RANDOM NOTHINGNESS

It's almost Halloween... time is just ripe for Ghost Stories!

I remember growing up in the suburbs at a house just beside our grandparent's.  I was born in the 80's:  times when power outages are pretty much part of daily living.  During these power outages, my siblings and I would always stay at my lola's balcony, crowding near a gas lamp while listening to Lola's or Tatay's ghost stories about the lot where our house stands.  As we grow up, it's not just Lola and Tatay who share their stories near the gas lamp...  even us kids have contributed to the growing archive.

I don't know why my family have this affinity with the paranormal.  At some point in almost every family member's life, we've had encounters with the unknown.  I, for instance, had seen my older sister being carried in midair  by a very beautiful lady, in our room, in the dead of night when we were still kids (I think I was around 9 then.)  Just remembering this experience brings shivers to my spine, until now.  For years, I tried to rationalize that what happened was all a dream so imagine my fright when my brother's girlfriend stayed at our house one night.  She slept with my youngest sister in one of our Lola's rooms.  In the morning, she told my parents what she saw: a lady carrying my sister in midair.  She's never heard of that story before.  She also stayed in my old room once and she heard a woman humming a tune to her.

There was this other time when I followed my sister going inside our house, only to realize later, that there was no other person in there but me.  I was sure that it was my sister whom I was following for I was just a few steps behind her, and I remember clearly hearing her footsteps as she descended the stairs and seeing her open and close the door behind her.

There was a point in our childhood when my parents needed to got to Manila  quite often to attend to some business and then got home much later in the evening. They would leave us alone in the house, with just our Lola to look after us.  Those were very fearful days for us siblings because our youngest sister has developed a very strange habit which she acquired after playing at the bellfryof the church beside us.  At around six o'clock or so in the evening, she would be very agitated and scared, almost hysterical while pointing at something at the floor that the rest of us cannot see.  She was just a toddler then, barely able to talk to us in straight sentences so we don't really know what her problem is.  It was just a few years ago when our little sister finally told us what she was seeing then:  little people with disfigured faces.  She can still see them up until now that she has already grown up.  She has gotten used to them.  She also witnessed a floating candle and a white lady at the vacant lot beside our house, before a new house was built on it.

Our Tatay, too, has his own share of experiences.  He probably has the most extensive collection of stories.  He has seen a floating coffin and candles on few occasions at the back of our house, near the starfruit tree.  He sees a lady in our room, sitting at my bed from time to time.  Tatay would ask her why she is there and then order her to go away.  She would obey and always pass through the kitchen toward the back of the house.  He can also see the ghosts from the neighbor's  lot.  I remember him telling us kids sometimes not to look out the window as he can see a lady outside.

Oh, and there are also those mangled bodies at the back of our house in old spanish-time outfits.  An uncle from my mother's side also saw these spirits once when he stayed at our house.  He never heard the stories about the mangled bodies so imagine our surprise when he told us about what he saw.

Hmmm... i think i need to stop my stories now. I'm getting pretty scared and jumpy here.