A Fifth Grader’s Encounter with the Afterlife
A Fifth Grader’s Encounter with the Afterlife
Dear Gentle Reader,
This is a work of fiction. I wrote on January 27, 2024.
My name is Annie Mae Elizabeth Ruby Williams, and yes, you guessed it, I am named after a bunch of my old dead relatives. My family calls me Beth or Annie Mae if they are mad at me. My best friend is named Susanne Delcroix. She and I are really tight. Maybe it’s because we are similar in many ways. I’ll explain more about that later.
Anyway, I want to tell you a story about something that happened one night when my best friend Susanne spent the night over at my house. Are you ready?
Here goes:
“I remember this story vividly. I was in the fifth grade, and the house was on Filmore Street. It was built in the 1870s, and my father’s mother and family lived there before us.
My best friend Suzanne used to spend the night with me sometimes, especially on this particular Friday night. She spent the night over. It was one of those “strange” times. It was around 11:30 p.m. at night. We were doing the things that little girls do after my parents checked on us and thought we were asleep. We had our share of whispered laughter, telling each other jokes, and giggling like crazy. Then we heard this strange noise coming from outside my window. The room got really cold.
At first, we thought nothing of it; it just had to be the wind. The next thing we heard was the clicking of heels walking down the hallway outside my bedroom door. My room was on the second floor. Down the hall was my parent’s room.
Suzanne and I got quiet as we listened to the clicking sound of the shoes coming toward my bedroom door. When the sound got to my bedroom door it stopped and all of a sudden, my bedroom door just kind of opened on its own. No doorknob turning or nothing. It was just plain weird.
A strange light emitted from the doorway and their standing in the middle of it was my great grandfather, Frances Luray Williams. The man had been dead before I was born. I knew it was him because I’ve seen a photo of him often enough when I passed by it, in the hallway each day heading out the front door on my way to school.
My great grandfather stood there like it was nothing. He stood there staring into the room as if he was looking for someone and then all of a sudden, a voice rose from his body, but his lips didn’t move, and he called out. “Ruby! Ruby! My darling, are you here?”
I looked over at my friend Susanne and she was lying there with her eyes closed shut really tight. Pretending to be sleep. The girl could be an absolute coward sometimes.
I swallowed hard and kept staring. My deceased great grandfather focused his gaze at me and spoke. “Baby Girl go on back to sleep,” and just like that he vanished in the doorway.
I looked back at the spot where my great grandfather had just stood, confused, shocked and alarmed, all I could do was yell out loud to my mother. “Mom! Great Grandfather Frank was just here!”
My mom yelled back, “I know, I heard him, calling for Great Grandmother Ruby! He can’t hurt you none. Now, go to sleep!”
My friend Susanne’s eyes opened wide, and she said. “Ya’ll one crazy arse family. This is the last time I’m spending the night over here. I forget your kin can see dead people Annie Mae Elizabeth Ruby Williams! Now you got me seeing them too!” Suzanne declared.
“Oh, really?” I declared. “Just shut up Suzanne, you were seeing dead people long before you met me. Isn’t that why you picked me to be your friend in the first place?”
Suzanne shrugged and fluffed her pillow. “Oh, yeah, I forgot. We both have that seeing and hearing dead people thing,” she sighed. “And yes, you are right, I did pick you to be my friend, especially when I knew you had the same gift as me. But at least at my house the ghosts don’t be calling out people’s names, in the middle of the night. Anyway, you know we can’t tell anyone about this stuff at school. Right?”
“I hear you,” I said.
“By the way,” Susanne stated. “What did you say happened to your Great Grandmother Ruby? I mean How did she die again?”
“Oh, that, she died in childbirth, trying to have a son for my great grandfather.”
“Oh yeah, but didn’t you say your great grandfather remarried? Why does he keep trying to find her, Ruby I mean?” Susanne asked.
“I don’t know. My mother said that my great grandfather wasn’t in love with the second wife he married. He had one of those everlasting love things, for my great grandmother Ruby, his first wife. My Mother said she guess, when he died my great grandmother Ruby didn’t come to get him and he is forever looking for her.”
