#1: Daughter number two had just finished drying her laundry. I told her to just dump it on her bed and she could fold/put away everything since we were about to have dinner. She dumped the laundry on the bed and brought the laundry basket down to our laundry room (next to our kitchen). All my other kids and husband were already sitting at the table.
After dinner, my daughter went up to her room and screamed. We all ran up to her room. On her bed were her clothes, all neatly folded. None of us had been in her room. She was scared, so slept in another daughter's room that night. We tried to joke about the incident...and hoped the "ghost" would fold ALL laundry from there on. No such luck.
My kids decided to name the "ghost"...and that's how "Fred" came into our lives.
#2: I always kept my phone book under the phone in the kitchen on a desk. But, one day, I couldn't find it. I checked all over the kitchen and then called my kids into the room. No one knew where it was. I sent them into all the other rooms of the house to look for my phone book while I continued, alone, to search the kitchen.
When the kids returned, they all said the same thing....they couldn't find it. At that time, I was standing in front of the desk. Daughter # one peeked to the side of me and pointed. When I turned around, there was the phone book, right under the phone. Once again we joked about it, and decided that Fred meant no harm...he just like to play tricks.
#3: We went on a week vacation to Florida. I had a college student, "Joe", come to the house each day to feed/water our bird and bring in the mail. The birdcage was on the kitchen counter and the mail was to be placed there, too.
When we returned, I called "Joe" so her could come over and be paid. His mother answered the phone and said she'd come instead. I assumed "Joe" was not home. His mother told me that on the third day of taking care of our house, he went inside and the birdcage and mail were in the living room, not the kitchen. Freaking out, he went home and had his father search our house with him to make sure no one was there. They moved the birdcage and mail back into the kitchen. He wouldn't go into our house alone after that...either his mother or farther would come with him.
And he wouldn't house-sit again.
#4: I was at the kitchen table, doing bills. On the counter was an old, portable black and white TV...the kind you had to turn the dial to change channels. It had a very distinct loud clicking sound as you turned the dial from one channel to another.
I was watching an old episode of "I Love Lucy" while paying the bills. Suddenly I looked up at the TV and realized that "Lucy" wasn't on. Instead, on the TV was an episode of some court series. I first thought maybe the show had ended and I hadn't realized it. Then I looked at the clock and noticed that "Lucy" still had ten minutes left in the half hour episode.
I got up and went over to the TV. The dial was on a different channel, about five channels from where the "Lucy" show was. As I stated before, changing the channels involved a loud click sound, and I'd heard nothing. I turned back to "Lucy", and said aloud, "Fred, you have to stop this stuff."
Other things continued to happen, but nothing sinister. I guess that's why we never felt really frightened.
My mother moved in with us after we moved from that house. She finally told me that if we had stayed in that house, she would not have lived with us. Over the years, she and my dad had witnessed some strange things whenever they visited. Mom was afraid of ghosts.
During the twelve years we lived there, we had two dogs at different times. Each dog did the same thing on a routine basis: they'd sit up and slowly move their heads from one side to the other as if watching someone walk across the room. We'd notice the dogs' movements but never saw anything ourselves.
Do I believe in ghosts? Maybe but I'd like to think of them as helpful or playful.
Do you believe in ghosts? Any ghostly encounters?
In the Naughty Phantasia Boxed Set , I have a paranormal story titled "Cupid's Curious Case":
Alan’s last job as Cupid 84 involves neighbor Amy and a special box of candy. Both secretly desire the other. Can they find true love?
For buy links, excerpts, blurbs, and reviews, go to:
http://naughtyliterati.com/naughty-phantasia/
Marianne Stephens
http://www.mariannestephens.net
http://www.romancebooks4us.com
Images:
christmas-graphics-plus.com, animation.dinamobomb.net, animationlibrary.com
I think you are right about your ghost. I spent the night at the Menger hotel in San Antonio and supposedly it's haunted. One night I woke to find someone in the room. He simply sat in the chair and watched us. He wore an old striped shirt. I could only see him out of the side of my eyes. Finally, I told him to keep watch and make sure we slept and went back to sleep. Later that night, I felt someone on the bed and told them to not take all the bed. I guessed it was our ghost. I wasn't frightened, I felt comforted that someone was there.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe or disbelieve. I am one who needs to experience it and I have tried but so far no luck.
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com from USA
We used to have a ghost in this house. My husband built the house, so it must be attached to the land. The kids called it "Mr. Butt". That isn't as rude as it sounds; there are a lot of Butts in this area, and we later learned that a Mr. Butt owned land at the end of the road. Mr. Butt would walk around upstairs when we were downstairs, open and shut doors, play music and talk radio that we could hear downstairs but wasn't on when we went upstairs. None of us were scared of him. My husband still doesn't believe in him. The baby always said she wasn't afraid of ghosts, because Mr. Butt wouldn't let anything hurt her. I haven't heard Mr. Butt much since the kids moved out, but we just lost renters in my mother's house (husband-built, on our land) because they were experiencing noises, lights flickering, voices, and moving papers. I told them to send the ghost here, because I miss the company!
ReplyDeleteIn the eighties we moved into an old farmhouse. I blamed the tv turning on and off on electrical surges because they were a fact of life at the time. When I'd find my youngest asleep on the couch, I'd assumed he'd gotten up and watched tv until he fell asleep and he never said anything until years later, when we were talking about ghosts and I admitted that I'd catch flashes of something out of the corner of my eye and if I tried to turn off a particular soap opera, the tv would turn itself back on. That's when my son told me that when we first moved in, he'd wake up in the night to find an older lady in an old fashioned dress, sitting at the end of his bed, watching him sleep. I felt bad because I hadn't realized that he was frightened but he said eventually he realized she didn't mean him any harm. She didn't come with us when we moved but I hope the people who bought the house kept General Hospital on for her:)
ReplyDeleteWe had a ghost in our apartment when we were first married. We called him George. He was always moving things around and one time emptied my bath water before I could get in. When we moved we invited him to come with us and several weeks later I noticed things moving around in our new place so we figured George had moved with us.
ReplyDeleteOh man, all of these stories are so discomfiting to me! Our family definitely believes in ghosts but I NEVER wanted to be visited by one. I'm glad you are all able to accept yours with such equanimity!
ReplyDelete