A Touch of the Past

Have you ever felt like someone was stroking your head, even though you're an adult and alone in the room? Or a feeling in your sleep that someone is lying next to you? Does your long-dead cat never come to rub against your legs or curl up in your lap?

While I chalked the first incident up to longing for my deceased grandfather and forgot about it, my mother told me about the second, asking if I'd ever lain down next to her at night. As a grown woman, I didn't feel such a need—that's what I told her. A few days later, waking up in the middle of the night, I felt like I was being constantly electrocuted. Unable to move, I felt like someone was lying to my left—or rather, suspended in midair, because the edge of the sofa ended to the left, and there was simply no place to lie down.

The third story happened only once. I called the cat, and he came running. But before he appeared, invisible velvety fur rubbed against my legs. My grandmother once had a cat...