Saturday 13 February 2010

Nightmares - Mad Mary - and Mad Kids

It lies on human chest and feel heavy pressure on lungs. Throat closes. Skin freezes. Eyes do not open. Looks down on you as you sleep, sees your closes eyes sleeping, your body straight, arms are upward and reveals body, neck and ears to the open air of the room, as it lies on human chest watching.

I'd wake up in the middle of the night and forget what I'd been dreaming of and turn away from the wall and face the rest of the dark room as if there was someone standing there. The door would be jammed shut and you wouldn't be able to see a thing until pressing a button on the phone for a light. I wouldn't be able to sleep. I'd be thinking of people for the rest of the night. Drifting off for a few minutes and waking up again, driving myself mad.

There is a horse's head peeking thru curtains. The floor creaks, but I can't tell if it was in my room or on the landing. I'm telling myself the door is shut, but I'm scaring myself with thinking of apparitions walking thru it. My sister told me she hears creaks in her room. Maybe we're all mad. But I admitted that I was messing around a while ago saying 'Mad Mary' once or twice and telling my sister I was going to say it in the mirror. (I think this is our version of Bloody Mary, Mary Worth, Mary Worthington, Hell Mary) I didn't say it into the mirror. I was beginning to think I'd brought a curse into the house, but I don't really believe in that stuff. I'm just looking for excuses.

Is it Mad Mary? We used to say that in Primary school because there was this ghost story of a woman who died by falling from the old bell tower (not sure if she killed herself or was murdered) and there were stories that this ghost had killed a caretaker or something. Us kids would be scared to walk the corridors alone, since it was a creepy old building. Some said there was a dint in the ground where she fell. Or, apparently, she'd landed on the metal spikes of the fence. The girls' toilets were supposed to be haunted and I think the girls would piss around chanting Mad Mary into the mirror and then run out screaming. Actually, we were quite mad as kids.

This Mad Mary must have merged with Bloody Mary. There are a lot of variations of the story, but one is that after chanting her name, she will kill you, or drive you mad, or haunt you. Or even, after testing courage, she'll reveal a deceased relative. If she doesn't kill you, then she'll haunt you for the rest of your life. Another version is that girls (is it just girls?) chant her name to see their future. A variation of this would be to walk up the stair backwards, in the dark, looking into a hand mirror and you'll either see your future husband or your own death. Which will, ultimately, drive you mad.

It's weird I've ended up talking about this, but I just found a Brazilian folklore called “a loria do banheriro,” which translates as “the blonde in the toilet.” Instead of the mirror, it's a toilet, and she'll reach out and kill you. Maybe that's why the girls ran out screaming from the girls toilets in Prinary School.

We were just kids. But we were so mad.

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