GINGERBREAD AND WHISKEY a Ghost Story

by taylorevance@gmail.com | May 2, 2018 5:28 pm

A shot of whisky in your morning coffee always seems more acceptable during the holidays.
~ Uncle Albert

Although the holiday baking was done the previous evening as evidenced by a full cookie jar, the aroma of molasses, vanilla, and ginger continue to linger in my kitchen. The thought of a homemade ginger snap with my first cup of coffee is appealing, after all, it is the holidays. These are the days that unexpected, and yes un-invited guests, drop in. They are always grateful to enjoy the delights of all that the holidays have to offer. This morning it would include the man seated at my kitchen island. A raise of his coffee cup and a smile to toast a new day is what he offered. “Help yourself to the coffee and cookies”, I told him. I also reminded him that if he wasn’t on his best behavior, he would be invited to leave my home. You see my ex and I spent 14 years together before we parted ways. Not long after our parting, Cancer took his physical body leaving his spirit to badger me with unresolved business. Before any unpleasant exchange of energy between he and I surfaced, my gaze shifted from my ex-boyfriend to the staircase.

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Clump, clump, clump, down the stairs he came, a man, rather large in stature insistent on making his presence known. He felt familiar, yet I was uncertain of the identity of my new visitor. Brown leather lace-up boots, baggy pants, and a heavy wool coat suggested he was dressed for cool temperatures and the great outdoors. Today’s activity was either fishing or hunting as evidenced by the fishing pole he carries, and the rifle slung over his left shoulder.

With the confidence and familiarity of someone who had spent plenty of time in my home, the man walked across the dining room, pulled out a stool from the island and plopped himself down simultaneously letting out a heavy sigh. It seems to me that he had been out in the cold all day and was thankful to finally sit, warm-up and relax. The man retrieves a bottle of whiskey from inside his coat pocket and proceeds to pour a couple of ounces into a glass, then take a hefty gulp. He turns toward my ex who is still seated at the other end of the kitchen island, raises the whiskey bottle offering a shot in a gesture of brotherhood. My ex- extends his coffee cup toward the whiskey bottle and with a clink, the fragrance of whiskey and gingerbread fills the room. With a mere 3 bar stools separating them, my two morning visitors look as if they just bellied up to the bar in an old west tavern.

“Do I know you?” I asked my new visitor. The man turns to show me his face which I am now able to see much more clearly under the hat he wears. He has a bushy full beard, ruddy cheeks, and weary but kind eyes. He turns his head so that I can see his profile, “Lassie”, he blurts out. Just the hint I needed, a maternal relative as indicated by the Irish/Scottish noun denoting a young woman. Then the name Albert rings through my ears. My mothers brother, my beloved uncle Albert who joins me today in spirit. “I’m so happy to see you, is there anything I can do for you, you are welcome to visit any time”, are just a few of the sentiments that flowed from my heart to my uncle.

“How is your mom?”, he asks. After I commented on my mother’s well-being, he tells me that he and my mothers late husband went hunting and shot a moose. “Your mom would be proud of him, how he went running after that moose, then shot him. So now we have meat in the freezer”. My mother’s late husband passed from Emphysema and COPD, so running after a moose would have been done in his youth, his body not yet ravaged by disease. I asked my uncle, “Do you eat in the spirit world, I mean can you taste food and whiskey and enjoy it?” My uncle turned to my ex, they exchange a smile and my uncle says with a grin on his face, “Well, I’m enjoying this whiskey”. Then I hear a disembodied sentence, “You don’t have to worry about getting fat”. That sounds like something my grandmother would say. I feel she is standing in the periphery, so I shout out a greeting.

Still querying Uncle Albert about life in spirit he explains that, “not much has changed you know. It’s a bit of getting used to. Our lives are basically the same, you do what you know. I have more time for pleasure, things aren’t as stressful. I still enjoy the boating. I have more time to think, to reflect on the man that I was. I feel like I have less stress and more free time to make changes in myself, to be the type of person that I want to be rather than the type of person that I was. Like everything else, it takes time, I have more of it now, I feel more at ease at peace”.

Uncle Albert stands, picks up his rifle, slings the strap over his shoulder. He picks up his fishing pole and says, “It was nice to see you, thank you for the invitation, I plan on coming back, say hi to your mom”. I asked Uncle Albert, “What prompted you to come and visit me today?” He responded with, “I felt like you needed your family around you now, I want you to know that we are here for you, supporting you in what you are doing”. He turns to face my ex as he finishes with, “We have your back”. My ex- smiles in acknowledgment of the underlying message, the message being, stop tormenting my niece.

We say our goodbyes as he walks across the dining room to the stairs leading up to the second-floor hallway, it is there that he turns accepting the air kiss I send him. With the turn of his heel and one more step, he vanishes.

GALE STEIN
Clairvoyant Psychic Medium
Author

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