Atticus Finch
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,718
- Location
- Coastal North Carolina, USA
In spite of my lighthearted post earlier in this thread, to my knowledge, I have never seen a ghost. I have seen bright car lights on a deserted road that disappeared in front of me with absolutely nowhere for them to have gone. I have heard footsteps descending the staircase in my childhood home...when only my parents and I were there, and we were all downstairs. In fact, several years later, my Mom heard exactly the same thing when she was there alone. I have been in places where, for no reason, I have become almost overwhelmed with a feeling of dread and foreboding.
But I have never seen a ghost.
In fact, I personally know only one person who has actually seen a ghost. When I say "actually seen a ghost" I mean Mark will tell you that he saw a ghost and knew he was seeing a ghost when he saw it. He didn't have to think about it. It wasn't some unexplained noise or wisp or light or feeling or whatever. It was a ghost. He saw it when he was eighteen and living with his parents aboard Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station. It was early one evening, not even totally dark. He was riding his motorcycle with his girlfriend when they came around a bend in the road. There, standing on the curb, was a woman dressed in clothing from some earlier time. He knew she was a ghost because he could see through her. Mark’s girlfriend also saw the ghost and had no misapprehensions about what she was seeing. She started screaming into Mark’s ear, “GO! GO! GO!” and so he did. He had no choice but to pass directly by the ghost and as he did, it disappeared.
Mark has been my neighbor for over a decade. I have heard him tell this story many times in much greater detail than I have told it here. In all those times, I have never heard him change even the smallest detail. I have listened with a prosecutor’s cynical ear trying to uncover some slight inconsistency, but I never have. Also, I have never heard Mark try to embellish the story. A good story teller would be tempted to make the ghost into the wife of a WWII Marine Officer, or the evening to be a dark and stormy night or whatever…but he never has. She has always been just an unknown, translucent woman dressed in old time clothes and he always seen her on an otherwise tranquil, early summer evening.
AF
But I have never seen a ghost.
In fact, I personally know only one person who has actually seen a ghost. When I say "actually seen a ghost" I mean Mark will tell you that he saw a ghost and knew he was seeing a ghost when he saw it. He didn't have to think about it. It wasn't some unexplained noise or wisp or light or feeling or whatever. It was a ghost. He saw it when he was eighteen and living with his parents aboard Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station. It was early one evening, not even totally dark. He was riding his motorcycle with his girlfriend when they came around a bend in the road. There, standing on the curb, was a woman dressed in clothing from some earlier time. He knew she was a ghost because he could see through her. Mark’s girlfriend also saw the ghost and had no misapprehensions about what she was seeing. She started screaming into Mark’s ear, “GO! GO! GO!” and so he did. He had no choice but to pass directly by the ghost and as he did, it disappeared.
Mark has been my neighbor for over a decade. I have heard him tell this story many times in much greater detail than I have told it here. In all those times, I have never heard him change even the smallest detail. I have listened with a prosecutor’s cynical ear trying to uncover some slight inconsistency, but I never have. Also, I have never heard Mark try to embellish the story. A good story teller would be tempted to make the ghost into the wife of a WWII Marine Officer, or the evening to be a dark and stormy night or whatever…but he never has. She has always been just an unknown, translucent woman dressed in old time clothes and he always seen her on an otherwise tranquil, early summer evening.
AF