Strangest/Funniest/Oddest Thing That Ever Happened To You ??

The Story

It happened, appropriately, in Venice, which, if such things are real, is the ideal location for passage between this world and the next. It was the first (and, unfortunately, thus far the only) time my family and I had ever been to Italy, and Venice was the last city we went to. Venice is utterly amazingly, gorgeous and mysterious, with heaven-knows-what always lurking around the next corner. The most remarkable city to which I've ever been.

So! My mother and grandmother were set on going shopping (for potpourri!), so my father, my uncle, my cousin Brittany, and I decided to travel to all the different islands in the Venetian Lagoon. One of them is called San Michele, and it is the "cemetery island," to which the Venetians bring their dead because, like New Orleans, they cannot bury them underground. (Ground! What ground? It's water under there.)

I was interested, and we went there. (We did go to the more traditional, touristy islands too--no worries!) We were exploring the island, and then I wandered off to the other side, just to see it before we left. (It was growing dark.) It's interesting, and spooky, and (indeed!) somewhat serene, but it can become a trifle dull, and we were ready to go.

I entered one of the above-ground tombs--nothing eerie about it, I hasten to add, unlike the priests' tombs on the entrance side of the island. I turned around and suddenly, from nowhere, I hear my father scream my name at the top of his lungs.

I thought something terrible had happened, of course, and rushed as quickly as I could to the other side of the (small) island. I nearly ran into my father, who came rushing towards me.

"What happened?"

He stared at me, confused, and said, "What do you mean? Why were you screaming 'Dad'?"

Of course, I hadn't been screaming anything. We talked for a minute and found out that, the moment I heard him scream my name, he heard me scream "Dad."

Notes for the Curious:

1) This is an island, cut off from any other kind of communication. You cannot hear, for example, what is being said or even announced on loudspeakers (if they had those there) on Murano or Burano, or from the main city of Venice.

2) My family and I were the only people on the island. As we arrived, a Venetian funeral gondola was leaving.

3) My uncle and cousin were below ground (well, the closest thing to it--you have to go down some stairs, to where the priests' tombs are) at the time. I considered the possibility that my cousin was playing a trick on me; not only has she steadfastly denied it for years, but she could not have gotten out of the underground area and screamed loud enough for me to hear without passing my father standing nearby.


We were all really spooked and still remember it to this day. From time to time I still try to explain it away and am never really able to do so. I wish the incident were more "story-shaped," to use Neil Gaiman's term, with an explanation for the ending, whether it be natural or supernatural. But, as it is, that is my one real seemingly supernatural occurrence.