Mystery week is coming up! As part of its celebration, GoodReads asked it's mystery authors the following question: What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book? Here's how Toviyah and I answered that question. (Warning! - Not responsible for the increase in your electricity bill after you read this)
On the University of Alberta campus, the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine is in a building called Corbett Hall. The building was erected in 1928 and, for years, housed a training centre for teachers. For as long as I can remember, there's been the legend of Emily, the ghost of Corbett Hall. Emily has been said to be seen walking across a stage to receive a teaching diploma. If you search on-line about Emily, this seems to be her modus operandi. But consider this...
In the building late at night, elevator doors mysteriously open when you walk by. Power doors, which are operated by pressing a paddle to the left of the door, open on their own. A cool breeze brings in soft footsteps and gives the kind of chills that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. And don’t fall asleep in the lab. You might wake to see a message on your computer screen that you didn’t type. “Once I fell asleep in that chair, too.”
The mysterious existence of Emily could be the plot for a new book. Who was she? What was her last name? What drove her to haunt Corbett Hall? Who does she choose to haunt? Why is her ghost seen as white in formation? Does the absence of Emily mean that she is lurking in the darkness, deciding who she will appear to next? Do you feel a cool breeze?
Perhaps the biggest mystery is this – why, in the novel "A Course in Deception", is Anbu's little daughter named Emily? Perhaps it was hearing the soft footsteps of Emily walking towards the present day from decades of the past, to live through the novel. One tear, fallen from her innocent right eye, was a pearl dropped into an ocean of crime. And now, Emily lives in the form of a little girl, waiting patiently to see that justice is served, waiting for the chapters of “A Course in Deception” to release her spirit.
