The Christmas Guest

by Peter Swanson

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” In my case the past really is a foreign country. And, yes, they do things very differently there.

I thought he was done but then he said, aloud, that his daughter wasn’t quite pretty enough to also be stupid,

According to E her dad said something along the lines of, If you left, then at least the town murder rate wouldn’t rise again.

One thing about spending time with Emma’s SCARY family is that I feel less bad now about not having my own.

American Ashley Smith died on the scene, while Clevemoor resident Emma Chapman remains in critical condition.

I killed Ashley Smith that Christmas Eve. This was back when I was called Emma Chapman.

“You don’t like my plan?” He was smiling broadly, enjoying himself. “What, your plan where I commit premeditated murder to cover for your accidental murder? No, I don’t like it.”

“I remember what it felt like to be nineteen and alive. I don’t know what it feels like to be fifty and still alive.” “It feels different,” I say. “When you’re young you think there are so many possible roads, but when you’re my age, you’ve been on the same road for a long time, and there’s no getting off of it.”

“When was the last time you looked for news of his other girls? I know that you can do that now, even here from this apartment.” She is speaking of the internet. Was that even a word back when we first knew each other?

he stares right through me into the middle distance, as though I might not even be there. It is, after all, the season of ghosts.