The Long Game of Tag at Hollowmere House

The rules of tag are clear: the game ends when everyone goes home. The ghost at Hollowmere House is home.

In the summer of 1911, the three Winterbourne cousins were bored at their aunt’s house and found themselves in a corridor with a pale young gentleman who offered to be it.

He counted to ten. They ran. It was a splendid game for roughly nine minutes, right up to the moment he reached out and touched Cousin Mabel on the shoulder, and she felt a slight chill, and he said, very politely, “You are it.”

The difficulty

You cannot tag a ghost back. Mabel tried for six weeks. Her hand went clean through him, and he would float beside her at breakfast, looking pleased.

Mabel grew up, married and moved to Dayton. She remained it. When she was ninety-four, she told her grandson about it, and in telling him, tapped him on the arm. He felt a slight chill.

Where the game stands now

As far as anyone can determine, the Winterbourne family has been it for more than a century. There are reunions. Nobody shakes hands.

The moral

Before you agree to any game, ask how it ends. Ask the person proposing it whether they have somewhere to be. If they say they have all the time in the world, and they mean it, go and get a sandwich instead.