The Sound of Defeat

There are two phantom boards in Chateau Travolta, one upstairs and one downstairs. They don't sound like all the other squeaky boards in this house: These sound like a sigh of disappointment.

I just stepped on one.

I found the one in the kitchen about a year ago. Initially, I thought it was Petunia making just the merest meow, but then I'd look around and find her nowhere near. Once I heard her jump off the bed seconds after the sigh and felt my skin crawl. I walked back and forth across...