Echoes of a Haunting - Revisited Page 14

  Monday–October 29, 1973

  Today they moved Mike–to an eight bed ward! The rest of the patients were elderly men, none of them brimming over with good humor. I hope he doesn’t have to stay in such depressing surroundings very long. He has developed pneumonia and therapists come in five times a day to get him to cough. He is being as uncooperative as possible and even my scolding doesn’t change him. When he didn’t cooperate they had to suction his lungs, a procedure he hated even more. The oxygen mask really cut into his eyes so I finally took it off and he seems to be breathing all right. When I asked the doctor, he agreed that the mask was no longer necessary. I remember my own discomfort when I had to wear an oxygen mask so I sympathized with his plight. At this point, Mike really began fighting everyone. He didn’t want to do anything he was told. At least he had some spirit left, misguided though it was.

  I talked to the nurse in charge and she said they were planning on moving Mike to a semi-private room as soon as possible. That was good news!

  Tuesday–October 30, 1973

  They moved Mike to another room this morning! He is all alone now but they figured it wouldn’t be too long until they’d have to put someone else in the room with him. Mike had a visitor today. A boy from down the hall visited in his wheelchair. He was awaiting an operation on his legs, the third in as many years. He, too, had been in an accident. It cheered Mike to have someone different to talk to. He was getting more restless every day.

  More important, perhaps, the eye doctor stopped by. At first, I didn’t realize she was a doctor, she looked so young. After talking to her for only a minute, I had complete confidence in her. She’s that type of person. I was alarmed at first because she said that Mike had a slight leakage in his brain. She was glad it wasn’t in his eye. It sounded awful but she assured me it was all right. She told me she thought Mike’s eye would be okay although he would probably have to wear glasses. I would have to get a prescription for eye drops when Mike went home and be sure to use them. Just weeks ago (2009), Mike had to have a trauma cataract removed. It had been caused by the impact when his eye hit the mirror. Miraculously, he didn’t need glasses for a very long time. I felt a lot better for having talked to her. After she left I noticed that she had really cleaned his eye up and it looked a lot better.

  Mike was cranky today and wanted desperately to go home. On the rare occasions that he was allowed to get up, he was still very weak and found it difficult to move. I told him I’d call Mary S and Keith and ask if they’d visit him. I’m not sure it cheered him up but at least I tried.

  Wednesday–October 31, 1973

  Halloween! The girls had sent Mike some paper sculptures of goblins and witches to decorate his room to try to make him smile. Keith and Mary S came to visit him this evening. Mary was dressed as a pumpkin, which brought a laugh even from Mike. She was embarrassed at all the attention she attracted in the corridors but I told her she probably made the day for many homesick patients. Mary is so pretty anyway, she actually looked good as a pumpkin! I wonder if Keith is aware how crazy she is about him.

  Thursday–November 1, 1973

  It’s hard to believe that November is here already. Mike is really getting cabin-fever and wants so badly to go home. It is getting harder and harder to keep him quieted down. Tonight he had other visitors–Grace, Darlene and Susan brought Annette, a friend of Mike’s who had moved to Buffalo, to see him. They all had a nice time and Mike’s spirits were a lot better when they left.

  I saw the neurosurgeon in the hall today and told him that Mike had been playing a “maze” game and had beaten me. He seemed pleased and then suddenly grabbed my hands and said, “But he’s alive, he’s alive!” Now I realize just how close he had come to dying.

  Friday–November 2, 1973

  Mike said the doctor thinks he can go home tomorrow if he continues the way he has been. He’s so thin. I don’t think he’ll ever gain back what he has lost. He has never been very heavy but he’s cadaverous now. His friend, Annette, came to see him again tonight. This time she brought her mother and father. We hadn’t seen them since they moved out of town some months before. What a pretty girl Annette was becoming! Mike seemed to think so too. Some of his instincts were still functioning.

  Saturday–November 3, 1973

  Mike came home today! Phil and I took him home with many misgivings since he still had difficulty sitting up. He hadn’t gotten his stitches out and wouldn’t get them out for another week. This and the weakness made him lean heavily on me all the way home. We had told his friends to wait until tomorrow to come over since we knew he’d be too tired to see anyone today. Mum and dad and the girls were delighted to see him. Almost as soon as we got in the house the phone started ringing. The kids were going to visit in small groups starting Sunday.

