The Knock, Knock Ghost from Spooked

In a boarding house in Chicago, a young girl puts her questions to the universe and the answers are returned in coded messages from the other side. And a boy lost in the forest at the foothills of the Himalayas, sees a light in the distance… but it isn’t there to guide him. This story comes to us from our evil-twin, Spooked https://www.kqed.org/spooked! You can listen to Spooked on any podcast platform, episodes drop weekly. Happy Halloween! STORIES Knock Knock In a boarding house in Chicago, a young girl puts her questions to the universe and the answers are returned in coded messages from the other side. BIG thanks to Connie Shirakawa for sharing her story with us. Connie is a storyteller in Chicago. You can catch some of her performances on her website https://www.connieshirakawa.com/. Produced by Anne Ford, original score by Doug Stuart. Fire Creature When you’re lost in the forest at the foothills of the Himalayas, a light in the distance is not always good news. Thank you, Razdan, for sharing your grandfather’s story with Spooked. Produced by Erick Yáñez, original score by Clay Xavier, scouted by Aditya Mattoo. Season 16 - Episode 51 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:08Glynn Washington?

  Okay. The perfect cup of coffee in those cheap ceramic mugs has a timing problem. Too hot, too hot, still too hot, then there it is. That perfect sip. And then too cold, too cold. And come on, it just got good. Wow. My Ember 3 mug lets me set the precise temperature I want for my coffee, for my tea, the Goldilocks zone, and locks it right there. So that first perfect sip can be the next sip and the next. And that, that is a better morning. Why did I just find out about this? The Ember 3 mug, your coffee exactly as you left it.

• 0:53Glynn Washington?

  Discover the best deals happening now at ember.com/snap. Go to ember.com right now. And when you're asked where you heard about them, let them know it was Snap Judgment. That's ember.com/snap. What do you get for the person who says, "I don't need anything"? Nothing? Okay, put a bow on that. Because Shop brings a whole bunch of stores together at shop.com. Cookware, cakes, toys, high tech. Type in what you're looking for and search across stores at once. Find brands you love. Check out fast and track every order in one spot.

• 1:35Glynn Washington?

  Because somewhere in there is the thing that makes them go. That, that's what it is. That. And to celebrate the all-new shop.com, Shop is giving away $1 million in Shop Cash. That's Shop's rewards currency. 1,000 shoppers are each going to win $1,000 in Shop Cash just in time for the holidays. Get something for the people on your list. And yes, you're allowed to put your own name on there. Enter to win the $1 million Shop Cash giveaway from now until November 1st. Just go to shop.com. There are so many ways to win. That's shop.com. Shopping designed around you. No purchase necessary.

• 2:19Glynn Washington?

  Restrictions apply. Official rules available at shop.com.

• 2:32Glynn Washington?

  America is big. You know, it's huge. See the shining sea big. And maybe because of this, this vastness, we like to imagine that we can pick up and move from place to place and just start over, brand new, leaving our old life behind. No harm, no foul. Well, maybe we can leave everything behind.

• 3:03Glynn Washington?

  Then again,

• 3:07Glynn Washington?

  maybe not.

• 3:19Glynn Washington?

  Spook starts.

• 3:24Glynn Washington?

  Now.

• 4:13Glynn Washington?

  Our story comes to us from Connie Shirakawa.

• 4:19Glynn Washington?

  Spook.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  My parents were both born in California when President Roosevelt put all of the Japanese Americans into a concentration camp behind barbed wire. My dad spied my mother in the camp. She was quite the femme fatale in her day. Picky and reserved and aloof. He chased my mother around. And of course, she couldn't run very far. He asked her to marry him. She didn't want to marry this guy. She was a graduate of the University of Southern California. She considered herself an intellectual.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  She wasn't sure he graduated from high school. When they were released, they weren't allowed to go back to the West Coast. Because even though the war was over, it was considered a sensitive military site because it was on the coast. They were told to live in Chicago. My dad finally talked her into getting married in Chicago. She didn't have what they call practical life skills. She didn't know how to clean. She didn't know how to cook. Whereas my father, he was very dynamic. And he was streetwise. Because his family had a restaurant. She said to me once, "I knew I wouldn't starve

• 6:07Speaker 01

  if I married your father." They were put in charge of a boarding house in a three-story row house on Winchester Street. And it was sort of a halfway house. Men who were coming out of the concentration camp stayed there. There used to be five men sleeping on the floor in one apartment.

