My freshman year of high school began like most typical fish years do. I was in the band (yes...band geek to the core) so we started our marching practice in the summer long before school ever began. This was a great way for me and my "fish" friends to ease into the unfamiliar world of High School. By the time school began, we were no longer uncomfortable on campus, nor were we without friends of the upperclass persuasion. Marching season proved to be more fun than anticipated and we quickly bonded with all our bandmates and new friendships quickly blossomed into lifelong alliances. Our high school experience was turning into a paradise existence.
Being the ever typical teens we were, we never imagined anything horrific or life-altering could happen to us. Not our circle of friends. Child predators, AIDS, accidents, death....those things happened to other people who lived far away. Never to anyone we could ever know. We lived in a happy little, naive bubble, as do most teens.
Then came the day our precious little bubble popped. December 9, 1986. It began as any normal day. We came to school early so we could hang in the band hall with our friends and laugh and chat before that final bell forced us off to class. We had lunch together at the band tree...our usual routine. After school, we gathered together in the band hall to plan our attack on the afternoon ahead. We all wanted to ride home together, of course. One friend of ours was dating a guy with his license and a car! Only some of us would fit though. Damn those cars that only seat five comfortably. Saying goodbye to our friends in the band hall and heading off to the dreaded school bus, my best friend and I had no idea we had just said our last goodbye to four of our friends.
At home that evening, my parents watch the evening news. I just happen to walk downstairs into the kitchen to grab a drink when I overhear the current news story. A fatal car accident involving students of Clear Creek High School. My heart clenches...that is MY school...nothing like that can happen to students at MY school. As I slam the refridgerator door shut and race into the living room, I heard the bubble pop. On the screen of my family t.v., the same t.v. I would spend hours watching MTV with my friends, I see it. The worst image I will never be able to remove from my mind. The car. It is the Thunderbird that my friends all climbed into that afternoon. The camera is zoomed in on the back of the car...the trunk. There is a body laying on the trunk covered by a white sheet. Covered completely, all for one shoe. I recognize that shoe immediately. I know that body. POP!
Four of my friends died that day. Jessica, Shawn, Chuck, and Kati Jo (the body on the trunk). My world has never been the same since.
The morning after the accident I awoke, and for a moment all seemed the same...all was normal. For one split second, I had forgotton about the horrible events of the prior evening. Then, as my eyes adjusted to the morning light, I saw him. He was standing in my doorway, just leaning there on the door frame in his long trench coat...smiling. Smiling at me. Shawn, my dear sweet funny friend had come to say goodbye. This was not my first experience with ghosts or the paranormal. I had grown up knowing the possibilities and peering through the thin veil that seperates their world from ours. But this was my friend. This was personal. I looked away to the window to see if I had truly awoken, and when I looked back, he was gone.
Kati came to visit me as well, although it was days later. She did not smile. I sat at my make-up table getting dressed, and I felt it. The feeling of that presence, the feeling that tells me they are here...with me...now. I turned and looked behind me, and there, in the doorway she stood. She was wearing a pink t-shirt and purple shorts...funny...not the outfit she died in. She glared at me. She did not smile. Her spirit was not at peace as was Shawn's. She was angry and confused and sad. Her glare forced me to look away. To cower with my hands covering my eyes until...after a long while, I felt that feeling pass. The air cleared once more. The pressure was gone and I could breathe again.
I only saw these friends once. I have not seen them again since. I know Shawn is happy and at peace, but I still worry about Kati. This was my first experience with spirits of those I have known personally. Since then, there have been more. I can't say they no longer catch me off guard when they come, but I am better prepared to greet them now...when friends come to visit.
Tags: Ghost Hauntings Apparitions Haunted Paranormal
