April 10, 2006 09:49 AM
Spirits in the Material World?
I am back home after spending a few days at the beach near Charleston, S.C. The weather was great, the beach was beautiful, and we got to do lots of fun stuff.
We arrived Wednesday and explored the island. We hadn't been there in a few years, and the most difficult part at first was learning to S-L-O-W down. I mean that literally. Driving at 25 mph takes some practice, since I'm used to road-raging city streets. We managed to get the hang of just laying around by the end of the first day, and proceeded to eat lots of junk food, watch movies, and just hang out and enjoy each other's company. We also saw a couple of alligators, which reminded me of my old college days in Florida. Good times. Good times.
The craziest thing happened Thursday night. We went on a ghost tour that night, which we have done twice before. But on this one, we went into a dungeon (an old jail) that was supposed to be haunted. We didn't see anything there, but then we went into an alley, where several murders supposedly took place in the 1800s. Several people in the group said they felt like they were being watched in the alley, but to be honest, I didn't feel anything. I'm not a skeptic by nature, and I've always thought of myself as pretty in touch with the supernatural. (Something passed down from my mama--she used to talk to ghosts all the time.)
So after we left the haunted alley, the tour guide showed us some photos of what was supposed to be ghosts--photos that have a cloudy, white, unexplained mass somewhere on them. As he was telling us about a particular ghost that is said to have been seen by many people near an Episcopal church, my son took a photo with his camera phone of the steeple. He didn't use a flash, it was a very clear night, there were no lights in the area (just on the ground, pointing to the steeple), and no one was around him taking photos. He took several photos of the steeple, and all were clear--except one. You guessed it--there was a cloudy, white mass of something near the steeple in one shot. My daughter and her boyfriend took many photos of the same building, and there was nothing odd in their photos. My son showed the tour guide his photo, and the guide said he's seen several like it of the same building. My son was very excited when the guide told him "Dude, I think you've got something there."
I think my little boy might just be the most popular kid in his middle school today. Okay, the kids might all think he's crazy. But he's got his story and he's sticking to it.
