ABSTRACT
Ghosts are meant to be invisible. I became a ghost because everything I said or did was wrong, and I could not bear the shame of it. No retreat was far enough. I was made of the same stuff as my mother and father. They hated themselves, each other, their children and their lives, so it was inevitable that I would feel that there wasn't a shred of goodness in me for others to recognize. I needed to conceal the disgrace that I had failed as a child. My shame could not be exposed under any circumstances. When a fox is run to ground, to be dug out by beaters' spades in order to let the hounds in, it is a fate beyond contemplation.
