My mom's side of the family is Irish. So my grandma would tell me stories about my great-grandpa who was from Ireland. Just small stories, such as the fact that he had a musical ear and could play almost every instrument. (I wish it passed on through the family.) I've always been into paranormal things, so I would always ask her if he had encountered anything out of the ordinary throughout his life. Her memory was vague, so she asked her sister Mary, and Mary reminded her of his banshee incidents back in County Cork¹ Ireland.

 

My grandma explained to me what Mary had remembered her father telling her as a kid. A banshee, before I go on, is an Irish myth. A ghost that protects an Irish family throughout eternity² without showing itself, unless someone in the family dies. Since the banshee can predict the future, it knows who is going to die beforehand. So it mourns under the moonlight, with cries more like the wind and shows itself to someone in the family (preferably the one who isn't going to die). It gets so sad because it is a part of the family.

 

So anyway, when my great grandpa was a kid he would ride home on a horse, back in Ireland, through the fields from school dances. So once in a while his horse would stop dead in its tracks, because you know animals can sense things people can't. My great grandpa would tell it to trudge³ on, but it wouldn't budge⁴

 

So then my great grandpa would feel the coldness of ghosts and would hear the banshee's wail⁵, and my Aunt Mary recalled him saying that the banshee's wail is the worst. Then the wailing⁶ and the touch of the ghosts would pass on and his horse would move again. That was all my aunt Mary could remember.

 

Now since my grandpa had seen and heard the banshees, I'm beginning to think we may have a banshee in our family. But not just because of my great grandpa, but because of my mom as well.

 

When my mom was nine, she woke up in the middle of the night to look outside the window into the backyard. Glittering in the moonlight, she saw a woman weeping. My mom could hear her cries and said they were more like the wind (she told me this before I read that most banshees cries ARE more like the wind). She also said that the woman was floating above their swimming pool and her appearance was unexplainable. My mom claimed that this woman looked young, but seemed as if she had lived for many years and was an old spirit. She also said that the woman had fair flowing hair. After a while of staring, my mom just lay her head back down on the pillow and drifted off to sleep.

 

Then I think one or two weeks later, my mom's grandparents died - in the same week. Coincidence? I wonder if I'm going to see one.

 

我母亲娘家在爱尔兰，因此姥姥总是给我讲一些太姥爷在爱尔兰的故事。那都是些很短的小故事，比如他非常喜欢音乐，几乎能演奏任何乐器。（但愿这能一辈一辈地传下去。）我总是对那些不同寻常的事情感兴趣，因此我就问她是不是太姥爷遇到过那些奇异的事情。姥姥的记性已经模糊了，于是就问她妹妹玛丽还记不记得类似的事情，玛丽姥姥就想起了太姥爷在科克郡与女妖的那次遭遇。

 

姥姥告诉我说玛丽姥姥回忆起来的事情还是在她小时候听太姥爷说的了。我马上要讲到的爱尔兰女妖，是个爱尔兰神话。她是个鬼魂，一生一世保护着一个爱尔兰人家庭，除非家里有人去世否则人们是不会看见她的。由于女妖能预知未来，因此她也就知道谁马上就要死去了。于是她就在月光下痛哭，声音就像风声一样，让家里的一个人（不会是即将要去世的那个人）能够看见她。她哭的是那么的悲伤，因为她也是这个家庭的一部分。

 

那时太姥爷还是个孩子，每天放学后就骑着马穿过农田回家，一边走一边手舞足蹈。有一次，马突然停下来，因为我们都知道动物能感觉的我们人感觉不到的东西。太姥爷想赶它继续走，但是那匹马一动也不动。

 

随即太姥爷就感觉到了周围阴森的鬼魂，也听见了女妖的哀哭。玛丽姥姥还记得他说过，听到女妖哭是最倒霉的事情。随后哭声消失了，鬼魂也走开了，马又继续向前走。这就是她记得的全部经过了。

 

既然太姥爷曾经见过也听到过女妖，我就在想也许我家也有一个这样的女妖。当然不仅仅是由于太姥爷的经历，母亲也经历过同样的事情。

 

那年母亲九岁，有一天深夜她醒过来，透过后院的窗户向外面看去。在明亮的月光下，她见一个女人在那啜泣。母亲听那哭声就和风声差不多（母亲给我讲这事的时候，我还不知道大多数女妖的哭声就像风声那样）。母亲还说，那个女人是漂在游泳池上面的，她的样子简直没法形容，一头金发随风飘逸，看上去很年轻，但是又仿佛已经活了很久，是一个年老的精灵。当时只看了一会儿，母亲就又躺下，渐渐地就睡着了。

 

我就在想，母亲见到女妖的一两个星期以后，太姥姥太姥爷在一周内相继去世了。这难道是巧合吗？我很想知道，是不是我也会看见爱尔兰女妖。

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