The Cousins Chronicles
THE GHOST OF FILLAN's PAST (+/- 1966)
CHARLES (Snr)
So, when Johnny and I were teenagers, we
shared the double bed in the ....you guessed it ... the back room!
Johnny being 18 months older than me had preference to which side of the bed he
slept in, and so he had chosen the right side for good reasons.
He loved to read a novel before falling asleep, and just as he was dosing off,
he would nudge me to switch off the lights.
Now the lights were positioned next to that same back door leading out to the
veranda at the back of the house, where I turfed the mattress out (in my
previous story).
Picture this, to the right of the bed where Johnny lay, was the full length of cupboards, if anyone remembers the layout of 100 St Fillans Avenue, Mayfair West. There was also a full set of windows on the wall which the bed faced.
Most the times I was already asleep when John decided he was now ready to sleep. So dutiful Charles had to get out of the bed, switch the lights off, then find my way back to the bed, get in and then go back to sleep.
This night, shortly after falling asleep, he woke me violently, but he was unable to speak. He just kept pointing to the cupboard, and coming towards us in full vision was this white ghost with it is one arm reaching out to get us. Out of sheer fright I bolted out of bed, ran to the back door with the intention of high tailing it onto the back veranda. In the process I must have hit the light switch, and all became clear!
Those days John did not like packing his stuff away and often just left his cloths around. This evening he hung his new white raincoat on the cupboard door and as the wind blew the door opened and shut giving the illusion of our intrepid ghost coming for us.
John was ashen and literally could not speak for a long while. As his compassionate brother I never let him forget the incident, and yes, from that day onwards, he made sure his clothes were all packed away properly, and cupboards closed and locked!
END
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