Tomorrow is Halloween. The day when all writers know anything goes. All rules go out the window, ancient spells come to life in the name of revenge or retribution, and ghosts can communicate with people. But is it all completely made-up? Let’s talk about ghosts.
I was raised to believe in ghosts. My grandparents would explain away anything strange in their home (moving items, open doors, etc) with a wave of their hands and an “Oh, that silly Marley”. Marley was a ghost. As I got older I learned this was pretend, I even joined in on the fun. But it led me to look into ghosts and think about ghosts more. If Marley was pretend then were all ghosts fake?
Rational scientists can’t seem to agree. Some will tell you that ghosts are a work of total fiction. Others will tell you that the soul has actual weight and therefore exists, meaning ghosts are possible. In other words, science isn’t going to help you here because they can’t decide. You’ll have to go with your gut.
I still believe in ghosts.
In the spirit of Halloween, here’s my tale. It’s all true, although it’s been a long time and some of the details may be fuzzy. Don’t worry, they’re not important details. People who lived it may catch a small error, but the big details are exact…trust me!
When I was in high school and just starting to drive cell phones were still new. My Dad had one, my Mom had one, but I didn’t. Sometimes when I was going to be driving they would make me take one of theirs. When my grandfather went in for heart surgery my senior year I was told to keep my father’s phone on me.
I should tell you that my grandfather (yes the Marley inventor) was a prankster. He loved a good joke.
Anyway I got to the hospital, parked my car, started to walk into the hospital, and realized my Dad’s phone was missing. I just wasn’t used to carrying one. Scared that I was going to get in trouble, I retraced my steps and checked the entire car top to bottom. Satisfied that it wasn’t in the car, I slowly trekked up to the waiting room to tell my parents the truth.
I didn’t have to. My Mom had received a phone call from a reception desk saying that they found a phone. Confused, I headed to a wing of the hospital I’d never been in before in my life. The sweet lady behind the desk explained that it was just on the counter. She had picked it up and called the last number dialed. I had no idea in the world how this phone had ended up here.
That is until we learned that my grandfather had legally died for a bit on the table. The little desk it was found at was down the hall from his operating room. Once we were all seated in the waiting room, someone brought that up. “Do you think it could’ve just been Papa messing with me?” Everyone agreed it was a very ‘Papa’ thing to do. We all had a good laugh.
Here’s the weird part. I swear to you…and it’s a detail I will never in my life forget…although I was sitting up against the wall I clearly heard his laugh as though it was coming from behind me.
