Dear Wigleaf,

Growing up, a lot of Sundays were spent watching old Abbott and Costello movies on a small TV in the coat-check closet of a theater district restaurant waiting for my dad who managed the place. Sometimes he'd send me to a matinee across the street, but I was just as happy watching those movies. I loved them so much.

There was one, a supernatural comedy, The Time of Their Lives, that stayed with me.

It was unusual for an Abbot and Costello movie—Costello and the actress Marjorie Reynolds played prankish ghosts from the Revolutionary War who haunt an estate where a psychiatrist (Abbott) is staying. I felt pangs whenever it came on, mostly because the ghosts were cursed, bound in place, and the very idea of that freaked me out.

So now I'm maybe realizing that everywhere I've lived, there's always been the settled fear that I'll end up stuck there as a prankish ghost and it might be why I've had trouble putting down roots. Either way I'm getting tired of moving.

It would be a departure for me to become a prankish ghost but also sort of on brand. I can be sullen but with bursts of enthusiasm. I can be both filled with anxiety and calmly eat a good amount of someone else's cake when they're not looking. And lately I can let love and hurt dwell in the same place.

I guess I wouldn't really mind being a prankish ghost.

xDanny