Kalag-Kalag thoughts: Remembering loved ones, and a ghost story
DAKONG KRUS. People light candles at the “Dakong Krus” (Big Cross) at the Calamba Cemetery in Cebu City in this 2019 file photo of All Souls’ Day. This is usually a practice to some to light candles on the big cross at the cemetery for the souls in purgatory and to the loved ones of those, who could not possibly go home to their hometowns to visit their loved ones graves. | CDN file photo
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — The Kalag-Kalag or All Souls’ Day for this year is drawing near, and it is once again another day to visit the graves of loved ones, who have passed on, light candles for them and pray for their souls.
It is also the time of year when ghost stories would likely come to mind and be told, and horror movies would most likely be shown in online movie channels, cable and local TV channels.
Perhaps, this has its connections with the western tradition of Halloween and its Celtic origins. Or perhaps, it is just because it is the time of year dedicated solely to remembering the dead.
As for ghosts, some believe in the premise that ghosts are lost souls, who cannot move on in the next life and continue to roam the world until the time when they will find what they wanted or are looking for.
Some believe as I do that prayers for them can help them attain that goal of moving on, eventually.
A friend’s story
Anyway, I did come across a story from a friend, who has experienced a spooky incident well, about ghosts if that is what you call it, and he swore that this really happened. And that his best friend, who suffered a cut in the incident, could attest to this.
This was a couple of years ago though, but this came to mind when I thought about ghosts, lost souls, and this was one of the spooky stories, for me.
Jan, who was then a call center agent in a firm in an IT hub in Mandaue City, brought along a co-worker, his bestfriend, to his rented apartment inside a subdivision near the place where they worked. This was so they could catch up on sleep until their shift would arrive.
The rented apartment was a two-story building with Jan staying on the first floor apartment of the building while a couple was renting the second apartment on the second floor.
Jan had already noticed that there was something off in the place because sometimes, he and his then partner would hear children running around upstairs in the deep of the night when they were at home on their rest days.
He paid no mind to it then, since he believed the couple upstairs had children. He would just take note of the incident and reminded himself to later ask the owner to ask the couple on the second floor apartment to tone down their noise.
Kids playing upstairs
On that night, Jan and his best friend decided to stay at Jan’s apartment to get some sleep before their shift would come. Jan’s partner then was working another shift so Jan and his best friend could sleep comfortably there as opposed to the company’s lounge and recreation room where there were a lot of distractions.
But then at that time at the apartment, both men could not sleep at all because of the noise of the apartment of the second floor. The noise of children playing, laughing and running really bothered them.
“Nagtuo man god ko nga mga bata to sa nagpuyo sa taas,” said Jan.
(I thought that these were the children of the couple who lived upstairs.)
So, Jan called, through his mobile phone, the owner of the house, who lived in a separate house nearby, to ask him to tell the couple upstairs to tone down their noise because he and his co-worker wanted to sleep for a couple of hours.
But, the owner told him that there was nobody in the apartment upstairs, and that the couple and their kids had gone home to the province a few days ago.
Jan was puzzled. Then who was making the noise upstairs? He then realized that this was something out of the ordinary and thought about this might be well, ghosts.
Taunting ghosts
His friend, however, who was frustrated at not being able to sleep because of the ruckus upstairs, wanted to make light of everything, he shouted and told those who made noise to stop because they wanted to sleep.
“Wa mi mahadlok ninyo. Pakita namo! Pamahuway mo kay saba kaayo mo! Mangatog mi diri kay duty pa mi unya! Ayaw mo paggara gara diha!,” Jan’s friend shouted.
(We are not afraid of you. Show yourself to us! Stop making noise! We are trying to sleep here. Don’t be such a nuisance!)
He shouted these several times, especially when the sound of running kids upstairs would be heard again.
Jan, who knew that his friend was just making a joke out of everything, laughed at what his friend was doing. And besides, the “kids” being addressed to by his friend were on the second-floor of the building, so Jan just let things be.
Jan was sleeping on a mattress on one side of the room while his friend was sleeping on the opposite side of the room on another mattress. Jan’s friend was at least a few meters away from him.
And when the noise upstairs stopped, the friend then shouted and taunted again those who made noise upstairs, and this time, Jan’s friend shouted to not bother them.
“Ayaw na mig samoka ninyo ha kay wa mi mahadlok ninyo. Pakita kuno mo! Mangatog mi diri kay duty pa mi unya!,” he shouted.
(Don’t bother us because we are not afraid of you. Show yourself to us! We are trying to sleep here because we have to work later.)
Loose change, mirror falling
It was at this instance when they heard coins or a couple of loose change falling on the floor inside the toilet, whose door was just a few meters from them. No one was inside the toilet at that time.
Then a few minutes after that, the 24 inch by 30 inch mirror, which was hung on the wall where Jan was situated suddenly fell.
Jan swore that what was unusual about it was that the mirror broke mid-fall before hitting the floor.
He said that what was even more baffling to him was that the shards of the the glass of a portion of the mirror that broke did not hit him as he was the one near where the mirror was hung and fell.
The small shards of the portion of the broken glass of the mirror went mostly to his friend, who challenged those “ghosts.”
One of the larger splinters of the glass caused a cut on one of the foot of his friend.
At that time, both Jan and his friend were surprised and scared.
Jan hurriedly got the medicine box, treated the wounded foot of his friend, and then they hurriedly left the apartment. They then spent their remaining time until their shift came up in their company’s lounge and recreation room — together with the other call center agents there.
Why did mirror fall?
Jan, later, thought about what caused the mirror to fall and break.
He could not think of anything that could have caused the mirror to fall.
“Wala gyod ko makuyawi dayon. Nasurprise lang ko na natagak ang samin na wala may nitandog ato ug nabuak pa gyod sa wa pa mahug sa sawog,” he said.
(I was not scared right away. I was just surprised that the mirror fell when nobody was touching it and it broke before touching the floor.)
He said what really spooked them was the timing of the mirror falling and breaking.
It happened after his friend’s last taunt to those making noise upstairs to stop and to show themselves to them (Jan and his friend).
Spooked, lesson learned
He did not return to the rented apartment until a couple of days later.
His friend also did not ever went back to Jan’s rented apartment to sleep to wait for their shift to arrive. He had then opted to sleep at the lounge and recreation area of the company.
Jan wanted to move out the apartment after that incident, but since, the place was near his workplace and the rent was reasonable, he stayed there for a couple more months.
One thing, he learned from this experience.
“Ayaw gyod og bugal-bugal nila (mga dili ingon nato) kay naa unyay bati na mahitabo nato,” he said.
(Don’t make fun of them (ghosts) because something bad might really happen to us.)
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