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Until last year, I had never read Kelly Link. I feel ashamed to admit that publicly, but we’ve shared so much together, I thought I should be honest. Then, a friend let me borrow Stranger Things Happen, Link’s debut collection of strange, quirky, fantastic short stories. Hooked. You will be, too, for sure. Enjoy today’s story of the day, “The Specialist’s Hat”:

“Claire and Samantha prefer to play inside. Eight Chimneys is as big as a castle, but dustier and darker than Samantha imagines a castle would be. The house is open to the public, and during the day people — families — driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway will stop to tour the grounds and the first story; the third story belongs to Claire and Samantha. Sometimes they play explorers, and sometimes they follow the caretaker as he gives tours to visitors. After a few weeks, they have memorized his lecture, and they mouth it along with him. They help him sell postcards and copies of Rash’s poetry to the tourist families who come into the little gift shop. When the mothers smile at them, and say how sweet they are, they stare back and don’t say anything at all. The dim light in the house makes the mothers look pale and flickery and tired. They leave Eight Chimneys, mothers and families, looking not quite as real as they did before they paid their admissions, and of course Claire and Samantha will never see them again, so maybe they aren’t real. Better to stay inside the house, they want to tell the families, and if you must leave, then go straight to your cars.

The caretaker says the woods aren’t safe.”

Bonus: Jason Erik Lundberg reads “The Specialist’s Hat”