• 6:32Speaker 01

  I had the run of the house. I was like always at the Plaza Hotel. I was about six years old. And I had a little key. I could run up and down the stairs and check out what the other people were doing. And if nobody was in the boarding house, I could have the apartment on the top floor in the back by the alley. I just kept my things there. Slept on a couch that flipped over. When my grandmother came to visit, she was appalled. But I loved it. I could play and do what I wanted. I loved getting up in the morning to play on the street.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  What I liked was playing with the boys because some of the girls I didn't like in the neighborhood. They did things that were odd to me, wearing dresses. And I just had this jumpsuit that I wore every day. And I really didn't know how other people lived. I remember going to someone's house one day and they had matched bedspreads and curtains and towels that said his and hers on it. I said, "How odd." Because my blanket was an Army-issue blanket. There was this old, scratchy, khaki-colored thing. And we had Army-issue Forks and Knives that said "U.S." on it. My parents, they would occasionally talk about the camp. I was a big eavesdropper.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  I could sit on the stairs in the house and listen. While the men were playing cards, once my dad said, "When the feds had inspectors that were coming, then we got good food so that the inspectors would see that we were being well-treated. But if the inspectors went around, those sons of... sold rotten meat and charged double the price." I didn't know what that meant.

• 8:29Speaker 01

  One day, I was about seven, eight. I was upset because I thought I hadn't done well on the test that I took to get into the good school. My mother wanted me to have perfect grades. I was laying in my bed, and my bed was next to the wall, next to the north wall of the row house. There were no paintings on the wall. The wall was solid brick, and it was plastered, very sturdy. For no particular reason, I just hit it.

• 9:06Speaker 01

  I instantly heard a knock back.

• 9:14Speaker 01

  I thought maybe someone else was there on the other side of the wall in the house next door. I just thought it was a game. I thought it was fun. I was giggling. I was just so excited that there was a knock. I kept trying it. I kept trying it.

• 9:31Speaker 01

  It was only in that one place.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  Eventually, it was like a language that you're learning. I learned that one knock was yes and two knock was no. I said, "Did I pass the test?" And I got the one knock back.

• 9:52Speaker 01

  And I was smiling. I was happy.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  A couple of weeks later, I found out that I passed the test because I went to the new school.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  And then I'd knock all the time. I just started asking questions.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  Will I win the gumball machine at Mary's Candy Store?

• 10:17Speaker 01

  If I don't go to the dentist, will my teeth fall out?

• 10:22Speaker 01

  Later on, I asked Frank and Rose, who lived next door, who lives on the other side, on the second floor in the back by the alley. And they said, "No one. That was a storage room."

• 10:37Speaker 01

  Then I knew it was something else, but I didn't know what yet, except that it was mine and would answer what I needed to know.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  I called it the knock-knock ghost. It was kind of like a reassuring friend that would soothe me and tell me what I wanted to know.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  First, I have to call the ghost. We have a signal.

• 11:09Speaker 01

  If I get the signal back, it knocks twice back.

• 11:15Speaker 01

  Then I know it's going to give me an answer. And then I ask whatever I want to ask.

• 11:23Speaker 01

  I didn't ask frivolous questions. I did it only when I was in distress because I was looking for an answer that nobody else could give me.

• 11:37Speaker 01

  Will these pimples go away?

• 11:41Speaker 01

  When will I get to buy Italian lemonade with my own money?

• 11:48Speaker 01

  Well, they're all frivolous questions, but not to me.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  One time, I'd gone with someone in my class named Richard, and he didn't like what I was wearing that day. And I was upset. I was still just a little kid, but I liked playing with the boys. So I said, "Does he really like me?" And I knocked on the wall. I got one knock back.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  At school the next day, I found out that he did still like me. But I was mad at him, so I wouldn't talk to him anymore.

