Playing with ghosts

I come from a large family living on a farm with a lot of animals and gardens of fruits and vegetables. I was 5 years old when this happened and still has this clear in my mind.

My father woke us up everyday at 5 in the morning to do our chores. All my brothers and sisters had their chores before going to school. I had to feed 500 chickens, bring them fresh water and clean their houses everyday. Sometimes I fell asleep in the middle of all these birds and my older brothers would wake me up before my mom comes outside and see that didn’t finish my job. My mom was very strict and mean to us. She would beat us up with a belt, broom, or anything she could grab or scare us by telling us that the devil will come for us and take us to hell. When we would do something wrong like spill food or don’t do the dishes or the laundry or fight with each other like most brothers and sisters do, she would beat us up. At that time I thought I was already living in hell.

My dad was working two shifts everyday, 16 to 18 hours a day. We didn’t see him much, but when he arrived from work at midnight, we would sneak out of bed just to get a chance to hug him. He used to bring his overtime meal home so we could share the food amongst ourselves. We never ate in a restaurant or brought food in a supermarket, everything was made at home, bread, milk, fruits, vegetables, meat, everything. So this food was different and we liked it. We learned the hard way how to take care of ourselves.

I was number 11 in the family and I had a 7 year and a 4 year old brother, that I was very close to and we were playing together all the time. One night my brother woke up and had to go to the bathroom, but one of my sisters was using the bathroom, he couldn’t hold on and went outside in the woods to take a pee.
I heard screaming and got up quickly to see what happened. I found my brother standing in front of his bedroom door, pale and it seems that he couldn’t move. Meanwhile everyone woke up and my dad took him to bed and told him that he was sleep walking and had a bad dream. He never told my parents what really happened, but trusted me and my brother and told us this very shocking story.

While he was taking a pee, he saw three ghosts playing cards under a tree. He said that he knew that they were ghosts because they were all white glowing in the dark and had no feet. We believed him and promised him that we will go with him the following night at the same place to see the ghosts. Of course after our parents were asleep. So that’s what we did, I was looking outside our bedroom window, to see if I could see anything and there they were. I saw the tree ghosts coming from one side of the woods and going into the direction of the tree were my brother saw them. All excited I woke up my two brothers and we headed to the woods. We approached the tree and saw the same thing my brother saw the day before, they were white transparent human figure type, as soon as they noticed us they got up and start going away back into the woods. Their feet didn’t touch the ground and were flying instead of walking. Of course we got very scared and at first I felt my two legs numb and couldn’t move, my two brothers took my hand and start running back into the house.

Every night one of us was on the watch to see the ghosts passing by and would call the others to go after them to see what they were doing. Many nights there were more than 10 ghosts wandering around and we would follow them in the woods. They saw us but didn’t go away this time. We start running after them and they would disappear. I wanted to touch them and see if they were real or what it felt like to be a ghost. They never harmed us, but we found this a funny game and start doing it every night after midnight. One time I went alone into the woods and got closer to the ones playing cards and sat next to them to see what would happen, to my surprise they dealt card to me and wanted me to play with them. I got scared and ran back home. My two brothers were sleeping and I didn’t want to wake them up, they haven’t slept for more than a week busy chasing ghosts at night.

I got obsessed with this and couldn’t sleep at night and always went back to the ghosts. This time I start playing with them, the cards were real, but the meaning of them was unknown to me, they were like tarot cards or something like that. So I start putting the card down and play with them. This was going on for about a week. My two brothers would also go with me but they preferred to play with the other ghosts in the woods. They were playing hide and seek, I think. They wouldn’t say a word to us but were very nice ghosts and didn’t harm us at all.

We stopped for a while and after a month we decided to start chasing the ghosts again. This time I was on guard checking outside the window when they would come out, but after waiting and waiting for more than two hours nothing came out and I fell asleep. My older brother got mad at me because he blamed me for falling asleep. The next night he was on guard and he saw something different than ghosts, he saw like a big fireball rolling up and down in the woods. He immediately woke us up and we ran into the woods to check it out. The closer we tried to get to the fireball the further it seems to get away from us.

I went to the tree were the ghosts were playing cards and they were not there anymore. I was leaving the area when I heard Pssst, Pssst. I checked everywhere and couldn’t see where this was coming from, then I felt like some one was throwing small stones at me and I looked up and there was something sitting on a branch of the tree. It looked down at me and whispered “do you want to play cards tonight again?” See who will win this time? It was full moon that night and I could see his face, he looked like a demon, he had horns and a horrendous face, he had legs like a goat and very hairy. I froze, I couldn’t move, talk or scream. Only my eyes and ears were functioning. This thing started laughing so loud that my brothers came to where I was standing and saw it too. They too got very scared and were telling me run, run, but I couldn’t move. He whispered again “do you want to play cards with me tonight”? I felt my brother taking my hand and dragged me to our house.

We got to the back door of our house, I lost consciousness and didn’t know what happened after that until the next morning. I saw my mother, a priest and some other ladies standing around my bed, praying like performing an exorcism. I asked what is going on and they told me to relax, that they were here to help me. I was thinking, help me with what? But I stayed calm mainly because I was afraid to get my mother angry. The priest started with his ritual and I start laughing when he started throwing the holy water on me, praying with a crucifix in his hand and showing it to me. I couldn’t help it, I thought it was funny. Because I started laughing they thought it was the devil in my body that was playing with them. I didn’t throw up green stuff, nothing was moving in my room, but the priest started to pray louder and louder. My mom was telling me to shut up and listen to the priest. I nodded ok, I never dared to say anything back to my mom, I was more scared of her than that thing I saw outside. Finally the priest stopped with his ritual and told my mother that the job was done and I will be fine. He gave me a necklace with a crucifix that I should wear at all times. I said thank you and he left.

My mother and the rest of the woman started with rosemary prayers and I was only thinking of getting out of there to go play outside. My two brother were beaten and punished for this. After that day we never talked about it or went back into the woods to chase or play with the ghosts. Although this was 50 years ago, I never had another encounter with any ghosts since then.

I heard that a lot of children between the age of 1 and 6 see ghosts. We tend to call them imaginary friends, be careful, because they are not. They are very real. The innocent mind and soul of a child gives him the power to see and feel activities beyond normal and the unnatural.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to tell my story to the world and get it out, other than trying to block it of my mind and pretend it never happened.