Now They Believe

A couple of years ago during a particularly bad thunderstorm, my mother began telling my older sister and me the many ghost stories and weird happenings from when she was younger. The lights were out and candles were lit all around us as my mother related story after story to us. I well relate to you two of them as she related them to me, and also a story that my sister's ex-boyfriend told us.

Now She Believes

When I was about 20-years-old, my cousin C.H. had a family gathering at her home. All of the family was there eating, talking, and listening to music late into the night. Near midnight, lots of people began to show signs of tiredness, gather sleeping kids, and packing up leftovers to return home. The younger of us, including some of my brothers and sisters and C.H.'s sisters, struck around to talk. Soon our conversation wandered to ghosts and spirits. We were all beginning to get a little spooked and we all screamed out when we heard a thump from the back of the house. C.H.'s oldest sister, also being the oldest there at the time, laughed at us. She yelled out, "Why are you scared, there is no such thing as ghosts!" Right at that instant, the front door banged open followed by a cold wind that whipped right pass my face. All of a sudden C.H.'s sister screamed. We all saw her face whip violently to the left, followed by her whole body slamming to the floor. It looked as if some invisible force had knocked her completely out of her chair! I felt the wind go back by me and out the door as it slammed back closed with a boom. C.H.'s sister lay on the floor whimpering with a huge, red hand print on the right side of her face. She never denied the existence of ghosts ever again.

Aunt Dank

When I was younger my favorite aunt was Aunt Dank. I was even named after her. She would visit me and always bring over goodies for me that mom made me share with my other brothers and sisters. When I was 10 years old, Aunt Dank had a heart attack and died. I was very sad as she was always at our house. The same night that Aunt Dank died, she came to say goodbye.

It was really late at night and all of a sudden my sister, Tia, began shaking me awake. I was really annoyed. She was scared and whispering that someone was in the kitchen. Then I heard it. There was a rattling of pots and pans in the kitchen as if someone was cooking. I was fully awake now. No one could possibly be cooking at this time of night. Even though the two of us were scared, we crept out of bed and into the hall. We were surprised to see our other brothers and sisters heads peeking out of their bedrooms and they all looked just as scared as we did. Since we had the bedroom farther from the kitchen, everyone ran down the hall to our room. Just as we closed the door, we could hear the banging even louder. Mom was shocked to find seven kids all sleeping in the same bed that morning.

Still in Control

Told to me by my sister's ex

When my grandfather was alive he was a strong man who pretty much controlled his household. He always gave me and my cousins chores to do after arriving home from school. In the winter months he would have us gather wood for the fireplace and pile it in a neat pile near the front door before nightfall. We hated this chore, because we all got splinters, wood chippings in our clothes, and not to mention very cold.

When our grandfather died, we were very sad, but when winter rolled around again, we celebrated that no one was there to make us gather wood anymore. Our grandmother would ask us to do it every night. We would throw a couple of pieces up front and find better things to do with out time. Sometimes we would put any wood up front at all, and when our grandmother asked us to we said we would do it later but we never did. We were young and selfish; never thinking that our grandmother could get sick venturing out into the cold night to get wood to heat her house in the night. That very thing happened and she got a terrible cold.

That night my cousins and I were all sitting on the sofa watching TV. Grandma told us to go get wood. We said later like we always did with no intention to actually do it. Then Grandma said, "Grandpa wouldn't like the way y'all are treating me." Just then a larger picture of my grandfather that was hanging on the wall above the TV began to spin on the wall. We sat there horrified as the picture began to spin faster and faster on the wall until we ran out of the house.

That night we piled wood so high that my grandmother didn't have to for 3 days.

We never disobeyed our grandmother again.