“Wow!” that’s really deep,” Susanne said. “You know there’s this medium clairvoyant lady on YouTube and she can call the dead up and have a talk with them. Maybe she can hook your great grandfather and great grandmother up together and figure out why they sort of missed each other on that leaving the earth thing.”
“Really, Susanne?”
“Really!”
“You can’t be serious? Anyway, I don’t think this lady is going to just do something like this for free,” I declared.
Susanne fluffed her pillow again and exhaled. “It was just a suggestion. Besides, I know you can get her help for as little as twenty-five dollars. And I know you got twenty-five dollars. Because I know how much money you’ve got saved up. You little money hoarder.”
“Whatever!” I declared. “And you better not say anything to anyone about how much money I got saved up or I won’t loan you another thin dime again,” I declared as I turn to get comfortable on my side of the bed as my thoughts raced and then it hit me. What did I have to lose anyway. Besides, at least it would give me and Susanne something to do the next day.
“Susanne, I think that’s a good idea, you know looking up that medium clairvoyant lady,” I said. “It will give us something to do on Saturday.”
The next day, after the eerie encounter with my great grandfather, Susanne and I couldn’t shake off the strange events that unfolded in the middle of the night. We decided to embark on a mission to unravel the mysteries of the afterlife and find closure for my restless great-grandparents.
Susanne, always the tech-savvy one, pulled out her phone and started scrolling through YouTube, determined to find the clairvoyant medium she had mentioned the night before.
“I found her! Her name’s Seraphina Mystique. She’s got thousands of subscribers, and people say she can really communicate with the other side,” Susanne exclaimed with excitement.
We sat huddled around the phone, watching as Seraphina Mystique explained the process of reaching out to spirits. With a mix of skepticism and anticipation, we decided to contact her and ask for help. I sent her an email detailing the bizarre events of the previous night and pleading for assistance.
Surprisingly, Seraphina responded promptly, expressing her interest in helping us connect with my great grandparents. She agreed to conduct a session at our house the following evening.
As the sun set, Susanne and I nervously prepared for the clairvoyant’s arrival. Seraphina entered our home with an air of confidence, her energy seemingly attuned to the mystical.
“Child, I sense a strong presence here,” Seraphina spoke, her eyes closed as if tuning into another realm. “Your great-grandparents are indeed lingering, searching for each other. I will do my best to guide them towards each other’s spirits.”
We gathered in a circle, hands linked, as Seraphina began her channeling. A soft glow enveloped the room, and in the midst of it, the figures of my great-grandparents materialized. Their faces carried a mix of confusion and longing.
Seraphina, acting as a conduit between the living and the departed, gently encouraged them to communicate. Tears welled up in my eyes as I witnessed my great grandfather, Frances, express his undying love for Ruby, my great grandmother.
“Ruby, my darling, I’ve been searching for you. Why did you not come for me when I left this world?” Frances asked, his voice echoing through the room.
Ruby, with a serene smile, replied, “Frank, I thought you had moved on. I didn’t want to disrupt your journey. But seeing you still searching, my heart aches.”
Seraphina guided them through a conversation that spanned the years they spent apart, the regrets, and the unspoken words. As the conversation unfolded, an ethereal light enveloped them, and they embraced in a spectral reunion.
“I release you both,” Seraphina murmured, her eyes still closed. “May you find peace together and move on to the afterlife united.”
In a heartwarming moment, the spirits of my great-grandparents faded away, leaving behind a sense of tranquility. The room, once filled with an otherworldly energy, returned to normal.
Susanne and I exchanged amazed glances. Seraphina opened her eyes, smiling. “Love has a power that transcends even death. Your great-grandparents can now find eternal peace together.”
From that night on, the house on Filmore Street felt lighter, as if the spirits of Frances and Ruby had finally found the closure they sought. Seraphina Mystique became our unsung hero, connecting the living with the departed and bringing peace to a family haunted by the echoes of the past. And as for Susanne and me, we became believers in the magic that lies beyond our mortal understanding, forever bound by the extraordinary experience that unfolded within the walls of my ancestral home.
