By October, the shops are full of ghosts. Paper ones hang in windows. Small ones ring doorbells and hold out bags for sweets. Some wear trainers beneath their sheets. Most have someone waiting a few steps behind them.

These ghosts are easy to recognise.

Others arrive without a costume.

A song begins, and someone is beside you again. You pass a restaurant and remember how long it took to choose the right table. And how patiently someone let you choose.

Or you remember a coat. Every button, every fastening. As though there were all the time in the world.

For a moment, you almost turn to tell them something.

Perhaps that is what some ghosts are. Memories caught in time, still doing the ordinary things they did before everything changed.

Pouring the coffee. Reaching across the table. Laughing before you’ve finished the story.

Halloween gives its ghosts sharp teeth and terrible intentions. But not all ghosts are monsters. Some have never frightened us at all. We’re simply surprised by how much it can hurt to meet them.

And sometimes, how glad we are that they came.

Soon, there will be chocolate on the table and small monsters at the door. We’ll pretend to be afraid, then offer them something sweet.

But some ghosts don’t wait for Halloween. They arrive in ordinary moments, bringing back something we thought we’d forgotten.

Don’t we all have someone who still lives in a moment we can no longer visit?

A ghost among ghosts...