Paranormal Encounters

"...and that's why we never open the day room curtains after nine, not since before you started." Pam says it over her shoulder, already halfway out the fire door with her coat on, car keys jingling.…

The first thing I heard was what I thought was the pallet lift, that low mechanical groan it does when the hydraulics are cold. Took me a second to place it wrong, because the lift was still switched…

We were wrapping the good plates in newspaper, badly. Sue kept using yesterday's paper, the wet bit from where the milk had leaked, and half the sheets came apart in your hand before you'd got the…

"—so that's rule four, and I know it sounds daft, but you'll understand by Thursday." Maureen hands over the laminated sheet like it's nothing. She's watching Priya's face all the same. The sheet is…

Ray watched his niece iron the same sleeve for the third time. The crease still ran crooked, however hard she pressed it, and her mind was clearly somewhere else. She kept checking her phone on the…

The fitted sheet won't sit right. I've done this corner a thousand times, tuck under, fold up, tuck under, and tonight my hands keep losing the shape of it because my phone's going off in my apron…

I'm polishing the spoons wrong. Mam's good spoons, the ones with the roses worn thin on the handles, and I've done the same one three times because my hand keeps stopping halfway through the stroke…

The doorbell was sitting on top of the skip outside number 14, still wrapped in its bubble wrap. That's the first thing I want to get straight, because everyone keeps asking why I'd take something…