As John and his wife sat at breakfast on their first morning, John said to me that he sensed there was an angry spirit on the island. To this I replied that that must be the volcano, and explained about the tragedy of the nineteen deaths in 1997. He said, no, that he knew about the volcano, but that it was something more than that.
Suddenly a cry rang out and I was almost thrown to the ground. There was a huge stampede as every last person fled in terror. I couldn’t see or hear what had happened to cause such a reaction, but if everyone was running away, something terrible must have happened. I ran along with the crowd, panting, until I reached the car and quickly drove home.
For years I puzzled as to why our house roof remained intact and I finally asked Mammy. It was not by chance or good fortune she said. Through the years she had learned to open one window on the lee side of the storm, and when the eye passes over, during the lull, close that window and open a window on the opposite side of the house. In doing that, the build-up of pressure in the house is released and so the roof stays on. Of course this would not work if a hurricane-spawned tornado struck, but it did not happen to us, thank God!
I went into the bathroom, locking the door behind me and sat on the toilet. Suddenly a black snake that had been lying in the corner behind the door uncoiled itself and reared up. I froze. Then I screamed for help, all the while climbing up onto the back of the toilet. Daddy had to break the door in to get at the snake and rescue me!
One day, Granny approached the kitchen to talk to the cook who was preparing lunch. From a distance, she saw the cook seasoning a large pot of stew that was simmering on the stove. Unaware that Granny was watching, the cook took a dark object from the pocket of her apron and began to grate it into the stew. At that point, Granny stepped into the kitchen and asked the cook what she was putting into the stew. Flustered, the cook claimed it was black pepper. In fact, what she was busily adding to the stew was a length of dried stool – her own!
Three people have been charged in Guyana for killing a woman they claimed was a blood-sucking evil spirit. Two men and a woman were on Wednesday arraigned for murder at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court following the brutal death of the woman.
These wonderful memories of storytelling have impacted me up to this day. My greatest joy is in telling exciting stories to the guests at our guesthouse in Montserrat, and seeing the awed looks on their faces. My stories are usually funny but sometimes eerie, and are based mostly on island legends and folklore. Some however are culled from my own personal experience with the paranormal.
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