Ghost Apparitions in the Desert

For a very long time I did not believe in ghosts or the supernatural or life “beyond” even. After you die, that’s it, it’s over. But I also think that that is a very young person mentality to have, especially in the modern day. God is dead I suppose. But that thought process has shifted drastically lately, especially in this last trip I made to my hometown in Mexico, where I had not just one but multiple ghost apparitions. And at first I thought it was a crazy thought to have. I had a keen interest for the supernatural when I was a child, thought I was either gifted or cursed, and could have sworn to very many that I saw a world beyond, but I was just a kid. My mom sees ghosts too. And as I grew older I became growingly superstitious, to the point where I became certain. I blamed my mom’s ghost sightings on her getting older, missing the people she once held close to her. But all these years later, I see what she sees.

During my short stays in Mexico, I like to travel, take lots of photos, party, see old friends, catch up with family members, all the things that one who has fallen far from the nest likes to do. And on this specific occasion, I traveled to Bisbee, Arizona, which is just a short trip across the border. I met a few friends there for breakfast and had a good time per usual. Bisbee is a bit of a strange place, a vivid ghost town that attracts hippies and artists alike. Anyone who is unusual in Arizona seems to be attracted to Bisbee, and fittingly it is the very place I was born in. As my friends and I walked along Old Bisbee, I was being left just a tad behind. I am a slow walker as I am a slow eater, and in my slowness, from the corner of my eye, I spotted a ghost. And I didn’t want to believe it at first, but I did a second look and no doubt about it it was a ghost just like the ones I used to see as a kid. On my second look, the ghost looked back at me, and it was then impossible to ignore so I approached it. It was as I came closer that I found that I could actually communicate with these ghosts, an ability I had not yet unlocked as a child. and it recognized me and asked me to take a seat, he wanted to catch up.

The ghost was old and frail, with a long beard and a dead sort of look behind his eyes. His breath had a slight stench of ham, just the way I remmebred it. I actually recognized this ghost, he was an old friend I lost touch with after his behavior made me uncomfortbale and now I find him here as an apparition. I never explained to him the reasoning behind my actions so to him it must have appeared as if I just abandoned him.

He asked me how I had been and I explained that I was doing well. I asked him how he was doing and he explained that he was not doing so well, he was on his way to purgatory. Which was something I never really understood, the concept of purgatory, but I wasn’t going to ask any rude questions or claim that it wasn’t real. How do you explain to a ghost that God isn’t real in the first place?

The ghost was troubled, extremely so. I remember learning once that souls in purgatory have to be forgiven, and I always felt like this ghost had wronged me and maybe he needed my forgiveness, but the ghost also didn’t know that what he did was wrong. He didn’t understand that he needed forgiveness from not just me but everyone he had hurt. But at the same time, maybe no one ever expressed to him that what he did was wrong, or he was that ignorant. He thought that I ghosted him, that I was the one who needed HIS forgiveness, but that’s not how ghosts or hell or any of these things work, he was wrong wrong wrong!

The distressed look on his face was killing me, and was I evil, was it wrong to never tell him, to never have expressed myself? Maybe it was because of me that his soul would be trapped forever. I offered him a hug, which he accepted, but my arms went right through him.

I caught up to my friends, who asked, “What happened?” To which I could only reply with “I saw a ghost,” and they laughed.

Back in the Sonoran desert, I began to notice more ghosts, most of which were irrelevant or tame so I paid no close attention. But it was a little scary to think that I was surrounded by them, how could I have not noticed before? Have they always been ghosts?

[unfinished]