Ghosts

«Ξέρω ότι είμαι ευφυής, επειδή ξέρω ότι δεν ξέρω τίποτα.»

“I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.”

-Socrates.

When I was 19, I stayed for a while w/ a buddy who had turned his folks’ house into a crash-pad for youthful malcontents and rebels. His folks had moved to California…he stayed on till the house was sold.

When I fist moved in , into the room he had had as a boy, he warned me…in all seriousness…that the house was haunted. He told this to everyone, and we all, to a person, laughed it off.

“Whatever…”

Time passed…lotsa partying on the weekends…the weeknights were relatively quiet.

The room next to mine contained a self-styled “witch”…candles,incense…chanting….

We were very egalitarian…

One night, late, I was awoken by the closet doors, rattling furiously…as if something (an animal?) was trying to get out. I got up to investigate…opened the doors…and…nothing.

Empty closet.

This happened a few times, with me getting steadily more concerned.

Strange things began to happen.

Keys would go missing, only to turn up in the freezer.

Balls on the pool table upstairs would move by themselves…even jumping off the table, and down the stairs…

The Witch suggested that I (it seemed to “live” in my closet), that I try and “talk’ to whatever it was.

One night, when the doors rattled, I did just that.

Spoke to whatever was in my closet.

Told it hello, that I wasn’t necessarily afraid of it…and asked it what it wanted.

A feeling ,and that’s all it was, came on me…a boy..obviously Native American…smiling in sunlit, East Texas woods.

That’s it.

He was lonely, it seems.

I moved on a month or so later…not because of the ghost…we had become somewhat inured to each other, I think…I left because it was time for me to go..

I’ve had lots of strange experiences in my life…before and since…but I’ve never met another ghost.