***hluas nkauj poj dab = ghost girlfriend

***Maiv = the name Mai

In no way, this story has been fabricated, just the names have been altered. This is a true first hand account of what I encountered with Maiv, my hluas nkauj poj dab. Sounds fake? Fine, you are the eye of the beholder. Yes, it's detailed because I want to share what I smelled, felt, saw as if you were the one in my shoes.

Time went on, Maiv and I got to know each other really well. On the contrary, while Maiv and I was busy building our relationship, my relationship with my friends and family were distancing. It never occur to me at that time, but we only saw each other from when the very last speck of light was lost to the reigning darkness of the night to when the sun and its rays penetrated the dark sky. I just thought that her parent's were strict and didn't let her be seen with anyone. I was like a vampire, awake during the night, slept all day.

My parents started to ponder what I was doing all night. They confronted me. I said, I've been hanging out with a girl on the west side of town. Let it be known, that this city, is a close knit city. All the Hmong people knew each other. I was like it's so and so's daughter. To my surprised, they never heard of them before. That was one of the signs that made me think twice about Maiv. No one knew her, or her family. A close knit town, where everyone knows what the other person had for dinner or whos doing what with whose wife, still, not a soul knew she or her family.

One night, I finally had the courage to confront her. "Ok, girl, we been seeing each other for many nights now, why is it that I can only see you at night, are you a pojdab?" There were silence in the air, I just couldn't believed I had just said that. I even made myself scared saying it. Goosebumps bursts out, a sudden chill filled the area. I was in fight or flight mode. Mostly flight mode, no use in killing what's dead. She burst in a loud laughter, I was in shock, I didn't know what to do next. Then,all I remember hearing was a, "Just kidding." Relieved at last, I suggested we go out during the day time.

Months passed, the weather became warmer. Winter turned into Spring. Everything was in bloom. New beginnings surrounded everywhere you went. Since it was a warm, sunny mid April day, Mai suggested we go on for a walk on the trail along the river. We went walking, suddenly it felt like something overcame me. I was in a trance-like stage. I saw myself walking. It was like an out of body experience. Hours passed by. I asked where she was taking me. She said we were going to her other "home".

The walked seemed forever. Day turned to night, night turned to day, after walking for what seemed like almost three days and three nights. **Remember at this point of time, I was dumbfounded. I wasn't sure what I was doing. I was under a spell, my actions, and thinking was limited. My cognitive skills were useless.** I heard the hmoob qeej in addition to the beat of lub nruas (the funeral drum) off in the distance. Some guy came riding by on a horse. He had a cloth covering his face. I came upon an old lady with gray long hair, she was dressed in hmong clothes. It wasn't even the elaborate kind, where young hmong women wear to the New Year. It was plain like the ones at the funeral. She had on a pair of khau noog (bird shoes-rough translation) on. That I thought was weird.

"Me tub, koj puas paub kuv lub tsev nyob qhov twg os," (Young man, do you know where my house is?) the lady asked me. I shook my head. Maiv pointed over in the distance to a nearby village where the old lady would be able to locate her home. Maiv told me that the old lady had recently passed away. I'm like, oh, ok.

From that point on, I knew things were not going to be the same. And, it wasn't. Sometimes when we go out, she'd whispher in my ears. "That person over there is going to die soon." Yeap, she was right. Not long after, those person passed away. Death doesn't discriminate, young or old, when you're time is up, you're going.

Months turned into to years. It was already almost two years since we met during that September day. Our love bloomed, well at least it seemed like that. Until one day. I was out and about. An elder woman pulled me aside. She said, if I wanted help, she'd be able to help me out. She said she knew that I had not been myself. She told me she knew where I had been. Who I was with. She explained that the girl whom I've been with, we had been together for many lifetimes. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, thing didn't work out, she passed away early during child birth. Maiv had been looking for me for many years since then. The old woman told me I had many more years to left. Maiv needed to understand that, she needed to wait for when the right time was to come. The old lady told me to be able to conciously think on myself again, I needed to go ask my parents for help, only then I can be freed. The old woman explained that each time I'm with her, my lifeline slowly decline away. She gave me a rock, told me to keep it on my person. Old lady chanted something quickly. It was hard for me to understand. Told me to go now, I didn't have much time left. She told me I'd be safe in the protection of our family's thaj neeb (hmong alter) in the home. 

