Weekly Short Story: Ghost of a Chance by Theodore Sturgeon

Ghost of a Chance is a 1955 lighthearted fantasy short story by Theodore Sturgeon, more known to me for his often profound short science fiction.  I read it from Caviar, a small paperback collection of his short fiction from the same year...the book was literally falling apart in my hands when I read it.  In it Gus, a likeable single man somewhere between "young" and "middle-age" runs across a pretty, but distinctive-looking diminutive young woman with white hair, pale skin, and black eyes.  It's apparent from the start that the two are attracted to each other, but Iola punctuates their first chance meeting by suddenly slapping Gus's face...and then runs away!  There's an explanation for this strange behavior, for which the story's title provides a clue.  A ghost is also attracted to Iola and he is very, very jealous of any unfortunate man with whom she begins a friendly relationship, causing all sorts of mischief to him.  So Iola slaps Gus to protect him from this strange apparition...but does that stop him from pursuing her?  You can read for yourself how Gus and Iola deal with this problem...I brought up this story for a couple of reasons...

In many dramatic television series, there are interspersed among the serious episodes a few that are comedic, even farcical in nature... the late comedian Shelly Berman's Twilight Zone episode The Mind and the Matter is probably my favorite of these.  Their appeal comes usually from the sympathetic characters...Ghost of a Chance is like this, with simple, good-natured, and down-to-earth Gus someone that you naturally want to root for.  His dialogues with his more educated friend Henry Gates, a practical psychologist, show true mutual and respectful affection between the two in spite of the needling that Henry gives Gus.  It's a sweet, short tale of little consequence as far as weighty philosophical or social issues are concerned.  Stories like this are often included in an author's larger collection of works without ever being highlighted or greatly discussed, yet in Theodore Sturgeon's mind this was a worthwhile writing venture at a specific point in his career...and I enjoyed reading it...