by warrenchuks@worldnet.att.net
Several years ago my family and I moved to New Hampshire. We bought a
huge, 200+ year old house, with about 200 acres of land to go with it. We
had this room with an antique piano in it. It was old and very out of tune.
A lot of the keys didn't even work or would get stuck. One night, I was in
the kitchen. I was alone in the house by several strange coincedences (my
mom was taking my brother to the hospital because he had gotten very sick,
and my dad was at the house next door "only for a minute"). Anyway, I began
to hear piano music. It was in perfect tune, coming from the room with the
piano in it. However, to get to the room, I had to cross through several
unlit rooms and hallways, then enter the piano room and turn on the lights -
and the lightswitch happened to be right next to the piano. I couldn't bring
myself to do it, even though I wasn't fearful of whatever was playing the
piano. After a few minutes, the music stopped. Then my dad came home. I
didn't say anything, but together we went to the room with the piano. I sat
down to try to play it - and it was horribly out of tune as it had always
been.
by dbrodie@voicenet.com
I first felt a presence shortly after my father committed suicide in our
second floor bathroom. I would often smell the scent of his cologne, or
feel a very cold, icy breeze pass by me, especially when my mother and I
would be sitting together in our kitchen. I never asked her if she had
any experiences, and for this I am sorry. Several people, who did not
know where my father had died, claimed to have seen him in our bathroom,
and they described the clothing he had worn on the day he died. The
night before my mother passed away, she was lying in a hospital bed in
our living room with my husband and my aunt and I by her side. She kept
looking up the flight of stairs with her eyes very wide, and tears
streaming down her face. My aunt asked her if she saw her father, or
mother and she said no. She asked her if she saw my father, and she
said yes. My mother reached out her arms, the lights went out, the dog
howled, and my mother lapsed into a deep coma and passed away early the
next morning. Soon afterward, my husband saw my father and actually
described him to me, although he had never seen a picture of him! Many
nights I thought my husband was getting into bed with me, I actually
felt someone climb into the bed, but when I turned to kiss him, there
was no one there! Other times I would hear very heavy and slow
footsteps, the door to our bedroom (which had actually been my parents
bedroom at one time) would open, a very icy cold breeze would brush past
me, and someone or something would climb into bed. One night shortly
after my mothers death, my fathers college ring appeared on my bureau.
I was certain that we had buried my father with his ring, and upon
checking this with my brothers, was absolutely certain we had. I hid
the ring in a drawer, but it constantly appeared on my dresser. I
finally gave it to my oldest brother and that is where the ring is
today. We did not have any experiences for quite some time after that,
but when we were trying to decide whether or not to move, we had many
more experiences, as though my father wanted me to leave. There was
constant noisy footsteps during the night, and he would appear at the
foot of our bed, frightening my husband. Finally, we decided to move,
and when I came to the house one last time, I had difficulty opening the
door, it was not stuck, but actually was pushed as I was attempting to
enter. When I left, the door was slammed shut behind me. One other
thing that was odd, whenever I was in the house and feeling depressed,
my childhood friend who had lived next door to me for many years would
suddenly call and tell me that my father had contacted her through her
dreams to tell her I was depressed and to make sure that I was okay and
did not do as he did! This always gave me the chills! Back To The Top
by janelledavis@sisna.com
Not more than one year ago, I was at a birthday party for my best
friend, Erika. Almost everyone was beyond the stage of intoxication. My
three friends and I were the only sober ones there. We decided to clean up
the house and get the other poeple home. Taylor and Keri drove the others
home while Nicole and I stayed to clean up. We started to clean up the
living room and then we moved into the kitchen. Erika's house is over 200
years old and really big. To get to the kitchen, you had to go through the
study and the library. I felt really uneasy in the library. I couldn't
figure out why. But, as I was going through ther I heard a voice calling out
my name and asking for help. I asked Nicole if she said or heard anything
and she said no.
A few seconds later, I heard it again. This time was more clear and I could
tell it was a male's voice. I turned around to see if anyone was there...
there wasn't. No more than five minutes later, the lights went out. It was a
stormy night so we just thought the power lines were damaged by the
lightning. We looked to the neighbor's house and we saw that their lights
were on. As we were looking back, we saw a solidblack figure looking in on
us through the window. I grabbed a flashlight and I shined the light in it's
face and I could see that it was transparent. After that the apparition
dissapeared.
