick that I
Speaker 1: do whenever I do three parts, which is grow some
Speaker 1: fiction in there. Um, Sophie, do you know anything to
Speaker 1: plug like? Possibly? Is there any like? Is there anything
Speaker 1: like new I could listen to on cool Zone Media? Like, like,
Speaker 1: I like the shows that you all have, But I
Speaker 1: was thinking, wouldn't it be nice if there's something new,
Speaker 1: a new voice for cool Zone? Yeah? I mean, if
Speaker 1: you're looking for something new, we have a new podcast
Speaker 1: called Internet Hate Machine, hosted by the one and only
Speaker 1: Bridget Todd, and you can find that wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts bas soon buye Cool People Who Did Cool
Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of cool Zone Media. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts and cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone
Speaker 1: media dot com or check us out on the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.