Hide and Seek

My mother is the second youngest of twelve children. Both of my maternal grandparents could sense otherworldly happenings to varying degrees. While my grandfather could both hear and see ghostly apparitions, my grandmother could only hear them. 


Two out of my eight aunts can hear and see, while two out of my three uncles can as well. And it is one of my uncle's stories that I will share today.


I will start with a story of one my uncle's earliest encounters, I will call him uncle J to prevent any confusion in future stories.

My mother's family lived out in the countryside in one of the many outlying provinces of the Philippines. Remote, steeped in tradition and surrounded by thick forests and farmlands, it provided the perfect setting for many strange occurrences.


My uncle was still a boy. A very typical boy. He was very mischievous and would often get himself into trouble. He and his family lived in a bamboo hut - I must add that the eldest siblings had by now of course moved out so there were not in fact fourteen people living under the same roof. Due to rainy weather and the occasional threat of flooding, the bamboo hut was elevated from the ground on thick sturdy posts. 


Uncle J and his friends had a peculiar tendency to play hide and seek at night, usually at the time of the full moon as there were no electric light posts and they had to rely on what little light the moon would cast. This game of hide and seek was always played with elements of tag in it, the seeker had to do more than just find the others, once found you still had the chance to make a run for it, as long as you did not get caught, you would not be 'it'. My uncle was a very fast runner and one of his friends was 'it'. He heard loud panting and heavy breathing behind him, assuming that he had been found, he started to run and whoever it was behind him gave chase. Uncle J was too focused on running to ever look behind him, but he could still hear the loud breathing and running footsteps behind him. 


My uncle was starting to get tired, so he started running back home, and he could still hear the runner behind him. He and the runner stopped abruptly as they came to the front of the house. Seated by the steps were all of his friends, resting sharing some green mangoes amongst themselves. They had gotten tired a while ago and gone to the front of his house to rest and wait for him to show up. Uncle J was confused, if all his friends had been waiting and resting here...who was chasing him up to the moment he stopped in front of them?


There was no one behind him.

His friends were very frightened when he told them, they had not seen anyone behind uncle J.


Needless to say, they never played hide and seek at night again.