The next morning I asked Erika if she knew who the previous owner of
the house was and she said that it was a rich pyscopath that killed all of
the slaves that killed his family. After he killed the slaves he buried them
underneath the library. That is why I was so uneasy in that room. Erika says
that she has been seeing the ghost ever since she moved in and she was too
afraid to tell anyone.
by rmvink@mtu.edu
My friend, Andrea, asked me to go to her cabin in Grayling, Michigan
with her for the weekend. I was 12 years old, and expected to have a
realy fun time that weekend. I never thought that I would be terrified.
Her room, at the cabin, had a bunkbed that was against the wall. I was
really exicted because I had never slept in one before. I slept on the
bottom, though, because I was afraid to fall out.
That night, her parents went out ot a movie, leaving just Andrea and I
there. Alone. It gets really dark there because there are no street or
city lights back in the woods. We went to bed before her parents came
home. I had a hard time sleeping because I kept hearing strange noises.
I actually became afraid to move. I wouldn't move until I heard Andrea
move. About an hour or so later, I felt funny. I looked over into the
room. I saw a pair of legs standing right next to the bed. I was
paralyzed with fear. I just shut my eyes and prayed that it would go
away.
The next morning, when I awoke, I saw that a Kleenex box had been moved
across the room, and a couple of other things had also moved. I asked
Andrea why she moved them, and she said she didn't. She then proceeded
to tell me that she thought that she had seen someone standing right
next to the bed. I told her that I had too. We were both terrified to
ever sleep there again. The next night we slept with a lit candle, and
didn't see a thing.
When we told her parents of the sighting, her mom said that it was our
imagination, and that Andrea shouldn't have told me the story of the
supposed ghost that lived there. She did not ever tell me such a story.
I had nothing in my head about ghosts living there.
Her Father had also woken up to see a man standing over him before we
ever saw him. I never went back to that cabin. But now, at the age of
21, I feel privileged to have seen what I saw.
by shaneh@xmission.com
The high school I attended was opened in 1915 and has been the site of
many odd happenings. One of my friend was a night custodian and has
told be some of the stories that other custodians have seen. The old
night custodians would bring dogs with them andthe dogs would bark at
walls and doorways and in the middle of the halls. One night in 1990,
one of the custodians was cleaning the top floor and something caught
his eye. When he looked up he saw a girl coming towards him in a blue
dress. She didn't have any arms or legs however. He remembered the
face put couldn't place it. He got up and ran down the stairs. The
next day, he was looking at a plaque in the foyer of the school and
realized were he had seen the girls face. It was the same face as the
picture in the plaque. It was an article of 50 students that had died
when a train had collied with a bus in the 1930's. Her picture was
there because she was one of the fatalites of the accident. He believe
that she had never realized that she died and continued her way to
school for eternity
by jfwright@carol.net
This story was told to me by mother, and in the retelling, I will tell it in
the first person as though she were telling it....
It is also important to understand that my mother and everyone on her side
of the family is deaf due to a genetic disposition.
The story:
I went to visit my cousins in Baltimore Maryland. That night as we went to
sleep, my cousins Marsha and Marjorie left a small light on the table in
case I were to wake up and need anything. We needed the light so that we
could see to talk.
I swear I had just laid down and had not even begun to get sleepy. I
noticed my cousin Marjorie climb down off the bunk bed above me. She leaned
over and began telling me (in sign language) to tell her parents that she
loved them, and not to worry about her. She said that she would miss them
very much, and that she hid the doll under the back porch.
It was about that time that I noticed that Marjorie had no face, and no
hands! Yet I knew it was her, and I understood what she was saying. As I
began to get scared, she just suddenly faded away. At the same time
something fell out of the bed above me, and I could feel it hit the floor.
It was Marjorie! She had fallen out of bed, and died (I learned later) of a
cerebral hemmorage.
I tried to tell my Aunt and Uncle, but they were obviously disraught and
kept telling me I was dreaming. Later, they would ask how I knew about the
doll. Apparently Marjorie had hidden her sister's doll somewhere and had
refused to tell them where, or even if she had taken it . They assumed that
Marjorie must have told me. I swore she didn't. And she did not. I didn't
know anything about the doll.
I don't know if it was precognition, or if she was dead and I saw her ghost.
I guess I'll never know, but I do know that I saw something very strange
that night.