• 12:30Speaker 01

  It didn't always answer back. I don't know why. Maybe he just didn't want to answer that question.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  I never told anyone about it. I thought that, in the telling, it wouldn't help me anymore because I had betrayed it and it would disappear. And I needed it to be there for important things. And I wanted it always to answer me when I called.

• 13:01Speaker 01

  Every Saturday, I went to my piano lesson downtown. And I would get the money for the bus. But if I walked, then I could buy a treat at the Fannie Mae Candy Factory. So I usually walked and I could walk through all the alleys on the West Side till I got to the Loop. One day, I was walking to my piano lesson. I found this Ouija board in the garbage. Somebody had thrown it out. But it didn't have the thing that you're supposed to rub on top of the board. But I thought I could find something that would work. I didn't associate the ghost with the Ouija board. It was a game, it was in a box. I just wanted to see if it worked or not.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  But my mother was horrified. She said, "No, you're not bringing that in the house. I don't want anything like that here." I said, "Why not?" And she told me about when they were in camp. When people in town were hired to build the barracks for the concentration camp, they built everything too small because they heard the people were tiny. The beds were too short and the sinks were too low. Some of the people in the camp were farmers. They were used to hard work. And they found themselves with nothing to do. So they made things. And they had made this table. A table that would fit their bodies, that was high enough.

• 14:33Speaker 01

  My mother said, "We'd pull the table over. There was one bare light bulb. And we'd touch hands with each other and ask questions."

• 14:45Speaker 01

  How many days before they will let us out of here? Are my neighbors taking care of my house? Will my husband go to prison because he refused to serve in the army? And the table would sway back and forth and tilt slightly and the leg would hit the floor once for yes and twice for no.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  I was totally stunned. It was the same signal. That's when I realized it must be the same ghost because of the knocks, because the table knocked on the floor and because there was no other physical manifestation of the ghost except for the knock. I thought, I wonder if that ghost came with them when they came from the camp and lives in the house? Because that's where all the people from the camp had come. My mother didn't want me to bring the Ouija board in the house. She was afraid of it. She'd seen these things happen in the camp and she just wanted to put all that behind her.

• 15:59Speaker 01

  But the ghost was already in the house. And now the ghost was mine. Now it would answer my questions.

• 16:12Speaker 01

  One day, when I was 12, I was sitting on my porch and my dad, he was going to work. And he drove away and he turned around and came back to the house. And he climbed the stairs as if he were going back in the house. But he patted me on the head and turned around and got back in the car and went to the bar across from where he worked to have coffee with the other guys. And he had a heart attack, massive heart attack. My mother answered the phone. I heard it on the phone. I was sobbing. I was banging on the wall, hurting my hand, hurting my knuckles.

• 16:56Speaker 01

  I thought, well, maybe he isn't dead, dead. Maybe he was on an assignment. Maybe the government made him look like he had died. He was still alive and he'd come back to us when he was done.

• 17:11Speaker 01

  I decided to knock on the wall and ask to see if he was really dead. A few seconds later, the knock-knock ghost answered me.

• 17:31Speaker 01

  He was dead.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  He wasn't coming back.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  The world was a different place after that.

• 18:00Speaker 01

  My father was the one who went to work every morning. He was the one who took care of any trouble. The world revolved around him.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  I was the oldest child. My mother wasn't capable of handling the house by herself. I would have to step up and fill in the part that he left. I was in charge. We didn't have any money, so the roof would start leaking. I saw people in the neighborhood fix their roofs. So I took our wagon, I went to Sears. I got two big buckets of tar. I hauled them up the ladder to the roof, and I poured them on top of the roof and spread it around with an old broom. And it was fixed.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  After my father died, I didn't knock on the wall again. I was in charge of the house. And I didn't have time to knock on the wall anymore.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  In my twenties, the city tore down the block, the entire block, and everyone had to move out. We moved to the north side into an apartment building. I was sitting, watching television in our new place, and I saw the side of the building where I had lived on the 10 o'clock news. And there was my wall, the wall that I had knocked on all those years. The newscaster said that the wreckers have been trying to bring down this wall all week. The wall would not fall. I thought about the times that I had slept next to that wall

