Ghost Story Review: "The Woman at Seven Brothers" by Wilbur Daniel Steel

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Ray Johnson is an assistant lighthouse keeper at a place called Seven Brothers in coastal New England. His boss, old Fedderson, is in his fifties. Mrs. Fedderson is closer to Ray in age. Not that he has eyes for her. To him, she is like the cat. Or the furniture. One evening, old Fedderson goes on longer than usual during evening prayers, almost like woom-woom-woom of the sea against lighthouse itself as he tries to make the world right again. Ray looks up from braiding the fringe on the tablecloth to find Mrs. Fedderson looking back at him. He avoids her after that. It such close living quarters, it is difficult. Fedderson has been living and working at Seven Brothers for twenty years. It is a lesser assignment and Fedderson feels overlooked. The choice assignment is an onshore lighthouse, interestingly named Kingdom Come. When notice of his transfer comes through, he barely believes it. The Feddersons’ fourth anniversary is approaching and they plan a day ashore to celebrate. Mrs. Fedderson confides to Ray that she will not be returning. She has friends ashore. He will not see her again. When the couple doesn’t return, Ray doesn’t panic. He assumes his boss is looking for his wife and simply takes over both watches in the lighthouse. The next afternoon, he wakes to a horrible storm, and rushes to fire the light. He sees Mrs. Fedderson aloft waiting for him. This is a ghost story, but it also leaves the open possibility that Ray, without sleep and without food, goes a little nuts. He becomes less coherent toward the end of the story, but is still able to relay an ever growing sense of horror to the reader. This story is available at Project Gutenberg in collection Famous Modern Ghost Stories and as an audio book from Librivox. After an unfortunate experience with a site, I’m only leaving links from Project Gutenberg and Gaslight and other places I know well. _____ Title: “The Woman at Seven Brothers” Author: Wilbur Daniel Steele (1886-1970) First published: Land’s End 1908 Source: Famous Modern Ghost Stories *An earlier version of this review appeared on another site. It has been updated and expanded for its inclusion on myLot.*