I Saw a Ghost (Again)

A bit of detail before I go into the story: I have a large family. I was fortunate to be close to all my cousins from childhood through present day. My cousin's mom was a big fan of Easter, she was always making Easter baskets for her kids, even when they were grown. I am the youngest of two siblings, so I always related the best to other "youngest" cousins. My favorite cousin I will call "J..." Some say he committed suicide, others suspect foul play. Either way, I miss him very much - and it's almost been ten years since he's been gone.

A bit more detail: the night he went missing, I dreamt that we were playing hide and seek in this huge orchard of apple trees. We were kids in the dream, and as I chased after him, we aged. I tripped over a tree root, looked up... And woke up crying and screaming. This isn't the first dream I've had like this (prophetic) so needless to say I was worried. Come to find out later in the day he was found dead; hanging from a tree.

So now the ghost story: it was Easter time, I was thinking of J because of the whole Easter-thing. I went to sleep crying. My sleep was interrupted: I was being physically shaken in a "Get up, get up!" kind of way. I saw a dark figure hovering over me, silent. It was mostly a head and shoulders, but I didn't look for anything more. Panicking, I threw a stuffed animal at it and covered my eyes like a little kid. I hoped for ANY sound from my parents downstairs, and finally heard my Dad making his coffee. I bolted down the stairs so fast and so scared! I told my Dad: "There's someone in the house! He's in my room!" He almost called the Police, it was that real to the both of us. He thought someone had broken into our home.

Later that day, my brother mentioned a story about J. It was this stupid thing that kids do: stick their heads in stuff. Well J had stuck his head in my Grandmother's cat's wicker basket, and his head got stuck. I remember my Grandmother pulling the basket off his head; he was standing in front of the window where the sun was shining in. I didn't so much see his face, but his silhouette. And then it hit me: the shape of his head. The figure hovering over me. I had seen J, and didn't even know it until someone brought him up.