This is a work of fiction. All characters are over eighteen years of age.
I don't wonder about life after death anymore. I know ghosts are real. A ghost had sex with me, one night in a graveyard.
I'm Jim. Forty years old, average guy in pretty much every way. I was drinking with some buddies when the discussion turned to the supernatural. I didn't believe in ghosts and said so. Well, then everyone else had an encounter to relate, with me poking holes in their stories. So, one thing led to another and I ended up agreeing to spend a night in a graveyard. Male pride, stupid.
It was a warm summer evening when the guys dropped me there. They closed and locked the gates behind me and drove off. I wasn't supposed to try to leave or I'd be admitting they were right. Yeah, whatever. I had a sleeping bag, water and my phone, I was supposed to stay until sunrise.
The place was pretty big, a lot of choices of where to sleep. Weather forecast said clear and warm. I strolled around for a while as it got darker, deciding where I'd put my sleeping bag. I found a nice spot by the mausoleums, flat and dry, nothing overhead but the stars. I spread my bag and stretched out for the night.
Unfortunately I'm at that age, can't get through the night without a trip to the restroom. It was after two a.m. when I climbed out of my bag and went to the spot I'd chosen earlier; didn't want to be peeing on any graves if I could help it. Not afraid or anything, just out of respect for the dead. I finished my business and was walking back to my spot when I saw something.
It was a pale shape at first, hovering near my camp spot. I was sure it was one of the guys pulling some sort of prank. As I got closer she became clearer. Yeah, she. I was looking at a woman in her twenties, 1970's style dress, and pretty much transparent.
If this was a scam then my buddies shelled out big bucks for a hologram projector or something. Which they couldn't do, all my buddies are about as broke as I am. So this had to be real, or unreal or super-real or whatever. She looked lost, I kinda felt sorry for her right off the bat.
I walked back to my sleeping bag, wondering why I could see her, what she was doing by my stuff, why she was appearing at all. I kept my eyes on her as I approached, she hadn't seen me yet, I thought.
She was looking at my stuff, then looking off into the distance towards the gate. I was approaching from the other side, seeing mostly her back. Bell bottom jeans in a paisley pattern, tube top, skinny leather headband, she could have stepped off a poster for Woodstock. Long pale hair, could have been blonde when she was alive, great figure, those jeans were tight.
She finally turned and noticed me. Her face lit up, she was happy to see someone I guess, couldn't have been me. I was most likely born long after she died. Her mouth was moving but I couldn't hear a word, she was pointing to my stuff on the ground and smiling.
As interesting as this was I was still kind of rocked by the sudden paradigm shift in my worldview, I had to sit down. I sank cross-legged onto my bag and put my head between my knees for a second. Nope, when I looked up she was still there. I wasn't crazy. She sat next to me in fact and was pointing to something. Trial and error found it to be my phone. When I found it I realized why she was so happy.
The screen was lit, it was open to my messaging app and there was a string of texts there. Starting with a Hello, she was then asking where I was, wondering herself at her ability to communicate this way, hoping I was coming back before sunrise.
I looked at the apparition, she smiled back. "Okay, hi I guess, I'm Jim, and you're a ghost? That right?" Another text popped up, this was Cheryl, she was happy to meet me. She wanted to know when it was, how come she could do what we were doing, was I here for her, to help her?
"Slow down, miss, we've got all night. It's 2022, I'm here because I'm an idiot, and I wouldn't know how to help you if I could, sorry!" Cheryl pouted for a moment, then more texting. Why was I here then? I explained, not even trying to save face. She looked very disappointed at that, I didn't blame her. Try telling someone you don't believe they exist sometime.
Well then did I mind "talking" with her tonight? Neither one of us knew if this would ever happen again, of course I didn't mind and told her so. So we talked. I told her what life was like in her future, asked her about her life in the seventies. Was it all weed and free love like I had heard?