HE is known around St Ann as Shinehead, and that was the only name he was willing to give to the Jamaica Observer as he shared stories from his more than 20 years operating a taxi in the north coast parish.

Among his varying stories Shinehead claimed that picking up spirits thinking they were living passengers was not unusual for him.

According to Shinehead, this has happened to him so often that, “it nuh come nuh way to me now”.

But he has one regret about his interactions with the mythical passengers, “The thing mi nuh like with spirits is that them nuh pay fare.”

He pointed to an incident last year while he was driving along his route in Ocho Rios when a man flagged down his vehicle.

Shinehead said after stopping the car so that the man could enter he became curious as the passenger decided to go to the back instead of using the front passenger seat, which was empty.

The bemused taxi driver said he asked the man why he decided to sit in the back instead of the empty front seat to which the passenger replied, “No, the car nuh empty. Nuh one woman dat sit down beside you?”

A little shocked that the passenger was able to see a figure he didn’t see, Shinehead told the Observer that he was not put off by what the passenger had claimed he saw because he knows how to “plead the blood of Jesus against evil spirits”.

The two men were clearly not disturbed by the prospects of travelling with a ghost because Shinehead said the passenger sat calmly in the back seat and they drove at a leisurely pace until the man reached his destination.

Explaining that the incident happened in daylight, and he doesn’t think the man was mistaken due to the convincing tone he used when talking about the woman in the front seat, Shinehead claimed that ghosts have even visited him at his home.

“Me used to the ghost thing. Four grave in a my yard inuh, a family them. Me two brothers, one uncle and me mother. Me go sit down pan dem all in a night. Ghost all hug me up in a bed [and] mi just plead the blood of Jesus Christ pan dem,” Shinehead said.

“One time, about two years now, me in a room… it reach certain hours and me decide fi lay down, so me get up and go pan the bed. The bed deh near to the wall and me go closer to the wall and turn me face to the wall.

“Me not even settle down good yet, me feel like one body come behind me and the body rest pan me back. So me haffi fly up,” he stated.

Shinehead said he was so frightened that he moved the bed and changed the sheets before going back to lay down. The taxi driver said following the changes he was able to sleep comfortably until morning.

Living alone, after his children migrated, and not sure which spirit it was that visited him that night, Shinehead said since then he no longer sleeps in the dark.

“Me never used to sleep in a light, but me sleep in a light now,” Shinehead said.

Name: Shinehead

Age: 67 years old

Length of career: More than 20 years

Route: Exchange to Ocho Rios Transport Centre, St Ann