That is the story as my mom told it to me.
by mhr7@cpsod1.em.cdc.gov
I just recently married to a wonderful lady who has a 10 year old boy from a
previous marriage, and I love both of them very much. Also I suspect that
they are responsible for my unexplainable experiences. Especially the boy.
My wife has told me stories of a few instances that she has had. The most
troubling occurred when she was a small child. One night she awoke to the
sound of a hideous voice. She rolled over to look at it and saw two red
eyes in the dark. Those eyes told her they were going to get her. She
swears to this day she was very awake. Another peculiar instance happened
after she had had her boy, but years before she met me. She had made him
breakfast and called him to the table. As he ate, she noticed him staring
at the floor, his eyes following one or more things. He then cautiously
raised his feet, put down his spoon, and held his legs to his chest. All
the while, he never took his eyes off the floor. Of course, my wife saw
nothing.
My wife has told me that she has noticed, black darting shadows out of the
corner of her eyes off and on throughout her life. I have noticed this only
once, about two weeks ago, around the end of June 1996.
Her son moved in with us a few weeks before we were married, and not under
the most pleasant of circumstances, unfortunately. We did our best to make
him feel loved and welcome. While he adjusted quickly, you could tell he
was troubled from time to time. And with his arrival came what I coined as
our poltergeist. Nothing really scary (like threatening red eyes), just
little happenings.
In our room in the middle of the night, I've been awakened by our vertical
blinds swaying and gently clacking on themselves. No fan or air
conditioning was on, and only about three or four of them were moving. I
recognize the identical movement when I walk by the blinds which creates a
breeze that moves them. Another day, my wife was just leaving for work. As
she looked back at the apartment while walking to her car, several of the
vertical blinds were swaying considerably, and only on one end. Again, no
fan, no open window, no air conditioning.
Once, I shut the door of our old microwave oven. It had been only slightly
ajar, like it hadn't been closed good. I shut it solidly, and to open it
takes a bit of effort (it's old but it works too well to replace it). We
came back about two hours later, and the door was ajar again. I showed my
wife this at the time, but to this date it hasn't happened again.
Apparently, the most dramatic occurrence took place when neither my wife or
me was there. Our boy had come home from school and was in the apartment
with friends. The friends were in the back bedrooms and our son was in the
kitchen on the other end of the apartment. The friends said that the
verticals in mine and my wife's room violently began shaking. That scared
them into our boy's room, where the horizontal blinds started shaking in the
same way. That's when they said they heard noises coming from the walk-in
closet. Then they all ran out of the apartment together, which happened to
be about the same time I arrived home from work. They were still wound up
like tops. They told me their breathless story, and when I went in the only
evidence I saw was that the horizontal blinds DID look rather shaken. I
know they're just kids, but I'm inclined to believe them.
Things have quieted back down lately (knock on wood). However, we're about
to move, so we'll see if that doesn't shake things up again.
by lilroundtop@juno.com
This story takes place in Alexandria, Kentucky. It had been a
beautiful day all day. My Aunt had just gotten married, and we were
partying at the reception. Just for some background information
Alexandria is a small but growing town, so you could imagine that the
reception was on a farm.
To hyper and wound up from about seven to ten caffeine filled
sodas us kids could not get to sleep till two in the morning. The last
people still awake in the house were me and my cousin Amie. We were
still laughing and joking when suddenly we stopped laughing almost
simultaneously.
My cousin Amie asked me what I was listening for. I said, "Don't
you hear that?" She answered with a funny look on her face, "Yeah." We
both heared pots moving in the kitchen. We peaked around the corner and
saw an open bottle of whiskey. After that we tried to get to sleep, but
the sound of liquid being poured into a glass awoke us again. We noticed
that some of the whiskey in the bottle was gone.
After about a half hour of no noises me and my cousin were almost
asleep when we heared a man clear his throat. Then we decided to go into
the kitchen and find out what it was, but when we peaked around the
corner into the dinning room we saw a chair facing us, the scary thing
about that is my grandmother always pushes the chairs in before going to
bed.
Next came the scariest part of the experience. The cat came
running out from behind us and sat in front of the chair meowing as if
there was some one there that the cat saw that she wanted to pet her.
The very next morning we told every one about it and then my mom
made a comment that my grandfather had died exactly three years from that
night. Chills went up my back and froze for a few seconds in shock.
