Hauntings and Ghosts: Little Kids Under the Palm Trees

by Nana Kay
(Ridgewood, NY)

There's a rural island called Sandwip in the Bay of Bengal, where I grew up. There's no electricity so you have to depend on candlelight. It's become an eerie and isolated place in many areas, since many people have left their homes to move into the cities on the mainland. I used to live in the city too, but my parents owned a house in a small village that had seven or eight houses built near each other in a circle with a large open area of space in the middle.

My family would spend our summers there because it was close to our grandparents' home (which was in a nearby town). At one time, my mother told me that all those houses were inhabited, but growing up, I only saw four other families living there and all other houses had been abandoned and locked up for many years.

I hated the place because the large, empty houses always seemed a bit creepy to me. I knew that the other families had left because they wanted to live in the city, but it still seemed strange. Whenever I asked my mother if the town was haunted, she would laugh and ask me if I saw something. Of course, I never did (at that time). My mother assured me and my little sister that it was just our imaginations, so we soon got used to it and we would come back year after year. The neighbors' kids would tell us ghost stories but we both knew it was all made-up so we weren't scared that easily.

One summer, when I was thirteen, my family went back to Bangladesh (we moved to Canada when I was seven) and we decided to spend a month in Sandwip like we used to when I was younger. This time, we were the only family staying there since the others had moved and left too. It was pretty much boring because now my sister and I had no one to talk to or play with. We spent most days at our grandparents' house while my parents went to visit their old friends. They would pick us up in the evening and we would take a rickshaw home through the long, narrow street for about two miles.

This was when I first noticed something scary. One night, we had left my grandparents' home at 1:00 at night because there had been a little dinner there. On the way back, the rickshaw driver was going through the same road like always. The ride took half an hour. On either side were all palm trees. It was like going through a forest. Halfway through, I thought I saw a little girl going into the trees. I pointed her out to my father, but he told me that it was probably a poor beggar. They're not uncommon there.) When I turned back, the girl had come out from the trees again, but it seemed like she was with a little boy. They looked poor because their hair was all dirty and their clothes were tattered and old. They were just standing there and looking towards our direction. I was definitely spooked but I figured they didn't have a home or lived somewhere nearby.

The next day, my cousin came to visit us and we both went to the market to buy sugar canes. She was eighteen so my parents allowed us to walk home by ourselves. We took a shortcut through the trees. On the way, we saw a small graveyard with a couple of graves. (We don't have tombstones, so there's no way to tell who was buried there.) I told my cousin to hurry up because I didn't like the area at all. Who knows if some axe-wielding maniac happened to come out and attack us? She laughed and we continued walking. When we reached the end of the woods, we could see the stores just ahead. Then suddenly, my little sister appeared from behind us and scared the living daylights out of us. She said she was following us the whole time --- that we just didn't notice her because she was hiding behind the trees if we happened to look back. I told her to be quiet and that she could stay with us if she promised to not be annoying.

So we bought the sugar canes and started the walk home. But there was that little poor girl again, this time at the marketplace. She was following us, asking if we had any money to give her. We noticed that her little brother wasn't there. I took out a few coins and handed it over, only because I just wanted to get away and she really scared me. She took it but then asked my sister where we lived because she said she remembered seeing us. The girl didn't even look at me or my cousin once, which seemed a bit odd. I told her we just came to visit and then I asked her if she had a little brother, because I remembered seeing the little boy clearly. She shook her head, still looking at my sister rather than me, saying she had no siblings. I told her that I saw her the night before with a little boy. She shook her head and told my sister (instead of me) that she wasn't with anyone and that she lived with her mother in a small house on the other side of the woods. Then she walked away and went to ask for money from other people. My sister asked what that was all about. It was creepy but I figured that the little girl was closer to my sister's age so maybe that's why she felt more comfortable talking to her instead of me or my cousin. Anyway, all three of us were puzzled.

When my cousin, my sister, and I were walking back, I asked my sister if she had seen the little boy the night before. She shrugged, saying that she didn't remember. A few days later, I remember going to the outhouse (a outdoors bathroom) and it was raining a little too. I hated going by myself. When I was passing the little pond behind our house, I thought I saw two people swimming in the water. I looked back, and there was no one there. I didn't care about the bathroom. I just ran back home as fast as I could.

That summer was definitely the scariest summer I ever had, but for many other reasons. I kept hearing splashes in the water several nights. My parents heard it too and figured that it was just a trespasser or a dog trying to get a drink of water. We kept watch many nights but never caught anyone or any dogs. One time, I looked out my window when it was foggy and I could swear I saw a blurry figure in the window of the house straight across from us. I tried to light a candle so I could see better but I couldn't find any. Later I found a whole pack of candles even though I remember that we ran out of them the day before and that none of us had gone to the store since.

Just last year, my parents sold the house and I'm glad that I'll never have to go back there. I don't know if any of this is related: The little boy who I saw with the girl by the palm trees, the people I thought I saw in the water, and the person at the window. I heard a couple of stories about how the body of a little boy had been found in a pond in the 70s, but that was in a nearby town and not the one I stayed in. Plus, the boy who had died was not poor. Apparently he had been murdered by an old guy that would go around asking for money. I don't even know how much of that story is true. People distort stories a lot and maybe that never really happened.

