The Sheridan Tapes · Homestead on the Corner | Realm

B-Side 13: "Ghosts"

June 14, 2025·33 min·2 clips

A church outing, a secret relationship, and a typed note saying "the sins of the father" push Andrew Sheridan into fear.

A noisy gathering pushes Andrew Sheridan and Deborah Fielding outside. Caitlin has brought Debbie there to get her out of the house, and the two settle into the quieter edge of the evening, where introductions can almost pass for privacy. Andrew is polite. Debbie is polite too. The conversation begins with the usual small questions that make strangers feel less strange for a moment: who teaches, who works, and who came along for company. She says she does not teach. Instead, she does secretary work when she can find it and keeps to herself more than she means to these days. Andrew keeps talking. He pushes past the self-deprecation until Debbie admits that she paints landscapes, and that Kate has been teaching her portraits and figure drawing. She says she is not very good at it, even though it clearly matters to her. The room stays loud. Debbie says the noise is too much and asks to step outside, and that shift gives the scene a brief pause before the next turn. Andrew offers her his jacket. She notices the tape recorder only then, and the object in his possession changes the shape of everything that has come before it. Debbie does not panic. She says she forgot she still had it on her, then explains that she records everything because names, people, and conversations slip away from her, and that she has done it since college. The explanation is plain, but it is also unsettling, because the thing Andrew thought was private has been captured all along, and the quiet between them now feels like it has a second listener. The conversation cuts off at the recorder reveal, leaving the question hanging in the dark.

As heard by us

A hushed conversation turns uncanny once a tape recorder comes into play.

The episode opens as a quiet social exchange and turns uneasy once Andrew Sheridan and Deborah Fielding settle into polite questions, a borrowed jacket, and a tape recorder that has been running the whole time.

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Why you'd press play

You want a polite social exchange that pivots the moment a tape recorder shows up.

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