“There are competing theories.” With an eager audience, Prudence metamorphosed from a disapproving caterpillar to a butterfly keen on espousing her point of view. “But I will tell you what I have been able to ascertain through my research. Ghosts are the product energies and their interactions with aether.”
Disappointment dampened the widow’s voice. “So, they are not souls?”
“What is a soul, if not what lies at the core of a person?” Prudence replied, pooh-poohing thousands of years of tradition with a dismissive flap of her hand. “Anima, ka, spirit, psyche—or you could call it a soul if you wish. But semantics aside, ghosts are composed of the energy that occasionally remains once a person sheds their earthly body. And this energy is strongest when it is unbounded.”
While Bonnie mulled this over, George’s voice filled the gap. “And what’s that ee-ther stuff you mentioned?”
“Why, the very fabric of the universe.”
Vi snorted and splashed brandy into a pair of squat pieces of utilitarian glassware. “That’s putting it rather poetically.”
“That’s putting it scientifically,” her aunt corrected.
Phoebe Darqueling 