• 19:45Speaker 01

  and was so close to the knock-knock ghost. There were other walls that were just as thick, but it was that wall, where the knock-knock ghost was, that didn't come down. Eventually, I guess they did get it down, but they had a hard time. I imagine that the knock-knock ghost, it's homeless. Every couple of years, I knock just to see, just to check, if the ghost will answer me. And it never answered. Today, we are in bad times, and there are all kinds of reasons that we need the knock-knock ghost

• 20:29Speaker 01

  to be there, to answer our questions. Will we go to war with Russia? When will there be a cure for the coronavirus? How many people have to die before it's over? Recently, I was sleeping. It was early in the morning, and I heard this knock. And it woke me up. It wasn't that it was loud, it was that I knew that knock. It was so clear, just like the old days. So I sat up, and I came out into the hallway.

• 21:14Speaker 01

  And then it knocked a second time. Hello? I came downstairs, and I heard it again.

• 21:27Speaker 01

  I hadn't asked a question. But I'm sure it's my ghost.

• 21:50Glynn Washington?

  Big thanks to Connie Shirakawa for sharing her story. Connie is a storyteller in Chicago. You can catch some of her performances at ConnieShirakawa.com. That story was scored by Doug Stewart. It was produced by Ann Ford.

• 22:30Glynn Washington?

  When the Snap Judgment Spook Special returns, there's a light in the distance, and that is good, all right? Right? Stay tuned.

• 22:55Glynn Washington?

  Did you ever look at your credit card bill and think, "How did that happen? What am I gonna do? I need a plan." Well, I did. Let me tell you something. Having a plan is one thing, but using it, watching that number, that "I owe the credit people" number go to zero, that is something different. And Monarch helped me get there. The Debt Pay Down Simulator and Visualizer uses your real balances and payments to project your debt-free day. Try different payments. See what gets you there sooner. Watch that date move. And when you hit zero, that's when you get the budget for the celebration. Write your own money story with Monarch.

• 23:39Glynn Washington?

  Use code SNAP at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50. That's 50% off your first year at Monarch.com with code SNAP.

• 23:52Glynn Washington?

  You know, when you want a snack, something salty and sweet, but you're not supposed to be eating snacks. Supposed to be eating celery and carrots and other things that taste like cardboard. Well, Kachava's got the nutrition your body craves in one deliciously simple shake. Let me tell you what I love. Kachava's new salted caramel flavor. You've got your sweet. You've got your salty. You've got your nutrition all at the same time. And if you want variety, they've got chocolate, vanilla, chai, matcha, strawberry, coffee, cinnamon French toast. What? Cinnamon French toast? Give in and embrace your salty side.

• 24:35Glynn Washington?

  Go to kachava.com and use code JUDGMENT for 15% off your first order. That's kachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A dot com, code judgment.

• 24:55Glynn Washington?

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the knock-knock episode celebrating the brand new season of the Supernatural Sister Podcast, Spooked. The new Spooked season crossroads. It's available right now, wherever podcasts are available. And for our next story. There are many, many ways to walk the forest. And now let's meet Jay Tenur Razdan, just seven years old, living with his grandparents in the beautiful city of Jamun, India, the foothills of the Himalayas. Now, his grandfather would always tell him stories, but there is one story that he had kept to himself until right now.

• 25:59Speaker 02

  One day, I was in the front yard of my house, playing with a ball while the sun was setting. We had this house that was surrounded by farms and fields, and I could hear the birds chirping and going back to their nests. I loved living there.

• 26:19Speaker 02

  My grandmother was inside the kitchen, preparing supper for the whole family. And my grandfather was sitting on the veranda. That's where we used to sit in the evening and have a cup of tea and watch sunset.

• 26:34Speaker 02

  I went to grab the ball, I bent down, and as I got up, I saw a light blinking in the horizon.