But whatever it is that happened, I'm just happy now that I won't have to go to that place again. I think the whole island is creepy, and not just at night either. There's not any electricity either so just imagine how scary even little shadows can be at any given time of the day.

The wee Girl

by Hannah McLean
(Glasgow Scotland)

It was about two years ago round about midnight I was lying in my bed trying to get a good night's sleep.

I just happened to turn to face my door and there facing me was a wee girl no bigger than four staring at me sucking her thumb. She looked like she was a Victorian baby. I couldn't get up quick enough and jumped straight for the light.

It was the most scariest thing I have ever seen.

Then about a week later I'd say it was about 4 o'clock in the morning. This time I was lying on my side then all of a sudden I felt a hand sliding down my back. I started to shake then I heard little whimpers of my name getting called.

It was scary.

To this day I don't know what was in my room but I seem to think it was my Granny Peggy coming to check up on me she died. When I was 5 I was her favorite grandchild so I think that she came to see if U was growing up good, and had a great life because I know she would want to now I'm good.

So I ain't scared anymore!!

Little Ghost Boy

by Tasha V
(Brisbane)

When I was a kid, I was laying in my bed and saw something out of the corner of my eye leaving my brother's room. Instantly I thought it was my little brother so I followed it out onto the balcony that had about a 5 metre drop. I remember feeling the ground cold and wet from that day as it had been raining. So I walked up to about 10 metres from the figure which I thought was my brother.

I said, "Hamish is that you?" calling my brother's name. All it did was turn around and stare at me. At that instant I knew it wasn't him. He was dressed in white rags and had a dirty face. He was dressed like a boy that looked to have lived about 100 - 150 years ago. I went closer to him asking if he was ok, with no reply. Yet again I moved even closer. He then made a sudden jerk to the edge of the balcony and then quickly jumped off. I ran to the edge of the balcony to see if he was alright but there was nothing there.

It happened at a place called Old Ewrole Bay and is entirely true. Now being 21, I have done some research on the area and there was a farm there about 100 years ago with a little boy who lived there and had died from falling off the roof while helping his father fix the roof shingles.

I believe that the little boy I saw was the boy that had died 100 years ago.

The Little Girl Ghost that Used to Watch Me

by Sam
(Oklahoma, USA)

Two years ago, I lived in Southern Oklahoma. My wife and I were living with her brother while I was working in the oil field. My wife is always able to feel the presence of ghosts, but I really never can. She said that she always felt that a young girl was watching me. She said all she could ever feel was the girl watching me, no matter what I was doing. I told her, "Well I can't feel her or see her so I'm not worried about it," and I've always just believed that some people could see ghosts and some couldn't.

One day I got off work early and I was the only one there, so I took out the trash. The trashcan was out at the edge of the street. All you had to do was turn around and you were right in front of the front door, about 30 feet away. I put the trash in the can and then picked up some trash that was on the edge of the grass. When I bent down I had the strongest feeling that I have ever had that I was being watched. I then looked back at the front door because it felt like it was coming from the house. I saw nobody so I shook it off and forgot about it.

Three weeks later I was making my lunch for work one night. I reached up to grab a bag for my sandwich and out of the corner of my eye I saw a little girl with long blonde hair, and she was wearing either a nightgown or a burial gown that looked like it was from the late 1800's or early 1900's. It definitely wasn't something that you would have seen in this modern day. I don't know what she wanted or who she was but I do know that I saw her.

I think it to be ignorant to tell some one that they imagined that they saw someone or something only because if you imagine something it means that you pictured it in your mind. It means that you took the time to think of an image of something or someone. For example, when I was 10 yrs old, I imagined myself kissing the prettiest girl in class. Why in the world would someone imagine that they saw a person they don't know or live with walk down their hallway and then all of a sudden they disappeared or a door opened by itself or a civil war soldier standing on their porch?

Plain and simple, people die and the spirit separates from the body and waits around here on earth for judgment day. Some of them die when they're not happy with life so they make themselves known and bother you for a while. lol.

Petrolia, ON

(Canada)

I was new to the Southwestern area. I lived in Sarnia and had to make my way to a town nearby, called Petrolia. There was a long stretch of lonely road. I slammed on my brakes as a little girl crossed the highway. I saw her run across the road, but did not see where she went.

When I got to Petrolia, the tire man asked me how were his directions. I told him fine and then told him about the little girl.

He said a little girl had died there, hit by a car, and that many people had seen her cross the road.

This is a true ghost story as I knew nothing about Petrolia or their history till the tire man told me.

Ghostly Experience with My Child

by TJ
(Louisiana)

My story is more recent and still happens up to this day off and on. I have a 6 yr old son and about 6 months ago he startled me. I had put him to bed, and as usual, within a 20 minute period he was asleep. A couple of hours later I heard a voice in his room so I went to check on him. He was sitting in the middle of his bed looking at the wall and talking and laughing. I asked him who he was talking to and he said that boy. I asked what boy he said the boy over there and pointed to the corner of the wall.

I still get chiils every time I think about it!!!! I have also have felt someone touch my shoulder while sitting at my computer and turn around and no one there, have had things fall off the walls and so forth.