Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A Cry In The Night

 

The factory bus dropped her off.  It was almost midnight after the second shift.  She had to walk on a narrow path through the village to get to her home about two hundred meters away from the main road.  The familiar path posed no problem for her as she had trudged though it all her twenty-five years living in this house with her family which included her mother-in-law. 

 

But that night felt a little different.  She couldn't say why but she was uneasy.  There was a chill in the air but she felt a thin layer of sweat on her skin.  A sudden gust of cold wind rushed by and she felt goose pimples all over.  At the same moment she heard a lonely, mournful voice of a woman crying piteously.  It was the cry of an inconsolable soul in unfathomable suffering.  Her feeling of compassion for this pitiful being seemed greater than her fear and she stopped in her tracks and called out, "Whoever you are, what is it under the heavens that is causing you so much suffering?  Tell me so I may help you.  Otherwise, please don't scare me half to death!" 

 

She had no idea what made her speak in such terms.  Those words simply came out of her mouth before she realized what she was saying.  But as soon as she uttered those words, her fear left her and the cold air became warm again. 

 

She lingered a moment and listened but couldn't hear or feel anything out of the ordinary.  She became aware again of the sounds of the night - the chirping of crickets, and croaking of frogs.  There were the familiar shadows of trees and bushes and dark shapes of the houses of her neighbors in the dim light of the moonlit night. 

 

She wiped a tear out of her eye, turned around and walked on home.

 

 

12 comments:

  1. A hungry ghost story? Reminds me of my stay in a pine forest in the north sierras once. Heard all kinds of spooky noises at night but I think they were cougars and bears.

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  2. It's a true story from the same source that gave us A change of mind.
    She can actually see and hear 'things' the rest of us can't.

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  3. That woman is brave enough to throw a challenge and got away with it.

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  4. She's one gentle, dedicated woman with a good sense of humour but strong-willed and gutsy mother of 2 (grown up) whose only lack is a little more formal education.

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  5. Spooky animal/jungle noises aren't as creepy as the wailing of an unknown & invisible being that comes in a gust of cold air in the middle of the night. Anyone with lesser guts would probably be pissing in the pants. Brrrr...

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  6. OMG bro...
    a ghost whisperer...
    you think she can see.....mine???

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  7. The scientist in me always wonders, 1) how come skin color matters to ghosts? Apparently ang mohs cannot see or hear local ghosts, and the chinese can't see scottish ghosts. 2) Why don't ghosts travel overseas to haunt their moving targets? 3) Why only come out in the dark?

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  8. Thought-provoking questions you got here.
    I don't imagine skin color is the thing. Maybe I think language is. Probably because it's a spirit thing, no form nor substance therefore thought 'infiltration' (telepathy?) is the method of communication. Thus it comes as the perceiver's language. And the image (apparition) is also something that can be recognized. So, no foreign ghosts.
    for #3 - they're probably more scared of humans than humans being scared of them..

    Maybe it's all in the mind. And yet, the scientist is hard put to explain...

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  9. I'm trying to explain it as I understand it in my latest post on reality...

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