Marble Jar #1: Story Ideas That Just Won't Quit
Five ghosts find one another in a calm, provincial yet dystopian afterlife landscape (think Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go). The ghosts are completely invisible to humanity, and are all unnerved by this. They know they are dead, but have no memories of how they died or who they were in life. They instinctively (unexplainedly) know that in order to "pass on" they must uncover what happened to them when they were alive. They travel the countryside (only venturing into cities when absolutely necessary) hunting for "triggers" to their pasts. The rather naive and unassuming ghosts are fast friends and share some witty dialogue, especially with a hairbrained Irish medium with whom they occasionally communicate.
However, the first ghost (male) eventually discovers that he died in a fire trying to save his wife and daughter (who were also killed). The second ghost (male) discovers he was placed in a nursing home by the state to die alone from cancer. The third ghost (female) discovers she was a suicide. None of these three ghosts pass on, as they planned, because they can't reconcile this information with "who" they've become as ghosts. The fourth and fifth ghosts (one male, one female who have been growing closer...well, as close as two ghosts can grow) are now wary of unearthing their pasts as well. The fourth ghost (male) discovers he died in the car crash that also killed his best friends. He was also a devout Hindu before his death, and now suddenly doesn't understand why he was not reincarnated. The four ghosts become angry, and their group begins to fight and disband. The fifth ghost (also the narrator) ends the book explaining that her friends have become restless spirits/poltergeists who haunt the areas they have traveled through. The story ends inconclusively with the fifth ghost still searching for who she was.
Themes/Ideas = self-perception vs. external perception, actions vs. words, importance of history/knowledge when shaping self-image, is there a "true" essence of a person or is everything shaped by our life experiences/choices we make?