  We just heard that the town had a Mass said for Mike while he was in the hospital and almost everyone in town attended. Ordinarily, only Sunday Mass is celebrated in the small town church, but on this occasion, it was opened up in the middle of the week. This was when Mike was at his very worst and may have helped sway the balance.

  Saturday–November 10, 1973

  All week, Mike’s friends have been coming up to visit, cheering him up quite a bit. While his company is with him, he is witty and laughing. After they leave, though, a heavy fatigue overcomes him. I’m not sure how much of it is psychological. When he saw the incision running from his clavicle all the way to down his chest, he was very upset. The condition of his eye continues to bother him. It is still very discolored and swollen. I told him the incision would look much better once the stitches were taken out and his eye would just take time to improve. Getting his eye drops in really annoys him.

  Keith is staying at his camp for the weekend. I was so grateful to him and Mary for visiting Mike in the hospital and I told him so. He confided that he was thinking of moving down here. He asked if he could board with us until the weather was good enough for him to say full time at his camp. I promised to talk it over with Phil tonight.

  Clarke told us he had a very harrowing experience recently on the road although he didn’t elaborate. Today, he brought a group of kids up to see Mike. After visiting for a while, they left and started down the hill. On reaching the spot where Mike had his accident, the car went into a sudden, uncontrollable skid.

  They wound up at the top of a hill on the left side of the road and on the other side of a six foot wide ditch, facing UPHILL! Clarke called Phil and he had to go down, put planks across the ditch and steer the car while the boys pushed it across the very shaky, makeshift bridge. The planks lasted only long enough for the car to reach solid ground again. What on earth is at that spot? Years later, Clarke took a picture near that same area. He was aiming for the scenery which, from that vantage point is lovely. It was autumn and the colors were spectacular. However, when he got the picture developed, there was a figure on the right side that hadn’t been there (at least visible to him) when he took the shot. When you study it, it resembles either a hunched man with a backpack or a Native American woman with a papoose on her back. No comment....just mentioning it.

  Since the accident, everyone has been treating the road with much more respect than usual so I have no idea how such a thing could have happened. Phil couldn’t see how a car could get into a position like that even if they’d been going 100 miles an hours.

  I asked for more details about the previous incident. They told me that Clarke had been visiting the girls while I was at the hospital with Mike. He and Destry, another of Mike’s friends, then left and started down the hill. It didn’t take Clarke very long to realize that he wasn’t steering the car! He let go of the wheel and they car skillfully negotiated two miles of winding, mountainous road with no one’s hands on the wheel. Clarke and Destry pronounced it “cool”. I told them they were crazy.

  Sunday–November 11, 1973

  Beth has decided to break it off with Jeff. She had been stalling, afraid of hurting his feelings, but she
finally told him of her decision. He was very upset and kind of bitter. Besides a basic difference in religion, his possessiveness was beginning to bother Beth.

  Wednesday–November 14, 1973

  I took Mike into Buffalo today to have his stitches removed. The doctor was pleased with his progress and set up an appointment for a checkup in about four weeks.

  Tuesday–November 20, 1973

  Since Mike was really getting sick of jigsaw puzzles and TV, it was a relief when some of his friends decided to spend the night. I have always bragged that the eerie phenomena always stopped when I entered the room. As usual, (especially in this crazy house), I should have known better than to speak too soon.

  Mike called me downstairs after the boys had supposedly settled down on the living room floor for the night. He told me to look at Mike N. They had had nothing whatever to drink, and yet Mike N appeared to be very drunk. He changed personalities from one minute to the next. I know that when I went upstairs to bed not five minutes before, he had been fine. Now he was reeling drunkenly, pounding against the closet door and saying, “Tell them to stop talking about me.” This was the same door from which the men had appeared to Phil.

  Everyone thought it was funny. I didn’t. I told him to settle down. He was smoking a cigarette and just flopped down on the floor. I said if he weren’t more careful he’d set the house on fire. Just as I said that, the ashtray slid three feet across the floor to stop right in front of him. Without batting an eye, he put his cigarette in while the rest of us gaped in astonishment. One more thing I couldn’t brag about any more.

