Wonderfully told. For some reason I really like the expression, "the last house before Norway" – I can hear the ocean in it! Which island was this? I have visited the Mainland twice but never any of the smaller islands.
This was on the Mainland! Basically, drive east, almost as far as you can go and that was our home. It was very close to the Gloup, if you've ever visited that? Somehow, I'm not surprised you've been to Orkney, it certainly attracts interested, interesting, and inquisitive people.
And thank you, I'm really glad you liked it (I also quite liked that line, it was one I used many years ago, when describing to people where I had lived previously, and it stuck).
Yes! When we first moved to Orkney, when I was eight, we lived in Stromness (which is also where I went to secondary school), and would see GMB walking around town. We studied his work at school and, at the time, I wasn't that keen but, years later, when living in Wick, I tried again and loved it. I then proceeded to collect everything I could, mostly from charity shops in the area. His writing is so deeply ingrained with Orkney, I too adore it. So glad you know it too!
The Gloup! I remember. What a location. And fantastic with the birds, the cliffs and the sea fog hiding and revealing all the time. That must have been such a place to live.
Orkney is a remarkable place. Whether when I lived in Stromness or, later, Stenness, before moving to Deerness, each had such incredible qualities, each burrowed down deep into my soul.
I returned to visit some year ago now, before leaving Scotland to become globally feral, and found the sea cliffs to be so much quieter than I remembered, so many of the birds had gone as the sea warms and their food supply moves north. There are still thousands and thousands, but not to the same deafening extent I remembered.
I have so many Orkney stories, something I am thinking about at present.
I am pretty sure they'll appear (I've poured a healthy measure of them into the novel I'm currently editing, real things neatly wrapped in a blanket of fiction seems the best place for some of them)!
Thank you! This story sort of told itself, in many ways. I think memory is distilled, the older we get, the further from the event. It is a scene which is still sharply in focus, yet I can't remember if it was 1993 or 1994. Time is weird.
Hooray! That's the effect I was certainly aiming for. It was one of those experiences which has stuck, bright and clear, in my mind. I can see the moonlight and how it went through the woollen shawl and woman to the chair beyond yet, as I mentioned in another reply, I can't quite remember the year!
I really do not like ghost stories (or, more pertinently, I do, but I get scared by them, perhaps too much, so I avoid wherever possible), but writing this was fun.
Another thing I found fascinating was that, although this was originally crafted more than a decade ago, I was not happy with the story I had written then. It had the heart of the tale, but didn't seem to be in the right order, precisely. It needed more editing and revision than I had envisaged, which I am taking as a good sign that my craft has improved!
That's the weirdest thing about this - I would have done the same, normally, yet I honestly felt absolutely safe and comfortable, with no fear at all. It really was only later, when my Mum pointed out about the floor, that I felt scared. Going to bed that night was hard!
I can see why you didn’t feel scared during the experience, though. I do think sometimes spirits put out something that keeps us calm. From the time I was nine until I was 18 there was an apparition that lived in our house (it was part of a neighborhood built on a former ranch) that I suspect was a ranch hand. I never felt scared either. He always seemed so sad and confused.
This was outstanding. You never fail to deliver! 👏👏👏👏👏
Oh, that sounds like a story you need to write! I wonder what brings these things to our attention. I always try and find a scientific reason or theory as to why they occur, yet I often struggle. It does seem, however, that these visitors (whether they are real or not, who knows?) are often associated with strong emotions, in my case clearly joy and love, in yours sadness and confusion. I sometimes wonder if these emotions are enough to somehow trigger something in time, mix up different moments in the same place, and deliver us an apparition? Maybe our minds understand this better than we do, which is why we stay calm?
In the novel I'm editing at present (and have been for a long time) I touch on ghosts, but in the one after that (still also needing heavy edits) it is a major plot device. I really can't wait to share those with the world.
Thank you so much for your words, they have brought a big smile to my face.
What a gorgeous, quieting story, even in its hauntedness! Love this line: The figure slowly and silently turned and I could see she was hunched over something cradled in her arms. A baby. There was a woman in a shawl, rocking a baby, at the foot of my bed. And I was not scared.
Thank you so much. I really tried to capture how I felt at that moment with those words, what I was experiencing and how timeless and calming it felt. Even now, many years later, thinking about this gives me a shiver down my spine, not really fear, more a brush with something other, something I can't explain, but which certainly left a lasting impression.
Neither do I! Yet I keep having different experiences which are super hard to explain with science. I'm sure there IS a science there, somewhere, it might just be that we don't yet understand it? Either way, I don't watch anything with ghosts in it, and rarely read anything too scary either. When drafting the novel I'm currently editing, I gave myself (literal) nightmares with my own treatment of one scene! Which I think might be a good thing, overall?
Wonderfully told. For some reason I really like the expression, "the last house before Norway" – I can hear the ocean in it! Which island was this? I have visited the Mainland twice but never any of the smaller islands.
This was on the Mainland! Basically, drive east, almost as far as you can go and that was our home. It was very close to the Gloup, if you've ever visited that? Somehow, I'm not surprised you've been to Orkney, it certainly attracts interested, interesting, and inquisitive people.
