Good morning. 😴🥱☕
7 February 2026
I woke up groggy and disoriented, which isn’t unusual when I fall asleep in my chair. The TV was still on but silent, and Charlie was sitting in front of me, staring like he’d been waiting for me to rejoin the living. I rubbed my eyes, stood, and made my way through the house toward the bedroom, Charlie padding along behind me.
My wife was in front of the mirror doing something with her hair. “I fell asleep,” I said. She glanced over and smiled, but didn’t say a word. That alone was strange—she’s usually quick with a comment.
I headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower. When I looked back through the doorway, Charlie was sitting exactly where I’d been standing, watching my wife. He was perfectly still except for that black border collie tail, curved up with the white tip held like a little flag.
The shower felt good—narrow jets of hot water working into my neck and shoulders—so I stayed longer than usual, letting the heat soak through me. When I finished, I pulled on a T‑shirt and gym shorts and headed back toward my chair.
Down the hall, through the kitchen, into the family room—and then I froze. Because there I was, still lying back in my recliner, wearing the old blue jeans and olive drab work shirt I’d had on all day.
I wasn’t shocked or scared. My first thought was simply, Well, will you look at that. Hadn’t my wife just seen me walk through the bedroom? Or had she only reacted to Charlie? Then another thought drifted in: Well, there it is. Apparently life doesn’t go on after all.
Of course, none of this happened. But it felt like the start of a pretty good ghost story.
“Life is a dream from which we all must wake.” — James Joyce
“The dead are never far from the living.” — African proverb
“Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise.” — Zen proverb
#photo #photography #wildlife #nature #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #morning #fiction #ghost #story #greategret #savanahriver