My experience on becoming a Ghost

My Experience on becoming a Ghost

All I can remember is that I had a major accident and was thrown out of my car on the road. I passed out and when I regained my senses, I found myself in the ICU of a hospital, wearing a mask through which I was breathing faintly. My right hand was heavily bandaged, and a tube connected through it to supply fluid drops intravenously. I was surrounded by gadgets and nurses and doctors were continuously monitoring the readings. I passed out again and when I recovered, I felt I was floating in the air and watching myself lying on the bed with the doctors and nurses running around helter-skelter after watching the gadgets.

I tried to ask them what had happened, but nobody could either see or hear me. It was then that I saw another person like me floating in the air. He came close to me and said, “Hello! Welcome to the netherworld. I am Arther and have been wandering around as a ghost for the past five years searching for my family. You have also become a ghost and no humans can see or hear you. Only we can see and hear each other. Let us go and see the world together. Your mortal body will be shifted from here shortly and you will not see yourself again. Some of your family members are sitting outside weeping, but there is no use meeting them as they will not be able to hear or see you”.

We floated out through the walls and on to the open car park. “I will tell you what had happened to you. Your right hand and spinal cord were fractured and there were severe head injuries. At the time of your admission in the ICU the doctors were talking among themselves that you had a very slim chance of survival,” said Arther as he guided me towards his destination.

“I’ll now take you to the vehicles dump yard and show you the state of your car after the accident. This will tell you the severity of the accident”.

He stopped in front of a twisted and crumpled Toyota with wheels missing and all windowpanes broken, giving it an appearance of a piece of wet cloth.

“Your car was hit head-on by a big dumper truck going at great speed, with its driver high on spirits!” he explained. “You had no chance to escape”.

“How did you know all these happenings?” I asked curiously.

 “After I became a ghost, my favorite pastime was to wander along the highway particularly at night when most of the accidents occurred. I had met another ghost who was senior to me, and he showed me how to impose upon a mortal’s mind what I want him to do physically. Before his death, also by an accident, he was a copywriter, and he calls it ‘Persuasive advice’ to his clients. When I saw your accident, I immediately went to the nearest state trooper’s office and induced him to telephone the hospital for an ambulance at the spot of the accident. We all arrived at the spot almost together and you were immediately taken to the hospital ICU. The trooper went in search of the killer truck, and I followed my ghostly speed to catch up with the truck driver and induce him to take rest in a motel. I then mentally directed the trooper to the same motel and got him arrested on a charge of murder. You can be certain that your family will get the benefit of a huge insurance claim, which I could not get!” he replied.

“How did you meet your death?” I asked.

“Oh! It’s a long story. My body was lying in the jungle for five days, and half eaten by wild animals, with my face cruelly disfigured to prevent identification. I did not then have an ‘Arther’ to help me”.

“Your family is not getting any insurance payment?” I continued.

“My wife does not need the insurance money, as she has got all my wealth and a new lover with whom to spend it! It was her plan to get rid of me with the help of her lover and leave the country for a better place,” he responded.

Arther and I were floating away unobtrusively over green meadows and houses until he descended on the lawns of a huge mansion on the slope of a hill.

“This is the mansion of a famous senator whose name you often read on newspapers and see on television channels. His image before the people is that of a man of integrity and high principles whose sole interest is the welfare of all the citizens of the country”.

He took me through the walls into tastefully decorated rooms occupied by the latest designer furniture. His big study room was filled with books by highly acclaimed authors which projected him as an erudite scholar.

“Now I shall take you to another place where you will see the other half of ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide’”.

We floated away to a villa situated in an isolated area on the beach. The villa appeared old and partly dilapidated. There were several rooms on the ground floor which appeared as warehouses to store grains. They were closed with massive doors and locked. We went through the door of one room into a dingy space containing many packing boxes.

“These packing boxes contain harmful drugs which are brought by boats from some islands nearby where they are cultivated. There is a laboratory at the base of the building where the raw materials are processed and converted into forms which are transported to various locations and consumed by millions of people. This is how his business makes huge amounts of money at the cost of people’s lives,” he said. “Now I shall take you to another part of this villa to show you the other facets of his activities”.

We floated to the upper floor of the villa and entered a big hall decorated with chandeliers and furnished with several sets of tables and chairs for gambling with cards and two tables for billiards. At the other end was a bar served by smartly dressed bartenders and containing a large assortment of drinks of various kinds. Behind the hall a corridor led to small rooms with cozy beds where one can enjoy the luxury of sexual pleasure with the women of their choice. As the night progressed, the number of pleasure-seekers increased, and semi-nude women, attempting to look as pretty as possible, exhibited their potential to entertain with greater ferocity. We were having a bird’s eye-view from the top of the hall, unseen and unheralded. Soon a group of high dignitaries, accompanied by senior police officials and some ministers entered the hall.

“Aha! There is our senator accompanied by senior members of the government. This is what this man of integrity and moral principles does at night on some days. This is the business he runs for the benefit of honest citizens. This man’s elder son got me killed by hiring hitmen to do the job and destroy all evidence. My wife, whom I had loved with all my heart, betrayed me, and is living with him. Some day you may find her here soliciting the pleasure-seekers for business when she is no longer in favor with the man she eloped with,” Arther said with a lot of ghostly emotions. 

It is said that ghosts have no emotions, but, even as a ghost I felt sorry for Arther and wondered why he was still roaming around here when he was not wanted. He was an honest man, a loving husband and someone who liked to help others in their troubles.  Why cannot God, the creator of all humans, reward him by giving him a place in heaven where he can live peacefully and happily?  I posed this vital question to Arther.

Arther kept quiet for a while and then answered, “Perhaps, this is the reward God gave me – the privilege to float around the world and see it for myself and get the opportunity to help someone like you! I never had this pleasure when I was alive. If I was sent back to earth in the form of a mentally retarded child, when I would have been totally dependent on other’s mercy, abused by them, with nobody to converse with, I would have considered it a punishment. The people who hurt me when I was alive, will face this punishment and hopefully realize their mistake!”

I marveled at his simple, but very logical explanation. I wish I had known him when he and I were both alive. I would have worshipped him as God, whom I see before my eyes. Floating around the world unseen by anyone, except other ghosts, is also not a bad idea. I can penetrate the invisible mask which some people wear to deceive others about themselves. The only fear is that if the bad people became ghosts their actions will remain undetected, and they can never be caught.

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