Sinners and Saints

From: Frank Beehler (FBeehler@aol.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Los Angeles, California
Source: Form Submission

This incident occured when i was a small boy. The events concern my father who was a cynical, no-nonsense kind of guy. It was the only time i ever saw him so shaken up.

Dad owned a bar and restaurant, which suited his heavy drinking habit. He was not the type of alcoholic who ever really appeared intoxicated, even after steady daylong drinking. It was his habit to return home from work in the late afternoon, eat dinner, and catch a few hours of sleep before returning to the bar later in the evening.

My mother was always worried about his drinking and driving, insisting that he would someday get in an accident and get himself and/or some innocent person killed or injured. He always brushed her off, saying "there is no such thing as an innocent person!".

We lived next to a large busy boulevard, and my father delighted in making a wide, sweeping u-turn across several lanes of traffic when he returned to work each evening. On one particular evening, he was about to get into his car to return to work, and presumably execute this maneuver, when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

He turned and saw a Man dressed in the garb of a Catholic priest, who pleasantly inquired directions to a street address not far distant. As my father was about to reply, his attention was diverted by an enormous crash. Two cars had collided violently, killing one man and badly injuring two others, in roughly the spot my father would have been had he not been delayed by his visitor.

As my father turned his head from the crash, there was no one there. The "priest " had vanished into thin air. There was certainly nowhere he could have gone in the split second my father had turned away from him.

I would like to say that this experience changed my father for the better, for he came back into the house after the incident frightened and humble. He even stopped drinking for a while. But soon i believe he was able to convince himself that it never happened, and indeed, in later years he refused to even talk about it. It is interesting to note that he came from a large, strict, religiously devout family. Catholic, of course..