Whistling Man
The Ghost (Part 1)
It was the summer of 1960 it was a hot and humid late Julyafternoon. Ralph and I were on our way home from day camp atBenjamin Franklin J.H.S 55. As we reached near the bottom of thesteep hill that was 169th a man suddenly staggered out frombetween the parked cars down and to the right of us. He was ayoung Latino deep brown skinned black greasy curly hair worn inthe style of the fifties slick on the sides curly on top comingto kind of a coma in front.
He was taller than us of course may be five three of a slenderbuild and in his late teens early twenties but old to us.
He was limping badly and I thought he may have been hit and hadbeen laying in between the cars stunned.
As we were watching him stumble and hold on to the cars makinghis way up the hill toward us Ralph leaned over to me andwhispered , "Should we help him?" "No!" Iscolded him ,"Remember Mother said not to go with any onecause they could take us and hurt us!"
We slowed down and moved toward the fence puting as much distancebetween us and the struggling man as the sidewalk would allow.
The man never looked at us once but just seemed to beconcentrating on getting up to Saint Pauls Place and WashingtonAve at the top of the hill. He would walk a little and pause andhold on to the cars and gather his strength then try to walk alittle more and end up stopping again to hold on to the parkedcars for balance again.
I put myself between Ralph and the man so I had a clear view ofhim all the while we approached each other.
He never said anything but grimace ever time he took a step onhis left leg. We passed him to his right he to our left we tookone step an then I said , "Ralph he really looks hurt , weshould help him."
We turned and the man was gone.
I thought maybe he had fallen between the cars again.
We turned and started back up the hill puting a distance betweenus and the cars just incase he wasn't hurt but hiding.
Ralph walked in the street and I walked on the side walk we eachlooking into the parked cars to see if he was in one.
He was nowhere to be seen even an athlete could not have made itup that hill in the second it took for us to turn around.
Me and Ralph just looked at each other and said "May be hewas a ghost."
Because we were thinking about helping this man and going againstthe warnings of our mother we could not tell any of our familyabout it but we told our friends that we saw a ghost but becausethey booed and called us crazy we stopped talking about it.
I end here but it doesn't end here.....
AARRON
It was a warm day the sun was just coming over the tenements ofBrook Ave. I had been sitting on the big stoop waiting for mybrothers to come downstairs.
Growing impatient I stood up and turned to walk inside an look upthe stair well to see if any one was coming down yet for thethird time.
As I started to enter the foyer suddenly it was lit with a brightwhite light and I spun around to see where it came from and wassurprised to see a little boy standing looking at me.
Dressed in a short sleeved shirt , white short pants , and whiteknee socks and tennis shoes with bright blonde hair and everyblue eyes and very pale skin but not sickly pale just very , verypale ,and yet healthy looking. He was a very good looking kid toogood looking like he was an angel or something and was about myhight but seemed to be a bit younger than me. The thing that Imost remember was about him though was the light that came off ofhim it illuminated not only the stoop but the entire inside lobbyof 1530.
He then said with a smile like I have never seen since.
"Hi I know you , and I know your mother Mattie , your fatherJames , your brother Walter (Chucks real name), your sisterTheresa ,your brother Ralph and your baby sister Janet."
"What's your name?" I asked embarrassed he knew me butI didn't remember him.
"My name is Aarron" he said then he spelt it "A AR R O N."
I asked him to repeat it for I had never heard it before and hesaid smiled at my obvious confusion and said ,
"Aarron , A-A-R-R-O-N"
This time spacing the spelling so I could hear what he said.
That was when I heard my mother calling me from upstairs over thebanisters.
"Tell you mother I said hello." he said with that bigsmile that now some how seemed unnerving.
I stepped into 1530 and the light vanished I turned around and hewas gone. When I got upstairs I told my mother of the little boybut she said she never heard of him and to forget about himsomeone was playing a trick on me.... Sometime later as I waswalking up Clairmont Parkway to Bathgate Ave to buy schoolsupplies for the new term when an old man in a grey suit suddenlycame up to me with a big smile.
"Hey how are you , my son told me he saw you." he said, "How's the family doing?"
"They are ok," I said trying to figure out who the hellhe was.
I decided I didn't know him and politely said "Well I got tocross here."
Though where I was going was farther up.
"Well it was good seeing you tell the family I said hello."
"What's your name?" I was forced to ask again.
"Aarron" he said "A-A-R-R-O-N"
I looked to see if a car was coming and looked back the old manwas gone.
The Bus Stop Visitation
I was in Sound View walking with my best friend Mark.
I don't know how I got on the subject but I had just finishedtelling him the Aarron story and he laugh that laugh he often didwhen I told him of the weird stuff that happened to me.
Now understand Mark has been witness to many strange things thathappened to me too and we both may have been abducted from theroof of my building but that is another story.
