Carlos Furminger

by Penn R. Weis
(State College , PA, U.S.A.)

It was tragic news to hear or my grandfathers death, I was eleven and my little brother Kael was only eight. What was even worse was the manner in which he died. Grandma was out in the garage warming the car and waiting. Grandpa was motionless at the bottom of the stars in a pool of blood. Seems his heart had ceased up on the way out to the car.
The part after the funeral gets hard to describe because the layout of my family home in State College is hard to describe, so please bare with me. Somehow my folks decided to get my little brother a helium balloon after the funeral. We took it home and placed it in the bottom floor far bedroom which was his bedroom at the time. Now the layout of my house is very complex. It was a 60's layout very art deco with multiple levels so it didn't go from one floor to another, it was one floor then three steps up to the main floor then ten steps up to the living room then ten steps up to my parents room then ten steps up to the attic library. You would almost have to see it to understand it, anyway that balloon was in the bedroom way at the bottom of the house. My brother and I were comfortably watching T.V. one level up. When I saw that balloon bobbing against the ceiling and making it's way up stairs which is hard to do in a house like this. We actually dismissed it at first, but it made it's way all the way upstairs into the living room where we held family Holidays.
Kael and I were a little frazzled, as an experiment we took the balloon back and put it in the same place. Same shit, the balloon went all the way back upstairs the same exact rout bobbing against the ceiling. We were kids what are we gonna do ?
From that T.V. room you can see the downstairs hallway and the playroom. When I was twelve years old I sat there doing my homework and watching T.V. when something caught my eye... it was the top of a mans head, white as snow and it moved toward the stairs as it climbed the stairs it disapeared! I freaked, why should I see a ghost in a home my Father designed and built? I didn't know what I saw but I ran over to my Mom in the dining room who was grading papers, and I told her what I'd seen. Very coldly she looked at me and said "It was a year ago tonight that your Grandfather died." True Story-Penn R. Weis