Ghost Stories

Castle Figure

I have always beenfascinated by stories of the supernatural. My mother's father wasborn in Eastern Europe, while my father's family has been inAmerica since before the revolution. Being a product of thisunion, I am torn between being a rationalist and being privy tosome unusual occurences. My mother and her family say that I havea "talent", but the logician in me consistently is ableto find a logical explanation for various happenings to which Iam a witness, with the exception of one.

When I was a boy my family and I lived overseas. From 1978 to1980 we found ourselves in Algeria, in northern Africa. My fatherwas employed by an oil company, and that company gave itsemployees a two week vacation every six months. In June of 1979the family decided to take its vacation touring Spain andPortugal. In Spain, there are are series of hotels called "paradors"or "paradores". These are restored castles,monasteries, and nunneries which the Spanish government haveturned into modern hotels.

During this trip, my family had just left Toledo and we were onour way to Granada in southern Spain. I was fourteen at the time,and was having the time of my life. We decided to stop at aparador halfway between Toledo and Granada, and I was excited atthe prospect. The hotel that my father selected was not arestored castle, but a monastery. However, a ruined castle laynot 100 yards from the hotel, and being the inquisitive 14 yearold kid that I was, I made the castle my target for exploration.

We checked in at about four in the afternoon, and after we gotsettled in our room, I made a beeline for this castle. It was amagnificent structure, with an imposing gatehouse, curtain walls,and a central keep. Though in ruins, the main walls andstructures were still standing and I crawled all over the place.Before I knew it, time had left me and it was dark, nearing nineo'clock.

Seeing the time, I made my way out of the castle, since I knewthat we were to eat at 9:30 that night (in Europe its iscustomary to eat at a rather late hour). I found the track to thehotel and began to walk towards the hotel when I heard a peculiarswishing noise to right. I whirled to the source of the noise,but saw nothing except the grasses blowing in the breeze.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a figure on the top of thecastles' wall, right next to the gatehouse. I turned to face thecastle, and as I did, the figure fell forward off of the wall. Iremember that the figure had a conical helmet on, and that heglistened from the moonlight as he fell. I thought that odd laterwhen I thought about the episode, in that it was cloudy thatnight.

I ran to where I thought that the figure had landed, but foundnothing. I looked about for a moment, and then hurried back tothe hotel when I thought about the probable source of myexperience.

To this day I am not able to put a logical explanation on theevents of that evening. I am only glad that I was not on the wallat the time!