Meeting Friendly Ghosts.

Meeting Friendly Ghosts.

There was one main reason why I wanted to do a book about  some ghosts encountered here in North Devon, England. And that reason is that my adult daughter, Kathy, sees them, (dead people, that is) all over the place. And very, very rarely – unlike commonly portrayed in the TV docu-drama programmes such as ‘My House Is Haunted’ has she ever come across a hostile presence. In fact, those who ‘live’ with us here in our 18th-century house are all perfectly nice and friendly. The same can be said for the encounters we’ve made up at our village pub or along our quiet Devonshire lanes. (Where the only hazards are the enormous pot holes or the occasional wandering sheep!)

I suppose we’ve all been brainwashed into believing ghosts are to be feared – and admitted, seeing something supernaturally inexplicably weird loitering in a bedroom can be a bit scary, but if this happens to you take a deep breath, smile, and simply say ‘Hello’. And keep in mind, that if the ghost can see you, he or she is probably just as terrified!

The idea that ghosts can only be seen at night (no, they are not nocturnal,) seen where they died or are buried (in fact the one place you are least likely to see a ghost is in a cemetery,) and that they all go around clanking chains, moaning and groaning is... well, false. There is no proof that ghosts exist, but then, there is no proof that they don’t. Nor is there any satisfactory explanation of why the same apparition has been seen at different times, by different people, in the same place.

Stories of ghosts fascinate us: Dickens and Shakespeare used them to great advantage. Movies, too – the wonderful Blithe Spirit, based on Noel Coward’s comedy play. (Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati – superb!) Clint Eastwood’s westerns High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider are good films. Then there’s Ghostbusters, of course.

Captain Jesamiah Acorne, my pirate scoundrel in my nautical adventure Sea Witch Voyages encounters the ghost of his father in the third Voyage of the series, Bring It Close. (It also features Blackbeard.)

Here’s a quick excerpt:

Jesamiah finished the pork and with a hunk of bread mopped up the gravy that had not slopped over the edge of the dished plate. He declined coffee but thanked his steward, Finch, for his diligence and got the usual curmudgeonly answer. Finch would not be Finch if ever he was to discover that the muscles around his mouth could turn upward now and then.

Jesamiah dragged himself into his quarter cabin—his body ached, he was almost asleep already. He sat on the bed—a wooden, double-sized cot suspended from the overhead beams by ropes—and raised his leg for Finch to pull off the first boot. 

“I promise you, my friend, that once I have sorted all this, we will find ourselves a nice house on solid land with as many rooms in it as you can imagine.”

Finch grunted, removed the other boot. “I can imagine a fair few. Grand ’ouses don’t come cheap. Your Pa’s La Sorenta be a perfickly good ’ouse.”

“So it may, but I have no intention of living there. The place harbours too many bad memories. Asides,” Jesamiah broke off as he removed his shirt and breeches, “it is haunted.”

Finch, his hand outstretched to take the discarded clothes, froze, horrified. “Haunted?”

Sliding into the bed, Jesamiah felt a twinge of remorse at bursting Finch’s pleasure, but the old scoundrel did go on and on so. “Aye. Haunted.”

“Haunted? As in ghost haunted?”

“Mm hmm.”

“You certain?”

“As certain as I’m here waiting for you to stop gabbin’ so’s I can get t’sleep.”

“Ghost, you say?”

“Mm. Up by the cemetery plot. Seen ’im with m’own eyes.”

“A ghost? As in dead ghost?”

Jesamiah wriggled beneath the sheets, pulled the blanket under his chin. “Don’t know as there be such a thing as a live ghost. Blow the lamp out and bugger off. There’s a good fellow.”

Finch extinguished the lantern swinging from the central beam, shut the door behind him. “Don’t be wantin’ no ghosts. Ain’t good, ghosts. Dead ought’ stay dead, says I. Ain’t got no business comin’ t’life again ’ave ghosts.”

Buy link: https://viewbook.at/BringItClose

I’ve written a couple of short ghost stories as well – slotted them into the back of Ghost Encounters, which is classed as non-fiction, but I had these two stories and wasn’t quite sure what to usefully do with them. Besides, we all like a ghost story don’t we? Again, though, my two stories are about nice ghosts!

originally posted by Elizabeth St.John