BOOK: Undeniable Truths by A. M. Garner

The ghost is not much of a ghost, as ghosts go, and he knows it. Most of the time, the ghost sleeps, sometimes so long that when he awakens he hardly recognizes where he is. He sleeps in the short, low-ceilinged upstairs hall between a bedroom and the upstairs bath. Occasionally, he
bangs the bedroom door shut, and he always keeps the light bulb blown in the upstairs hall light fixture. The various people who’ve lived in the house assume the door is not level, the wiring faulty. He knows this because he has heard them say these things, and the ghost was perfectly satisfied with the people believing such explanations since he never cared whether or not they knew he existed. Being a very old ghost, he had been in the two previous houses which
have stood on the property. He has forgotten—or forgets to remember—exactly why he is here, what he did or didn’t do or think that has made him a ghost, and when he has slept for an unusually long time, he often has to roam the surrounding hills for a while until he can once again claim his bearings. That’s how he knows about the spirit of the lake.

The above is an excerpt from A.M. Garner's new book Undeniable Truths, out now. From Amazon: The twelve stories that make up Undeniable Truths have an unmistakably Southern sensibility and are rich in humor, violence, wisdom, mystery, ghosts, dogs and troubled humans. The stories resuscitate stereotypes and reinvent the South.

Born in rural Coosa County, Alabama, award-winning author A. M. Garner writes and teaches writing in North Alabama. She blogs about Southern culture at Talking in Accents online.