Have you ever had a paranormal experience?

Yesterday morning I made a quick run to the mall to exchange one, single item. Naturally, I left the mall with extra stuff I hadn't planned on buying, but the trip was worth it. Upstairs, in a small corner that gets very little foot traffic, I spied a novelty shop advertising pieces of art and home fragrance oils. I've been on the hunt for new scented oils ever since Bath and Body Works stopped carrying my favorite. So, when I saw a sign that said "4 for $10," I made a detour at the top of the escalator and decided to check it out [for reference, a single three ounce bottle usually runs between $7-$8]. There's a point to this story... I'm getting to it.

The storefront was decorated with abstract paintings and trinkets - the kind of bits I don't typically see in big-city shopping centers. The smell of incense hit me as soon as I walked through the entrance, and the gentleman behind the counter greeted me immediately. I glanced in his direction, said hello and made a beeline for the scented oils on display in the middle section. I was on a mission. Stopping in that store for some oils was not part of the mission, so I was just trying to get in and out as quickly as possible. Once I got to the counter, I actually took note of the man in front of me. He was older, probably in his late 50s, with beautiful caramel skin, beaming hazel eyes and dark grey dreadlocks down his back. He wore a traditional West African dashiki, and I thought to myself, "this fella is really confident in his style." If my mom were into guys with dreads, I might've slipped him her number.

Since I was still kinda in a hurry, I reached for my wallet right away, but he took his sweet time bagging my items and proceeded to ask me a few questions. This is the point where a voice in the back of my head told me to slow down. I'm a quick mover in general, and while I'm very observant in smaller, more intimate settings, I tend to look past people when I'm out in public [in favor of getting to where I'm going as soon as possible]. That's not always a good thing in my opinion. You never know who might need your attention, or who was meant to interact with you that day, or who you were meant to randomly connect with. With that in mind, I made it a point to take a moment and engage the conversation. We never exchanged names, but we talked about more meaningful things than the weather, our favorite sports teams and other normal "small talk" topics.

Once he found out I was a writer, he mentioned that he had recently written a television script and that it was based on true stories. Of course this piqued my interest, and I soon realized his personal creativity was driven by supernatural encounters. "One of the things I like to ask my customers is 'have you ever had a paranormal experience?' and you'd be surprised how many people say yes." His script was based on these experiences, but each narrator is a person of color - an "urban" perspective, as he explained it.

I had just written about how I'm drawn to any kind of fiction based on magical/supernatural elements, so I could've stood there and picked his brain for about an hour, but I just decided to let him share what he wanted. For the record, he never asked me if I've ever had a paranormal experience, but the answer would've been a definite no. Never in my life have I thought I saw a ghost in the shadows, my doors have never opened or closed by themselves, I've never felt any unseen forces pushing me down a stairwell, nothing. But I know people who have, and some of those people are right in my own family.

My niece said she used to see a man in a top hat and trench coat while she was staying at he grandmother's house. Her younger brother saw him a couple times, too. He would hold a briefcase while walking to the top of the stairs, and then he'd disappear.

A couple years ago, my father was having some chest pains while laying alone in bed, and according to him, the pain was pretty bad. He said he closed his eyes and felt someone tapping and rubbing his ankle. When he opened his eyes and looked down, he didn't see anyone, and his chest was back to feeling just fine.

Hearing first-hand accounts like these are different than watching documentaries about them on tv. It feels more real. At the same time, I've never never had any of these kind of experiences, so at the end of the day, it still seems like... fiction.

But art imitates life, right?

♥

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