This story sums up why babysitting is terrifying.

March 10, 2012 7:33 AM

Inspired by this question, can you help me find a ghost story about babysitting?

I heard this story on the radio several years ago, I think at Halloween time. I strongly believe that the show was Selected Shorts, but I haven't been able to find it on their website. The story was about a babysitter who, after she put the children to bed, was required to do a small ritual in which she knocked on all the doors in the hall and say a small incantation. She doesn't understand the purpose of this ritual until a stranger tries to break into the house.
I can't for the life of me remember the author or the reader. I was in the car at the time I heard it, and I can remember thinking that I really liked the story and that I should write down the name of the author before I forgot it.

posted by pickypicky to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

Do you remember any direct quotes or key phrases from the story at all? You might have already tried this route, but sometimes it's easier to search for stories according to those than it is to search for them according to their premises.
posted by jumelle at 11:51 AM on March 10, 2012

Best answer: I think this may be Jane Yolen's "The Baby-Sitter". It was first read on Selected Shorts in September 2002, but their shows are sometimes rerun by local affiliates w/out any notice on their main site (I know this after hunting for another ghost story reading from SS - of Fitz-James O'Brien's very creepy "What Was It" - a few years ago.)
posted by ryanshepard at 11:57 AM on March 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: +1 to yes, absolutely, Jane Yolen's The Baby-Sitter. It's also collected in the book Things That Go Bump In the Night, edited by Jane Yolen and Martin H. Greenberg.
posted by athenasbanquet at 6:36 AM on March 11, 2012

Response by poster: Thanks ryanshepard and athenasbanquet-- I've been trying to find this story for years.
posted by pickypicky at 8:31 AM on March 11, 2012