Adam Tevort - The Ghost Who Tried to Love Me

http://adamtervort.com

Copyright 2011 Adam Tervort

Smashwords Edition

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This story is part of the ZodiacSchmodiac story cycle, a group of short stories based on theChinese Zodiac. Remember the paper placemats with zodiac animalsfrom your favorite Chinese buffet? The things it tells you arewildly inaccurate and probably have no resemblance whatsoever toyour life or situation, but reading them is fun and writing thesestories was too.

The Ghost Who Tried to Love Me began as aretelling of my favorite ghost story. I know a teacher in Taiwanwho resembles this storys Hank quite closely, and he told me hisghost experience one night during Ghost Festival. We had justfinished teaching our conversation classes for the evening and Imentioned to him that some of the students thought hed seen aghost before. He told me that it was true, he had seen a ghost, andthe story he told me stuck in my mind. His story scared me becauseguys like us (non-Taoist, educated North Americans) arent supposedto believe in ghosts much less see them. He didnt have anyexplanation for what he had been through, he only knew that it wasreally creepy and that it happened. The details of this storyarent his, they are mine. His story was a great jumping off point,but this story started to go in interesting directions almost assoon as it got started. Any inaccuracies or strangeness here ismine, not his.

So which zodiac sign does this story take?The dragon. I know, its a stretch to relate ghosts to dragons, butI figured since they are both imaginary that they fit welltogether. The real Chinese explanation for why people see ghosts ismuch more involved than what your zodiac sign is, it takes intoaccount you 8 life numbers which is terribly complicated and wayover my head. I once had a Chinese fortune teller say that since Iam a foreigner and born on the wrong side of the globe my 8 numbersdont even work. (Maybe she could tell that Im a cheapskate andwouldnt pay well so she decided to take the easy way out.) If your8 numbers show that you have a light tie to this world then you aremore likely to see things from other worlds, like ghosts, which iswhy I always try to stay a few pounds overweight so that I dontfloat away or see any ghosts.

Zodiac Schmodiac Part 1 (the firsthalf of the story cycle) will hit the shelves of fine bookstores( Smashwords , Amazon , etc.) at the end ofAugust 2011. If you enjoy this story you might consider purchasingthe full book. I appreciate your support and look forward tohearing from you with your comments and reactions. (You can find mycontact info at the end of the book, or email me anytime, adam @adamtervort . com)

What makes someone believe? I could ask youif you believe in ghosts, but that is just a question. Most peoplewill roll their eyes and laugh. The answer they give isn'timportant, that laugh tells you exactly what they think of yourquestion. Do you believe in snow? Another roll of the eyes. Ask aBedouin in the middle of the desert if he believes in snow and youmight get the same response as the one I got asking about ghosts.(And vice-versa.) Just because you haven't seen it before doesn'tmean it doesn't exist, OK? Don't put a wall around your mind oryou'll be stuck all alone inside.

My name is Hank. Ghosts have become aneveryday part of my life, even though a few years ago I didn'tbelieve either. It might sound sappy or naive, but again, that'sbecause you haven't seen what I've seen. I grew up on a farm in NewYork state and was going to go back and work with my family afteruniversity, but my parents encouraged me to go and explore my rootsbefore I settled down to a life of tractors and seeds. Our familyis ethnically Chinese, which doesn't mean that we actually speak oreat Chinese, but that we look Chinese. I had a distant cousin whowas working in Taiwan as an English teacher and my parents told meI should go over and do the same thing for a few years. I supposethey were hoping I could go to the other side of the world and sowmy wild oats so I could come back and farm for the rest of my life,I don't know. Maybe they really wanted to learn about my heritage,whatever that means. I went, though, and I'm still in Taiwan. Itturns out that teaching conversation classes is a lot easier thanharvesting grain or running cattle, and I like life here. MyChinese has never taken off though. One of the hard things aboutliving in a Chinese country if you are an ABC (American-bornChinese) is the prejudice. Oh, you're Chinese but you don't speakany Chinese, how interesting. (Roll of the eyes.) Hope you enjoyyour vacation here. I usually don't want to spend the energy totell people I've been here for 15 years, they aren't interested ina Chinese they don't consider to be Chinese.

No matter how "in touch" I get with my"roots," I still act like an American. Want me to believe in yoursilly traditions? Fat chance John Chinaman, show me the evidenceand I'll show you my belief. I'm a realist, like most Americans arewhen it comes to folk traditions and strange customs. Taiwanesepeople think they see ghosts everywhere, and maybe my doubt is whatgot me a meeting with the creepy one in the first place. Every yearduring the seventh month of the lunar calendar (sometime in lateAugust) Taiwanese celebrate ghost month. To them it is a chance tooffer sacrifices to ghosts so that the ghosts will leave them alonefor another year. To me it always seemed like a great chance tosell lots of "gold paper" for burning as offerings. It's just aracket set up by the traditional vendors to pick up their profitsduring a slow time of the year, right? Ask your normal Taiwanese onthe street and they'll tell you they burn the gold papers and offerfood because they think they probably should, not because theythink it really does anything. Some really believe the customs workbut not most. But even though most people tell you the money andthe sacrifices don't do anything they still believe in ghosts.

I'd been teaching English for a few yearswhen I first talked to a student about this. We were having aconversation class and I asked who believed in ghosts. Everyoneraised their hand. I laughed and asked if they were serious. Theylaughed and seemed embarrassed, but the ones who would talk aboutit said they believed in ghosts, they had a distant relative whohad seen one once, and then they would tell an urban legend. (Atleast that's what it seemed like to me.) It made for a funconversation class, but I knew they couldn't be serious.

The next class I asked if anyone hadactually seen a ghost before. One girl in the back of the classraised her hand, looking pretty timid. She told us that when shewas in university she lived in a small house with three otherstudents. They were classmates but came from different areas inTaiwan. Not long after they started living together she would wakein the night and hear the sound of running water. (She was a lightsleeper.) Every time it was the tap by the washing machine. Shejust assumed one of her roommates had been washing clothes andforgot to turn the faucet off. The next day she would mention itbut none of the girls admitted to washing clothes the night before.No big deal, shed say, just make sure you turn off the water nexttime. A few months later she woke up in the night when the TVturned on. They had a really old TV set with a dial to changechannels and a button that had to be pushed in hard to turn it on.When she went out to see who was watching TV no one would be in theroom. Once or twice when this happened one of her roommates wouldcome out to see why the TV was on as well, but they never saw whohad turned it on.