Not sure how it started (maybe Susan knows), but starting last week the kids have been asking us to tell them a ghost story every night before bed. I tried making up stories a couple of times and they were all terrible. It’s hard for adults (or at least for me) to judge what’s scary to a kid and I’ve missed the mark every time I’ve tried. After failing a couple of times I decided to do it like they did in the old days; around bedtime the kids gather around my recliner as I open my laptop and Google for “quick ghost stories.”

Okay, so that’s probably not how they did it in the old days, but so far it’s working.

Last night’s story was as cheesy as it gets. In the story, a father told his kids about a ghost that knocked three times on doors for no apparent reason. After the kids went to bed the father went to the store while the mother stayed home. Later that night the kids heard three knocks and assumed their father was playing a trick on them. The next morning they discovered their father had experienced car trouble and hadn’t come home that night. That must’ve meant the knocks came from — GASP — a REAL GHOST!

I told you it was cheesy — at least, Mason thought it was. I ended the story with a big MU-HA-HA-HA, at which point Morgan leaped up, ran to Mommy and started crying. She stopped after a minute or two and the kids went to bed.

Mason goes right to sleep at bedtime but Morgan never does. Ten or fifteen minutes after story time ended, Mason was already snoring but Morgan was still sitting in her bed with her lights on. I decided to go have some fun with her. I tip-toed down the hallway, got right outside her door, and knocked on the wall.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

Then I heard her scream. “IT’S THE GHOST!!!” She started screaming, and kept screaming. I’m pretty sure she woke Mason up. I ran in the room almost immediately and said, “Morgan, it’s me! I was just playing a trick!” but that didn’t seem to help. Finally after she calmed down I said, “look, I’ll show you how I did it.” I walked back over to the hallway and stood where she could see me. Then I knocked again.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

“IT’S THE GHOST!!!” she screamed again and stuck her head back under her blanket.

Tonight I think we’re going back to the Little Golden Books for a while.