And thank you, I'm really glad you liked it (I also quite liked that line, it was one I used many years ago, when describing to people where I had lived previously, and it stuck).
Oh and I was also going to say: when I was first there I read Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown, which I adored! Have you read it?
Yes! When we first moved to Orkney, when I was eight, we lived in Stromness (which is also where I went to secondary school), and would see GMB walking around town. We studied his work at school and, at the time, I wasn't that keen but, years later, when living in Wick, I tried again and loved it. I then proceeded to collect everything I could, mostly from charity shops in the area. His writing is so deeply ingrained with Orkney, I too adore it. So glad you know it too!
The Gloup! I remember. What a location. And fantastic with the birds, the cliffs and the sea fog hiding and revealing all the time. That must have been such a place to live.
Orkney is a remarkable place. Whether when I lived in Stromness or, later, Stenness, before moving to Deerness, each had such incredible qualities, each burrowed down deep into my soul.
I returned to visit some year ago now, before leaving Scotland to become globally feral, and found the sea cliffs to be so much quieter than I remembered, so many of the birds had gone as the sea warms and their food supply moves north. There are still thousands and thousands, but not to the same deafening extent I remembered.
I have so many Orkney stories, something I am thinking about at present.
Would be lovely to hear them in future writing.
I am pretty sure they'll appear (I've poured a healthy measure of them into the novel I'm currently editing, real things neatly wrapped in a blanket of fiction seems the best place for some of them)!
What a story, elegantly and skilfully told.
Thank you! This story sort of told itself, in many ways. I think memory is distilled, the older we get, the further from the event. It is a scene which is still sharply in focus, yet I can't remember if it was 1993 or 1994. Time is weird.
I agree!
Thanks! Really glad you liked it.
Blimey, Alexander. I would've been terrified. And what a revelation shared by your Mum!
It really was! It was so strange, how I wasn't scared at all up until that point!
Oh my gosh, Alex, I’m so glad you posted this today. It’s gripping! What an experience.
Hooray! That's the effect I was certainly aiming for. It was one of those experiences which has stuck, bright and clear, in my mind. I can see the moonlight and how it went through the woollen shawl and woman to the chair beyond yet, as I mentioned in another reply, I can't quite remember the year!
I really do not like ghost stories (or, more pertinently, I do, but I get scared by them, perhaps too much, so I avoid wherever possible), but writing this was fun.
Another thing I found fascinating was that, although this was originally crafted more than a decade ago, I was not happy with the story I had written then. It had the heart of the tale, but didn't seem to be in the right order, precisely. It needed more editing and revision than I had envisaged, which I am taking as a good sign that my craft has improved!
😟 nope!
There is no doubt that I would have lept from my bed and been down those stairs in record time!
That's the weirdest thing about this - I would have done the same, normally, yet I honestly felt absolutely safe and comfortable, with no fear at all. It really was only later, when my Mum pointed out about the floor, that I felt scared. Going to bed that night was hard!
I can see why you didn’t feel scared during the experience, though. I do think sometimes spirits put out something that keeps us calm. From the time I was nine until I was 18 there was an apparition that lived in our house (it was part of a neighborhood built on a former ranch) that I suspect was a ranch hand. I never felt scared either. He always seemed so sad and confused.
This was outstanding. You never fail to deliver! 👏👏👏👏👏
Oh, that sounds like a story you need to write! I wonder what brings these things to our attention. I always try and find a scientific reason or theory as to why they occur, yet I often struggle. It does seem, however, that these visitors (whether they are real or not, who knows?) are often associated with strong emotions, in my case clearly joy and love, in yours sadness and confusion. I sometimes wonder if these emotions are enough to somehow trigger something in time, mix up different moments in the same place, and deliver us an apparition? Maybe our minds understand this better than we do, which is why we stay calm?
In the novel I'm editing at present (and have been for a long time) I touch on ghosts, but in the one after that (still also needing heavy edits) it is a major plot device. I really can't wait to share those with the world.
Thank you so much for your words, they have brought a big smile to my face.
What a gorgeous, quieting story, even in its hauntedness! Love this line: The figure slowly and silently turned and I could see she was hunched over something cradled in her arms. A baby. There was a woman in a shawl, rocking a baby, at the foot of my bed. And I was not scared.
Thank you so much. I really tried to capture how I felt at that moment with those words, what I was experiencing and how timeless and calming it felt. Even now, many years later, thinking about this gives me a shiver down my spine, not really fear, more a brush with something other, something I can't explain, but which certainly left a lasting impression.
A beautiful story, thank you.
Many thanks for reading it and commenting Ben, I am really happy you liked it.
.. still, I don't do well with the supernatural 😧
Neither do I! Yet I keep having different experiences which are super hard to explain with science. I'm sure there IS a science there, somewhere, it might just be that we don't yet understand it? Either way, I don't watch anything with ghosts in it, and rarely read anything too scary either. When drafting the novel I'm currently editing, I gave myself (literal) nightmares with my own treatment of one scene! Which I think might be a good thing, overall?