I See Dead People

[Central Scrutinizer]

I See Dead People

 

 

 

Part 1

 

 

Thailand is a strange weird place sometimes, and strange weird things can happen to one when living there. In Thailand many people believe in things most westerners laugh at. We are too sophisticated to believe this silly superstitious nonsense of these ignorant peasants and funny different people from another world than out own. We are smug in our beliefs and superiority; our minds are based in reality, in the solid world, in the modern world. Our ghosts are our failures, our regrets in life. We are haunted by debt, the latest fashion, the newest gadget, the scratch on the door of our BMW or Saab. Our other-worldly spirits are sanitized and safely hidden away in our churches; holy ghosts, spirits of our God.

 

Our demons are safely digitalized onto DVD?s for entertainment at our leisure. We chastise our children for their nightmares, ?It was only a dream, honey. Now get dressed for school. I have to be in work early today for a big meeting. Stop this nonsense and go shower.? There?s nothing under our beds any more except the dust bunnies mommy is too busy to clean out and the maid too lazy; vampires are only in stories written by a woman from New Orleans and made into cool hip movies, where the blood suckers have been changed into handsome gay, or seemingly at least bi-sexual, creatures that any woman would want to have sex with, vampire or not. Boris Carloff they are not.

 

The boogie men have all come out of the closet. Nothing to fear in there anymore, it was just some gay guys hiding in there all along, not some real monster, but Freddie Krueger with his cool hat and funky slashing fingernail swords. There are no monsters now except our own human ones; the rapists, the serial killers, and high school kids with access to guns who have been teased once too often by the bullies in school and decide to blow the whole damned school up and kill a few dozen students and teachers, as well as themselves. These are our monsters, this is our reality, the newspapers and TV news our horror shows. I ain?t afraid of no ghosts, especially Casper, or the blobs of slime in Ghostbusters, a comedy, an old children?s cartoon. He?s just too damned friendly isn?t he that Casper? I wonder if he ever came out of the closet. We?ve moved on. We?re in the future, the 21st century man and woman, virtually nearly indistinguishable at times.

 

The diaphanous veil separating the spirit world and the solid mortal world we live in in the west has been thickened into a solid concrete wall; pierced only by Hollywood, and Anne Rice and Stephen King books, for entertainment purposes only. No one actually believes in ghosts anymore, do they? Well, maybe some, but we look at them in askance mostly, don?t we? We?ve turned ghost hunting into a science; all infra-red goggles, and video with thermal imaging sensors and all that ala Poltergeist the movie. It?s a science now, a quaint interest in the paranormal a few still pursue trying to find evidence of an afterlife, the alternate universe, the godless weight of a soul, measured with atomic scales and possible to bring back with electric shocks to the heart and machines to do the breathing, feeding, pissing and shitting and muscle massage. Science has taken over. There are no ghosts, spirits, demons, devils and monsters in our daily lives, except on the tube or in a book. We like to be scared, but we know there is nothing really to be scared of; except ourselves, our neighbors, our work colleagues, or our school children.

 

This is not so in Thailand. In Thailand the people believe, some more than others, but they do mostly believe in the spirit world; in monsters, vampires and ghosts. They wear amulets and other Buddhist/animist paraphernalia to ward off these spirits. They have small houses everywhere for the spirits to live in. They feed and water them, buy them clothing and toys, wai to them and ask forgiveness or protection from others from them. They tattoo themselves with spells and incantations to ward off evil, or knives and bullets. They believe in witches and magic, the evil eye, and flashing mirrors in the setting sun that shine on them and bring spiritual harm to them and their homes. They believe the spirits of aborted and miscarried children live on, and even age, and believe that some monks, the powerful ones, can harness these spirits to do good for them, bring them luck, and keep them safe from harm and mischief. The veil we westerners have closed off in our modernity and concreted over in our disbelief is thin and replete with rents where the spirit world can flow through into the world of the living here in Thailand. Here they believe, and their firm beliefs make it possible; the spirits live where there is a belief in them. Here they are real, as real as the mortal world. They speak to us, they show themselves, and they take on physical form and matter. They live amongst the living, and affect daily life, through the faith the living have in their presence and validity in their lives. Here there are monsters, spirits and ghosts and goblins, vampires and ghouls. And here is where I live most of the year now each year, among these believers, and amongst these spirits.

 

And here is my story.

