Real or Imagined
Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever seen or heard something you couldn’t explain? Personally I don’t believe or disbelieve. My father once told me that supernatural occurrences mostly happen to people that don’t believe in the supernatural. On the other hand I have had things happen that I couldn’t explain. My most serious occurrence happened while I was with a group of my friends and the worst of it is that we all saw the same thing.
I wrote about this apparition on my book, but it’s still a work in progress, and I haven’t allowed anyone to read the whole draft, not wanting to take the risk of jinxing it. I must admit that writing down the first hundred pages is fun because you have so many things on your mind. Eventually however, it becomes work when you have to work at bringing more substance (body) into you original effort. The following is an excerpt from my book:
One Friday night the family and a couple of my friends were going to spend the night and half of Saturday at Padre Island. We actually camped on the beach. We had to dig a trench around the tent to keep the large crabs that came out of the ocean in the middle of the night away from us. The drive was about an hour and 20 minutes one way. We had to wait for my step-father and mom to get home at about 10 pm. They had driven to one of my step-father's sisters house to leave little Norma because she was too young to spend the night at the beach.
While we waited for my family to arrive Arturo, Ramon, Tabito and I spent the time outside sitting on the curb telling scary stories. Three months earlier Gonzalo's mother had passed away and Gonzalo was sent to live with his sister in Raymondsville. Gonzalo's mother was around 57 years old and had long salt and pepper hair with more salt than pepper. She was also hard of hearing and sometimes when you talked to her she looked like she was looking through you or at least past you. Almost without exception she would come out before going to bed to make sure Gonzalo was safe or to get him to go into the house.
On this late Friday night everyone was sitting on the curve facing the street except me, I was standing on the street facing the buildings and my friends. Arturo, as usual was telling us how tough he was and how he wasn't afraid of anything. I looked to my left about 60 feet away, and standing next to the corner of my house was Gonzalo's mother facing the street but looking side to side, like she always did when looking for Gonzalo to get him to go home. She was wearing what looked like a floor length white cotton night gown.
For a moment I fell into the old habit, and yelled out, "Are you looking for Gonzalo?” Almost instantly I realized that Gonzalo didn't live here anymore, and she was no longer alive. Things moved so fast that my friends didn't realize what was going on. Then I noticed that she was moving toward us. Her movement was unnatural almost like she was floating smoothly toward us, I couldn't see any leg movement and definitely her feet were not showing.
I told my friends we should make a run to the Liscano house, but Arturo was so scared he couldn't stand up to run, so Ramon and I each grabbed one arm and dragged Arturo to the safety of his house. Once on the porch the Liscano girls didn't want to open the screen door to let us in so I punched a hole on the screen and unlatched the screen door. Once inside we moved the couch in front of the door (as if a closed door could keep a ghost out), I suppose it made sense at the time. After we did that the girls finally realized how serious and scared we were. It was a hot summer night yet we closed and locked all the doors and windows, and started to pray as a group. Some of us were devout Catholics anyone else quickly followed the lead. We knew that help was on the way because my mother and step-father were due any moment. It seemed like forever and no one volunteered to look outside for fear of seeing something we would rather not see.
While we waited for my family to arrive Arturo, Ramon, Tabito and I spent the time outside sitting on the curb telling scary stories. Three months earlier Gonzalo's mother had passed away and Gonzalo was sent to live with his sister in Raymondsville. Gonzalo's mother was around 57 years old and had long salt and pepper hair with more salt than pepper. She was also hard of hearing and sometimes when you talked to her she looked like she was looking through you or at least past you. Almost without exception she would come out before going to bed to make sure Gonzalo was safe or to get him to go into the house.
On this late Friday night everyone was sitting on the curve facing the street except me, I was standing on the street facing the buildings and my friends. Arturo, as usual was telling us how tough he was and how he wasn't afraid of anything. I looked to my left about 60 feet away, and standing next to the corner of my house was Gonzalo's mother facing the street but looking side to side, like she always did when looking for Gonzalo to get him to go home. She was wearing what looked like a floor length white cotton night gown.
For a moment I fell into the old habit, and yelled out, "Are you looking for Gonzalo?” Almost instantly I realized that Gonzalo didn't live here anymore, and she was no longer alive. Things moved so fast that my friends didn't realize what was going on. Then I noticed that she was moving toward us. Her movement was unnatural almost like she was floating smoothly toward us, I couldn't see any leg movement and definitely her feet were not showing.
I told my friends we should make a run to the Liscano house, but Arturo was so scared he couldn't stand up to run, so Ramon and I each grabbed one arm and dragged Arturo to the safety of his house. Once on the porch the Liscano girls didn't want to open the screen door to let us in so I punched a hole on the screen and unlatched the screen door. Once inside we moved the couch in front of the door (as if a closed door could keep a ghost out), I suppose it made sense at the time. After we did that the girls finally realized how serious and scared we were. It was a hot summer night yet we closed and locked all the doors and windows, and started to pray as a group. Some of us were devout Catholics anyone else quickly followed the lead. We knew that help was on the way because my mother and step-father were due any moment. It seemed like forever and no one volunteered to look outside for fear of seeing something we would rather not see.
Finally, in what seemed like forever, we heard the family ford pull up into my driveway (which was next door separated by an unfinished two-story building). We quickly ran out as a group trying to not let my family run into what looked to us as a possible ambush of sorts. When we told our story Andy looked around the area and then tried to make us feel better by saying that it was probably our overactive imaginations. The problem with that theory is that 4 of us saw the same exact thing to the smallest detail.
Soon after this incident we moved to a brand new house in San Benito, Texas. One of my very nice neighbors was Baldemar Garza Huerta (stage name; Freddy Fender of Before the Next Tear Drop Falls fame). will write a post on that experience one day soon. I never returned to the old neighborhood, until this year on September 2013. The Best is yet to come….
No comments:
Post a Comment