Hungrier Ghosts

It had finally arrived…the much-anticipated, yet dreaded Hungry Ghost Month. During this time, wayward ghosts are believed to make their presence known among the living, and could effectively wreak havoc or cause mischief…or worse. It is this, the seventh month on the Chinese lunar calendar, that one must be very careful and take care to offer the proper appeasements to the dead, or one could find one’s self in a world of trouble. Every year during this time, the Hungry Ghost Festival is observed, special ceremonies are had, incense is burned, and gifts are offered to appease the dead and to help them have a happy afterlife. It is during this time that the gates of hell are opened, and it was during this time that Shu Li would find out why some things are not merely superstition.

As it happens, Shu Li was visiting her grandparents in the Hunan Provence of China during this most inauspicious time, but it had been years since she had seen them, and well, her parents were very busy; they had very little time to devote to Shu Li because they were always working to pay bills, save up money for her college expenses, etc. Also, Shu Li did not mind visiting her grandparents one bit because they lived in the countryside that was much different, and so much better, than Los Angeles, CA where Shu Li was born. She loved the countryside and imagined herself spending hours on end just exploring, breathing in the fresh air, and enjoying her grandma’s steamed dumplings. She could just smell them now as she closed her eyes and smiled to herself. Yes! Grandma was in fact making those heavenly steamed dumplings at that very moment!

“Shu Li! Come and eat”, her grandmother called out. “Coming, granny!”, Shu Li called out. With a smile on her face, she took off in the direction of the scent of the steamed dumplings. Her grandma stood in the kitchen, apron on, smiling from ear to ear at the sight of her granddaughter so eager to gobble up the dumplings she had made for her. “Shu Li, go and wash your hands first, then eat,” said her grandmother. “Okay, granny,” said Shu Li as she stopped dead in her tracks before letting her hands touch the dumplings.

Having returned from washing her hands, Shu Li tore into the steamed dumplings as if they were the last food on earth. Yep, to Shu Li, her grandmother’s steamed dumplings were ambrosia. Her grandmother returned to the kitchen and said, “Now, Shu Li, your grandpa and I are going out for awhile. It is Hungry Ghost Month here, so the Hungry Ghost Festival is being celebrated as well. You being only 14 and not having been born in China, we felt it best if you stayed home. I know you like to explore and find mischief, but please do not go out from this house after the sun goes down. No, not for any reason. One can’t be too careful when it comes to these things, and what would your parents think if anything were to happen to you after they entrusted your care to us?”

Seeing the seriousness in her grandmother’s face, Shu Li asked, “But why ?Hungry Ghost Month is all superstition, isn’t it, granny?” Her grandmother’s face took on an ashen hue and became even more serious, and she took hold of Shu Li’s shoulders and answered, “Granddaughter, you are wrong! Hungry Ghost Month is not superstition; it is very real. I want you to promise me that you will not venture out after dark, for any reason! And even during the day, do not dare to walk through graveyards or any place that is reserved for the dead. Promise me!” Shu Li was taken aback by her grandmother’s words and the seriousness of her tone, but resigned herself to listen to her and not venture out after dark, nor walk through any places reserved for the dead, so she answered, “Okay, granny. I promise.” Confident that Shu Li would honor her promise, her grandmother released the hold she had on Shu Li’s shoulders. “Alright, dear. Your grandfather and I will take your leave. Lock the doors as soon as we leave,” said her grandmother. “Alright, granny. I will, definitely.”

No sooner had the gate to her grandparents old country house had closed shut, and the sun began to go down, Shu Li put on her shoes and coat, and grabbed her smart phone, and broke her promise to her grandmother by stepping foot out of the house after dark. In spite of what her granny had said, she just knew that Hungry Ghost Month is nothing more than superstition and that surely, there was nothing to be afraid of. After all, ghosts aren’t real…right? As Shu Li made her way out of the gate and closed it, she felt chilled to the bone and felt that maybe she should have kept her promise, but she was already outside the gate and was not going to curtail her exploration adventures any longer. She thought to herself, “granny and pop-pop should be home around 10 pm, so that should give me plenty of time to explore, take some nice photos, and be back at home and they’d be none the wiser.”

The night air was crisp and cool, even borderline bone-chilling. Good thing Shu Li wore her coat. Walking along a dirt path, about a mile and a half from her grandparents’ home, she noticed the path was lined with big, ancient trees on either side, and not a soul was on the road. There were rather crude-looking lights on posts here and there, or else the path would have been completely dark. Always having been the curious type, Shu Li kept walking, certain she would come upon something of interest sooner or later.

After walking for another block, Shu Li came upon a graveyard. She couldn’t believe her luck, and her mind swam with the thought of the awesome photos she would take there and be able to show to her friends when she returned to the U.S. Wait…was that footsteps behind her?! Shu Li turned around quickly, only to find…no one. Absolutely no one. She know she had felt someone there just a moment before, but how could someone run away without making even the slightest sound? “Focus, Shu Li!” she said, giving herself a tap on her forehead.

