Have you ever seen a ghost or apparition? I am sure I have. At least twice. Once about 10 years ago, of all places, at the Henry Lee Irwin Theater of the Ateneo de Manila University in Loyola Heights.
An imported couple, Professor and Mrs. Gerry Jampolsky, had given a lecture on forgiveness. At one point the lecturer told the audience to close our eyes for a short meditation. When I opened mine I saw this female figure on the stage at the right of the couple. She was plump and dumpy, dressed in undistinguished blouse and skirt and was gesticulating wildly.
I thought she was carrying a mic and singing and dancing. Then I realized that her body was transparent, like a jellyfish! (You know it’s transparent but you can’t see through it). A ghost! First time I saw an apparition, with my eyes open! I even nudged my friend Mariel, who was sitting next to me, but she said there was nothing. I was just too grateful I wasn’t frightened.
By the way, I am not a person who is prone to seeing apparitions. I’m just too grounded, too down-to-earth, too practical, too, too solid flesh.
The next time was in my own house, in the dining room, after supper. We had an early one and my husband was still at the table reading the newspapers. I was sitting on an easy chair alongside the tiny inner garden which has a very old giant fern in the middle of it. The entrance to our Japanese-style house is a humped bridge under which is a small pool with large orange carp.
From the water under the humped bridge came fairies. (What else can one call them?) They were of different sizes. One was a child. They wore flimsy pastel dresses like proper fairies are supposed to.
Each of the “fairies” curtsied in front of my chair as if to pay homage to a deity (!) or at least greet me good evening. Even while watching them, I thought, I can’t be imagining this because if I were, I would outfit them better, not in dresses as corny as pink, yellow and blue. It was only after they had made their bow that they all disappeared. It only took a few minutes. I asked my husband, Did you see that? Ang ano? he said, wala, ah!
Dreams fade quickly. So do reveries. But not this little drama of fairies paying homage to me.