I have more true stories, but we will save them for another time.
by lboone@cancom.net
I have always liked the idea of ghosts, but I never really believed until my
pop died in early 1990. I was always close to my pop and would visit him at
least every day; if not twice a day. He died very suddenly in January just
as my family was about to move into a new house.
As I said we are a close family and all my aunts and uncles came over to
help us fix the house up. Since my pop helped with the weekly bingo game at
the legion. He left suddenly and I didn't get to say good-bye. Later that
night after bingo, he died in the parking lot of the legion. I didn't find
out until the next day.
Now, My pop always said that he would see our new house finished and be
around to see all 13 grandkids married; he never got to see either. Well we
moved into the house and lived there for 3 years with no problem. then my
grandmother died and after that the footsteps started.
I would be in bed late at night and hear someone walk around the kicthen
for a while then walk down the hallway to the bedrooms. They would stop at
each of the three bedrooms as if checking the rooms and then walk in to the
closet and the steps disappears. This would happen at least once a night at
2:25 the same time my nan died in the hospital, I know it is ny grand father
looking for nan(she stayed with us for 2 year before she died). Also if you
are alone in the basement and noone is upstairs you can hear two people
talking and walking around.
Even now you sometimes get the smell of something baking(pop always loved
our homemade treats) even if there is nothing baking in the house for days.
When I asked my mother about the walking, she said she knew it was pop
because when I was born he told her that he would always take care of me
always; mom knows for a fact that he will keep his promise. I do to.
by DeannaS234@aol.com
It all began when I was two when my family moved
into a new home;the real paranormal stuff didn't
happen till i was six.when I would go to sleep
I would have a magnetic feeling like my hairs were
standing up on there own. well this caused me
to not wanna sleep in my room. I felt like the sprits
lived in my closet. so I still keep the door closed.
When I was ten I started to sleep in my in my room again
that is when that felling started once more thats all that happend
untill I was 13. Thats when I would hear voices talkin late at night.
That lasted a couple of months and then I saw a figure in
my room. It looked like a woman in her 50s.My dad seys he sees
her too.He is up at five.she hides things too.
When my 8th grade year began I started to watch a show
called Wishbone my mind would go totally blank and i would watch it. That
lased a couple of months. then i snaped out of it.(Im
14 I dont know why the hell I would watch that)
In May I got sick and I was asleep and I woke up and saw a
wite mist, Then I was brushig my hair and I hered voices.
so I got the hell out of there. Fed up I went to a lady called destiny
she told me that the ladyhad a child and it diad. that she killed herself in my room
that is why it is so cold.My house now stands ware an airport used to be and a plain
crashed.I recently spoke to Serena Saback she told me that they were very
troubled. Im going to talk to her again and I hope she helps me
I hope you believe me cause it is all true.
by blkfox@vvm.com
Hi! My name is Polly and I have a few events I would like to share with
you that happened in my parents house a few years ago. I need to give
you a little background information about the house. It used to be
a funeral home about seventy years ago. The enbalming happened in the
basement, the bodies were veiwed on the first floor and the living
quarters were on the second floor. There were two old ladies who use to
own the place before my grandfather bought it. The ladies had an black
man that worked for both of them. My mother told me that one of the old
ladies died there. They were sisters.
Now here is my story. It first started with my oldest brother and one
of his friends. They were playing on the first floor of the house when
they heard footsteps come up the basement stairs. the footsteps came up
the stairs the basement door that was located off the kitchen in the
laundry room. The door was a sliding one. That made a lot of noise when
you moved it. Well they were the only ones in the house. Our parents
were at work. The door started to slide open and they got scared and ran
to his friends house til our parents got home. My brother told my
parents what happened and they just said don't worry about it.
That was about 18 yrs ago. I am going to skip ahead a few years now. My
Grandparents lived with us till a few years ago. Granddad was working
and my grandma was relatives. They lived on the second floor. My brother
and I wanted something from upstairs but did not want want to go up
there. My said if we wanted it we had to go get it ourselves. So we did.
There are stairs that lead to the second floor. The stairs are a flight
of 13 steps. We walked up the stairs and went in the door on the right.
