In the Spirit of Halloween

Because it's Halloween and Trashman's story gave me an idea, let me tell you all about a few incidences that actually happened when I was growing up.

When my family first came over to this country, we settled in Texarkana. It was my grandparents, 5 sets of aunts and uncles, my parents, sisters, and cousins. As a family, we had to come together and work various jobs and all pitched in to purchase a house. For some unknown reason, the house we bought was selling for an extremely low price. My cousins and I still call it "The Green House". So, we all moved in. That's when strange things started to happen.

My parents tell me (because I was too young to remember this detail) that I used to point to the ceiling and say the Vietnamese word for ghost. Everyone would look up and see nothing.

My uncle told me that one night, everyone went out except for him because he was so tired. He fell asleep on the couch. He constantly felt someone nudging him, but he was too tired to wake up so he would just say, "Stop it!" and push their arm away. When everyone came home, he eventually woke up and asked who was trying to wake him up. Everyone looked at him a little perplexed and told him that he was home by himself.

My cousin, Corey, heard a voice that sounded like my grandfather calling him from upstairs. He went upstairs and walked into the room. It was empty. The window was open and a voice called to him from what seemed like outside. He walked over to the window. When he looked outside, everything was blood red. All of a sudden, the wind kicked up and the drapes kicked up as if they were trying to push him out the window. He quickly ran downstairs and out of the house.

Eventually, tensions rose between my mother and her in-laws. It got bad enough that my family moved out. The rest of the extended family stayed. We would still visit occasionally. They were, afterall, family.

My cousin had gotten a Godzilla toy for his Birthday. It was great. It had a spring loaded lever in the back of the head that when pulled down, a plastic tongue would come out. When you let go of the lever, the spring would pull the tongue back in. I remember we played with that toy for hours. At the end of the birthday party, we said our goodbyes and piled into the car. My mother realized that she had forgotten her purse. She told my sisters and I to stay in the car while she ran in to get it. I remember leaning out the window admiring Corey's new Godzilla toy. Then it happened. The head turned and looked directly at me. Then, the tongue came out.

When my extended family finally moved out of "The Green House", the neighbors came over to wish us well and told us about the previous owners. Some guy shot and killed his wife in the basement before shooting himself in the head. In case you're wondering, yes these are true stories. Happy Halloween everyone.