Week 5 Story: The Ghostly Replacement

Close to a ghost wife
image by Lina Blixt


There once lived a man names Spencer and his wife Angelica . They lived in a small house in the mountains with the man's sister Ashley. The Spencer’s sister was always picky about the women he brought home and knew everything about Angelica before he married her.

One day Angelica went down to a small stream that was near their house. On the way she brushed the side of a ghost that had stumbled across the path she would normally take. The ghost took offense to this and took the form of angelica. The ghost then came up behind Angelica right before she reached the stream and took her to nearby tree and buried her next to it. The ghost buried her alive with a hole to breath, for it wanted to make her suffer for touching it without permission. From here the ghost returned back to the house and took Angelica's position.

The ghost did the normal chores around the house that Angelica used to do but more efficiently. Spencer didn’t notice any difference for he was not there during the day when these things were normally done. Ashley on the other hand noticed for she knew the normal routines of Angelica. She had suspicions that is was not Angelica. So after three days she gave the ghost a task that Angelica could normally not do alone to see if she would do it. The ghost of course did it with ease.

Ashley needed more so later that night when Spencer arrived home she told him what happened. Spencer said that this was impossible but listened to his sister. So that evening they both decided to spy on Angelica cooking dinner, which she had finished early the last three days. When they looked in the kitchen they saw Angelica cooking, but she had six arms.

Without thought Spencer jumped out and yell, ”You are not my wife. Where is my wife.”

The ghost was astonished but did what was asked of it.

The ghost took Spencer and his sister to where it had buried Angelica. When arriving and unearthing Angelica they found her in a state of dehydration but otherwise unharmed. They asked why the ghost had done this to Angelica. The ghost explained that it used to be a housewife and when Angelica brushed it the creature became enraged for it used to have the same lifestyle. It wanted to take her place while Angelica suffered in loneliness as it had.

After hearing this all three of them felt pity for the ghost. So instead of sending it on its way they invited the ghost to come live with them as long as it promised to help with the daily chores. The ghost liked this offer and agreed. After this they all lived as one big happy family in the house.

Author notes: the source story is “The Ghost Wife”. In the story there is a man, his wife, and his mother. The wife goes on a late night walk and ran across the ghost that stuffed her in a tree truck and took her place. The mother notices that the wife was not the same and realized it was a ghost. They call in a exorcist to get rid of the evil. In the end they get the ghost to tell him where his wife is and send the ghost away.



bibliography: source story and author: The Ghost wife by the Rev. Lal Hehari Day