Only A Few Can See

At a very young age I noticed certain things that other people did not. My first memory of seeing the unknown was when I was almost four years old. We lived in an old two-story farm house. My siblings were way older than I was. With them being older I usually had to play alone because there were not many people who lived near us. My father was a tobacco farmer so we really didn't have much. I know it is hard to imagine a person having memory of being four years old but I do.

My mother worked in a sewing factory, that left my siblings to watch after me during the day. I was playing on the old noisy steps one day that led to the upstairs, I kept hearing something up there. I was scared because I knew my brothers were in the barn with my dad unloading the tobacco. My sister was in the kitchen getting supper together for when the day was done and all of us could eat. When I turned to look again, a man was standing at the top of the steps. I couldn't move but I could remember I wanted to scream and run, but I didn't. The man was a very tall man, he had on an old black suit, the smell was so bad. He started down the steps toward me and I started scooting down the steps and he said "wait". I did not want to wait I wanted to go get my sister, but something kept me on the third step from the bottom. As the man got closer I could see his face, he had a hole in the left side of his head right above his eye.

I wanted to know how a person could have a hole in their head and still walk around, because in movies I had seen people get hurt and they were not able to do that. He sit down next to me. It was a feeling of warm and tingly for some reason, a feeling I had never felt before. I remember every hair on my tiny body felt like static electricity was all over me. He ask me if I could see him? I thought that was the dumbest question at that moment until he told me he was dead.

I ran. I ran to my sister, my mom had just walked in the door. I told both of them and I took them both in there but there was nobody there. He was no longer there. My mom told me to shut the hell up that it was all in my imagination. My mother cussed a lot in case you are wondering. My sister just looked at me and didn't say anything. But when I look back I can still see the look on her face, she believed me. I was hurt that my mother did not believe me, I know he was real and I know he talked to me. I tried telling her again as we laid down for bed that night but she wasn't hearing me and told me she did not want me to talk about it anymore. I tried one more time of telling her until she threatened to whoop my ass if I didn't shut up.

The next day when I woke up, of course my mother had already left for work, my brothers were already in the fields with my dad. I went into the kitchen and my sister fixed me some breakfast, had me get dressed and as always she started cleaning on the house while I had to occupy myself. For some reason I loved them noisy wooden steps. I played with cars instead of dolls. I hated dolls and I'll share that later on in my story.

I was playing for a while when I heard that noise again upstairs. I was curious as of now to see if I did imagine it or was there a man up there. I got my two cars and I moved up the steps instead of down the steps. I was not suppose to go far up the steps because they did not have a rail on the side and my parents were afraid I would fall off and get hurt. Not sure why they cared to much, our bed was right beside the steps, so if I did fall, I think I would have been fine.

It wasn't long until I could feel the man at the top of the steps. I always felt him before I could actually see him. He came down the steps a small ways and sit next to me. I ask him why did he have a hole in his head. He started crying. I was little and I did not mean to make him cry. I just wanted to know why he had a hole. He told me he was lost. I said no you are not. You are at 1219 Danville Rd. He gave me the weirdest look but if I knew where I was then he was not lost. He said he could never see his wife and daughter again. I still did not understand, I was wondering why he just didn't go home. So I ask him. He said he was home. No this is my home.

He told me his wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident. He tried to go on without them. He said the pain of coming home and not having them was to hard to bear. He wanted to be with them so he came home one night and decided to take his own life so he could. That is why he has a hole in his head. He shot himself on the second floor of his home so he could die and be with his family.

He was lost because he was still there and he still wasn't able to be with his wife and daughter. I felt sorry for him. He was almost like me. He had nobody to talk to and nobody to help him. I ask him why he didn't make it to where they were? He just cried. There had to be a way for him to see his family again. I was being called by my mother to come and eat so I had to leave him sitting on the steps but I told him I would be back.

I went down to the kitchen and not only was my mom and sister there, but my granny from Ohio was coming in the door. I was happy I guess, never got to much excited because I never really seen her that much. She was old, and wore long dresses all the time. She always had a Bible in her hand as well. Mom had supper ready, but of course we had to wait on my dad and my brothers. My dad was a bad alcoholic and if you broke his rules, man o man was there hell to pay. So we sit at table and waited all the while the food was getting cold.

to be continued........