Hank

There is a ghost in my closet.

I call him Hank. I saw him once, but mostly I *feel* his presence & sometimes he speaks to me, inside my head. Some of my friends have noticed him, too & we all agree that he is a ghost ~ a spirit trapped on the earth plane. I have attempted to 'send him to the light,' but he responded, "You are the brightest thing I have seen." Flatterer!

My friend Brandon, who had much more experience *seeing* ghosts than I did, told me that Hank followed me home one day & has been hanging out in my closet, since. That was a few years ago & at the time, I had assumed that this is when Hank joined up with me. But recently, I've been thinking & it dawned on me that Hank has been with me for longer than that. He just went, mostly, unnoticed until then.

The one time I saw Hank, I was lying on my bed & I felt that someone had come into the room. I turned over, expecting to see my boyfriend, come in from the bathroom ~ but, instead, I *saw* Hank. He was dead ~ broken neck ~ long, dark, straggly hair ~ flesh falling off his skull, that was tilted, off to the side. As soon as I started to recognize what I was seeing, he faded away right in front of me. He wasn't really 'threatening,' just surprising & quite ugly. The fact that he looked 'dead' makes me think that he is a 'trapped spirit' aka 'ghost' & not just a visiting spirit (they seem glowing & in *perfect* health, in the mind's eye ~ I have more experience in this kind of thing, now).

Another friend of mine, tells me that Hank hung himself because he was upset about something that happened with his son ~ maybe Hank killed him? on purpose? by accident? My friend couldn't get any more details out of him, but suicide & regret line up with Hank being trapped here. Other details that I have been able to discern using my friends, are that his name wasn't really 'Hank' but he doesn't mind being called that & that it surprises him that we don't fear him & even seem to enjoy his company.

What can I say? I regularly hang out with a variety of 'shady' living people. I ride the bus. Some of my live friends have checkered pasts & some of my good friends have already died ~ I don't hold that against them. I tend to take in stray cats. Hank is welcome in my company, if only because he is interesting, but he has proven himself to be helpful, beyond that.

Let me be clear. I want him to 'go to the light.' I can tell that he is in pain & I can also tell that he is a bit of a drag on my energy. I know he 'feeds' off my energy. But until I can figure out a better way to 'send him to the light' than just telling him that & pointing him in The Direction, he may as well earn his keep by providing me with further inspiration to write about ghosts, spirits, the otherside, etc. & giving me more personal experience with the weirder things of this world.

When I'm picking out clothes, in my closet, I can *feel* Hank get into my head. My thought process, which should be fairly straightforward, at that point, picking out an outfit to wear for the day, starts to get kinda *fuzzy* & I become more easily frustrated ~ I can't find a certain sweater ~ it should be right here ~ fine, I'll wear something else ~ look somewhere else ~ no, these won't work ~ look back ~ the original sweater is right there, in front of me. I know the sweater didn't 'disappear' & 'reappear,' but I do think that Hank has the ability to *cloud* my mind in a way that alters my perceptions, a bit. He can convince me to 'not' see something right in front of me. This little exercise has taught me much about perception.

I have become accustomed to the fleeting, black shadow that I catch out of the corner of my eye, every once in a while. My interaction with him, tho somewhat 'dark,' is comfortable.

Each time I have moved, since I have become aware of Hank, I have burned a little sage & told Hank that it was time for him to move, also. I encouraged him to go to the light, but also said that he was welcome to travel with me, if he so desired. So far, he has desired.