Short story about a spaceship haunted by Laika's ghost because the pod got stuck in one of their tail spurs, featured in an anthology

Question

This mystery has been plaguing me for years.

In grade school, somewhere in the 7-8 grade zone, so about six, seven years back, my teacher had this bookshelf in the class that was pretty much a mix of books that I assume were only found together because they were cheap.

The book I'm trying to find was this old paperback, warm-tone cover (if I'm remembering correctly; I think it had a face on it, or an implication of a face, but that's a bit foggy) in the kind of illustrations that a collection of short fiction got in like the 80-90s, which I assume is because it was a collection of short fiction published in the 80-90s. It was either horror, sci-fi, or a mixture of both with a few variables thrown in overall.

Within this book was a short story about Laika, and not the one that comes up when you Google it normally, if my memory is correct. And I hope I am, because otherwise I've been recalling a book that doesn't exist for seven years. I can't remember the title of the book because it's so generic, just [genre] Collection or a forgettable noun, and the Laika part was such a small part.

The very clear details I can recall is it was a small crew on a spaceship, iirc two men, who have their spaceship haunted by Laika's ghost because the pod got stuck in one of their tail spurs or fins or whatever when they were leaving orbit, and when they find out that's what was causing the haunting, they bury the body on a planet that's all grassy and meadowlike. I found it more a sad story than a horror one; if horror was the overall genre, it was probably just included for the ghost part.

I don't remember much of the other stories; I can remember things I read about the same time, but I truly don't know if they were a part of the same book. One was the classic 'eating KFC and finding a fried rat / unexpected chicken part / etc' story; another was something about a man living alone(?) with a blizzard outside, or something people assumed to be a blizzard, but it burned at you and/or ate you alive - I can't remember enough to be sure if it was alien or not.

It's a tall order for such a short story, but hopefully maybe someone else at least remembers it so I don't feel like I'm chasing a dream?

Answer 1

You requested an excerpt of "Package From Another World". (@canonkiller, per your request in the comments.)

It is such a short poem I can post it in its entirety.

"Package For Another World" by Jemal Sharah

Along the ashen path, the path of ghosts bright with its coals that light lost travellers home, Laika goes bounding, far beyond her masters.

To please them, she entered her capsule to the future, and the past. As it rose it broke the waters of the snow,

burst through blue and into black. The stars netted her like a frostbound spider web while her wintry home turned opal.

In the distance. Centuries compacted as she waited, whining, for someone to let her out. The first life

in space, she was the first to die there; the blackness around, crammed down her throat,

stars collapsed in her eyes. There, where the mind fails, is now a graveyard of junk, and a dog,

desiccated in death, who continues her mission, who carries beyond time, the one message she knew.

Laika herself is "The Package For* Another World".

*(The actual title uses the word "for".)

The poem is in (as mentioned in the comments) "Path of Ghosts" by Jemal Sharah.

The entire book is hard to find. It is less than one-quarter inch thick, even counting the hard covers.

It answers both your questions in a way: (1) the entire poem instead of an excerpt, and (2) seeing the poem shows it's definitely about Laika in space, but no mention of her ghost, so it's not the very short story you seek.

At least it can lay the ghost of the question about the poem to rest.

The rest of the short poems are about serious scenes and themes. Such as the fall of the Berlin Wall. No fried rats.