Ghost of Christmas Presents

It's happened at that intersection before.
Walking home from the train, I stopped at an intersection to wait for my light. A gentleman I had passed on the way didn't stop, but there was no traffic to speak of. I suppose I could have crossed, too? I was in no hurry and was content to wait the 30 seconds or so it would take for the lights to change.
I looked North to estimate how much time it would take then looked back towards the West. The man was gone. None of the shops were open across the street. I did not hear a car door open and close. There are no residential doors there. He was just gone.
It's happened before, same intersection, roughly the same time of day. I don't know if it was the same man or not. I really should pay more attention to things like that, at least at that intersection.

Butchering Trees for Our Amusement

One year, my sister decided that we needed to not only have a real tree but go and cut it down ourselves. As was the custom at the time, people would bring the corpse of a pine tree indoors then adorn it with baubles and lighted strands of gaily colored globes and drape the whole thing in strips of metals designed to further catch and reflect the lights of the slowly rotting conifer. But I digress.
We made our way to a Tree Farm wherein acres of land had been set aside for the sole purpose of raising, trimming, training, and then butchering trees for our amusement. I was young enough to require special attention but allowed, on this occasion, to be loosened and let run free in search of the perfect specimen. In reality, I believe I was allowed to simply roam and keep out of the way of the real work to be done.
As I went through the neatly ordered "woods", I quickly became to realize that there were no other humans around me. I wondered if I could become lost or forgotten? And I saw the Perfect Tree. It was perfectly formed and shaped and seemed to stand out a bit from its neighbors. I approached with a weird buzzing in my ears. Gently reaching out and barely touching its needles I said, "I'm sorry we (humans) and cutting you (trees) down." Instantly, the haze around me lifted and I became aware of my sister calling out for me. I left and got in the car, the sweet aroma of a fresh kill filling the car with it's woodsy scent.
We got an artificial tree the next year.

Bah. Humbug.

As the shopping season gets into full swing, I am reminded of one special experience I had at the local shopping plaza-megaplex. I had grown disillusioned with life in general and the Holidays had only amplified my sullen mood. What had been brewing since Aug/Sep was about to come to a boil.
Mom convinced me to buy gifts for my family, something I had been putting off. It was Dec23 and I drove towards the local mall. I parked near the cinema entrance (I always got great parking there, even when blockbusters were playing) and walked in. The corridor from the entrance to the mall proper was desolate. I saw a few people walking toward the Sears but otherwise I didn't see anyone. I thought I might have lucked out and avoided shoppers altogether.
I couldn't have been more wrong. As I rounded the corner and started towards the middle of the mall, all I could see was a swarm of people. There was no way to get through the sea of flesh without having to touch someone which, at the time, made me nauseous.
I dug deep into my angry psyche. I imagined a cloak of hate, despair, futility, and death draped over my shoulders. I began my journey to gather knickknacks for the familial units.
What happened was a bit of a blur. I went from store to store with the roar of Hell in my ears. But, through the miasma of shoppers, something amazing happened. I walked through a pocket of space. No one got within a foot of me. Everyone else was jostled and some were battered & bruised. I walked comfortably and without incident. In fact, I was heading out the door before I realized that I had finished my shopping and made the trip without a scratch.
It was the first time in ~4 months that I smiled.

Gravestomp?

When I went to visit my parents and kin over the recent Thanksgiving holiday, I got Mom to take me to some of the cemeteries down there. She took me to the sites of some of my deceased relatives and we got to walk around a bit and look at some other plots.
The ground at one place was soft, like fresh turned soil. But it was like there everywhere we walked, not just in one spot. The cemetery was terraced on the side of a gently sloping hill and all I could think was that the rain was going to wash it all away one day.
I found some relatives that Mom had forgotten about (but Dad had remembered and confirmed later). There were some places we just couldn't get to that day. I wish I could go back and try again but, alas, I won't get back for many months.
I did happen to glance over at a tombstone just as some orbs manifested. This isn't the first time I've seen them with the naked eye but this time, the sun was still up. I might not have seen them if they didn't pass in front of a dark stone. I attempted to snap some pictures but nothing showed up, at least as far as I can tell. It's possible that I was too slow in getting the camera turned on, focused, and the picture taken to have captured them. Still, it was a very cool experience.