 

 

Part 2

 

Once a few years back I wrote about an encounter I had one evening while living in the village. It was a story of something strange that happened to me. I titled it ?Grandpa Comes for a Visit?, which is what I was told by these Thais, this superstitious lot, these unscientific and rural believers in the world outside our own senses. I still don?t know what exactly I had experienced, and I probably never will really, unless of course Grandpa comes back again for another visit to bolster his connection with me and shows himself to me, but I am a doubter, a doubting Thomas. I would have questioned Jesus? return much the same as Thomas did. I just find these sorts of things hard to believe. I have no faith as they say. I have to see it to believe it, and actually creepy things I really have no desire to see, time enough for that once I am dead and gone myself I figure. The dead are dead and we remaining mortals should just let them be and quit bothering them with our questions, requests and prayers for help and guidance.

 

I can hear them now, a husband who has passed on and his wife still back on the mortal plane always wailing his name in her prayers and asking him to please do something about his son Johnny, who is 50 years old and still screwing up somehow. ?Sorry God, I?ll have to stop my praising, singing and hossanah-ing to the highest here for a bit. Seems I?ve got another call from my wife about Johnny. Yeah, yeah, I know. Well, not everyone has a son as good as yours ?ey? Ya know, no one likes a braggart, Lord. Besides, you could have made mine a bit better now couldn?t you have?? or maybe the other end, ?Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Oh, hold up there a moment will ya Beelzebub with sticking that pitchfork in my ass? I think I have another call from the wife. Probably about my son Johnny again. Sorry for the interruption, but hey, you?re the one leading him down the path to hell right? Yeah, yeah, I?ll make it quick. I wouldn?t want to miss any more torture and punishment for my sins. Why don?t you go sharpen your pitchfork tines for a moment while I take this call huh, the damned thing?s getting a bit blunt."

 

Yeah, better I think to leave the dead to their afterlife and just get on with ours as well. The Thais can?t seem to do this though, ancestor worship and all that. I mean no wonder they have so many spooks and ghosts and goblins around here, they?re always giving them food, and booze to drink, lighting nice smelling incense sticks and candles for them, and building them those neat little nicely decorated and laid out spirit houses for them to live in. What ghost wouldn?t want to hang around for all that cool stuff? Free room and board, a tipple now and then, and nothing much to do but hang around and be waited on ethereal hand and foot; why be reincarnated into another rice farmer and have to work all day in the hot sun?

 

While I was away this time back in the states my wife was house hunting for a place we could stay in Surin. Daughter was now going to school there, and the move back to the village from our first rental house in Surin just wasn?t working out really. The village restaurant wasn?t doing well at all. Seems everybody in the village is like Wimpy in the Popeye cartoons, asking, ?If you?ll give me a bowl of soup and rice today I?ll gladly pay you once the rice in my fields are harvested and sold.? Everyone wanted to buy on credit, and you know where that?ll get you in Thailand, fucking broke quick, that?s where. Sorry, cash only, or at least its equivalent in kilos of rice we can sell for baht maybe, but these fuckers weren?t buying that either. ?What if the price of rice goes up? Then you?d be getting more than I owed you?? they?d whine. ?Just wait until my crop is in and sold and I?ll pay my tab then.? Yeah, right. Fuck off, go home, and cook your own damned rice then pal. Like we can wait six months to a year for you to pay for what you?ve eaten in the shop every day during that time, and have enough to restock supplies and pay for the cooking gas used and all the expenses incurred. They?d even want to drink beer and Lao Khao on the cuff as well. Sorry, no credit.

 

So the village restaurant wasn?t working out as planned, look sow (daughter) was going to school now in Surin, a one hour drive each way in the new pick-up, twice a day, four hours of driving, five days a week, which was using quite a bit of diesel fuel each week, enough really to justify a move back to Surin; and actually the cost of the monthly pick-up fuel bill would pay for a rental house in Surin quite easily at only 2,500 baht average a month for a decent rental home, and a hell of a lot less driving and more convenient as well. The city of Surin is quite a decent sized city, with many more amenities and benefits than living in the village, and is a nice place to live and work, plus, people pay cash there for their restaurant bills and booze, so a shop there will probably work out much better. So we were pulling a reverse ?Green Acres? (an old American TV sitcom), ?Goodbye village life, hello city life.?

 

While I was back in the states getting some surgeries done on my screwed up spine, which was going to take a while and keep me from Thailand a couple months, my wife would go out house hunting every day after her and Sis would drop of our daughter for school, then pick up daughter from school and return to the village. About six weeks after my arrival back in the states to be poked, prodded, and stuck with various instruments of medical torture while enduring the freezing winter wonderland that is one of Boston?s claims to fame my wife called me, all excited. ?Honey, I find house in Surin for to live in!? she chirped excitedly over the long distance lines.