• 26:46Speaker 02

  It looked like it was a bulb or a fire floating in the air, six feet above the ground. It's in the middle of the field, very far away from our house.

• 26:58Speaker 02

  The light was there for just few seconds, and then all of a sudden, it disappeared, it was gone.

• 27:09Speaker 02

  My first thought was, there's never a light on that side of the house. There was no electric pole, there was no road on that side where you could see a bike or a car or a bus or anything.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  I turned to my grandfather. I used to call him Papa G. I said, Papa G, did you notice that? I just saw some light on the other side of the field. Did you also see that?

• 27:40Speaker 02

  The expression on his face, it suddenly changed. He looked startled and surprised. He said, if you ever see a light in the forest at a far-off distance, never approach it or go towards it. Just make sure you follow your path.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  The immediate question was like, but why? It's just a light, right?

• 28:07Speaker 02

  He said, okay, sit in this chair right next to me, and he started narrating his story.

• 28:19Speaker 02

  In the early 1950s, my grandfather used to work for Foreign Supplies Department as an inspector.

• 28:27Speaker 02

  His primary role was basically going around to different parts of Kashmir to check the quality of the food grains before they could be distributed within the province.

• 28:39Speaker 02

  One fine day in the fall season, my grandfather had to go for an inspection to a very far off village in the middle of the mountains.

• 28:49Speaker 02

  So he prepared for the trip. He put everything that he usually used to carry in his bag. A spare set of clothes, a shoe horn, a knife that he would use for protection if needed, and some food that he could eat on his journey.

• 29:09Speaker 02

  He caught the bus in the city of Srinagar at around 10:30-11. His plan was up to get off the bus around 5:00-5:30, and then another one hour of journey on a horse carriage, and be at his end destination before it started getting really dark.

• 29:32Speaker 02

  After a few hours into the trip, the bus broke down. So he ended up reaching his first stop at 8:00 PM, and it was already dark.

• 29:45Speaker 02

  My grandfather stepped out of the bus, expecting a horse carriage to be there. There was nobody there. He was in a very small town, everything was closed. But then he thought, he has been to that village so many times, maybe he can just start walking towards the place. It might take him just two hours.

• 30:11Speaker 02

  So he started walking away from that town towards the forest.

• 30:17Speaker 02

  He could barely see the path in front of him.

• 30:22Speaker 02

  He could hear crows, wild dogs barking at a distance.

• 30:29Speaker 02

  He was not afraid, he was used to going to places like these.

• 30:37Speaker 02

  All of a sudden, he notices a small light flickering at a distance.

• 30:45Speaker 02

  It looked like a ball of fire, dark orange in color. It was few feet above the ground, like hanging in the air.

• 30:56Speaker 02

  He thought, why is a flame there? I've taken this journey so many times, there's supposed to be nothing in that direction. He thought, maybe it's a shepherd, usually they take their animals for grazing in the mountains.

• 31:13Speaker 02

  But then the light disappeared.

• 31:16Speaker 02

  He thought, oh, maybe he is imagining it. So he kept walking.

• 31:25Speaker 02

  Around thirty to forty paces ahead, he notices something from the corner of his eye.

• 31:33Speaker 02

  He turned his head to the left and he noticed, there's another light there.

• 31:42Speaker 02

  This light is at far off distance on the other side of the mountain, hanging in the air. He was surprised. Is this the same light that he saw earlier? Was that light moving and following him? Or it's a new light?

• 32:00Speaker 02

  And then, he turns around and he sees four lights, right behind him, at a distance.

• 32:12Speaker 02

  They were very close to each other, as if it was four lanterns together. And they are getting slightly brighter, which means the distance is getting shorter.

• 32:27Speaker 02

  My grandfather was wondering, is somebody following me? Are there any thieves or docu-ites that are following his lead?

• 32:36Speaker 02

  He's scared. He turned around and he started picking up pace towards his destination.

• 32:45Speaker 02

  My grandfather looks ahead and he notices the first lights. They were all changing directions.

• 32:53Speaker 02

  Some were moving left, some were moving to the right, few feet above the ground.