When we went in the door the door to my grandmas room opened about six
inches and slammed shut. There was nobody upstairs at that time. We ran
down the stairs and told my parents what happened. They went upstairs
and came back and told us nothing was upstairs. Then all of a suddened
the door to the basement slid open and slammed shut. It got real cold
in their room and the footsteps on the basement stairs started up and
lasted about 15 min. then stopped. I have a few more stories but I tell
them at a later date. If you have any comments or stories you want to
swap just email me at blkfox@vvm.com
by alexr@terrestrial.com
I guess I should start by saying that I'm not the first woman in my family
to have paranormal experiences. All the women in my family, matrilineally,
have have one experience or another. It's not so strange to us that we would
also have ghostly experiences.
I grew up for the most part in a tract house in So. California. My
great-grandparents moved into the house in 1956 or so, when my mother was a
toddler. In 1974, my great-grandfather was injured when a freight elevator
door fell on him, paralyzing him. My Ma (my great-grandmother) told me he
was very unhappy depending on her for everything and after teaching himself
to walk, he sent her out of the house, walked to the closet, removed his
shotgun, placed the end in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. He died in the
doorway of the master bedroom.
My first ghostly encounter happened when I was nine. I was asleep in my Ma's
bed in the master bedroom. I woke up about 2 or 3 in the morning to hear my
Ma in the kitchen, puttering around. I looked up at the door to see a very
distinct figure of a man peering aroung the doorframe at me. He was about
six feet tall, with white hair and clothing. He was so clear that I could
see his fingers curled around the doorframe and the white part of his
fingernails. I closed my eyes and slowly counted to ten. When I opened my
eyes, the figure was gone. I thought I was dreaming and went back to sleep.
The next night, I awoke about the same time to hear Ma in the kitchen
washing dishes. It was then I saw the figure in the doorway again. This time
however, he began to approach me. I closed my eyes, shaking, only to hear
the floor squeaking like someone was crossing the room. It stopped at my
side of the bed and I felt a light brush against my cheek, like a kiss. I
screamed and didn't stop screaming until Ma came running in.
As she calmed me down, I related the story of the past two nights. She got
up and removed a shoebox of pictures from the closet. She took out one
picture and showed it to me. "Is this who you saw?" It was, right down to
the clothing. I began to shake as she told me that it was my
great-grandfather. The family thought it was my imagination when she told
them, until they realized I had never seen that picture or heard the story
of his death before. It was later told he had died in the spot that I saw
him, one year before my birth. It was Ma's firm belief that he had been sent
back to protect me.
As I got older, he began to affect things in the house, to show his
presence. Floors would squeak like someone was walking down the hall. Doors
would open and shut. Cabinets open and shut. Chairs move. Objects would
disappear and reappear in places you would never put them. But he was never
seen by anyone in the family, except me.
I can remember one occasion, he trapped my mother in the kitchen by moving
chairs and cabinet doors in her way. I stood frozen in the living room and
watched until my mother in tears, cried out for him to stop and identified
herself by his nickname for her. It stopped suddenly, as if he realized who
it was he had terrified.
When I was fifteen, Ma got very ill and had to be taken to the hospital. I,
too, was sick at the time with pnuemonia and confined to a bed in the living
room. My grandfather got more active then. You could hear him pacing the
hall at all hours. He would do things he had done in life, like walk down
the hall to use the bathroom. (I'm probably the only person in the world
whose ghost uses the toilet.) Several times, he walked out to check on me. I
felt his presence as he came in ans sat down on my bed. I felt the bed sink
with his weight and reached out to feel the sunken area, but there was
nothing there but cold. I looked up to see and hear Ma's favorite music box
begin to play on its own.
It got to the point where you could see and hear his path through the house
as the front door opened, then shut, and footsteps though the house to the
back door, which opened and then shut. Everyone who saw this all agreed it
was as if someone had walked in, through, and out the house. For a week, we
all lived in a state of anxiety. Then, the night Ma died, it stopped. I
swear I could hear her voice in my head, berating him for scaring us all.
After that, he was very quiet, appearing only sporadically.
I moved out two years ago, and my grandfather came with me. When I told my
mother, she insisted I search my apartment for something that I might have
inadvertently brought from the house. Nothing. While talking to my mother
later on, she said she thinks that perhaps I am the object he has attached
himself to. After I left home, he seemed to leave the house alone except for
isolated incidents. But things happened in my apartment that I couldn't
explain except that he was here doing them. My keys disappeared and I fould
them in the freezer. My wallet would also disappear whenever I tried to
leave the house, only to reappear behind the TV. Lately, he's taken to
hiding my birth control pills (Is this a message?).