 

?Oh, yeah?? I said, not so excitedly, as I was doped to the gills for my back pain.

 

?Yes, nice how (house). Have sam (three) bedroom. Have song (two) hong nam (bathrooms). Have American toilet in upstair hong nam for you! Have AC in bedroom you and me! Good play (place) for live in Surin!? she fairly sung in happiness over the phone.

 

?Hey, that?s nice! I don?t think I could get back up off a squat toilet after taking a crap at the moment dear, so that?s a big plus right there. AC, huh? That?s a bonus as well, although right now I?ve had all the cold air I need to last me a lifetime I think. It?s freaking snowing right now as we speak darling, again.? I mumbled in my codeine induced trance-like state of euphoric freedom from pain. A couple of Tylenol #3?s every few hours has that effect on one. Lots of codeine in those things! You are pain-free, but a bit foggy at times under their influence. You can function on them, but really don?t want to, and you speak like you?ve had a few shots of nice mellow Irish whiskey really.

 

?You okay tilac?? my wife questioned worriedly. ?I no unnerstan you mahk mahk. Kow jai my (I don?t understand).

 

?Yeah, I?m fine darling. So how much is this wonderful palace in Surin to rent anyway?? I asked her.

 

?2,500 baht one month! We have to make one month dow (down, the deposit) and one month rent. What you think tilac? Can make?? she asked, still sounding excited about her find for our new Isaan abode.

 

?Listen honey, it?s up to you. If you like it and think it?ll do for us to live in in Surin then get it. I?m sure it?ll be fine. 2,500 baht, that?s around 60 dollars (at that time). So I?ll send you the deposit, ?down? as you say it, and the first month?s rent, and you can rent the place and start moving in the beginning of next month okay?? I told her, hoping I wasn?t slurring my words too badly.

 

She squealed in glee and said, ?Yes, I think you like too mutt. I have wait for boss of how (house) to say okay. We have friend from Sis Fon who know boss from how. She talk to boss from how and say we are okay family to live her how. I think no problem, but I tell boss how she we want to take now.?

 

I thought I understood what she was saying, mostly, so I just gave her the go ahead to rent the place, told her I?d send the needed monies that week, and we chatted a bit more; mostly about our daughter and family and setting up the move, which would be done while I was still away, and we said our goodbyes and I love you?s and all that and cut the long distance connection.

 

I lay back in my drugged state and wondered where this would all lead me to now in my life, and what adventures and changes this would bring me on my return to the Land of Smiles. I liked Surin. We had lived there before in a rental house for almost a year before buying the pick-up and moving back to the village and setting up shop, so I had few qualms about the move to the city. I?m not one who minds change really. I actually prefer it mostly; new places, new faces, new environments, a bit of excitement in the newness of things when change occurs. It doesn?t bother me really, if it did why would I be spending so much time in a different country, among a different people and culture? I go with the flow and try to enjoy myself as much as I am allowed in this lifetime.

 

Once I got back there and settled in we could start looking around for a place to set up a new shop/restaurant in Surin. Things would work out, and I looked forward to seeing this place my wife had found for us to stay in that she was so excited about.

 

I fell asleep in my drugged stupor with dreams of sugarplums, candy-canes, and for some reason, water buffalo, in my head. The TV was left on a National Geographic show, still muted from when I had answered my wife?s late night phone call.

 

I slept like the dead until morning.

 

 

Part 3

 

 

I returned a few weeks later to the land of sunshine and smiles. That ever-present sweet overpowering scent slapped me in the face like a warm and wet kiss from an over-powdered and over-perfumed grandmother as I descended the steps from the United Airlines 747 to the tarmac and awaiting bus. I was back, and damned well happy to be here. A cute young flight attendant at the foot of the stairs commented on my probably not needing the leather coat draped over my arm. I smiled at her and agreed that I probably wouldn?t need to don the jacket until my return to Boston?s chilly climes in a few months. ?Thank Christ for that!? was my thought.

 

I made it through customs without problems, not expecting any either as I have not once in all my trips into this country had a problem with customs in Bangkok; would be nice if I could say the same for Chicago and Seattle airport customs. I always choose a line which has a lady customs agent behind the counter instead of one with a Thai gentleman. They always seem to work quicker and more efficiently then their male counterparts. Once through the visa stamp line I head down the escalator and turn right to the United baggage belt. I grab a free baggage trolley from the many available (why don?t they do this in the states, it?s like 3 bucks there to rent one of these things for the few minutes you need the damned thing) and rescue my bag off the already rotating baggage belt, throw it on the trolley and head off through the ?nothing to declare? green corridor of scrutiny leading out to the terminal. I?ve also never once been stopped and had my bags searched by these customs guys either.

