Spencer Brydon returns to New York after thirty-three years in Europe and hunts the ghost of the man he might have become — the one who stayed, the American businessman, the version of himself that took the other path.

Most ghost stories ask what the dead want from the living. James asks what the unlived self wants from the life that was actually chosen.

When Brydon finally sees the ghost, it is larger and harder than he expected. James leaves open the question of whether the choice not to become that man was a moral victory or a kind of cowardice. Both readings survive the story. I’m not sure James knew the answer. I’m not sure anyone does.

I’ve been thinking about the other path for some time now.

Not regret exactly. Something more like curiosity. A desire to see what the ghost actually looks like, now that there’s enough distance to look at it.

James understood that you don’t always like what you find.

— G. H. Schreiber

01/03/2026