Hello, before we start today's episode, I wanted to let you know that I am doing a theatre show in Edinburgh on the 17th, 18th and 19th of December.

The show is called Unquiet Objects and is three adaptations of classic M.R. James ghost stories in collaboration with Parrot Theatre Company.

It is on at 7pm in the Banshee Labyrinth on the 17th, 18th and 19th of December, and you can get your tickets at real-life ghost storiespodcast.com. I'm Hello and welcome to many episodes 486 of real life ghost stories and I have two spooky stories for you today and the last story comes from the 27th of September 2025 and story number one comes from Charlotte. I was about five years old and visiting some cousins in the state of Georgia in the US.

We had driven all the way there from Michigan.

Their baby was just old enough to practice sleeping in a toddler bed in her own room,

so I was given a little spot in the nursery.

Her old crib across the room for me was full of stuffed animals and toys,

with an overflow of dolls and pink things neatly staged in front of it.

To be clear, this plethora of sweet, lacy, tea party ready toys were for me to look at,

not to play with.

The perfection of the scene screamed display only,

so I dared not touch. I remember it being a difficult visit, and being put to bed several hours before my normal bedtime was one of the most difficult parts. I was so frustrated being in a

strange room by myself, but afraid to make too much

of a fuss in front of these people that I didn't know. I was given some of my travel entertainment

to keep me occupied, some Happy Meal Toys, books, and one of those old read-along storybooks with a

clunky cassette player and headphones. This was not nearly enough to keep my mind

from going haywire in a new place with new rules, stuffy strangers and bedtimes when the sun

still beamed through the blinds. After what felt like hours the sun had gone down and I was

laying on the mattress rolling around and making up games in my head.

Bored kid things, like pointing and tracing the walls and ceiling with one eye closed while listening to my read-along. All this to say, I was wide awake. Being bored out of my mind, I was staring

off into the display of untouchable toys. One of those toys was a Raggedy Ann doll

sitting on a wooden rocking chair, because of course it was. As I was mindlessly staring at it,

...