We were driving from Sanbona Reserve– which is just outside of Montagu, South Africa, and about 100 kilometers from Namibia– to Cape Town on Route 62. In the van were my husband, son and daughter-in-law, and my 6 year old grand daughter who had nodded off almost as soon as we hit the highway. “Did you drive here at night?” the driver asked. “Yes,”I said. “Did the Berryville ghost ride with you?” he asked. “No, what’s that?” I,a firm unbeliever in ghost stories,responded.
“Some years ago,” he replied, ” a young women was riding on this road at night, a passenger on a motorcycle. There was an accident and she was killed. Three months later the operator of the cycle, who had been badly injured in the incident, also died. She’s regularly seen on this road at night, usually she hitches a ride on a motorcycle or passing car, the driver sees her in back of the vehicle over his shoulder, but the next time he looks she has vanished.There have been twenty confirmed sightings.”
“Interesting,” I replied, not at all convinced that this was true.
My daughter-in-law every bit as chary of the fantastical as I spoke up.
“I was always skeptical of ghost stories myself until my friend had such an experience. She and her husband were looking for a house in Los Angeles and this wonderful house, fully furnished, was offered at a great price and they contracted to buy it. Before they moved in they went to the house to measure for window treatments or some such thing. They had brought with them my friend’s mother. She had just had a stroke and was now blind. They seated her in the living room while they wandered through the house. Upon their return the mother asked,’Who was that young man who was just here? Did you see him?’ They hadn’t seen anyone. The mother went on to describe the visitor, an event peculiar in itself since she could no longer see after her stroke.
Later that day they asked the real estate agent for the seller if she had admitted anyone to the property and relayed to her the information about their mother’s account. The agent admitted that she had not fully disclosed the background of the property. It seems that the young man who lived there (perfectly described by the mother) had killed both his parents and then murdered himself, and the surviving brother had placed the house and its contents up for a quick sale.”
Welcome back, Ms. Feldman! Sounds like a fascinating itinerary in South Africa.
But your readers will all want to know: did your daughter-in-law’s friends buy the haunted house?
PS Talk about a Realtor not disclosing a material fact! But then I suppose a ghost is, by definition, an immaterial fact.
“The Vanishing Hitchhiker” by Jan Harold Brunvand. Read it, learn it, you’ve already lived it.
Or go to Snopes.com.
Belladonna, they got out of the house purchase contract because of the failure to disclose: A double parricide and a suicide are something you need to tell potential buyers about.
Newbie, I’m going to check that our.
There is no such thing as ghosts. Remarkable how middle eastern countries have no such stories. It’s cultural nonsense.
Thanks for the heads-up, but I’ll take my own personal experience over your flippant attitude and lack of knowledge.
From The Epic of Gilgamesh (@2000-3000 BC Middle East)
Gilgamish and the Ghost of Enkidu
The text of the Twelfth Tablet is very defective, but it seems certain that Gilgamish, having failed in his quest for eternal life, could now think of nothing better than to know the worst by calling up the ghost of Enkidu and enquiring of him as to the condition of the dead in the Underworld.
He therefore asked the priests what precautions should be taken in order to prevent a ghost from haunting one, and, being informed of these, he purposely did everything against which he had been warned, so that the ghosts might come about him. This, however, failed to bring Enkidu, so Gilgamish prayed to the god Enlil that he should raise him up, but Enlil made no reply. Next Gilgamish prayed to the Moon-god, but again his prayer was ignored. He then appealed to the god Ea, who, taking pity on him, ordered the warrior-god Nergal to open a hole in the earth.
Out of this the ghost of Enkidu rose “like a wind,” and the two friends embraced again. Gilgamish at once began eagerly to question the ghost about the condition of the dead, but Enkidu was loath to answer, for he knew that what he must reveal would only cause his friend dejection…
From the First Book of Samuel Old Testament Middle East:
The Witch of Endor, sometimes called the Medium of Endor, was a woman who called up the ghost of the recently deceased prophet Samuel, at the demand of King Saul of the Kingdom of Israel in the First Book of Samuel, chapter 28:3–25.
Is there anything daddy doesn’t know?