"So, Claudia, have you ever been to a haunted house?"
I laughed, "No need. Actually, we have two ghosts that live with us."
Of course, my trainee at Coffee Paradise gave me the usual stunned look. Naturally she had to hear the whole story.
So, back in the late 80's sometime, a bizarre occurrence began to command my attention around my house. Things would just randomly fall off my dishwasher. These items were never close to the edge, obviously had to have been pushed. But by whom, when I'm alone in the house? The cat? Nowhere near. The dog? Snoring in my mother's bedroom. It was a mystery.
Then, after several months of this, I started noticing a white ball of light, sometimes as small as a grapefruit, other times as large as a basketball, that flew between our foyer and kitchen, sometimes knocking things down; then up the hallway, and finally into the bedrooms. I mentioned this to my mother, and she thought she saw something on a couple of occasions, but as at times I've considered her a bit suggestible, I held off on drawing conclusions.
I wasn't 100% sure I wasn't imagining things. Not even when my mother and some friends visited a psychic, who told her that her father was watching over her, and that she was his favorite of all his children.
Then one evening I was home alone with our two cats. The dog had passed away. The one cat was by the dining room window; the other, a cuddly Siamese, curled up with me on the couch. Then I saw the small ball of light hovering around the foyer chandelier. Quick as a wink, it flew up the hall. To my utter astonishment, my Siamese hopped off the couch and gave chase, me right behind. By the time I was less than halfway up the hall, my cat was in my bedroom, and the next thing I saw, the ball of light flew past my left ear and was long gone, leaving me to comfort my befuddled cat. But now I knew I wasn't seeing things.
Then there was the time my mother's keys went missing. She knew she had left them on the tray table in the living room, but she could not locate them, not even after taking everything off the tray table. She went into the kitchen to cook some supper for herself, and was stunned upon her return a half hour later to find her keys on the tray table! I had not moved a muscle from my side of the couch.
Then came the death of my uncle 2 July 2010. That night, as my mother mourned, she implored her mother, who passed in 1971, to tell my uncle several things she thought he should know.
Two days later, about 9:30 AM, I was sleeping away. All of a sudden, my VCR turned on and spat out the videotape that was inside it. At first I thought maybe the electricity had gone out. Then I remembered that although when the power goes out, the VCR does indeed momentarily turn on before turning back off, this never caused it to eject a tape. I puzzled over it for a time, then went back to sleep.
When I got up for the day, I continued musing over the VCR's peculiar behavior, then it occurred to me that my uncle might have chosen this odd way to get my attention, as he thought that sleeping late was unconscionable, even if you didn't get off work till past 11 PM. Strangely, just as I resolved to mention the ejaculating VCR to my mother, I heard the toilet flush. Oooh, she's awake, I thought, and dashed to the bathroom, only to find it empty. Since my mother would have had to pass me to get to her bedroom, and at 71, she didn't move that quickly, I was confused. How did she get back to her room that fast, I wondered. The answer? She didn't, since the very next second I snuck into her bedroom to find her...snoring. No freaking way.
So finally about 1:45, my mother got up and sat in the den playing solitaire on the computer. As I was getting ready for work, I brought her up to speed.
"It was Claude, it was Claude!" my mother exclaimed. She told me of her convo with her deceased mother and how she had asked Grandma to reason with my uncle on certain matters, once he reached "the other side." Obviously, she said, playing with my VCR, and flushing the toilet was my uncle's way of letting us know Grandma had delivered the message. "Hmm," said I, and as I returned to my bedroom I heard a loud crash. I reached the den in record speed, only to find our bulletin board lying at my mother's side, and that good woman howling with laughter from her office chair.
Lest the reader wonder, the bulletin board didn't just fall. If it had, it would have landed on or behind the printer, most likely scattering paper scraps and push pins everywhere. For it to land beside my mother like that, everything intact, it had to have been launched. With intelligence behind it.
From time to time things still get moved, fall, or disappear, only to reappear later, usually somewhere totally unexpected. Sometimes the cats have looked intently, seemingly at things invisible to us. And chased them at times. Pictures taken around the house have occasionally revealed orbs and weird wispy vapors not apparent at the time of photographing.
My mother has always observed that my grandfather and uncle were in life very close, so it never surprises me if a'haunting they will go. I just laugh and tell my mum, "Them two were at it again..."
Happy Halloween! 👻🎃👹
