After we moved from Harmon Ave. things changed pretty quickly. What seemed like some small activity going on at the old house turned into a daily performance at the new one. I don’t know if our old “friend” from the past residence followed us or if this was a whole new ballgame. Whatever the case, weirdness definitely ensued.
My mom was gone for the day, and I was downstairs watching “Hook,” with my new boyfriend. The movie blared through the speakers and the fights echoed from the surround sound speakers. After the movie left us in silence we discovered we were not alone. Just like in the old house, it sounded like someone was upstairs running around right above our heads. I was used to it, he, not so much. There was a tramping around that caused such a racket that I had to go up and investigate it.
He looked at me oddly as someone was seemingly being tackled in the bedroom upstairs. I laughed and told him it was nothing. But the distinct sound of footsteps could not be ignored. He implored me with his eyes, so I had to erect myself from the sofa to prove to him that it was, in fact nothing. Nobody was playing a joke on us, all that we’d find would be air.
I took the steps two at a time and opened the door at the top which led into my mom’s bedroom. He crept up slowly behind me and slid up next to my side as if I’d offer some protection from our eerie counterpart. His fingers wrapped tightly around my shoulder to the point where I had to ask him to stay in the hall way. The crashes from the bedroom were indescribable, but I was so used to this that I was not afraid. I opened the door and the room fell silent.
As I walked in there was nothing out of place, just as I knew there wouldn’t be. He was trembling, as he stepped over the divide from the safety of the hallway. He stayed there where I’d asked him to as he watched me look around. I raised my arms to his quizzical expression and shrugged. “Told ya.” I laughed out. He was not amused.
Over time small things happened, but as usual nothing bad, and the presence never felt evil or harmful in any way. It was mischievous at times though. In the living room is a small hand made glass swan on a mirror. It sat in the middle of a table, until it decided to move one day. My mom went downstairs to her swan because the mirror was now touching the wall, and so was the beak of the swan. She yelled for me, “Beth! What’s the deal?” I had no clue what she was talking about so I went into the living room to join her.
She motioned me over to the table, and we had talked of a ghost many times, so she thought I was pulling one over on her! She gestured to the swan and again said, “What’s the deal with this?” I laughed and assured her I had nothing to do with this little figure’s plight across the table. Well, she didn’t believe me, and became irritated with me. She gave up the fight, and moved the swan and mirror back to it’s rightful place.
The next morning, that little swan again decided to travel to a new piece of real estate. This pattern kept up for months. Every day we’d go down and find it in the same place with it’s shiny beak caressing the whiteness of the wall. Finally mom gave up. She stopped playing this game, and left the swan where she found it. We would check on it sometimes out of curiosity to see if the location had changed, but the only difference is that the swan itself would be moved around to face different things. Once it stopped moving altogether mom moved it back to the original spot, and it never moved again.
Those years of living there were very odd. When I moved out on my own it increased at my mom’s house. I guess it was upset I left or something. The t.v. in my old bedroom would turn itself on and off, and it would BLARE out as loud as it could go. Mom still made up excuses for these things and blamed it on a short in the tv. She unplugged it. She also started noticing smells that would waft up from nowhere. The range was from perfume, food and finally the stench of death.
I had some personal things occur and had to move back home. Once I came back it was like the icing on the cake. The t.v. in my room started having a mind of it’s own again, and in the middle of the night it would turn on, turn off… turn on, change through channels, increase in volume, turn off.. turn on… etc. Finally I got so frustrated I yelled out, “OK! I’m awake!! Enough already!!! Please stop, I’m trying to sleep and I have to be up early!” The t.v. shut off, and I didn’t have many problems with it again after that.
Slowly things started calming down around the house and we even joked that our ghost must have moved out. Only about 3 other things happened after the small stuff that was pretty memorable. We had a recorder on our phone, and every time you’d pick up the phone it would start recording as soon as the dial tone was heard. Well this will tell you how dated this story is…. haha, I had just gotten home from my 3rd shift job and picked up the phone to check the messages on my PAGER…yes, I said it.. pager.
Well on the tape you could hear all of this, but also a voice came across very distinctly that said, “I love my baby.” My mom called this to my attention again and asked if me I’d had someone with their baby over that early in the morning. When i looked at her puzzled, she showed me that. I was very unnerved, because I didn’t hear a thing when I had called to listen to my messages.
The next was on a day when my mom called me in a very frightened tone. She asked me where I was and if I was ok. I assured her I was fine and asked her what was going on. She told me that she heard someone speak in her ear as she lay in bed and it said, “Bye, Bye.” She immediately got a bad feeling and called those who were close to her. Oddly enough this is when almost everything had stopped.
The final event is one of the most fantastic events besides seeing “Ray” that I’ve ever had. I had moved out again by this time and was leaving. I could see into the kitchen, and my mom was actually facing me. We were mid sentence when we both stopped talking. The look on her face was priceless. She turned her head as if in a movie, and I felt it too. I looked up and into the kitchen to see a man in a Flannel shirt and blue jeans. There was nothing scary or even crazy about his actions. He simply walked across the kitchen and towards the living room.
My eyes watched & my mom’s head turned to see this adult male walk across the kitchen as if he belonged there. My mouth fell open. “YOU SAW HIM TOO!!!” she shrieked at me… “I”M NOT CRAZY!!” I stammered, “Uh… no you definitely aren’t crazy because I just saw a man walk through the kitchen.” My stepdad was in the living room watching t.v at the time, and heard us. We asked him if he’d seen the man come out of the kitchen and he looked at us like we were nuts!
It was such a neat experience, but it has left me with many questions. So, my search for knowledge continues on :) Thanks for reading.
