The Bicycle Light

This happened in the early 1980's in Natal. My family was very close. We used to gather every Christmas. My uncle and my aunt were renting this big farmhouse in Natal. That year all the family was invited to spend Christmas with them. We were all very excited when we saw the house because it was such an interesting place. It was designed and built by a guy from overseas. This place was huge, it had 28 rooms. My uncle didn't even have enough furniture to occupy the whole house. It was like a real farm without electricity. The hallway was long and wide and paraffin lamps were hanging onto the walls for light at night. In the kitchen there were a coal stove. In front of the house was a long big stoop when exit the front door. At the backside when you exit the kitchen there was also a big stoop.

One night my aunt had to go and buy milk from the neighbour's farm. As usual all our children jumped into the car to go along. My brother sat in front in the passenger seat with one of my sisters on his lap. My aunt was the driver. In the back was my cousin with her sister on her lap and my other cousin next to her with my other sister on her lap, and squeezed in was me and then my other cousin. Our journey began to the neighbour's farm. We were squeezed in like sardines into a tin. It was about eight o'clock at night.

It took us about half an hour to reach the neighbours farm. As we enjoyed the ride going back again everybody was chatting and singing Christmas carols. All of a sudden my cousin elbowed me and said in a whisper voice: "look there, what is that?" I looked and to my surprise I saw a bicycle light next to the car. It was about one meter from the left back door where my cousin and I sat. We weren't scared at all. We were curious about this light. It was an old bicycle light shining into the long dry grass, but what was strange is that only the bicycle light was visible without the bike.

At the time we were on a narrow gravel road with two tracks. We were surprised because whenever the car slowed down to get through a pothole, the light also slowed down, as if it wanted to follow us next to the car. We reached almost the end of that narrow two track road when we noted that the light went to the back side. It was now following the car from behind, about three meters from the back of the car.

Out of the blue my aunt asked the two of us why we're so quiet, and what's wrong because we were now on our own mission for much too long according to her. We kept quiet about the light because we didn't want to cause havoc in the car, and we knew our aunt. She was unpredictable we didn't know how she would react if finding out a ghost light is following us. My cousin said the stupidest thing to her. She said to my aunt that we were just looking at a firefly that is following us. I thought to myself could she not at least thought of something more realistic, because that bicycle light was definitely a very huge firefly if it was one.

My aunt looked in her mirror and screamed at the top of her voice:" It's a ghost!" She put her foot on the petrol. It was as if she converted her car into a low flying aero plane that couldn't get up into the air. Everybody screamed out of shock. My cousin and I were also in shock, not about the light, but the way she was driving. She lost half of the cars exhaust on her way back to the farm. On one point when she reached the gravel road that was wider where she turned left. The light just stopped there and disappeared after we entered the gate of their farm.

Now back on the farm everybody was curious about this bicycle light. Everybody was sitting on the stoop, and the main topic was now ghost stories. My uncle told us that my two cousins were playing with a tape recorder in one of the rooms. They taped each other and got interested in doing something else, so they left the room with the tape recorder still recording. He said when they rewind the tape later on they discovered that when they left the room the tape recorder continued to tape. On the tape was the sound of people having conversations, and the sound of many footsteps on the wooden floor, also the opening and closing of the door. People were entering and leaving the room was recorded on this tape left in this empty room. After my uncle discovered this tape, he decided to put the tape recorder in his take away shop. It was also a very old building. He put the tape recorder on late at night after ten o'clock and left the shop. The following day he discovered interesting stuff on that tape. It was the sound of people laughing and drinking, the sound of like it could have been a bar years ago.

After this scary night we experienced, and all the ghost stories we couldn't sleep so we avoided talking about ghosts. After a view days it seemed like everyone was more relaxed. I went outside at the back stoop to check the sunset because it was always so beautiful; it was so busy and noisy inside with everybody that I decided to remain outside for a while. As I stood there watching the sun go down behind the mountains and darkness started to fall down on us, my eye caught something. On the end of the stoop was a dead bush. In this dead bush was a golden colour ball hanging in the middle of this bush. It was the size of a soccer ball. It was not shining bright but bright enough to see it clearly. This was about two meters from where I was standing. I was not scared. I was curious, and gave a little step forward to be a little closer, but then it disappeared. I just went inside without telling anybody because I thought they won't believe me after all the ghost stories they might think it's my imagination.

After many years went by me and my father and mother were talking about the farm. For my surprise my father told us that he saw something there that he kept a secret. He told us about the same golden light in the dead bush that he saw when he went out to his car one night to fetch something. He didn't tell anybody because he said he was also scared that they wouldn't have believed him, because within one week two ghost lights will sound a bit too much. I was surprised and I told my father that I also saw that golden light, and for the same reason I kept it for myself.

Till today I still wonder why some ghosts are in the form of lights. Is there any one with knowledge of ghost lights that can give an explanation to me about why they come in the form of a light?