Carolla Street

The place is somewhere around Espana Manila, Carolla street to be exact. Back in the late 60's my mom and her family rented one of the apartments there because it's so much closer to the U. belt area. For 20 years my Mom and her family had interchagably lived in that house in Carolla street and in their home in Pamp.

A bit of history: The previous residents of the place were related to my mom's family. Unfortunately, the wife *tiahin* passed away because of asthma. Her widowed husband decided to hand the place over to my grandparents.

So anyway, let's get back to business. When my aunt was still in college and was dating who's now her husband here's what happened to them. They were in the living room talking. Both of them were sitting on the couch. About a couple of feet across from them is this old wooden chair. So there they were talkin' away when my aunt noticed the wooden chair slowly turning by itself to face them. At first she thought it was my tito's feet nudging it. When she found out it wasn't him. Tinapik niya yung tito ko. Eto namang tito ko datdat parin raw ng datdat. Tapik siya ng tapik sabay turo sa upuan yung tita ko, she couldn't say a word I guess because she was in shock. When she finally found her voice she yelled Ano ba! Tingnan mo yung upuan! My uncle then stopped talking and turned his attention to the chair and instinctively reached out for it. Just as his hand was about to touch it, the chair lurched forward at them. That did it, they both ran out of the apartment. The fact that my tito took off before my tita did became one of our family jokes :)

Another:

You see my mom have 4 sisters and 3 brothers. In Carolla, all 5 girls sleep in this one big bedroom. Their bedroom had 1 queensized bed and right next to it was a bunkbed.

One night, my Tita Tet woke up ( She sleeps in the queensized bed) and was on her side facing the bunkbed. Her eyes happen to drift at the top bunk and saw this lady with long dark hair and bangs (this was her description) standing by the bunk bed and was looking at her sister (who was sleeping on the top bunk). My tita at first couldn't believe what she was seeing so she blinked her eyes a few times but the lady was still there. My Tita then decided to simply close her eyes and dare not open them again until she woke up the next morning.

Over breakfast the next day, she told the family about it. To this day, my other Tita (the one who was sleeping at the top bunk) couldn't help but scream everytime her sister talks about it. Sus sino ba naman di matatakot ano? Kung ako man, I'd freak out if my sister tells that she saw a lady looking at me in the middle of the night while I'm asleep!!

Story by: Triglyceride on PEX