Ghost stories tap into our most primal emotions as they encourage us to confront the timeless question: What comes after death? Here, in tales that are by turn scary, funny, philosophic, and touching, you’ll find that question sharpened, split, reconsidered—and met with a multitude of answers. “Ghosts and Speculation,” an excerpt from Kevin Brockmeier’s extraordinary compendium of one hundred ghost stories, The Ghost Variations, discovers new ways of looking at who we are and what matters to us, exploring how mysterious, sad, strange, and comical it is to be alive—or, as it happens, not to be. A Vintage Short.