WEBVTT

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Now, my reading tour seems to
have coincided with Halloween.

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And I said earlier to
somebody that all my poems

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are Halloween poems.

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So that was all convenient.

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And here's a thing
that isn't in the book,

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but it's a ghost story
for a late Halloween.

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And it's just that,
it's just a ghost story.

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And it's called
the "Dream House."

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"For 10 years, I dreamt
of the same house

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until I knew every corridor and
cornice, the grain of the wood

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in every board, the way
light fell in different rooms

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at different times of day.

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Its lines and angles grew
more perfect dream by dream.

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This summer, walking in
woods near a town I'd never

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been before, I came to this
familiar gate and beyond that,

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saw a path I recognized.

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And there it was with
a sign, "for sale,"

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among larch and pine and
Sycamore, the dream house.

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I rang the bell.

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And when the owner
came, I asked him

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if he'd think it very strange
if I showed him round.

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To the left, I explained, is
the lounge and paneled library.

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To the right, the long dining
room with the kitchen beyond.

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As we went upstairs
to the four bedrooms

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with their broad-bay
windows and the blue drapes,

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I was stopped dead on the
landing by a small, red deer--"

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a small red deer?

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A small red door.

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This is so crumpled.

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I can't-- now that
would be a shock.

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[LAUGHTER]

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OK, I'll just go
back there so you

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don't think I'm entirely mad or
have taken acid or something--

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"as we went upstairs
to the four bedrooms

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with their broad-bay
windows and blue drapes,

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I was stopped dead
on the landing

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by a small red door
I'd never seen before.

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It was new, he said, and
just put in that day.

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Downstairs, I asked him what
he wanted for the house.

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He named a price so low I
think I showed my surprise,

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but said I'd take it.

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Then he told me
why it was cheap.

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Because it was haunted.

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But said, I shouldn't mind.

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It would be fine for me,
since I was the ghost.

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That was a month ago
and now I have the keys.

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I explore, knowing each
room like my own body

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until I remember
the tiny, red door.

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The keys are all too
big except for one

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the size of a sparrow's claw.

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I kneel down and open the
lock, and there in the darkness

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is a miniature house.

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Through the windows,
in behind the walls,

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I see my son is safe indoors.

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How little he's grown.

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Look at him.

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The boy I dreamt had
died 10 years before."

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