The graveyard had no light whatsoever except for a candle here and there left on random graves, no doubt by family members of the deceased paying their respects. Shu Li could hear her granny’s voice in her head, reminding her not to venture out after dark, nor venture into a graveyard during Hungry Ghost Month, but she quickly pushed the admonitions out of her mind, labeling them as superstitious nonsense. Footsteps began to approach Shu Li as she stood in the midst of the graveyard trying to decide which side to explore first. “Who’s there?” she called out to…nothing. Only the howl of the wind answered back.

The footsteps seemed to get closer and closer, yet Shu Li could not see a soul. Fear started to fill her soul, but she attempted to suppress it by going down the path to the left of her where a lone grave stood. Her thinking was that she would take a few grave site photos, and then make her way back to her grandparents’ home. It was now 9 pm, and they would return within an hour. She went over to the grave that stood a few feet from her, turned on her smart phone flashlight, and read the inscription on the tomb. (It was in Chinese, but she could make out some of what it said.) Translated, the inscription said, “My body may be here, but I refuse to rest.”

Shu Li made sure the flash on her smart phone camera was enabled, and she took a photo of the grave and its inscription. This would be perfect to share with her friends back at school in the U.S. In fact, she snapped photos of everything in her immediate vicinity. She no longer heard the footsteps. Maybe she had imagined the whole thing. She guessed that, maybe, she was becoming superstitious as well, and that it was likely she had not heard any footsteps at all; that it was all in her head.

Bending down to get a closer look at the inscription on the grave in front of her, she noticed the name of the deceased inscribed on it. It read: “Here Lies Bai Tso Long. Born: 13 October 1854. Died: 23 March 1954.” Shu Li thought to herself, Wow! He had lived 100 years, and surely could not have any unfinished business, nor the desire to hang around past his time. Just then, she heard a low, deep voice with a raspy tone call her name, “Shu Li…” Suddenly, spooked, she looked all around, wondering where the voice was coming from, but it seemed to come from all around her.

Now, she really was frightened, but still, she found the courage to say, “Who are you? Why are you calling my name? What do you want? My grandparents live very near here, so don’t bother me!” but yet again came the voice, “Shu Li…..” She got up from her knees to make her way out of the graveyard because some very bad people may hang out in graveyards late at night, just waiting to assail any poor, unsuspecting person. Not bothering to dust the dirt off of the knees of her jeans, Shu Li walked at a quickened pace trying to make it to the gate of the cemetery. There they were again…the footsteps. By the sound of the them, they were right behind her.

Tears began to well up in Shu Li’s eyes as she felt that whatever was following her was so close (and she was so far from her grandparents’ house), and that maybe, just maybe, she should have heeded her grandmother’s warnings. One misplaced step landed Shu Li on the ground, and before she could get back to her feet, a shadowy figure stood staring down at her. Looking into what should have been its face, she saw nothingness…darkness, at least until it grinned at her, showing its sharp, white teeth. “Shu Li…”, the dark figure whispered in a low, gravely voice, and then, it reached its hand down toward her. Shu Li screamed, and was back up on her feet and running full speed toward the cemetery gate.

Was it just Shu Li’s imagination getting the best of her, or did the cemetery gate seem to be getting farther and farther away from her the more she ran toward it. In her short time upon this earth, few things were certain, but the one thing she was certain of was that the shadowy figure was right behind her, so close that had he wanted to, he surely could have reached out and grabbed her. She was determined not to be the victim of whatever was chasing her through the cemetery, so she quickened pace even though her lungs and legs were already exhausted. “Go away! Leave me alone!” Shu Li yelled with tears in her eyes as she now seemed to be just at the entrance to the cemetery. It was at that moment that she began to hear otherworldly voices that seemed to come from every direction, whispering all at once, “No way out.”

Refusing to give up and concede defeat to whatever spirits were obviously present there, Shu Li finally passed through the gates of the cemetery and out onto the dirt path of the main road. She felt she must surely be safe since she managed to escape from inside the graveyard, so she stopped to catch her breath, then proceeded back up the road the way she came…back toward her grandparents’ house. Taking out her cell phone, she saw that it was way past the time that her grandparents were to be back from the festival, and she knew she was in big trouble, so she continued on towards the house, resigning herself to the scolding that surely awaited her.

On the way, she thought of the cool photos she would show her school friends back in the U.S. when she got back there, and how she would tell them of her true ghost experience while visiting her grandparents in China during Hungry Ghost Month. The gate to her grandparents’ yard was now in sight, and she picked up the pace a bit as it was getting very late.

