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Posted: Jul 24, 2006 1:59 p.m. - Subject: a story from dear scarlett
I can kind of understand why many people are so afraid of ghosts…
Late last night (Saturday 22 July 2006) I decided to go for a walk in my town and visit the cemetery. I’ve lived here for about a month.
The cemetery is the first thing I ever explored in this town, and the first time was about four or five years ago when I was out for a motorcycle ride. If I’m roaming about in Eastern Colorado this is one of my customary places to stop for gas on the way home, and the cemetery is just across the road from the gas station. I like it-- it’s typical for one of those graveyards you see in a small Western town. It’s on a hill where there are trees, and it’s nice and breezy even on the hottest day. (I always think it’s touching to see how people will show love and respect for their departed by setting aside a nice piece of property for them to rest in! It’s funny to imagine a couple of ghosts lounging under a well-kept tree on a pleasant manicured hillside, feeling sorry for the sweating mortals down in the town.)
But this was the first time I ever entertained the idea of visiting the graveyard at night. I handed out treats to my pets so they would be relatively well-behaved while I was gone and left the house.
The moon has been waning and wasn’t even risen. It was about 10:30 p.m. Deer Trail is a town with street lights and so on, but you can still see the milky way on a clear night. It’s gorgeous!
There are also the usual number of bored yahoos living here, however, and the local bar attracts more yahoos from down the road. And it was Saturday night. Since it was still fairly early, there was the occasional sound of someone gunning his motor or shouting, but it was mostly over toward the railroad tracks ( i.e., the opposite direction from the way I wanted to go), since the liquor store.
Nevertheless, you gotta be cautious when you’re by yourself.
I always figure that a magician who uses invisibility spells should put his faith in his magic, and if he’s using one he should NOT SNEAK. I mean, if you are using an invisibility spell and you are furtively flitting from one shadow to the next-- then obviously the spell is not working for you. I clothed myself in "medium strength invisibility", i.e., people could still see me if they looked right at me, but they would not notice me from a distance unless I wanted them to-- and I proceeded to walk right down the middle of the street, only moving to the side for cars. No one bothered me and if I was noticed, I was not hassled. Drunks passed and didn’t honk, slow down, yell at me, or throw emtpy beer cans. Sometimes that kind of attention is fun but I wasn’t into it tonight.
Under the highway bridge I startled the crap out of two teenaged boys who were apparently trying to cop a smoke. They kinda scared me a little too. Noise from the highway is pretty loud under the bridge and I didn’t hear them or see them until I was flush by them. I just glanced at them and went on. When I looked back they were both staring at me open mouthed, as they could see I was headed for the cemetery-- when I looked back again a few seconds later, they were heading into town. (They seemed to be kind of in a hurry.)
So the way this is set up is there’s the town to the South of the highway, and then you cross the highway and there is another gas station and a local highway that goes off into the Northeast, and then after you cross that there is a church and a couple of houses and then the hill with the cemetery. There were people pulling off the main interstate to get gas and stuff but even though I was making not the least effort to remain hidden, no one seemed to notice me. You gotta like that. (I had my pepper spray in the pocket of my hoodie, of course, in case someone DID decide to mess with me. You should always trust your magic skills-- but if you don’t have a backup plan that’s just plain stupid.)
So up on the hill it’s nice and the stars are blazing down from the black-on-black sky and the trees are whispering. I could still see the gas station, highway, and town but as I walked it got more and more distant-seeming and then finally, as I got to the cemetery gates, when I turned around it seemed that a thick glass wall had descended between me and the regular world of humans driving, partying, and watching TV. I love that sensation. Now I was in another world.
I squeezed under the gate and stood to brush the dust off my hoodie and skirt. I checked to make sure I still had my keys and pepper spray. I looked around for any indications of a surveillance system; though I’ve checked before and never seen one, it’s always a good idea to include this in one’s routine of trespassing. I continued up the hill into the dark graveyard.
I didn’t intend to stay long, I just wanted to make sure that I could indeed get into the cemetery at night after the gates were locked, and to see what was going on. This was just a recon, in other words.
Since this is such an old cemetery there are indeed a lot of wraiths. Most of them are pretty quiet and don’t do much, the main part of their energy spent long ago. I found a place of deep shadow among some huge trees and stopped. I stood quietly for about 20 minutes just checking out the scene. I kept my ears peeled for any indications that I was not alone-- I figured a Saturday would be a good night for my first recon, since if anyone’s going to be partyin in the graveyard it would likely be then. I did seem to be alone, except for the wraiths.
There were two epidemics of flu in this part of the country, one in the latter part of the 1800s and then another in the early 1900s. So there are a lot of graves from these two epidemics and people of all different ages who died of the flu at the same time, including multiple members of the same family and so on. I mean, yeah show me a cemetery where that’s NOT the case-- but this one is so small, it’s much easier to notice that many of the wraiths tend to cluster together.
I looked carefully for ghosts, but didn’t see any. I don’t know when the last grave was dug in this cemetery; it was too dark to wander around looking. I made a mental note to come back during the daytime and check for fresh graves, which is where one is most likely to see a ghost.
So after awhile I started back down. The sounds from the highway and town were muted through the "glass wall", and the breeze stirred the trees and made whispering noises. I admit it was kind of nice to be out roaming around like that without my dogs-- I love them dearly, but they are total clods and can’t go anywhere without making an outcry and disturbance.
While I was still about 20 yards off from the gates, I heard a pattering noise like gravel falling behind me, and the hair stood up on the back of my neck. I knew it wasn’t a human being trailing in my wake-- or not a living one, anyway. I stopped. The noise stopped. I took another couple of steps-- it started again. After I had walked about ten yards, the noise took on a quality of footsteps-- not the deliberate slow footsteps of an adult, but the swift pattering steps of a child.
I turned and saw it, a small wavering form about four feet high. It screeched to a halt and seemed to hesitate. It didn’t have much of a shape, but it was obviously a child. I got the impression of big eyes staring up at me, and a mouth gaping in wonder. I also got the impression of it holding something-- something like a doll or toy. Poor little tyke. Children come to the realization that they are dead much more slowly than adults. It was probably hoping that I would take it by the hand and help it get back home.
Saying nothing, I turned back and went on my way (I have to admit that I got under that gate with quite a bit more alacrity this time). As I continued down the hill I lost the audio on this manifestation; the pattering footsteps stopped, but I DID glance over a couple of times and saw what appeared to be a pair of very small shoes that trotted along in my wake for a few more yards-- white canvas shoes with a blue stripe along the seams. When I got to the main road I looked back again and the manifestation had completely disappeared.
I kept my invisibility going until I was almost home. Then as I got close to my house, I removed it. The neighbor’s dogs, who had been dozing in their kennels, saw me appear right by them and jumped up and started barking, lol! I like the one dog and have sneaked him cookies a time or two because I feel sorry for him-- he’s cooped up in a small run day and night, never getting to go anywhere or be in the house with his people. When he saw it was me, his frightened barking turned to welcoming yelps. Then my dog who was tied in the yard started barking-- then my dog who was left in the house started barking-- then Charlie Cockatoo became agitated and started screaming-- and then I was home!
