Hi, I'm Lovar Burton and this is Lovar Burton Reads.

In every episode I handpick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

Well, I've gotten a lot of requests over time for a Shirley Jackson tale and I am happy to

indulge those requests today. After all, it is the season for spooky stories, right?

You've probably read Shirley Jackson's story The Lottery, most of us have in school as a kid

or maybe you've read or seen the haunting of Hill House. Shirley was mostly known for her horror

and mystery writing for the American Gothic and to me she's really associated with a particular

kind of feeling. The not quite right. The familiar imbued slowly with terror. Something just kind of

prickling at the back of your neck as you have a dawning realization. This story comes from a

collection of her works entitled Dark Tales that was published by Penguin Classics.

Now, when we begin, it feels like our narrator, Catherine, is telling us a ghost story

about something that happened to her and her friend who's only referred to by a single letter Y.

But Ms. Jackson lets the story slip and change shape and we end up in a quite different place.

I found this story really challenging and fun and we'll talk more about that at the end.

Please check out the written content advisory if you are so inclined and if you're ready.

Let's take a deep breath.

And

begin.

The story we used to tell by Shirley Jackson.

This is the story that Y and I used to tell.

Now, used to tell in the quiet of the night, in the hours of the quiet of the night.

...