Marble From The Dark

This instance is my third (and last) experience of things that I have come to believe were a ghost or spirit. This one, however, was considerably simpler than my two other experiences, so it will be shorter. However, it was definitely more personal as it happened in my home.

I will first describe briefly where it was my privilege to live for seven years in Singapore. Singapore currently has quite a few high-rise apartments and I was able to find a beautiful one with some scenery and history behind it. The apartment is located in Keppel Bay, an area that once served as Singapore's main harbor from mid-1800s even until today.

I remember seeing the huge modern orange giraffe-looking cranes that loaded up the numerous container ships. Those were in direct contrast to the old stone dry docks that once served to repair wooden sailing ships and were functional through WW2 and beyond.

The apartment I was staying in was built right on the edges of those dry docks (I lived on the "Empress Pier"), giving me a gorgeous view of the Pacific/Indian Ocean running right below my windows.

I mention this background because of the history that was associated with the place. With a long history of sailors, dockworkers and travelers (perhaps of accidents or otherwise), there was certainly ample opportunity for a restive spirit to be about the place. In seven years living in that place, I only experienced this one instance.

It was a few days before Christmas (Dec 23) and I was feeling very tired. I laid down in my bed before dinner and unsurprisingly fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later around 6 or 7 pm and the room was dark. I remember hearing my wife and daughter in the kitchen, presumably preparing dinner. I felt fully awake as I walked out of my bedroom and into the hallway of our apartment. Please note I felt fully awake, and do not attribute this incidence to still being asleep or half asleep; I was up, I was on my feet, and I was fully aware. Anyway, I walked out of my bedroom into the hallway and to the bathroom which was on the right-hand side. Immediately across from the bathroom was my daughter's room, the doors in perfect alignment across from each other. My wife and daughter were talking and making dinner preparation noises further down the hall on the right side where the hall opened into the dining room. I state this to make it clear that they were not in the vicinity of the hallway and were not involved in this instance.

While in the bathroom, I had the door closed. Upon finishing, I washed hands and opened the door. Immediately upon opening the door, I saw a single glass marble rolling toward me from out of my daughter's room. The marble rolled directly toward me (I mean not at an angle but straight at me). I could hear the sound of the marble rolling very clearly on the marble floor, it made a very distinct and eerie noise. The marble rolled toward my feet, hit the small lip which separated the bathroom from the hallway, and rebounded straight back into my daughter's room from where it came from. The angle that it hit was exactly 90 degrees in order for it to roll back the same way it came. It did not ricochet to the left or right, meaning it only could have come from my daughter's room and not from down the hallway. I heard the sound of its rolling slow down until it stopped in the middle of her room.

The bathroom where I was standing was brightly lit compared to my daughter's dark room and I could not see the interior of her room very well. I did not see any movement in the room or any other indication that anyone was there. I walked from the bathroom to stand over the marble and stood looking at it for quite some time trying to make out what had happened.

From there I immediately went to my wife and daughter in the dining room to ask them if they had kicked or thrown anything down the hallway. From their blank expressions, I could tell they had not purposely done so. From the way the marble bounced straight back into my daughter's room, I know that even if they had accidentally kicked the marble down the hallway, it would not have bounced the way it did.

I didn't want to startle them by explaining why I had asked such a strange question. However, I didn't remember my daughter having any marbles so I asked her if that marble was hers. She said it was, but I'm not sure if she was just blowing off my question not realizing how important it was for me at that time. I don't remember her playing with marbles ever, so I am still wondering where it came from.

Later that evening when I was thinking about the entire episode, I remember having the impression that the marble may have been pushed by my father who had died around Christmas-time five years prior to then. He died on Dec 28 while I was traveling in Thailand and I was only able to make it back to his funeral after the new year. He had been sick for a while with the cancer, but I was not able to say goodbye to him before he took his final turn for the worse and passed away. However, the impression that it may have been my father was related only to the timing, being Christmas-time and almost five years to the day since he died.

I also had the stronger impression that the marble may have been pushed by my mother who died 4 months after my father. I always had a strong bond with my mother, so it's my feeling that if one of them tried to reach out to me, it would be her. My mother, by the way, died after a long battle with her own cancer. After 12 years remission, it had come on very strong after my father passed away, and I will always believe she held out until he died and she didn't need to take care of him any longer.

I left that marble sitting in middle of my daughter's room, and that evening I had my daughter sleep with my wife while I slept in my daughter's bed. I had hoped that if it was either of my parents, then I would see them or have a dream about them or somehow have some further encounter with them. Unfortunately, I was not able to experience anything further. My daughter did come to me in the middle of the night saying she could not sleep, so I spent a considerable amount of time laying there awake, hugging her and reliving the memories of both of my parents. Had she awoken a second time, she would have wondered why her hair was wet and why her papa was crying.

To this day I don't know if it was my parents trying to reach out to me, or if it was another spirit from the long history of the dry docks in which I was living. I do know that something had to propel that marble and it came from my daughter's room by someone or something unseen. Of that I am certain.