But still, I was the only one to see him until last year. My husband, then
fiancee, got up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water. I woke
just in time to see him jump back from the bedroom door, and he turned to
he. "Holy S---! There's somebody in the living room." I got up with him to
investigate and found no one. After he told me again exactly what he had
seen, I told him who he had seen. If he didn't believe me before, he
believes me now.
Grandfather has even spooked (pardon the pun) my stepfather. I was there
visiting,and he was lying on the couch, watching TV. He turned to my mom and
asked for a blanket, saying he was cold. My mom and I looked at each other,
since we both had said earier how hot we were. I got up and ran my hand
through the air about 18 inches above his body. It was much colder. I called
my mom over and she also said it was colder above him that the rest of the
room. We asked him to sit up. He did, taking a seat on one end of the couch.
As my mom and I stood there, we felt the cold spot move past us and center
on the couch where he had been lying. I started laughing, since how often
does a ghost wait patiently for you to scoot over and let him sit down?
He's been pretty quiet lately, but every so often I feel like he's here with me.
But, to this day, I will not sleep alone in that house.
by tmax2@ix.netcom.com
The incidences that I am about to describe are probably nothing and
probably have logical explanations. Im sure someone with knowledge in
the electrical field could come up with an explanation of why these
events took place. Anyways the happenings are of an interesting nature
and are somewhat startling. The events took place in a townhouse that
I previously lived in for about 3 years. On several occasions I would
wake up in the middle of the night by the sound of my television set
being turned on. On one occassion I woke about 3am in the morning for
some unkown reason. I immediately layed back down again to fall back
asleep again when the television set turned on. This was different
from the previous occasions because this time I witnesses the televison
turn on and there was no way I could dismiss or pass it off with the
explanation that I had mistakenly left it on before falling asleep. Up
to this point I had told nobody about the incidences. I was afraid
they would think I was crazy. Then about a year after all these things
had happened a last and final incident happened. It was about a month
before I was to move out and relocate to another part of the state. It
was about 11pm and I was sitting on my bed watching televsion with the
lights off. My dog was also there with me asleep at the end of the
bed. All of the sudden a lamp in the corner of my room clicked on and
adjusted itself to its full illumination. My dog, which never pays
attention to anything; stood up and began staring at the lamp for about
5 minutes. At this point I was so shaken up, I couldn't go near the
lamp to turn it off. I decided rather to leave it on all night and
turned it off later the next morning. The next morning I also felt
that I had to tell someone, so I told my girlfriend. She looked at me
like I had made this up. So I never told anyone else after that. Im
sure that there may be some kind of power surge in my room that could
have caused these things to happen. I'm not a firm believer in ghosts
and spirits and I am kinda skeptical about stories that i have heard in
the past. I still am skeptical about what I saw, I cant believe that
anything other than a logical explanation like a electrical surge
caused these things. But I known one thing is for certain. I did see
these things happen in front of my own eyes.
by raptor@ecis.com
I am a 46 year old woman who still remembers as if it was yesterday the event
that petrified me at the age of 16.
I lived in Palos Verdes, California when I was 13 and 14. During the time we
lived there, I began going to a new school and making new friends. I have
always had a kind heart and noticed a very lonely girl my age that looked as
if she needed a friend. Marie was to become a good friend for those 2 years.
We only saw each other at school as she lived down the hill and up the other
side...too far to visit for a junior high kid. But we were happy to be
friends at school.
When I was almost 14, we moved back to Orange County. A couple years went
by. Marie and I had remained friends through the mail. In the summer of 1966,
Marie invited me to come up and stay a week with her and her family during
the summer. My mother and step-father drove me up on a Thursday afternoon. I
was to stay until the following weekend.
As we drove up the hill and followed the written directions that Marie had
sent us, we turned around a long drive and there stood the biggest stucco
mansion I had ever seen! It was pink stucco, with a Spanish Villa influence.
Very pretty! I did not realize that Marie's family was so well off. I
gathered up my small suitcase and asked if Mom was going to see me up to the
door. Well, she and my step-dad were in a hurry to get back home. So I
kissed mom and watched them as they drove back down the long driveway.