• 33:00Speaker 02

  It's as if the lights are circling around him. They are following him from different directions.

• 33:09Speaker 02

  He starts thinking, this is supernatural.

• 33:17Speaker 02

  My grandfather was a devout Hindu. He had heard stories from his grandparents about spirits. Some of those mystical beings, they take possession of your soul, they take possession of your body. Some of those try to kill. And it is said the forest is full of those kind of creatures.

• 33:40Speaker 02

  He thought, I better get out of this place as soon as possible.

• 33:45Speaker 02

  He started running.

• 33:50Speaker 02

  The trail moved to the right along the mountain. And as soon as he turned right, what he saw was out of this world.

• 34:07Speaker 02

  In the horizon in front of him, there were fifty, sixty lights glowing, floating above the ground, moving from one side to another, crisscrossing, jumping fifty feet in irregular patterns.

• 34:25Speaker 02

  Some of them were coming closer, some of them were moving further away. Some lights would go off and they would start glowing in a different direction altogether. It was like a dance of those lights.

• 34:41Speaker 02

  My grandfather started rubbing his eyes. It was something that he had never seen or imagined. His hands were shaking, his legs were shaking. And he starts running at his full speed.

• 34:58Speaker 02

  Then he noticed that the lights were kind of following him, they were also moving in the same direction.

• 35:06Speaker 02

  He was scared so much that he thought this is the end of his life.

• 35:13Speaker 02

  He realized that the village was still far ahead. He couldn't run that far. And he suddenly remembered that his parents and grandparents had told him when he was a kid. "If you are ever in danger, you should chant Hanuman Chalisah and Lord Hanuman will come and save you. He is the monkey god, the savior of all."

• 35:42Speaker 02

  The lights are immediately behind him.

• 35:45Speaker 02

  So he hurriedly sat down, opened his bag. He took out his knife and also the metal shoe horn that he would always carry with him. It's a common belief in some parts of India that having a metal object with you saves you from anything supernatural.

• 36:04Speaker 02

  He put that shoe horn on the ground. He sticked that knife into the ground. He crossed his legs, closed his eyes and started chanting Hanuman Chalisah loud and clear.

• 36:22Speaker 02

  He's just sitting there, praying.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  He doesn't dare to open the eyes, he just keeps chanting.

• 36:31Speaker 02

  And he's just praying, pray, pray.

• 36:43Speaker 02

  Finally, he gathers the courage to open his eyes.

• 36:50Speaker 02

  He could not see any lights. He looked behind him, he turned left, he turned right. But there were no lights to be seen anywhere.

• 37:02Speaker 02

  He thanked God, he grabbed the knife and the shoe horn in his hand and he started running towards the village.

• 37:36Glynn Washington?

  Will the grandfather make it back to the village? And if he does, what is waiting for him there?

• 37:46Glynn Washington?

  This food continues right after the break. Stay tuned.

• 38:00Glynn Washington?

  Look, recently, I just had the treatment. I needed a sofa, wanted to finally, finally have something nice. And I picked out a beautiful leather couch, gorgeous, from Article. And it recently arrived, and I cannot stop looking at it. It's stunning, and it's time because the age of throwaway, fast fashion nonsense is over. The time of craft and quality is now. And not only do you get all of this without a huge markup, it's not just a bunch of parts in a box that you can't put together either. Article offers fast, affordable shipping across the US and Canada

• 38:42Glynn Washington?

  with options for professional assembly if you prefer a hands-off experience. And Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit article.com/snap, and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout. That's article.com/snap for $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more.

• 39:09Glynn Washington?

  Okay, okay, it's almost, almost gift-giving time. And because gift-giving time is cold outside time, it's want-to-stay-by-a-fire time. I like giving something cozy. And nobody, but nobody does cozy like Quince. What's better than one for them, one for me, or you? Like my Quince Organic Gods Dream Quilt Set, paired with the Brush Cotton Sheet Set that I got for me, that I got for them, for me? Put it together, you've got cozy squared. Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com.

• 39:51Glynn Washington?

  Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Snap Judgment. It's the best way to support the show.

• 40:16Glynn Washington?

