The Late Guest

What it looks like, and what it does

A tall figure in an evening coat a little too long for them, standing at the door with flowers wrapped in newspaper. Face tilted, polite. At the table, place settings for people you cannot name. Candles lit and not burning down.

Comes only to houses where something has just ended. Does not eat or drink. Leaves when the candles are blown out, and not before.

What is known

Arrives between the end of a party and the washing-up. Rings once. Asks for nothing, and lays plates.

The meal is real, and warm. Those who stay to eat describe a conversation in which everyone is known to them, and in which someone is laughing whom they have not heard laugh in years. In the morning they remember all of it, and cannot place any of it.

What it can do

• Lays a table for the absent
• Gives those who eat a complete, clear memory of an evening that did not occur

Where it stops

• Cannot enter a house where the washing-up is still on the table
• Will not eat or drink what it is offered

An encounter

Haddad was stacking chairs when the bell rang. The guest handed her a coat she did not remember taking, then laid nine places on a table she had just cleared. She served, because it seemed unkind not to. She remembers the meal in detail, including the toast. She does not know who it was for.

Yusra Haddad, caterer, Back room of a wedding venue, harbour district, 01:30, after the last guests

What is established, and what is only said

• established: Nineteen witnesses to the meal, interviewed separately, gave consistent accounts of the menu, and inconsistent accounts of the company.
• rumor: That the Guest has been refused entry exactly once, by a widow who left her dishes in the sink for a year.
• interpretation: The dinner may not be invented. It may be one that someone else is having, somewhere, with the diners as guests.

Still unresolved

The seat nearest the door is always for someone who does not arrive. Its chair is always warm when the Guest has gone.

Where it has been recorded

• The Salt Coast (reported) — Reported at a wedding venue in a harbour district. The exact venue was not recorded.

Stories about it

• The Late Guest at Marchmont House (Entity story, 3 min) — At the annual dinner at Marchmont House, a well-dressed stranger arrives after the coffee has been served, and lays a place for himself beside the youngest member of the family, who has never once been invited to sit at the table.

Connected entities

• The Seamstress of Last Words — Both finish what the living left undone: a meal, a sentence. Records of both note that the result is warm.