La Fantasma

In 1995, I went to Guatelmala to study Spanish with my university. Several of us visited the old mission on Lake Atitalan. The mission was where Father Dan Rother pastored and died. He is considered a martyr. His sponsoring church is in a little town called Okarche, Oklahoma. People go to the mission to visit the place where he served God and the people of Guatemala. People also go there to see the bullets in the floor and in the wall. Father Rother's bloody handprint is still on the brick.

I crossed Lake Atitalan in a transport skip. Everyone met Father Tomas and took the tour of the mission which included the room where Father Rother was murdered. I had no desire to go into that room. I felt it was morbid.

That night, we slept in the mission as guests of the gracious Father Tomás. He told us about how a young Guatemalan boy answered the knock demanding that he tell where Father Rother's room was located. They held a gun to the boy's head, and the boy told them. They went to Father Rother's room., and pounded on the screen door. He was said to have screamed, "You'll never take me alive." There was a battle and several gun shots. Father Rother lay dead.

The morning after hearing the tale, I woke early at 5:30 am. What to do in a mission in Guatemala while the rest of the people are asleep, I asked myself. I decided to go to Father Rother's room. So I stealthily I went down the stairs and headed for the screen door that housed Father Rother's room. I went in and signed the guest book. I saw the bullet holes and the bloody handprint.

I was still hoping someone would get up. Then happily, I heard a knocking. Someone was up and pounding loudly three times on the screen door. I went to the door and opened it. I looked about, but no one was there. I went back into the room. As I reached the altar dedicated to Father Rother, I became terrified. I felt cold in that room, and then ran out with ice running through my veins.