One night when I was a kid, I went down into the kitchen for a late night snack. After grabbing a piece of chicken left over from the colonel, I closed the fridge and turned to head back to bed. However, something caught my eye. Just out of the corner of my eye, I would see my father, standing at the backdoor, looking inside. I looked at him, cocked my head, and thought I might be in trouble for being up so late. My father didn’t move, didn’t blink, and didn’t even look at me. He was looking dead ahead, like he was in a trance. I took off to my room, devoured my chicken, and hoped that he wouldn’t bring it up in the morning.

I thought it was an isolated incident for the longest time, until a few weeks later, I was a bit peckish and went downstairs again. Sure enough, there he was, standing at the backdoor, transfixed on something. I thought maybe I should ask him what he was doing, but I wasn’t supposed to be up. I aborted the mission for snacks and just went to bed. But after that time, I figured I would make this a nightly thing. I wanted to know if he did this every night. I watched the crack of my door and listened intently to see if he would get out of bed and go outside. I did this for about a week before I decided that it was just 2 coincidences, and that was that.

The third time I decided to go downstairs, I quickly peeked into my parents room and made sure dad was there. After getting confirmation, I headed downstairs to grab a few slices of leftover pizza. See, the best time for a midnight snack was when we had takeout for supper. Sure enough, I went downstairs, there was Dad, standing at the backdoor. It made no sense. He couldn’t be outside, something was going on and I needed to find out. I went to open the door and just as I reached the handle, my Mother turned on the light for the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Dad’s outside Mom, I wanted to know what he was up do.”

“No, No dear, your Father’s asleep in bed. There is no one outside”.

I took another glance and I could still see dad, standing there, motionless, fixated on something else.

“But Mom, I can see-“

“There is nothing there. Get your hand off that door and get your butt in bed this instant.”

I let go of the door and hung my head in shame. As I started to walk away, the door started to shake violently. I looked back and it was Dad, hitting the door. My mother gripped me tight and told me something I’d never forget.

“Sometimes the souls of the host bodies come back. Pay them no mind, and just go back to bed. We’re ok inside.”