We all enjoy a good ghost story, especially with Halloween approaching. But there’s nothing spooky about Sydney Bartlett’s ghost story, “Heads,” a finalist in our short story contest. Instead we’re presented with a melancholy story about friendship, regret, and the ways in which our decisions have consequences, often unpredictable, often—and devastatingly—final. Life can turn on a dime, Sydney reminds us: “Someone you love wakes up one morning and looks at you, their eyes flat and indifferent. Your neighbor shouts at her husband like she does every Saturday afternoon, but then she wheels out a suitcase and gets in a stranger’s car. To go home, you take a right until the night you take a left instead.” —David Duhr, fiction editor
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I knew Charlie was dead because I saw her ghost.
