Tuesday 30 November 2021

Yule Ghost Tales: The Mystery of the Penny Whistle

This is actually a bit of a mystery. Yesterday, quite out of the blue I found this penny whistle with my name on it. It was very dusty, but seems to work okay. Not that I'm particularly skilled at playing the penny whistle, but notes came out when I blew it and put my fingers over the holes. Maybe that was a mistake - I'm sure everyone's read the MR James horror story for Christmas, "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad".

In the tale, the main character is away at the coast on holiday. He finds a whistle, but after blowing it is relentlessly haunted by something clothed in "pale, fluttering draperies" and later by mysteriously tangled bed sheets. He escapes the ghostly creature by throwing the whistle into the sea.

Now, the curious thing is, yesterday I was staying at the coast. Admittedly I was staying in a bedroom that I've slept in before, but I have no recollection of owning that penny whistle. I guess it must be mine - it has my name on it - but I don't remember buying it or being given it or ever owning it. Most things have rational explanations, and I'm sure my discovery must have one too. Don't you agree?

Previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/10/review-collected-ghost-stories.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/01/review-on-monsters-history-of-our-fears.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/12/yule-ghost-tales-most-haunted-house-in.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/05/spooks-and-spectres-at-michelham-priory.html

1 comment:

Rayne Hall said...

Now this is creepy. Of course, you might have owned it, forgotten to take it with you, and forgotten that yuo ever owned it. That's one rational explation, a plausible one if you have a bad memory.;-)
Or it might be something supernatural pursuing you, and now that you've given in to the lure and played the whistle, it has gained power over you in some way, so beware.
As a writer of Gothic fiction, I can think of a third explanation: a human who knew you were going to stay in that room bought a whistle wrote your name on it, and left it for you to find, with the intent to spook you out of your wits.