I was about 15 years old when my class started to study the Civil War. My teacher had given each of us a name on a piece of paper and told us that we were to write a biography of the person. All the names were randomly selected from those involved in the Civil War and we could use the textbook as reference.

As the piece of paper was handed to me, I opened it and saw 'Michael Adams' written on it. Little did I know that it would change my life ever since. I was walking home from school that day, with the paper in my hand and wondering what kind of character I would be writing about.

On my way home, I had to walk through a path that cut through the woods. It was, in fact, a short cut to my house from school. That day, as I was walking home, I came upon a man who stood in the middle of the path looking at me. I stopped and looked at him. He was about 5'9, skinny, had black hair and brilliant blue eyes. His eyes kind of glowed and I looked again. "He's wearing contacts," I said to myself. Then, I looked at what he was wearing. It was a blue Army uniform. For non-military folks, he was, indeed, wearing a very, very nice Army uniform. Nevertheless, his uniform wasn't of any branch I could recognise. I am an Army brat, so I am used to seeing men in uniform all the time. I looked closely at the uniform. His belt buckle had the letters 'US' on it - same belt buckle as those in the book we looked at in class. I figured that it was almost Halloween and that this man must be running around in his Halloween costume.

The man and I just stood there, frozen but looking at each other. It seems like hours until he came up to me and took my hands in his without a word. I looked at his white gloves for a while and looked back up at him. With him standing so close to me, I felt a sudden chill. I pulled my right hand away from his hands and touched his face. As I touched his face, I could not feel his skin or feel the warmth of him. The only thing I could feel was his right hand on my left hand. I could see him perfectly clear. I must have had a puzzled and frightened look on my face, because he whispered, "Everything is all right."

Still puzzled by what he said to me and confused at why I couldn't feel him when I put my hand on his face, I looked down at his hand on mine. I never uttered a word, and he lifted my chin with his other hand. I could feel the glove and I could tell there was a hand in the glove. He looked into my eyes and said, "Don't be afraid. My name is Michael Adams. I am with the 3rd Light Artillery Michigan Company A."

He paused and looked over my shoulder. I turned my head to see what was behind me. He let go of my chin and my hand. I immediately turned back at him but he was gone. I turned around again and saw my friends standing right behind me. I asked them if they saw a man with me earlier. They both said no. I knew it just rained the night before and the path was a bit muddy. I looked down to see if there were any footprints. I moved a bit to see if my footprints could be seen. Mine were there, so were my two friends', but there was nothing in front. They asked me what was wrong and I just said I didn't know.

I walked with my two friends all the way home. I was looking for the man in uniform but I couldn't see him anywhere. I got home and no one was home as usual. My parents were off at work and my little brother down the street at the babysitter's house. I sat down on the sofa in the living room and looked out of the sliding glass door that leads to the patio outside. To my surprise, the man in uniform was standing outside the door. "Oh great, not only is he Houdini, he's also a stalker!"

I got up and pressed my nose to the glass, I was terrified of opening the door. After all, I was often reminded not to open the door to strangers. The man started laughing at me and motioned me to open the door. At that moment my phone started to ring. I put my hand up, and mouthing "Hold on a second."

I got to the phone, which was next to the sofa. I sat on the sofa with the phone in hand while I watched the man outside. The person on the phone was my friend who was living next door. I had him look out his window and asked him if he could see someone on my patio. I saw my friend open his window and look out to my patio. My friend said, "There's nobody on your patio!"

The man was leaning against the table on my patio. Very obvious that he was there. I walked over to the glass window and I pointed to the man. My friend was still looking out the window but he said he saw nothing. All the while, the soldier was looking at me. Apparently he didn't see my friend in the window. I told my friend I had to go. I opened the door and said to the soldier, "Can I help you?"

He had this smirk on his face and walked over to me. He took something out of his pocket and handed it to me and I watched him disappeared before my eyes. I looked at what he had given me. It was a locket. No pictures where inside of it, but on the back were scratched, "Forever Always".

I was still confused. Not knowing why my friends hadn't seen this man and why he gave me the locket. I then went to the dinning room and got my writing pad out. I stuck the piece of paper my teacher had given me earlier on top. "Michael Adams... Michael Adams... wait a second, that soldier said his name was Michael Adams!" I shouted out loud!

No way that he could have seen what was written on the paper at all. I took out my Civil War textbook and flipped it open. The chapter opened in front of me was on soldiers who were missing in action. I put my hands on my head and asked to no one in particular, "What was your last battle that you fought in?"

Still with my hands on my head and I was looking at the book, not really reading anything on the page, I heard a voice that said, "I just fought in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania."

I looked over to where the voice came from. It was the soldier and he was sitting on the sofa. I got up and walked over to the sliding glass door and noticed it was locked. I locked it when I got back into the house. I turned back around and he was standing up in the middle of the living room. He pointed to my book and writing pad on the dinning table. I walked over to the table and sat down. He began telling me his life story of how he was the only child and how he joined the army to fight in the war. He told me about his crush on a young girl down the street that he never told anyone and he didn't think he was worthy enough to be her suitor. I was writing this all down for my assignment.

After I had my paper written, I looked at him. The entire time, he stood in the middle of my living room as he was talking to me. I got up and walked to him. It was only then that I noticed he was almost transparent. I lifted my hands up to touch the medal on the left side of his jacket. I could feel the coldness from the metal of the medal and I could also feel the wool jacket that he was wearing. I then looked up at him and bit my lip. He had this look on his face that he was longing to tell me more about his life. He took my chin in his hands again, and whispered, "Whenever you need me, I'll be there."

I turned my paper in the next morning and later that day my teacher had sent me a note asking me to stop by to talk with her. I did so and the first thing she said to me was, "I met your Michael Adams."

"What are you talking about?" half knowing what she was talking about.

"Today in class, everyone was unaware of it, but Michael was at the back of the room. He came up to me and talked to me about you...."

She went on but I knew I had turned sheet white then.

"He's a ghost..." I mumbled.

"Between you and me, we have encountered a ghost who needs YOUR help."

"My help?" I asked, not sure what my teacher was getting to.

"Look, from what he was saying and what you have written in your interview with him, I take it that you may be a link. Meaning, you have to do something for him to help him get to heaven!"

I knew that was coming. From that day onwards, I have Michael visiting me and talking to me regularly. I am now a history major attending college in Vermont. He visits me here on campus and several other people have witnessed him and even talked to him. What is so interesting is that I am a Civil War re-enactor and just went to the 135th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. Guess who was there? Michael.

While in Gettysburg, I met the 3rd Light Artillery Michigan Company A, all re-enactors. I didn't tell them anything about Michael Adams and that he was really with the 3rd Light Artillery Michigan Company A 135 years before. One of the men in the group, Dean, had an encounter with Michael but Dean freaked out. Michael showed up next to Dean on the last day of battlefield. Michael pointed to the woods near by and wanted Dean to watch him when he went into the woods. Dean thought Michael was part of the re-enactors and thought that Michael needed to use the rest room in the woods. Dean watched Michael walked into the woods and vanished before his eyes. Dean told me his experience because we were good friends and he figured I wouldn't laugh at him.

I have not seen Michael since that day - July 5, 1998. Nonetheless, I can feel his presence near me all the time. After all these years, I have come to the conclusion that I was that sweetheart in my past life. If I weren't the sweetheart, then by some weird chance, Michael has fallen in love with a mortal. Only time will tell when I will find out the whole story behind Michael's life.

Next Story: Thump, Thump, Drag

Owl's Ghost Stories © by Will Ong since 1997