Grimoire of Adair Jones

22/06

Finally, it’s Friday. I do like a lot of the journalism courses and I definitely feel like I’m learning a lot more from these courses than when I was in high school. Especially the courses that go through different cultures. I think they’re really interesting and it makes me realise how little I know about the world. It sounds like something most people would be afraid of, but I don’t know, it’s a good realization for me. I haven’t really been able to talk about this to many people at uni. Just because I’m a Taiwanese student studying at a British university, people just assume that I must have a good understanding of different cultures. Well, I guess I have a broader view compared to those people who run these so-called “Asian restaurant”. I don’t know what they are cooking but it’s definitely not Asian food. I can’t wait to go back to Taiwan and eat mum’s cooking. But anyway, the lectures are two hours long! I can’t focus for that long even if I like the content.

End of semester exam is coming up soon. Zeki, Diantha, and Armas were all saying the same thing after the lecture. But we all decided to go to the usual café instead. Armas said how we will all be good students and go through a revision on the weekend in a really sarcastic way. I really like the pastries at that café but also, there aren’t many other places we can go to. Diantha might get called a terrorist just because she’s wearing a hijab. The racism in this country has gotten better but we all want Diantha to feel safe. She always acts reserved but I’m sure it’s really hard for her. When she goes out, she’s worried that she might get pulled over for a crime she didn’t commit. At home, she needs to hide the fact that she’s bi. We all try our best to give her a safe space, but we don’t know what happened in every second of her life nor can we read her mind. So, I guess the most I can do now is be a supportive friend.

I can’t wait for the next hiking trip with Diantha. She knows a lot about plants and is a really good photographer as well. Hopefully, there will be a lot of animals during the next hike. I can’t believe she taught herself photography. All of her works look really professional.

I guess when it comes to Diantha, Armas is most worried about hurting her feelings since he’s the token straight friend of the group. He said he’s half Estonian but he’s aware that he has a privileged background. So, I guess he’s not sure if he should say anything. Well, he hasn’t said anything racist or homophobic before. He does his own research and even double-checks the things he read with us. He’s a really good, supportive friend.

After dinner, I decided to go night kayaking since it was the weekend. I decided to sail down a creek I haven’t gone down before. It was a reckless idea, but I don’t know, the reflection of the stars seemed more beautiful? How am I passing my courses when I can’t even find the words to write in my diary? Anyway, after a while of sailing, I found an abandoned pontoon. When I got closer, some blurry thing started to form on the pontoon. Then, I realised it was a group of see-through people. They looked like they were having a picnic. They didn’t make any sounds but from their expression, I could almost hear their giggles. I didn’t know how to respond or if I should respond so I just sat there in my kayak. I remember that the radio was still on, but I don’t know what was playing at the time. Now that I think about it, I wonder if those people? Things? Ghosts? Could hear my radio and they just decided to ignore it.

Zeki definitely would ignore it if they became a ghost and could kill people. He speaks like my grandpa so I sometimes forget that he’s the same age as me. I say he’s mastered the arts of not giving a fuck because he’s ace (grey hetero-romantic) and couldn’t care less about his gender. One time I referred to him with female pronouns for a day just to see how it would go and he/she/they really didn’t care. Some people tried to convince him that he’s tri gender, but he kept saying he doesn’t really feel the need to label his gender. So, he’s just Zeki. He also couldn’t care less about other people’s business so yeah, he’s a grumpy old man stuck inside a body of 20-year-old.

I don’t know how long I was sitting there but the people looking things eventually faded away. At that point, I realized I probably should start heading back home so I prepared my kayak to go back. But then, I noticed something else materializing on the pontoon again. At the same time, the radio glitched and said “5th November 1911”. I was creeped out by this point. Well seeing transparent-mute humanoid thing was creepy enough but I guess I didn’t fully process what I was seeing at the time.

Anyways, I looked at the radio in shock and looked back at the pontoon like I thought it was going to give me any reasonable answer. Now that I’m thinking back to this whole event, how did I not die? I should have just gotten out of there in the first place. I thought my trauma response was flight but I guess it’s freeze now.

When I looked back at the pontoon, I didn’t get any untestable answer to why my radio said something so random. The same three ghostly figures showed up on the pontoon again. But this time, they were wearing scarves and coats. They stepped off the pontoon and started to skate across the creek. They skated around my kayak. I still remember their long scarves flowing behind them as they skated around me. Though, it didn’t look like they noticed that I was there.

After a while, they faded out again and similar things repeated on the spot. The three ghostly figures looked European from their facial structure. So, assuming it was some kind of ghost I saw tonight, the three girls were most likely from this area. The day the radio stated was 05/11/1911. Maybe it was somehow showing the past? A memory shared on that pontoon? But how was it showing it and why was it showing those three girls in particular? Does it happen every night on that creek? I want to find out and I guess I have some time until the end of semester exam.

I might try going back to the pontoon during the day tomorrow. I might be able to find something interesting. If I find anything, I’ll write it down on this journal so I can keep a record of it. But for now, I think I will keep this information to myself. I know far too little about what I saw, and I don’t want to sound crazy to other people.