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment. My name is Glynn Washington. 'Tis the season of celebrating tales of the weird from our sister podcast, Spooked. And yes, the brand new season of Spooked, The Crossroads, just dropped. We are so proud. Now.

• 40:37Glynn Washington?

  When last we left, our hero's grandfather had just made it back to the village. Spooked.

• 40:56Speaker 02

  He ended up reaching the village at 11 o'clock. My grandfather straight went to the village head's house. The village head was a very good friend of my grandfather. The village head came and he opened the door. He said to my grandfather, "What happened to you? Why are you so late? Are you OK? Why don't you come in?"

• 41:20Speaker 02

  So my grandfather comes in and he sits on the ground on the carpet, also known as Kalin. He told my grandfather, "OK." So what happened in the journey?

• 41:33Speaker 02

  After my grandfather explained it to the village head, he had very concerning look in his eyes.

• 41:41Speaker 02

  He said, "You know what? You should consider yourself very lucky that you made it to my place tonight."

• 41:50Speaker 02

  Not everybody's been so lucky.

• 41:54Speaker 02

  My grandfather asked him why.

• 41:57Speaker 02

  He's like, "What you saw there, it's called a rachok." Some people also call it brahmarachok.

• 42:06Speaker 02

  They say that rachok is a human-like creature on two legs, and it has a light on his head, it has a fire on his head.

• 42:16Speaker 02

  It's so bright that you cannot see his face.

• 42:21Speaker 02

  He shows himself to people who are traveling at night.

• 42:25Speaker 02

  It creates an illusion, makes you take the wrong road.

• 42:31Speaker 02

  People usually tend to follow the light, thinking there's a human dwelling there or a village.

• 42:39Speaker 02

  My grandfather is like, "Yeah, I have heard about rachok when I was a kid." I thought it's a, you know, story you tell your kids and then when you grow up, you kind of forget about those stories. So is it real? And the village head replied, "Yes, it is real." There have been people we never found again. In the past, we had to send search parties to find people. Some of them were lucky, we found them, but some people, we have no clue about what happened to them. You are lucky that you did not leave the trail and start following those lights. Otherwise, who knows? Tomorrow morning, we might be looking for you in the forest.

• 43:26Speaker 02

  My grandfather was shocked. He said nothing.

• 43:31Speaker 02

  But he also felt a sense of gratitude towards the Lord. Probably it was some of his good karma that helped save his day.

• 43:42Speaker 02

  After that, he made it a point that he did not travel anywhere by himself at night.

• 43:54Speaker 02

  My grandfather finished his story, he went quiet. Then I was silent. I had goosebumps and I was also scared a little bit because I had just seen a light.

• 44:08Speaker 02

  My grandmother had actually come out and she was also listening to this story probably maybe twentieth time or fiftieth time. My grandma says, "Okay, let's go, let's have dinner now."

• 44:25Speaker 02

  I am forty now and I still remember all the details of this story. It left an everlasting impression on me.

• 44:36Speaker 02

  I do believe there are still Rakhok somewhere in those mountains.

• 44:43Speaker 02

  I still have an iron ring that was given to me by my parents. I've never taken that ring off my finger. It's been a part of my body for the last thirty years. Just keeps me safe. Let's put it that way.

• 45:22Glynn Washington?

  Thank you, Razan, for sharing your grandfather's story with Spoo. The original score for that story was by Clay Xavier. It was scouted by Aditya Matu and produced by Eric Yanez.

• 45:54Glynn Washington?

  Oh, yes, there are more Spook stories available. The brand new season of Spook: The Crossroads just dropped with Spooked episodes leading you through the heart of the Shadowlands. Available right now, wherever you get your podcasts. Spooked. And here's a little taste.

• 46:17Glynn Washington?

  The story goes, in the dark of night, a young Robert Johnson, afraid but determined, leaves the warmth of the small cabin and walks to the crossroads. There he waits for the stranger, the dark man with the burning eyes. And there, he makes the deal. The deal that lets him set fire to his guitar strings like no one has ever done before or since. Robert knows full well, everything is for sale at the crossroads. Problem is, everything has a price.