 

Waving off a few pesky rip-off touts for taxis and limos I head straight for the taxi stand out front and soon am telling my driver ?Sukhumvit Soi Yeesip ? toll way, krup.? and handing him my taxi stand slip to check out. In less than a half an hour we are cruising down Sukhumvit a little past midnight heading down to Soi 20 and my hotel. I check out the farangs and the ladies of the night walking hand in hand on the sun, water and pollution corroded and crumbling sidewalk pavement, the ubiquitous street beggars with paper cup in hand sitting at the bottom of each sky-train stairwell, the stalls of just about everything made in this country one could possibly sell to a tourist with too much money in his pocket (samurai swords!), the twinkling little electric Xmas tree lights and neon that somehow seem to offer just about anything a horny man could desire or imagine, and the ever present street stalls of delicious and aromatic Thai cuisine that overflow the sidewalks along the way. I open my window for a moment and inhale deeply the bouquet of secreted pheromones, overburdened and ancient sewerage systems, and mouth-watering food-stall steam and smoke wafting in the breeze in the wake of the taxi, like a dog on a Sunday drive with his head out the window twitching his nose at every tantalizing fragrance. The plethora of scents overwhelms my senses, as it always does, and I know I am home, or close to it anyway. The hotel soi appears soon and I direct the driver to my humble rented abode.

 

Within minutes of checking in and getting my room I am showered and shaved and in a change of clothes heading out the front door of the hotel to snag a Suk taxi down to Soi Cowboy for a few beers and sanuk before closing time. A friend of mine is at one of the gogo bars and we?ve connected by phone to meet up. After a couple hours of drink, sanuk and chatting we stop for some Sukhumvit sidewalk stall foods and beers. At four a.m. I bid farewell to my fairly drunk friend and his girlfriend du jour and grab a taxi to Morchitt to pick up my wife who is arriving around 4:30 on the Surin-Bangkok to meet me and drain me of all stored bodily fluids. The Cowboy bars slap, tickle, touch and giggle with the sexy staff on hand being nothing more than some fun and a tease to heighten the already bursting dam of my neglected libido. I reach Morchitt with a bursting bladder, pay off the taxi, and make my way to the men?s room to relieve the pressure. We always meet by these hong nams whenever I meet her at the bus depot, so I am already where I am supposed to be. She doesn?t seem to be around yet; the bus is always a bit late, so I pay my small baht and go in the bathroom and piss like a racehorse my formerly refreshing beers. My bladder thanks me.

 

After hanging out by the 7-11 near the bathrooms I spot my wife and we grab a cab back to the hotel and douse the fires.

 

The next afternoon we grab a breakfast at Bourbon Street Restaurant and then grab a taxi on Sukhumvit to Morchitt to buy our VIP bus tickets back to Surin that evening. I like to get there earlier in the day and see if I can grab the two front seats behind the driver for the extra legroom for the six hour or so ride up to Surin. We purchase our tickets, the front seats I so desire, and get back in the taxi which was still waiting for us out front at our request, as this ticket buying usually only takes a few minutes (most metered taxi drivers are only too happy to know they have a return fare as well and will wait around for you). We head back to Suk to do some shopping and see a movie. The VIP bus from Bangkok to Surin doesn?t leave until 9:50 at night, so we have plenty of time to kill. We can usually check out of the hotel at 8:45, grab a taxi and be at Morchitt by 9:15 or 9:30 if there is traffic. I haven?t missed the bus yet over many years using this form of transport to the Isaan hinterlands.

 

 

Part 4

 

 

We arrived as usual in the early morning hours; cramped, disheveled, a bit sleep deprived, yet as always, just glad to be home and back together again after a couple months absence by myself getting fixed up supposedly by the medical community in the US, and glad to be off the damned bus really. No matter the VIP bus is a much nicer way to travel than the normal busses, it?s still a damned bus. Sis was there at the bus depot to pick us up in the new pick-up truck we had recently purchased from my wife?s brother-in-law the cop. After warm and affectionate greetings from Sis and look sow (daughter) we all piled in and headed to the new Surin domicile.