I walked up to the only door I saw from where I had been left off. I knocked
and waited. A minute later, a young girl opened the door. She greeted me
warmly and said she was Marie's sister. Marie was out taking a driving lesson
and would be back shortly. "Please make yourself comfortable. I'll show you
Marie's room and you can put your stuff away." She was very pleasant and I
followed her out of the kitchen. As we walked into the foyer area, to the
left of me was a very large winding staircase. It went up and around and I
had never seen anything so elegant before in my life! She took me down the
hallway after we climbed the stairs. Goodness...there must have been 15
bedrooms up there! As it turned out, each bedroom opened out onto the hall
and each bedroom had its own full bathroom. We reached Marie's room (about 3
bedrooms down on the right) and I couldn't believe how large it was! There
were 2 double beds in the room...you could look out the window into the back
yard. To the left was a door leading to Marie's private bathroom. It was all
done in aqua and pink tile...lots of space. A huge bathtub and lots of sink
space and drawers. I was so overwhelmed by all of this..it was like a castle
to me. Marie's sister left me to finish some work she was doing in the
kitchen. She told me to make myself at home. Explore the house if I wanted
to. And then she left. I put my suitcase down and sat on the bed. Then I
decided to go look around at this magnificent house. I walked back down the
spiral staircase and found myself walking toward some stairs going down. As I
approached the stairs, I realized that the stairs led down to a very huge
formal living room. I stepped down to the bottom. The fireplace was as tall
as I was (5"0") and I remember walking up to it to see if I could stand in
it. To the right of the fireplace was a door...I looked in and found it full
of board games, a pool table, various things to do. A game room. That was
nice. I closed the door and looked behind and to the right of me. There was a
beautiful black grand piano standing in the corner. It was flanked on the
left side of it by the wall and long windows with formal curtains. It was a
nice place for the piano as the day's sunlight would shine on your sheet
music. And I thought the accoustics would be great. I had been taking piano
lessons myself for about a year and was very impressed with the size and
beauty of this grand piano. I looked around a little bit more and decided to
go back up the stairs and find Marie's sister in the kitchen. As I reached
the top of the stairs, I heard the most beautiful classical music playing. I
stood on the landing and looked down into the living room. There, at the
piano, was a young boy, maybe 13 or 14, playing this wonderful music. I
stood for a couple minutes and listened. He looked down at his hands as he
played. He was in his own world and didn't seem to see that I was there. I
knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to bother him, but I decided to walk
back down the stairs and sit on the sofa and listen. As I began walking
down, he stopped playing. He looked right at me and stopped. I felt so bad, I
didn't want to disturb him, and was about to say something when he stood up,
looked at me, did a 90 degree turn and walked out of the room. I went to
follow him, to tell him I was sorry for disturbing him...and when I reached
the wall behind the piano, I realized that this young man had walked straight
through an area that turned out to be a window that looked out over the
garden...with about a 10 foot drop. This was a solid glass window. No French
doors. No latch to open and jump. Just a solid glass window with formal
curtains, just like the one to the left of the piano. At that moment, the
hair stood up on the back of my neck as I realized I had not seen a real
person at all. I hurried over to the stairs, climbed up and rushed back to
the kitchen. Marie's sister was there and I immediately asked her where their
phone was. The house was older and had little alcove's throughout the house
for phones. She led me to one outside the kitchen area. As I dialed my phone
number Marie arrived home. The phone rang and rang. No one was home. So
little time had passed that my Mom hadn't even gotten home yet! Marie greeted
me and hugged me. She could tell that something was wrong...but I wasn't
about to tell anyone what I had seen. We walked out and went to the game room
to talk. I was so unnerved, I must have seemed like the guest from hell! I
excused myself and went back to the phone...I had to get out of there! There
was no way I was sleeping in this house. My mother finally picked up the
phone and in so many words told me that she wasn't making another trip today
to come and get me. I told her I was scared, that I'd seen something. Well,
she thought I was silly. "I think it would be rude of you to leave. Marie has
asked you to stay for a week. We will pick you up next Saturday." Well, that
wasn't the answer that I wanted. I called my boyfriend and pleaded with him
to come and get me. He had to work that night. GREAT! I was stuck, scared and
ready to walk home on foot if need be. As it turned out, I didn't sleep most
of the night. I was frightened beyond words. The next morning, my boyfriend
did come and get me. Marie was confused as to why I was leaving. I didn't
know what to tell her...in fact, I can't remember exactly what I did say to
her to explain why I was leaving to go home after only 1 day. And I never
spoke to Marie again...or wrote letters. I never found out who that young boy
was, but the experience had left me a believer.