PROMPT: A ghost is trying to haunt someone but can't get his attention
I’d be the first to admit that it was a missed opportunity. Hell, for both of us: what scientist doesn’t want to see proof of the supernatural? I mean, honestly: it’s only supernatural because it hasn’t been reproducibly described yet in the literature; then it is no longer ‘supernatural’ but ‘a newly discovered phenomenon.’ And newly discovered phenomena have names: generally the name of the person who wrote the article.
So as much as anything, I guess, this is the story of the Nuttal Effect, as might have been.
I will start by saying that there is no orientation for new ghosts. You die, and then you’re a vaguely-associated discorporeal presence. It actually takes quite a while to get your consciousness together, and it takes an effort of will to keep it from dissipating -- never entirely, of course; that would be too easy, but enough to allow you to flow along in a sort of fugue consciousness.
Until something attracts your attention, as Trevor Nuttal attracted mine in the spring of 1962.
