Hauntings

The author explores the ways in which the individual might be haunted by past mistakes or present worries via Tookie's relationship with Flora's ghost. Flora's ghost first appears at the end of "Time In Time Out." Tookie says that in the years following her release from prison, "I worked hard, kept things tidy, curtailed my inner noise, stayed steady" (32). Despite these efforts to live a more stable and productive life, Tookie says that "trouble found where I lived and tracked me down. In November 2019, death took one of my most annoying customers. But she did not disappear" (32). Tookie, therefore, sees Flora's ghost as a new form of trouble in her life. Because she has had a fraught relationship with Flora when she was alive, she sees Flora's specter as disruptive and invasive. Rather than attempting to understand who Flora was and what she might want from...