Shu Li opened the gate to her grandparents’ yard, and closed it behind her, and proceeded to walk up to the door. She tried the knob, and surprisingly, the door was not locked, so she walked inside. A few lights were on, but there seemed to be not a soul there. So, Shu Li believed that her grandparents must have decided to stay later at the festival, and that she had made it back before them and avoided getting into trouble for going out during this inauspicious time.

Shu Li locked the front door, kicked off her shoes, and hurried down the hall to the bathroom so she could have her bath, brush her teeth, and jump into bed hoping that, once her grandparents returned, they’d have no clue about her little excursion into the graveyard, after dark, during Hungry Ghost Month. But, once in the bath she had drawn for herself, she felt very at ease and wanted to linger a bit in the tub and relax, so she did. While laying back in the tub with her head resting against the shower wall, she could have swore she heard footsteps…slow, dragging footsteps…coming down the hall. “Who’s there?” Shu Li called out, but there was no answer. “Hello?! Granny, ‘Pop Pop’, is that you?!” Still, no answer. Shu Li now felt all this ghost business was finally getting to her so that she was now imagining ghostly footsteps in her grandparents’ home. “Get a grip!” Shu Li mumbled to herself, and proceeded to finish up her bath, brush her teeth, and make her way down the hall to her bedroom.

Once inside her bedroom, Shu Li turned on her nightlight across the room near the closet, said her prayers, and got into bed under the covers. Turning toward the nightstand, her alarm clock read “12:00 a.m.”, and she believed that, surely, her grandparents would be home soon. Her eyes began to feel heavy, and soon Shu Li was fast asleep with not a care in the world…until…she heard her closet creak open across the room. Her eyes popped open as if on cue, and she pulled the covers up to her chin, and peered across the room at her closet. She felt that something wasn’t right; that someone was in her closet.

Shu Li knew that she was not alone in her room, and she had no idea what to do now. Whatever it was would surely get her before she ever reached her bedroom door, much less the front door. “Who are you?! What do you want?! Why are you bothering me?! Why?!” she cried out into the darkness of her room. A gravelly voice from her closet said, “No way out”, and again the closet creaked, but this time, it opened a bit. More scared than she had ever been in her life, she pulled the covers up over her head and hoped that whatever it was, would be gone when she finally decided to pull the covers from over her head.

After a few minutes, Shu Li felt confident she could uncover her face as whatever it was that had been there would surely be gone. So, she flung the covers back, and there stood a crowd of apparitions around her bed! All peering down at her, they said in unison, “No way out.” Shu Li screamed and screamed, but no one heard her. “We’re so hungry…feed us,” said one of the ghosts. “Yes…feed us,” another ghost chimed in. Shu Li cried, “What do you want?! I don’t have anything to feed you!” Another ghost said, “You’ll do just fine.”

With that, the ghosts began to devour Shu Li right there on her bed. Her bed was the table for this sumptuous, little feast, and her bedspread made a fitting tablecloth. Her cries were like music to their ears as they attempted to satiate their hunger which would never, ever be satisfied. They left nothing of little Shu Li except her pajamas…and her bones, each one gnawed clean of all its flesh, and just as quietly as they had entered, they left in the same manner. Now, Shu Li would be added to the ranks of the Hungry Ghosts…always hungry, never ever satisfied.

Around 3 a.m., Shu Li’s grandparents returned from the festival. Her grandmother went into her room to check on her, but only found her pajamas and her bones…picked clean. She wailed at the top of her lungs with sadness over what she knew must have happened to her only grandchild. Shu Li’s grandfather came in to see what was the matter, and he saw and instantly knew what had happened. He hugged his wife, and tried to comfort her somehow as he himself fell apart. If only Shu Li had heeded her grandmother’s warnings; if only she had listened.

A week had passed, but Hungry Ghost Month was not yet over. There was still one more day left. After having had Shu Li’s funeral, doing the necessary rituals, and seeing Shu Li's parents off to the airport, her grandmother was at the alter making offerings to her ancestors, including Shu Li in her prayers to the dead when she heard the anguished voice of a little girl that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere, saying, ”Granny!!! Please! Help me, granny! Please!!! Help me! I’m soooo hungry!” Granny spun around to the doorway of the altar room, and there in the doorway stood Shu Li, her flesh hanging off of her bones, clothes tattered and dirty, slowly making her way towards her grandmother. But, Shu Li wasn't alone.

The altar room began to fill with spirits of the dead, and together with Shu Li, they sauntered towards Shu Li's grandmother, slowly closing in on her. She tried to scream, but it was no use. Her husband hadn't made it home yet. She was the only living soul in her home. "Granny, I've missed you so much", Shu Li said in an almost monotone voice barely above a whisper, "give me a hug".

Shu Li embraced her grandmother, and so did the dead...

Granny was delicious.