My friend Danny passed away way too young at the age of 24.  He drove off an embankment and that was the sad end for him.  A while after I was in my trailer where I lived in Arcata, CA when the phone rang. “Hey man it’s Dan,” the voice on the line said. I don’t know any other Dan and clearly from the tone he not only expected me to know him, but expected me to be surprised too. I can’t describe the feeling of getting a phone from the “other side.” It felt like the blood rushed out of my body.  I’m sure I turned as “white as a ghost” as the expression goes … as white as the ghost that apparently was speaking to me.

We often talk about ghosts and the after life, do we believe or not, but for the most part we do not know.  Here I was facing the prospect of moving from the whelm not knowing to having an actual experience.  What will become of me now?  I’d be that crazy guy swearing he knows and has talked to the dead, perhaps delivering messages to his family.  My world was about to change for sure … one I replied. There was a chilling cold accompanying the vacant feeling of blood.

“What? Danny?” I managed to say rather meekly. “No, Ken, man.  It’s Ken,” came a reply of relief.  My consciousness came back to reality.  It was my old buddy Ken from when I lived in Maine. He was still alive and kicking … and perfectly capable of making a phone call.  It felt good to get the blood circulating through my body again.  However,it would have been good to talk to Danny one more time.