It was August 24th, sometime in the wee morning hours. I was the only one awake in my dark house, the only source of light coming from my computer screen. I was talking to one of my friends Anthony Nugyen. He said "Hey Geoff, do you want to go ghost hunting with us tomorrow?" Of course, by "tomorrow" he meant "tonight". but our minds were still operating on August 23rd time, rather than 24th. Sleep hadn't yet offered the satisfactorary dichotomy between days to give us the feeling that any time had really passed since the previous day, so we operated under the assumption that it WAS the previous day.
Like I said, Anthony asked me "Hey Geoff, do you want to go ghost hunting with us tomorrow?" and after a very brief period of intense consideration regarding the morality of the offer and what reprocutions this could bring, I accepted. (For the record, this soul searching-quest for morality lasted about ten seconds.)
The next evening- (It was actually the evening of the conversation, I just will refer to it as the next evening for the reasons listed above) I waited in my dark culdesac. A bright street light cast down hues of yellow on the objects below. My family fraternized with the neighbor as if nothing was wrong. This, obviously was because nothing was wrong. Suddenly, the end of the dark cul-de-sac was illuminated. I knew what this meant. Anthony and the others were coming to take me away to my very first ghost hunting journey with them- when someone makes such a leap into the world of paranormal-
Ah, son of a bitch. That isn't Anthony and the guys. Those are two girls.
I wonder if they sent girls to pick me up instead?
I think I will stand awkwardly near the car and see if either of them calls for me.
I stand about ten feet from the car, looking in no particular direction.
They never call for me.
After thirty seconds I give up, and realize that this is not my ride.
I go back toward my house and wait out front a little bit longer.
I waited in the dark for a while more- and then I saw the illumination of headlights turning into my street- A car pulled steadily along- could this be Anthony and the guys coming to take me on my first ghost hunt? I had known some of my friends went ghost hunting before, but this would be an altogether new experience for me- I mean I had seen the ghost hunting and the haunted house shows on the cable T.V channels, and-
Wait a second...
DAMN IT! It isn't Anthony and the guys.
Wait- My little brother says I have a phone call-
Oh, my Step dad is talking to them. It must not be for me.
I walk out.
I walk in later
"Geoff, somebody named Anthony called for you. They are coming to pick you up.:
"Thanks John"
Wait a minute- there are headlights out in the street! But it isn't them obviously. It must be some neighbor or some neighbor's company- because after two failed attempts at thinking random cars were my ride-
Oh, damn. It's them! Good bye everybody!
Now, it is time to leap back into the narrative. Rambling might not be interesting to any readers, and if I want people to be interested in reading my blog, I really should be less erratic.
Ahem
Here goes nothing-
I climbed shotgun into the smallish sports car. I closed my door. The tinted windows somewhat obscured my view of the place I had called home for eight years. The car pulled a loop at the end of the culdesac and I looked behind me as my mother waved goodbye- possibly for the last time. I turned back toward the front of the car when my dear mother was out of view. We had some serious business to take care of. We were going to be hunting ghosts. This was my first time, and to my knowlege, it was the first time for everyone else as well. We were all green. We were youths out of our element. You could say we were fryin' fish we had no business putting in the pan. But when the evil snare of curiositiy goaded us along, we blindly followed it into the grave yard. How were we supposed to know that something so terrible, so horrible could happen that night?
We met up with two other cars at a Big Lots parking lot. We made an immediate departure form the parkinglot, and traveled town the dark suburban highways toward the Sunset/Finley Hills Cemetery. (Where I've been told I have a deceased relative. That is entirely beside the point though.)
Our little makeshift motorcade traveled onto the cemetery property- and we drove up the winding road- onto the grounds of the grave yard. The brightly lit mauseloum that can be seen from the Sun Set highway lomed ahead of us like some fiery island in a dark ocean. To me, there was almost a palpable sense of irony that a building, that held so many lifeless shells of human beings- many people who had been dead for several years- it was almost amazing to me- that such a building could be so brightly lit- as if the occupants needed the light. The cars pulled to the top of the Cemetery, and parked next to a dark section of the mauselom. We pulled our flashlights, and cameras unsure of what could lay ahead.
If we only had known, maybe we would have done things a bit differently...
Part Two Coming Soon.
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