 

Now I had yet to see this place my wife had rented for us to live in while staying in Surin the next few years. We planned to stay in Surin while our daughter finishes her education, at least until high school, or through high school if the city of Surin educational system meets the needs for our daughter. So I was hoping, praying, that my wife had chosen something suitable where I would be happy as well as they. Sis drove down the sois away from the bus depot. I sat back and tried to relax, wondering where they had rented this time. We had been renting a house in Surin before which I quite liked. Sis drove down a few sois and there we were. I saw that our new home was a townhouse style on a block off the main soi by the government hospital. The neighborhood was nice and quiet, clean, and presentable. Every driveway sported a fairly new vehicle. It all seemed so middle class; this was not the village, no water buffalo and chickens and ducks roaming willy-nilly around here; no cocks crowing at four in the morning, no PA system with speakers attached to poles for the village boss? morning diatribe and harangue. Not bad really. Across the street from the house was an empty lot filled with trees and flowers and potted plants, and a picnic table, almost like a miniature public park. A house diagonally across the street had a small noodle shop and convenience shop and was surrounded by coconut palms and Papaya trees. I liked this already.

 

We unpacked the truck and brought our stuff inside the house while new neighbors watched and ogled the new farang in the neighborhood, the only farang in the neighborhood to be exact. I inspected the new place and saw it was laid out nicely, a decent sized kitchen in back with a bathroom and shower, and a back door leading to a small alcove where you could store stuff and where my wife had her washing machine set up, a large living room out front with high ceilings, and wooden stairs leading to the upper floor. Upstairs there were three bedrooms, two large and one small, and another bathroom with shower all tiled and with a proper western style hopper as well, the downstairs one had a squat toilet. The floors upstairs were all parquet wood. The place had definite possibilities with some new paint, polyurethane and some work. One bedroom had an AC, which it turned out was my wife?s and my bedroom. Cool. (I later had installed an AC in the other large bedroom as well.) For 2,500 baht a month it wasn?t a bad place at all. The lady who owned the place was a nurse who now worked in another city. Her best friend, a local high school teacher who lived next door was taking care of the place and had rented it to my wife on the recommendation of a friend of Sis who lived two doors down herself, and whose daughter was best friends at school with out daughter. They had become family friends with my wife and Sis. I met them all that day, and many neighbors. It was a good choice, and our daughter?s school was not two blocks walk away as well.

 

It had been earlier rented to nursing students for the nearby hospital, and the place was not being kept up and the owner lady wanted a responsible and decent family renting it who would take care of the place. The young nursing students weren?t the best of tenants in her mind, with young men coming and going, missed rent payments and late rent payments and all that which can come when renting to young students. So here we were; the new tenants. I walked around the place planning my paint and urethane assault with the owner?s friend?s blessing and approval. The walls were sorely in need of paint, and no matter how much one scrubbed the dirt remained, or the paint itself would come off as well. The students had sticky tape everywhere on the walls where they had applied their posters and such, the beautiful parquet wooden floors were scratched and needed a couple coats of polyurethane after a good scrubbing to regain their former luster and beauty, as did the stairs and railings and banisters, nothing I couldn?t handle and cheap enough to do really. If we would be staying there for a few years I wanted it looking good and livable. I planned for what I wanted to do, discussed these things with wife and Sis and found out there was a new store in Surin that had many of the things I?d need to do all this. Great! The day passed and soon enough it was time to get to bed.

 

We all said our goodnights and went to our respective beds.

 

 

Part 5

 

 

My wife and I did what married folks do when they have been apart for a while then fell on the bed sated and exhausted, kissed, and went to sleep after turning off the lights.

 

I do not know how long I had been asleep before something woke me. I sleep on my stomach most times so I could see nothing but my pillow when I awoke. An eerie feeling passed over me, as though I was being watched. I had the feeling I wasn?t alone. My wife purred quietly and persistently beside me, but it wasn?t her presence I was feeling, nor her snoring which had awoken me. As I turned my head off the pillow to look at my wife in the dark I noticed a glow coming from the end of the bed, and, I heard a child?s giggle, faint, yet there. It startled me a bit, but I figured our daughter had awoken and had come into the room and left the bedroom door open. The glow must be from the bathroom light at the end of the hall I thought to myself for a moment. I turned and sat up facing the end of the bed, and there, to my surprise and wonder stood a very young and handsome Thai boy of about seven or eight years old, but he glowed lightly a somewhat greenish white glow and seemed somehow unreal and, well, ghostly. He smiled a brilliant smile at me and again I thought what a handsome boy he was, startlingly so. He then said something in Thai as I stared at his apparition and from behind him appeared the ugliest and most deformed little girl I have ever seen. She looked to be about four years old I would have guessed.

