ghost stories and other scary bits

the lawn

is pressed by unseen feet,

and ghosts return

gently at twilight,

gently go at dawn,

the sad intangible who grieve and yearn..

                -- t.s. eliot, to walter de la mare

              

like most children, we loved listening to stories about ghosts and other spooky tales from our older sisters, brothers and sometimes from our cousins when they were at our house for special occasions like a fiesta that could last for a week or two. the story telling usually happened at night when we were all about to go to sleep. my two younger sisters and i had bed sheets ready just in case the story became too scary to bear that we had to cover ourselves with them.

but apart from those stories, i had my personal encounters with these creatures from the other world.

flashback. lights off. candles on. gushing wind. hair raising musical score.

&&&&&&&&&&

my first encounter with a ghost happened when i was twelve years old. i just arrived from a high school christmas party and was walking alone to our house. our house then was a five-minute walk away from the main road. it was around ten in the evening. it was already dark because my father used to turn off the street light at around nine to discourage us from going out. this was the time, by the way, when our family was the only occupant in the area.

while singing a song (menudo's if you're not here by my side) to calm my nerves and distract my attention from being scared of the darkness, i could feel that someone was following me, or walking behind me. but every time i turned around, there was nobody there. i thought it was just my one or two of brothers playing tricks on me. you know, they hide every time i turn my head to catch them.

i was expecting them to shout and touch my shoulders or my back any time just to give me a fright. you know the game, right? but it never happened.

when i reached home, i was surprised to find the whole family in the living room. supposedly, they were all asleep by that time. they all looked sad. the mood was sober. my mother was even trying to suppress her tears.

"what happened?" was all i could say. but i already had a hint. an emergency? someone died or was serious in the hospital?

"bong bong died," my younger sister said.

i became quiet.

my mother hugged me. she knew he was my favourite older brother. i was also his favourite.

so it was him who was following me, was all i could think of. he knew that i was afraid of walking outside alone at night in the darkness. 

******

weeks before he died, bong bong cleared the pathway from our house to the street where we get a tricycle or hitch a ride at our neighbor's car to school or anywhere else in town. he cut the grass, cleaned the canals, fixed the street lights. even planted some roses at the side of the pathway.

he also painted the fence, the gate and the house. as if he was preparing for a feast. of course christmas was coming, but we usually don't give a fuss about christmas.

we usually do the house cleaning, beautification, repairs during fiestas, when we expect a lot of our relatives and friends to come and stay with us for days. but not so much on christmas because, well, everyone is celebrating it on the same day.

it was never a tradition in our family to visit relatives during christmas. baka mapagkalamang namamasko tayo, my father used to tell us. so we also didn't expect them to come to our house.

******

other than that incident, i never felt my dead brother's "presence"again even after he was buried. i heard my mother, brothers and sisters saying they saw his ghost or that they smelled candles, flowers, etc in the house.

******

the second time i "saw" spirits (yes there were three of them) was on december twenty-four, around eleven o'clock in the evening. it was full moon. or  half moon? basta may moon.

i was already fourteen then. so going out late at night was no longer a big deal at home. and i was no longer scared of the dark. yes, in the province where i grew up, eleven o'clock was already late. people usually have dinner at seven, then go to sleep at around ten or even earlier.

my disciplinarian father had imposed a curfew at home at around nine. but once we got older, he became less and less strict about it. we could go home any time at night as long as we were not drunk or high on drugs. and did not disturb the family or the neighbors. (yes, by this time we had neighbors).

anyway, back to my story. i was walking home alone on the street when i heard heavy foot steps following me as if they were wearing combat shoes. there were also loud voices, like a conversation among drunk men. and an occasional laughter. as if a joke had been said.

i turned around and from a distance, i saw three men. or what looked like three men from a distance. they were walking so close to each other. as though their arms were on each others' shoulders. but i could  not see their faces. i thought they were military men who came from a christmas party, still wearing their uniforms, drunk and were talking loudly.

i could not understand what they were saying. so i thought they must be conversing in their own dialect.  we used to live near a military camp and most of our neighbors were military men who came from different parts of the country, speaking ibanag, ilocano, cebuano, ilonggo, tagalog, among others.

i slowed my pace so i could take a better look at them. maybe i knew them. they could be friends of my father, a retired military officer, or of my older brothers.

but suddenly it became quiet. as though they stopped talking or walking altogether.

when i turned around, they were gone.

i retreated my steps, trying to figure out where they went. but there were no houses along the spot where i last saw them. there were no tricycles or military jeeps either that they could have stopped and gotten a ride.

scared, i ran as fast as i could until i reached home.

*******

we (i and the rest of the family) also heard strange "sounds" and smelled strange "scents" at home, especially when everyone was already asleep. or thought we were all asleep.

i also heard ghost stories from my sisters, brothers, friends, visiting relatives and neighbors. they felt and saw them at our house. or at the lawn. afraid!

for instance, an uncle who once slept on top of a table outside of the house (he was drunk) told us that he was awakened by the sound of somebody riding a bicycle at dawn. when he woke up, he saw my brother's bicycle moving on its own. without anyone riding it. he was so afraid that he left right away without even saying goodbye to any of us.

old folks who were familiar with the place where we built our house after we moved out of the military camp told us that japanese military men were buried somewhere near our house during the second world war.

********

when i was already in college and my older brothers and sisters were living away from home (either they were married or working elsewhere), i had the entire second floor of our house all by myself. it had three bedrooms, a small living room that led to the terrace.

by this time, i was already used to these "noises" and "scents" in the house.

there were nights when i heard footsteps in the living room or the sound of the sofa being dragged. or a door being opened or closed loudly. of people talking in whispers.

there were times when i smelled the aroma of delicious food being cooked at two in the morning. or the scent of fresh flowers.

a priest had advised us to just ignore these strange things and to pray. i did.

a faith healer told my mother to offer chicken (its blood spilled on the grounds) and other food, cigarettes and wine (may bisyo pa ang mga ito) to pacify them. she did, but the strange noises and smells continued.

until now.

by this time, we have gotten used to them. they're almost a part of our family.

*******

oh well, lowell, happy halloween.

my late grandmother used to tell us every time we screamed while watching horror films: don't be afraid of ghosts and spirits, they won't harm you. most of the time, they're harmless. instead, you should be wary of the living because you don't know what they can do to you.

how true!

(the photo above was taken from this website, top ten ghost photos and the stories behind them. no copyright infringement intended. so ghosts, please don't haunt me ok? to read, please click this link: http://www.strangerdimensions.com/2013/07/11/top-10-famous-ghost-pictures-and-the-stories-behind-them/)