In the rural village of Katahar everybody knew everybody. When someone died the entire village mourned. When a baby was born the entire community rejoiced. And when something hilarious occurred the entire village laughed. This story had them laughing for a while.Katahar had one small grocery, a cook shop, a church, a small market place, a constable outpost, ahealth clinic and a small all-age school. The homes were well spaced out because everyone owned a generous piece of land.

There was a time when any elderly villager could correct a child and scold him or her without regrets. In those days the entire village took care of their children. How the times have changed. Children have become more and more difficult to control and when they became youths things get progressively worse. Violence, alcohol and drugs become part if their daily activities. They respect few and fear nothing until one very eventful night.
The night, although blessed with moonlight, was not very bright. A group of lads were liming at the head of the village. They had had a few drinks, smoked a couple of joints and were high enough not to care about anything. Usually the topic would be movies violence, sex girls – sex. Tonight it was about strange happenings. Old Hague, Jumbie and others. As the topic heated up tales became taller than the Empire State Building. Swallowing some of the pills told became impossible.
They all knew that it was all talk and no fact. At least that was what they believed. The youths were all teens the oldest seventeen the majority between thirteen and fifteen. Sometime after midnight they decided to head home. Walking in a loose group they shouted, cursed and boasted about sprits and the supernatural. One by one they broke off from the main group and went home. Soon there were only three of them heading into the back of the village. What was unfortunate was that they had to pass the burial ground. Their conversation stopped when they approached it.
From within the dark stony grounds came some very strange, haunting sounds. Nervous but not scared they looked into the forbidden place. Something was moving their, flying, darkness, flashes of light, sounds.Still playing brave, they stopped and began pointing at the moving object. They soon realized that there was more than one.
Without warning the shapes stopped their erratic movements and headed directly for them. Abandoning their bravado the boys blazed a trail to their respective homes. Laughter was sweet when they recounted their strange ordeal. But that same night things began to happen. Buddy the smallest began walking in his sleep. When the family discovered this he was already exiting the door at
2 : 30 am in the morning. When they asked him where he was heading he told them he was going to his friends in the cemetery. They were calling him. Then he said goodbye to everyone and he headed there again. They four-handed him and locked him inside his parent’s room. Next day Pastor King came and prayed with the boy and his family. His strange behavior ceased.

Meanwhile the second youth began acting up too.He began walking, shouting and pointing towards the burial ground. He was going to meet his friends. Pastor came but this time it did not stop the boy. He continued to want to meet his friends late at night at the burial ground. His parents took him to stay with his grandparents in Linden.
After all the fuss with the first two lads the parents of the third tried to get help for him before night approached. They visited a Spiritualist. The boy was looked at and given a bath in lavender. After this he was saturated with Smell-o-Pine to keep the spirits away. Poor thing, he had to endure this for quite a while.The spiritualist told his mother that the boys had invited the spirits by pointing at them in the cemetery. When he got home he must turn twice clockwise and enter by his back. His shoes must be left outside.
Then came the climax. In order to get rid of the spirits the boy must use the same finger he pointed at the spirit to poke himself in both eyes. Then he must bite the finger. This done, thespirit would go. The boy began to cry loudly and refused to obey. When the parents got him to calm down they asked him why he was making such a fuss about a little thing like that
“ Mummy, I was so frightened that night that I pointed wid all me finger, on both hands.”
His mother got the point then. She agreed that he would definitely go blind from the poking of fingers into eye and loose a few digits of those fingers if he had to do all that biting.
Picking up her purse and grabbing her sobbing child, she headed straight for the church.
Written By Neil Primus