 

As he was brilliantly handsome she was gruesomely ugly and terrifying to look at. Horribly deformed is how I would put it I guess. Think Elephant Man as a four year old girl instead and you?ll come close to what she looked like. I uttered a sound of fear and revulsion from now paralyzed vocal chords and quickly slid and scrambled my ass toward the headboard of the bed as far away from her as I could get. Every hair on my body was standing on end and I had goose bumps all over my body and I felt cold, very cold, intensely cold. The little monstrously ugly girl then slipped again behind the handsome boy where I couldn?t see her, the boy gave me a sad smile and they both just disappeared instantly. They vanished in the blink of an eye.

 

Needless to say I was very shocked and sat there making a noise that sounded something like, ?Wha, wha wha, wha, who, who, who ?? in a stuttering fashion until I got my wits about me, swore in defiance of my fear, and jumped from the bed and searched for the lights in my new bedroom, which even under normal circumstances I probably would have had trouble remembering where the hell the damned switches were. I found the lights and flicked them open. Nothing. There was no one there at all, no daughter playing tricks, no kids, no handsome boy and horribly deformed and ugly little girl. The door to the bedroom was closed; my wife mumbled something and turned over from the now glaring overhead light, still asleep. ?I must have been dreaming.? I thought to myself, but I am not one who dreams much, nor remembers his dreams often, and I rarely have had nightmares in adulthood that would wake me. I?ll tell you the truth, I was spooked.

 

I have a small clip-on reading light that is attached to the headboard of the bed by a little clamp, something I had forgotten in my terror and scramble to turn on the light. Noticing it I now turned this on and switched off the overhead light. My wife slept on like a log, snoring lightly. None of this had awoken her, not that this is surprising, I think Thai women can sleep through an atomic explosion while a volcano is erupting under their bed. They only wake up when they are finally hungry once again I believe.

 

I went back to the bed, left the reading lamp on, and finally grabbed my watch off the headboard shelf to see what time it was; a little after three in the morning. I grabbed a book I had with me and read until I finally fell back asleep. It had to have been a dream, but what a dream. So real, and that giggle, again so real; I would swear on my soul I was wide awake at the time I heard that giggle.

 

The next morning over breakfast I relayed my experience to Sis and my wife. It caused quite a stir for them and they swore up and down I had seen pii, ghosts, and were a bit shaken up by this. They had been living there a few weeks by then and had not had any paranormal experiences themselves. Of course in the light of a new day I filed it away as a strange dream and nightmare. I?m a westerner. I?m programmed to disbelieve this stuff. My wall is strong concrete, not a diaphanous veil. There?s always a logical and normal worldly explanation for this sort of thing. Isn?t there?

 

What did shake me up somewhat is that Sis told the old lady a couple doors down the soi from us, the grandmother of our daughter?s best friend from school who lives with her and the girl?s mother. They are one of the original families to have bought one of these townhouses when they were first built. She told Sis that years ago there was a lady living in this house we had rented, a lady who sold this house to our present owner. This lady had had a stillborn child around eight years ago, a boy, a beautiful and handsome baby boy, perfect in every way, yet stillborn. The woman and her husband were devastated. Four years later she delivered a hideously deformed baby girl, also stillborn. The parents sold the house as soon as they could, to the woman we rent from now, and moved away, suspecting that someone in the neighborhood was a witch and had put a spell on them.

 

Yes, these people believe. I had no way of knowing any of this information before my own experience that first night in my new home. I?m not making this up. It?s not a piece of fiction, but a true experience I had. What it was or is I do not know, nor do I really care as long as I have no more visits in the middle of the night. Of course prayers and offerings and blessings have been done in the house by monks, and I?ve never again had another experience or ?dream? like this one, except the night before my father died, while I was asleep in the same bed and the same room and house here in Surin Thailand.

 

But that?s another long story, for another day.

 

Believe what you want.

 

 

Cent

(The Central Scrutinizer)

 

 

p.s. I now recently have been given a blessed yellow, green, blue and orange woven wrist string, made by a local monk my wife?s mother is friendly with, which is supposed to keep pii (ghosts) away. I wear it on my right wrist. It seems to be working, so far.

[..]

Fine work Cent!

 

Cheers,

SD

[shygye]

[color:"green"] ?You okay tilac?? my wife questioned worriedly. ?I no unnerstan you mahk mahk. Kow jai my (I don?t understand).

[/color]

 

kow jai mai -> Do you understand?

mai kow jai -> I do not understand.

 

I often use those two phrases.

