3. My Grandma’s Ghost Came to See Us 

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Ling

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I am older now. Even if I could live to a hundred years old, my life would be over half. I have walked many places, even from the east to the west of the Earth; I have been through some life and death, too. I still don’t know whether my grandma’s ghost came to see us. 

I still need help explaining the mysteries of the night my grandmother died.

The mysteries I have experienced are often apparent in my memory, especially in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. Just like tonight, they are coming to my brain again.

I stood briefly before the window, then walked back and lay on the bed. I was slightly cold, so I pulled the comforter over me. 

I tried to sleep, but I still could not. 

So I got up, sat at my desk, and wrote it down.

The pale moonlight is coming from the window. I look at the roof and walls—the shadows of the trees swaying in the moonlight.

I feel like I’ve gone back fifty years; it was the same white moon night. 

It was 1970, and I was a seven-year-old girl, which was the age when I believed in ghosts.

It was deep autumn, and the moon was bright white. Under the pure moon, everything—the far mountains, the closer buildings, the woods, and the bushes—left me feeling like ghosts hidden in those shadows.

At the time, we lived in a teacher’s dormitory at the high school where my mother was the principal. There were three rows of teachers’ quarters buildings but only a public restroom. It was separate from the three buildings and used by everyone, and it was about a few minutes’ walk from our home. I was scared to go to the restroom at night—especially on a moonlit night like tonight. 

I had to go to the restroom that night, so I asked my fourth sister to accompany me.

 We passed through a barn-like shed where our dogs and poultry were asleep. They were peaceful and quiet as usual.

Then we got back and laid in bed. My older sister, brother, and parents, were sleeping in other rooms.  Usually, I like to listen to stories to sleep, but that night, my fourth sister told me a ghost story. I looked at the shadows in the moonlight; they were like ghosts around us, and I was slightly afraid. I clung to my fourth sister.

Suddenly, all the animals became boisterous; what did they look like they were scared of?

The dog barked and chased something, the two white geese were screaming, and the chickens restlessly flapped their wings and made cooing noises.

Mother whispered, “Won’t there be thieves! ?”

So, Father grabbed a stick and walked around our dormitory. When he got back home, he said: “Nothing!” 

But those animals were still in a panic lots.

Our dad had to go out and walk around our dormitory a few more times. 

I fell asleep in such unease…… In a dream, I saw my grandmother smile and walk toward me. 

My grandma took care of me from birth until elementary school, but I hadn’t seen my grandmother for a long time since she went back to her hometown a few years ago. So I opened my arms and ran toward her like I did whenever I saw her. But I couldn’t move anymore; I wanted to call: “Grandma! Grandma!” But I couldn’t make a sound. I was so worried and struggled desperately.

In struggling, I woke up sweating profusely. There was no grandmother. The moon was still shining bright white through the window. I couldn’t go back to falling asleep for a long time.

I lay there, looking at the old roofs and walls, which had many cracks from old age. The crack drawings looked like scary ghosts.

My eyes were wide open. I felt afraid a lot.

……….

Abruptly, a rapid knock at the door awakened us. My mother rushed to open the door. A postman was out the door, handing Mother a telegram. My mother read the telegram and cried. 

Father took the telegram and read, “Mother died, come quickly!”

We were both raised by our grandmother. Hearing that, we, siblings, were bawling and crying. But I didn’t cry. I was shocked,  I thought about that dream last night. And I wasn’t clear about the meaning of death yet.

And then, my parents hurried to take my oldest sister and brother to my grand aunt’s home, where our grandma lived—one hundred kilometers away. My fourth sister and I had to stay home. So, I didn’t see my dead grandmother.

Afterward, when I told people what happened the night my grandmother died, they would say to me that all the dead, when they are on the verge of death, their souls will go where they have been, see the people they care about, or to take their footprints back. When the ghosts visit, humans can’t see them; only animals can. That was why our animals would stir; they saw our grandma’s ghost. “

I also thought I saw my grandmother’s ghost, but I wanted to know if it was real or a dream.

It’s even weirder: after my grandmother’s funeral, my parents brought a chair home. The chair was made of bamboo and new. I had never seen a chair like it before; the usual bamboo chairs were lower, but this one was as tall as our table chairs.

I was terrified of the chair the moment it came into my home. Even I wouldn’t dare go into the room if the chair was there because I always felt my grandmother sitting on it.

Although there is no scientific proof for ghosts today, how else would you explain how unusually the animals behaved? 

I also prefer to believe they exist because when Grandma died, she must have been worried about her only daughter, our mother, and the five grandchildren who she helped raise. So she must still have wanted to look after them, didn’t want to leave them, so her ghost would come to see us.

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