But there comes a point when you hear so many bizarre tales fromone person you begin to wonder if any of them are true , as Ifeel I am soon to reach with your readers but none the less whatI tell you is true and Mark will tell you too this happened.
Well that being said , I will continue...
When Mark reaches that , "Your Stories Are Too Weird For MeTo Take Any More" quota of his he unconsciously gives thissmile/smirk that tells me no more for now.
Any how I had just got that look when a young well dressed blackyouth walked up to us and asked if we knew where the number soand such bus stopped and not knowing the area we both said no andthat he should go up the block around the corner to the taxistand and ask there.
We took a step and I saw the bus stop across the street and weturned to call him.
He was gone... Mark said nothing , I did not have to....
The Ghost (Part 2)
In 1982 as Ralph and I sat talking about the weird things we hadseen in our lives. he suddenly asked me ,
"Do you remember that old man ?"
"Old man ?" I asked.
Thinking about Aarron he didn't know about Aarron only motherknew about him.
"Yeah " he said " The old man in the grey suit."
"Me and you were walking down from 55 and he came out of thestreet carrying those heavy shopping bags and I asked you if weshould help him and you said no because mother said not to gowith people.
Then when he passed us you said we should help him and when weturned around he was gone."
"Is that what you saw?"I asked.
"Yeah why did you think I was asking if we should help him?"he answered.
A Baby In The Rain
It was during my fifth year after I was injured on my job I wasreduced to living at sixty percent of my salary from the eightypercent I was receiving while I waited for my disability case tobe settled in court and socail security to contact me as to thestatus of my case. My room mate Jean had just got married andmoved out and Ralph had died a year before.
I had a dollar and a token to my name and I was going out to geta loaf of bread. As I stepped out of the front door it started torain and I saw a woman with a bundle in her arms standing downfrom me looking up at the tenement up from me. When she saw meshe walked down and started looking up at the building next tomine. I looked away from her and started to walk pass.
"'Cuze me...." she suddenly said and I turned towardher.
I saw she had a baby in her arms.
"My baby is sick an I got no money and I was wondering if..."
I looked at her and noticed her nose had dried blood under it.Her eyes were sunken and her cheek bones were prominent.
"A crack addict!" flashed through my mind.
I grew angry and snapped ,"I ain't got a damned thing foryou!" I walked into the street to put a van between me anher. My anger was because of two things. One was because threetimes since I came to live in Brooklyn I had walked up on crackaddicts talking about babies they or others had taken and sold orwere fighting over the money they had made by taking a baby andselling it. I know what this sounds like but it is true Ireported it but no one listened to me so that was that.
And part two was all I had was a dollar and that was for bread soI would have something to eat at least.
Then I thought you don't know what the deal is She could havebeen hit by a boy friend and any way you do have a token and thatbaby should not be out in the rain. I walked around to the frontoff the van a to give her the token but she was gone. There wasno place she could have went the doors are all locked on ouravenue and she did not get into the van....
The E. Ville Ghost..
It was a cold winters night in 1994 about 3:00 am and I had justleft the home of my friend Carolyn in the East Village.
I had just rounded the corner of 2nd Street and Ave A and wasstarting up to catch the F train. A brisk wind had swept thestreets clean of garbage and Clubers alike and was hurrying mealong too. I had just passed the East Indian Deli and was walkingpass the parking lots of the high rise when I saw the young manapproaching me.
He was staggering and really not dressed for the weather nowthough earlier his attire would have been enough. I rememberthinking to myself you'll not make it through this night if youcontinue going the direction you are staggering like that. Whynot just put a sign on your neck saying "Mug me.... Easyprey." To my surprise the youth staggered toward me andstopped.
"You won't believe this he said but I have walked all theway down from Broadway trying to bum subway fare..." heslurred " No one will give me even a quarter."
I looked at him and was startled how much he looked like the exboy friend of a mutual friend of Carolyns and mine.... It wasjust that he was at least ten years younger but damned near atwin of him. He apologized several times to me for being in thecondition he was and said he should have known better but hespent every dime he had on a girl and a good time and that theyboth ran out at the same time.
I laugh and gave him a quarter and started to walk for it wascold and he said , "Great all I need now is another dollar."
I had thought all he needed was a quarter by what he had saidearlier and called him back and said, "Look you need to getyour ass off these cold streets give me back the quarter and I'llgive you a token."
Wobbling he put out his hand and I took the quarter from it atpushed the token into his palm for I was afraid he would drop itand that was all I had was two tokens and a quarter.
"Now you need to get on the subway" I said and startedto walk toward the station.
"Ok." he said but walked the other way I turned to callhim he was gone. I walked up the block and called Carolyn to tellher of what happened and about the young twin of Rob I hadencountered.
After a long pause she told me how when Rob was a young kid hehad been stabbed and died on a subway but was brought back tolife in the hospital.
Was it young Roberts ghost?
You tell me.....