[thai3]

 

 

Excellent stuff.I had a friend from thermae who saw ghosts a lot, I have posted about her before so won't re tell the things she told me.Spooky to be in a room and be told her dead friend was there with us, sort of a double header -peter

[Central Scrutinizer]

Suadum,

 

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for taking the time to reply and tell me so. It is appreciated. I've been working on this for a while whenever I have some time between my course classes and assignments, which are taking a lot of time away from my writing these stories and experiences. Next will be the finish for "Under the Protection of the Three Brothers Pii", which I have all the background info and material to finish, but not the time at present.

 

Cent

[Central Scrutinizer]

shygye,

 

Hahahaha! Yeah, me too!

 

Cent

[Central Scrutinizer]

Peter,

 

Yes, I remember your writing about this. A long time ago I was screwing a farang woman who said she was a witch and had spirits living in her home. Like a dope, instead of asking her to suck my dick again like a good little witch (remember Casper the ghost's friend Wendy the witch, the good little witch? Old Yank comic book stuff, never mind), I challenged the woman to prove her witchiness and summon these ghosts to make themselves known to me. She fucking did, and they did! She asked them to make some noises to prove her claim, and all of a sudden there started these strange knockings and scraping sounds on the walls and ceiling and knocks on the bedroom door (no one else was home but us). Scared the crap out of me. When I asked her to make them stop she said something and it all stopped instantly. She never left the bed beside me or moved the whole time, never touched anything or reached for anything. Great fuck with huge tits, but a spooky lady. A Sicilian witch she was. Gorgeous witchy eyes. Peze7's, or whatever his name is, avatar reminds me of her every time I see his avatar. Horny witch she was. Had a short affair with her neice as well, a true knockout at 19. Needless to say she, the witch, wasn't pleased and I got no more of her witchly charms once the (black) cat was out of the bag.

 

As an addendum to this story I also once fucked another witch I met in a bar in Salem Massachusetts (Witch City). She took me home and screwed my warlock magic wand for so many hours I was sore for days after. Strange broad! Had all the paraphernalia in her home; crystal ball, black cats, the works. She claimed to be descended from one of the original Salem witches drowned during the witch trial craze back in the 1600's. She also had some great weed for consumption that evening. Never did see her again though. Very strange chick. Rather screw witches than bitches though. As long as people in black robes wearing goat masks and waving strangely shaped knives about do not suddenly appear around the bed and start chanting anyways.

 

Yes, I've had a strange life, I know. :: No bullshit though, all true.

 

Cent

[Dumsoda]

Hey Cent,

A really good tale, well told, congratulations.

It is hard for most people to comprehend some of these "happenings" and unless you have actually been "Johnny on the spot", so to speak, a lot of people tend to dismiss it as story telling.

I'd always been a total non believer of all this pii stuff and often have lengthy discussions with my wife on the topic. (She being an absolute and total believer)

In all honesty though, and I would never admit this to her, there have been a couple of times when we were staying in the Village, when I have woken in the middle of the night and felt a "presence" in the room. Nothing along the lines that you described, just a feeling.

Absolutely scared me shitless !! Have woken, felt extremely cold, and got the "hair on the back of the neck standing up" feeling.

I can remember laying there, feeling extremely cold, and being engulfed by a weird pitch black "stillness", then as you start to try and go back to sleep, one or more of the local mutts will start to howl.....really spooky as it's usually around 3 in the morning...which is well before they normally start the barnyard choral activities with the local roosters, interspersed with the morning ramblings of the village chief at 4000 decibals over the crackly P.A. system.

How do you explain it? I'm stuffed if I know.

Our extended family are 100% convinced that pii's are responsible for a number of unusual illnesses to family members, 2 in particular that visits (and stays in the local Hospital) failed to diagnose. Very strange indeed !!

Probably explains why the house is surrounded with cactus plants and the string lines that were put in place by the local "ghost busters" during a "go away pii" ceremony a couple of years ago are still there, albeit broken in a couple of places. It will be only a matter of time until I have to fund another exorcism !!

 

Again, thanks for sharing your experiences and also for the way that you do it. Always really enjoyable and a pleasure to read.

 

If you're about during December I would enjoy meeting up for a chat and a few "coldies". Will make contact closer to my visit when I have a better idea of dates that we will be in town.

 

Chock dee Dumsoda

[MisterBlonde]

Hi Cent,

 

I believe your ghost story because something very similar happened to me,it was more than 15 years ago and the memory is still crystal clear.

 

 

My girlfriend was a tarot card reader and dabbled in other things,so the turn of events wasn't that surprising.

