November 2004
Ghostly Fingerprints
by Baz
My best friend Marc, his wife Fiona and I were going for a snow trip to Mt. Buller (outside Melbourne). Marc was the only one that could drive, so we did our best to keep him awake. We were telling each other ghost stories, but at around 4 a.m. he just couldn't drive any further. He parked the car on the side of the road. It was a bright night; I could see the trees on the other side of the road quite clearly. It was a beautiful night, fresh and clean. Marc and Fiona were almost completely asleep, yet I wasn't. Lying there in the backseat, I just looked up through the window at the stars.
What happened next was what changed my mind about not believing in ghosts.As a child, I grew up in a small village, where hanging out at the cemetery was a normal thing to do. It was practically in my back yard, so I had gotten used to things like ghost stories. But on this particular night, I had never been so close to being in touch with a ghost.
As Marc and Fiona were sleeping, I was looking out of the window and felt a shadow pass my window just above my head. I looked up and around, but couldn't see anything. As I was lying back down, from the corner of my eye I saw the shadow figure again. This time it wasn't going passed – there was a figure of a person standing outside my window! I whispered to Marc and Fiona to wake up and look over my shoulder. I didn't panic. I was very calm. Eventually, I managed to wake them both up and calmly explain to them to look outside just over my head. Marc looked into his rear view mirror, which was positioned right where the figure was standing, but he couldn't see anything there. Fiona was too scared to turn around and look as she knew that if she had turned to look my way, she would be able to get a clear view of it. I told them not to panic and I would tell them when to quickly turn and look. Being a little brave and curious, I sat up and slowly turned to face this figure standing outside my window. It was a young child, around 13 or so – a girl wearing a sweater and a beanie. She smiled at me and pressed her fingers up against the window. All that was in between us was a glass window. I pressed my fingers against hers onto the window, she smiled again. I turned to Fiona and Marc and said, turn quickly. When we all turned back to look at the girl, she was gone. But she left me a gift – smudged fingerprints on the frosty window.