• 47:01Glynn Washington?

  Prepare yourself for a midnight stroll like no other on the brand new season of Spooked.

• 47:11Speaker 03

  The rabbit was probably about maybe 60 feet from me. And in between me and the rabbit, the blood reds opened up. And there was a hand, like a human hand, but it had like big claws sticking out of his fingers. And it wrapped the blood reds and pulled them back.

• 47:35Speaker 04

  It's the middle of the night. There aren't very many people awake at this point. And for someone to be out there in the pitch black darkness, standing on the front of the ship, that rings alarm bells in my head.

• 47:49Speaker 05

  That's when all of a sudden I catch movement in the corner of my eye. And I looked over to the patio, right beside the sunroom, and I see the rocking chair moving back and forth.

• 48:05Speaker 06

  And I just walked around that corner with my head down. And I could see these feet. And I looked up and boom, all I seen was this goat man.

• 48:16Speaker 06

  You can tell it has, you know, little prongs on its head. And he was just staying there like in a wrestling stance with his hands curled up.

• 48:53Glynn Washington?

  Now then, 1868, London, in front of several witnesses. A man by the name of Daniel Douglas Holm flew out of a third-story window and flew back in through another window. Naturally, folks were both amazed and dubious. Daniel later allowed himself to be tested by multiple skeptics, including eminent scientists.

• 49:20Glynn Washington?

  After a thorough examination, one of these esteemed souls finally concluded, and I quote, "I have seen him rise completely from the ground on several occasions."

• 49:33Glynn Washington?

  Daniel never charged for his performances. Even after his death, no concrete evidence to dispute his miracles ever arose. So, I guess what I am asking spooksters is, can you fly? Can you? It seems unlikely, but if you can, I really need to know about it. No funny business. [email protected]. Let us know. Why? Because there's nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener. [email protected].

• 50:13Glynn Washington?

  And if you want to see Spook come to life a whole new way, follow Spook on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. It is on. Spread the word.

• 50:44Glynn Washington?

  Spooked is brought to you by the team that still returns home before the streetlights come on, except of course, Mark Ristich. Mark shot out his streetlights a long time ago. There's Davy Kim, Zoe Frigno, Ann Ford, Eric Nanyas, Taylor Decot, Marissa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Doug Stewart, Paulina Kriki, Elizabeth Z. Pardue, Aditya Matu, Lulu Jemima. The Spook theme song is by Pat McCDillan. My name is Glenn Washington, and it feels like our consciousness is expanding to

• 51:24Glynn Washington?

  consider ideas that we may have dismissed as absurd or fringe even a little while ago. Mainstream thinkers speak about Gaia, the collective unified consciousness of the planet, which I think is progress, but it's hard to get my mind around.

• 51:46Glynn Washington?

  Planet? What about this place? What about this forest, this valley? Can it have its own consciousness? Can it love? Can it hate? Fear? See, the ancients didn't just build temples to their gods. They built temples where gods already danced. Those standing stones aren't placed at random. Those sacred groves don't flower by chance. Our reverence is a dialogue with that which is already here. A communication that demands we approach with offerings, with respect.

• 52:30Glynn Washington?

  In return, some places give blessings. Others spit curses. They are no more the same than we are, each speaking its own tongue. When you think you feel, that whisper a rain on your skin. When the buzz of the swarm presses against your daydream, listen.

• 52:53Glynn Washington?

  You may be standing exactly where the ancients would have built a temple.

• 53:00Glynn Washington?

  You may be standing on a temple where the mystery still dwells, still watches, still waits. Do you imagine

• 53:11Glynn Washington?

  that you cannot hear the scream of a place and it is being murdered as we kill our own gods? This is not just madness.

• 53:21Glynn Washington?

  This is darkness.

• 53:25Glynn Washington?

  And it's why we plead, that's why we beg.

• 53:33Glynn Washington?

  Never, ever, never, ever, never, never, ever,

• 53:42Glynn Washington?

  turn out

• 53:44Glynn Washington?

  the lights.