I rushed home. What she chanted gave me the strength to tell my parents all about it. All my relatives came over. They had a huge discussion of what to do on how to handle the situation. They discussed about it into the night. Things started getting crazy. At first a whole crowd of black cats came to the yard. You can hear them meowing. An uncle chased them away. Minutes later, there were poundings on all the windows. Scratching sounds on the doors. The breeze picked up a bit. A faint voice of a girl could be heard saying, "Ua li cas koj khiav ntawm kuv mus, rov qab los. Los wb mus tsev. (Why did you run away from me, come back. Let's go home.)" The house started shaking. Then all of a sudden, complete quietness.

A figure started to appear. Slowly walking from the darkness, she appeared. This time, it wasn't the beautiful Maiv that I had fallen in love with. She was in plain hmong clothes, long haired, wearing the khau noog. Her hair covered her face. She continued walking slowly towards the house. From the breaks of her hair I saw her eyes. Her pupils were blood red. Blood dripped from her eyes. It was one of those most scariest things I had ever seen. She knocked, pounded the doors. 

Suddenly, two guys pulled up in Toyota van. One guy ran into the house through the garage door. The other man, dressed in Hmong clothes had his things in it. He took out his Hmong knife. Told Maiv, to stay back or she will get hurt. The man was a shaman. One of my uncles went to pick him up, yes, this was an emergency situation. The shaman told me the only thing they can do to shield me from her is to change my name. No one was to ever say the name my parents had given me at birth. I complied. Knowing that this was the last time someone would ever call me by my birth-name brought tears to my eyes.

While the shaman performed his ritual, the wind picked up once more. Things got crazy again. The pounding, the scratching returned. This time, things got intense than earlier. It felt like the house was going to be pulled from its foundations. I heard Maiv said, "Ua li cas kuv tsis pom koj lawm, koj mus qhov twg lawm? (How come I can't see you anymore, where did you go?)" In her eyes, I was slowly fading away to complete nothingness at the conclusion of the the shaman's ritual. The shaman went outside. Spoke to her. Gave her some paper money. He told her that it was her time to go reincarnate. This was sad. This was the last time I was ever going to see her this life time. She complied, faded into the darkness like she appeared. 

I went camping early this passed year, to a place that was a few hours north of the Twin Cities of Minnesota. A friend made the worse mistake ever. He uttered the forbidden name, but he swiftly changed and called me that name that was given to me during that night. I didn't think twice about it. The friends and I had a few drinks later to relax and ring in the summer. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until the next morning. As I was changing my shirt, a female friend came screaming by. I had scratch marks on my back. Ten scratch marks like someone had ten fingers on me and scratched in an outward motion beginning from the top middle of my back to my should blades were. We packed, and rushed home. 

A friend didn't think we'd make it on time. There was a Buddah temple on the way back. We got there by mid day. I explained to the monk what happened. He too knew what was going on. The monk told me to sit down on the ground, and to have my hands together like I was praying. The monk tied a white string around me. He started his buddhist chants. An hour went by, he tied an orange string on me. I was to keep it on for as long as possible, until the string falls off by itself.

This past Labor Day weekend, I went back to visit my family in that city that the events had taken place. It's been many years, since that night that I saw Maiv. I went back to that one place where I had met her. It wasn't there anymore. The whole place seemed so familiar, yet so different. They had some construction, and redone that whole place. I went to the spot close to where I had first laid eyes on her. I said, "Maiv, yog koj hnov kuv hais lus, muaj ib hnub zoo, wb mam rov los sib hlub li yav tas. Ua siab ntev, thov koj tos thiab siab suas kuv zoo zoo mog. Mam koj nyob zoo os tus neeg kuv hlub. (Mai, if you can hear me, one day, we'll love each other again. Please be patient and wait for me and watch over me. Please be good my dear.)" 

I can only look for good things to come...


by: mysterious