The Groundskeeper Told Me Which Graves To Walk Past Quickly
73% BELIEVED
CASE FILE #363
FILED: May 9, 2026
CLASSIFICATION: Ghost Stories
WITNESS ON RECORD: LilacPlotAnna
JURY OF 225 READERS HEARD THIS CASE: 164 believed it, 27 had doubts, 34 weren't buying it.
I took a summer job cutting grass in a municipal cemetery, which is the best job I have ever had: quiet, useful, and nobody complains.
The groundskeeper was called Ivan and he had been there since 1983.
On my second week he walked me round with his diary, and in the back of it there was a list, in pencil, of about eleven plot numbers.
He said, "These ones, don't linger. Cut, and move on."
I laughed. He did not.
He was not a spooky man. He talked about drainage and mowers. He had a flask. He voted in every election and he complained about the council in the specific, loving way that only council employees can.
He said: "It's not that they're bad. It's that they're lonely, and lonely gets interested."
Plot 447 is a boy who died in 1911, aged nine.
I cut round 447 forty times that summer. Thirty-nine of them were nothing.
The fortieth was in August, at about half six in the evening, when the light goes gold and long, and I had the mower off because I was doing the edges by hand.
The groundskeeper was called Ivan and he had been there since 1983.
On my second week he walked me round with his diary, and in the back of it there was a list, in pencil, of about eleven plot numbers.
He said, "These ones, don't linger. Cut, and move on."
I laughed. He did not.
He was not a spooky man. He talked about drainage and mowers. He had a flask. He voted in every election and he complained about the council in the specific, loving way that only council employees can.
He said: "It's not that they're bad. It's that they're lonely, and lonely gets interested."
Plot 447 is a boy who died in 1911, aged nine.
I cut round 447 forty times that summer. Thirty-nine of them were nothing.
The fortieth was in August, at about half six in the evening, when the light goes gold and long, and I had the mower off because I was doing the edges by hand.
THIS EXCERPT ENDS HERE. The remaining 162 words of the testimony — and the reader jury — are on file at:
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Votes on record: 164 believed · 27 unsure · 34 didn't · 73% of readers believe this story