We had just gone to bed,and we had been arguing,so we were facing away from each other...before i closed my eyes to sleep i looked at the clock,and it was 10.30.As i lay there i could feel a pitch black darkness surround me and a rush of fear,that i had never felt before in my life rushed into my body.My eyes exploded open and i was looking straight at the clock...it was 10.35 this was no dream.

At the same moment my eyes opened i could feel my girlfriend thrashing around next to me.I quickly turned around to see what was happening and i was met with the most horrific thing i have ever seen.

She was lying on her back thrashing wildly from side to side,while on her chest sat a luminous green creature with his hands around her throat,and he was choking her.This creature was the embodiment of evil,i have never seen an evil face like this.I had nothing to compare it to because i have never seen an image like this on the movies,or in cartoons or even in my wildest imagination.

As i sat looking on in horror,he realised i was looking,and slowly turned his head to look at me.I now knew the true face of evil,the stare was penetrating and chilled my cold blood even further.

Not sure how long we looked at each other,seconds or minutes,but he then dissapeared in the blink of an eye.

 

Thanks for sharing your story Cent,i thought i was alone with my story but obviously not so....might sound strange but i feel privilged to have witnessed this,very few people do and it truly gives you a new perspective on life...or death.

[Central Scrutinizer]

"Hey Cent,"

 

Hi Dumsoda.

 

"A really good tale, well told, congratulations."

 

Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for commenting on it. Always appreciated to hear back from the guys who enjoy them.

 

"It is hard for most people to comprehend some of these "happenings" and unless you have actually been "Johnny on the spot", so to speak, a lot of people tend to dismiss it as story telling."

 

Yeah, it's why I think most people keep this stuff to themselves; either be called a loony, a liar, or a storyteller. It's a story of an experience, not an explanation or "proof" of spooks and goblins. Who knows what really happened, surely not I.

 

"I'd always been a total non believer of all this pii stuff and often have lengthy discussions with my wife on the topic. (She being an absolute and total believer)"

 

I'm a skeptic, though open-minded, as who the hell really knows until they are dead and gone what the true story is on all this dort of thing? I try not to scoff too hard at the beliefs of the wife and family, who do believe in this stuff.

 

"In all honesty though, and I would never admit this to her, there have been a couple of times when we were staying in the Village, when I have woken in the middle of the night and felt a "presence" in the room. Nothing along the lines that you described, just a feeling."

 

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!! Pii!!!!

 

"Absolutely scared me shitless !! Have woken, felt extremely cold, and got the "hair on the back of the neck standing up" feeling."

 

Yep, same things I felt myself. I do NOT like the feeling.

 

"I can remember laying there, feeling extremely cold, and being engulfed by a weird pitch black "stillness","

 

Extremely cold in a village house without AC on a ninety degree night with a little fan on as well! That cold was intense, like being thrown out the door naked on a winter's night during a blizzard!

 

"then as you start to try and go back to sleep, one or more of the local mutts will start to howl.....really spooky as it's usually around 3 in the morning...which is well before they normally start the barnyard choral activities with the local roosters,"

 

Yep, and the Thais swear the dogs can see the Pii and are howling at the ghosts walking about that are invisible to the human eye.

 

"interspersed with the morning ramblings of the village chief at 4000 decibals over the crackly P.A. system."

 

One day I may take some wire-cutters to that fucking PA system our village boss has I swear! :: Boy does that man run on at the mouth every morning!

 

"How do you explain it? I'm stuffed if I know."

 

Same here.

 

"Our extended family are 100% convinced that pii's are responsible for a number of unusual illnesses to family members, 2 in particular that visits (and stays in the local Hospital) failed to diagnose. Very strange indeed!!"

 

Same here, pii and the infamous Isaan (Surin) witches and their evil spells as well.

 

"Probably explains why the house is surrounded with cactus plants and the string lines that were put in place by the local "ghost busters" during a "go away pii" ceremony a couple of years ago are still there, albeit broken in a couple of places."

 

I've seen this many times around the country.

 

"It will be only a matter of time until I have to fund another exorcism!!"

 

Buy the cheap whiskey, and hide the good stuff, or they'll be trying to ply the ghosts with your good Irish whiskey or Scotch! ::

 

"Again, thanks for sharing your experiences and also for the way that you do it. Always really enjoyable and a pleasure to read."

 

Thanks Dumsoda. Glad you enjoyed it.

 

"If you're about during December I would enjoy meeting up for a chat and a few "coldies". Will make contact closer to my visit when I have a better idea of dates that we will be in town."

 

Please do so. I will be in Thailand this year in December, and probably in BKK doing some "Xmas shopping", among other things.

 

"Chock dee Dumsoda"

 

Same to you DS.

 

Cent