---

The Ghost of Christmas Possible

by Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw

I was asleep: to begin with.

The hour was just before midnight on Christmas Eve when a ferocious knocking woke me from my slumber. My first muddled thought, or rather hope, was that some specter or spirit stirred beneath the cramped rafters of my newly rented accommodations. Such a prospect aroused in me no little excitement — for though I am well versed with the actions and habits of apparitions, ghosts, and hauntings of all sorts, I have always had to seek out such extraordinary creatures in situ, as it were, and their attentions had never been initially directed toward me. I thought immediately of the incident of the Knocking Well, when I helped lay to rest the unquiet spirit of a lost child in Somerset, and so I leapt to my feet and pulled on my dressing gown to begin my investigation. I followed the sound of knocking, now ever more ferocious, through the corridor and down the narrow stairs.

Alas, it soon became clear the knocking was of an entirely ordinary sort, attributable to some visitor pounding upon my front door — though the lateness of the hour did suggest some manner of emergency or alarm. When I opened the door, a wild-eyed creature, with a ghostly white aura about his head and loose robes that flapped wildly in the wintry winds, forced his way inside, and I reconsidered my assumption that he was a mortal man. I had certainly never encountered an apparition polite enough to knock — however vigorously — before entering, and when he spoke, I was crushed by the mundane quality of his voice, which possessed none of the eerie harmonics I associated with those few spectral beings who deigned to speak.

“Mr. Hodgson, I presume? I have immediate need of your services, man!”

He was a frightened old man, and I was acquainted with such; I had met the terrified, the dread-filled, and the desperate over and over during my researches into the occult.

---

Host Commentary

It’s the last episode of the month, with only hours left to go, so it’s my last chance to remind you of the Escape Artists End of Year Fundraiser. I’m sure you’ve gotten the message by now about the incredibly generous matching fund from some long-standing donors, that will double all donations this month up to $7000 total, be they one-off donations through PayPal or otherwise or new subscriptions on Patreon, so for this final night of the year let’s keep it brief, and just say: if you’ve not yet gotten round to donating, get on it while you can still have double the impact you would have at any other time in our history. We only fly these skies because of the folk that donate, so thank you to each and all of you who has ever helped us get where we are today, sharing the stories that we think make this world a better place by showing what it could be like in others.

---

…aaaaand welcome back. That was “The Ghost of Christmas Possible” by Heather Shaw & Tim Pratt, and if you enjoyed that then it’s because you’ve probably been enjoying these Christmas tales of theirs for years, and you already know to find more of them on our website by clicking through to the author pages of either of them, right? Right.

And that, theydies and gentlefolk, has been our 2024. I think it’s been a pretty remarkable year of stories, all told, if you’ll forgive some slight bias in that opinion: our Palestinian month in November was phenomenal, every single story a certified banger; “A Most Lovely Song” by Albert Chu is an awards-eligible original, and has the clearest call to action of any story I’ve ever known, and should be textbook reading for anyone in a first-world country that continues to permit the Israeli genocide in Gaza; “Ecdysis” by Samir Sirk Morató, also awards eligible, prompted the most personal, vulnerable outro from me that I’ve ever dared give; “The Golem Lover” by J. H. Siegal was a unique take on grieving a husband only insofar as it’s the only story that’s ever dared to be so honest about certain aspects of that loss, and was, again, an original eligible for all relevant awards next year; “Flight” by Charlie Sorenson is the story I reread the most times before writing and recording the host spot, because it offered so much in repeat visits, and honestly that outro is one of my favourite ever rants; “This Wooden Heart” by Eleanna Castroianni, another awards-eligible original, was steeped in grief, and regret, and hopes of better days and better ways; and “The Adventure of the Faerie Coffin: Being the First Morstan and Holmes Occult Detection” by Rebecca Buchanan was just damn good fun. And so many more! We’ve had take overs from Cast of Wonders, photos of our dogs, double-bills and three-parters; stories to make you laugh, stories to make you cry, stories to make you care. We’ve put it all out in the world this year, and put a lot of ourselves into it too: listen to Eleanor’s outro on Golem Lover if you want to understand how much some of these stories mean to us.

And none of it would mean a thing if you weren’t listening to it, too. So thank you for being here with us, every week, for however many years it’s been for you; we’ll be back in the new year, every Tuesday, with one story told well for you. See you then, yeah? Much love.