Ghost Stories

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.”