  Saturday–November 24, 1973

  This evening Jeff drove up to show us his new car. It was a late model VW and was in very good shape. He was so proud of it, although he made a point of saying he bought it to take Beth out. Obviously, he doesn’t want to accept their breaking up.

  Sunday–November 25, 1973

  This morning we had a very shattering phone call. Jeff had an accident last night on his way home from our house. It was raining and he had just crossed a one lane bridge when the car went into a skid, hit a tree and overturned. Jeff was thrown out of the car. It was quite a while before he was found on the back country road.

  Beth, Phil and I went straight to the hospital. Jeff was in Intensive Care in the Olean hospital and could have no visitors. He was still undergoing tests to determine the extent of his injuries. We stayed for a short while but left when Jeff’s father promised to call if there were any changes. Beth decided to stay for a while longer and Jeff’s father promised to drive her home.

  Monday–November 26, 1973

  Jeff’s condition is deteriorating. The doctors found two small skull fractures and wanted to operate. Because of his family’s religious beliefs, he couldn’t have a blood transfusion so an operation was out of the question. There was talk of transferring him to a hospital in Buffalo. The hospitals in this rural area are not equipped to deal with severe injuries.

  Tuesday–November 27, 1973

  With considerable relief, I heard that Jeff was being transferred to Buffalo today. Beth asked if she could take a week off school and stay in Buffalo. She wanted to help take care of him. Since her grades are very high, I gave her permission. She’s going to stay with mum and dad, who are always glad to see her. Beth knew that Jeff would not remember their breaking up and she thought he needed the morale boosting her presence would give him. I agreed.

  Wednesday–November 28, 1973

  The house seems very quiet without Beth. Maybe part of the quiet was also due to everyone’s awareness of the second serious accident within a short five week period. It was a very sobering thought that cast a pall over the house. I was getting paranoid about anyone driving in the area.

  Sunday–December 2, 1973

  I went into Buffalo to pick Beth up today. Jeff’s parents called me during the week and told me how grateful they were to Beth. Because she was always there and willing to help, they didn’t have to hire a private nurse.

  Before we left, I stopped in to see Jeff and was shocked by his appearance. Beth said he looked 100% better than he had. He was virtually blind, both eyes blackened and he had many contusions and abrasions. Jeff’s eyes were weak anyway but the accident made them, temporarily at least, much worse. I recommended Mike’s eye doctor to Jeff’s parents since Mike’s eye had improved so much under her care.

  Jeff really hated to see Beth go. It was going to be hard for Beth to remind him that they had broken up. Later, we visited Jeff at home. He confided in me that just before the accident his windshield had been covered by “balloons”. He panicked and swerved the car. The balloons had faces.

  Tuesday–December 4, 1973

  Beth’s complaints about the voices at her window had resumed and, since she returned from Buffalo, were becoming more frequent and alarming. She said she could now make out some of what they were saying. It was a man and a woman talking. Occasionally, the talks would be punctuated by “someone” hitting our oil storage tank, also outside the window–hard! This, even I heard. What really alarmed Beth the most was that they had started calling her by name.

  Her stomach had really been acting up lately. I wonder why! So I made an appointment for her to see the doctor. No wonder she was sick!

  Saturday–December 8, 1973

  A group of boys stayed overnight tonight and witnessed a very frightening event. They had all crawled into their sleeping bags and cots and started to settle down for the night. Suddenly, Beth walked out of the bedroom, glassy eyed. She went into the kitchen and sat on the floor, leaning against the front door. I am told this door is no longer there. It was a few feet from Michael’s room and led to the porch. Mike, figuring she was walking in her sleep–although she had no such history–gently led her back to bed.

  A few minutes later, out she came again, this time kicking everyone in sight. She sat on the couch, extended her arms and began fondling what seemed to be a large ball, invisible to all except Beth. She kept crooning, “It’s all mine. Mama gave it to me. It’s all mine. So pretty!”

  When the boys tried to divert her attention, she went into the bathroom and began a motion resembling kneading bread, over the bathtub! We found out much later that the bathroom had once been a pantry.

  By now, the boys were following her closely, worried about disturbing her. She tried to get out the back door and, when they stopped her, she fought like a wildcat. When they finally got her calmed down, she went into her bedroom and tried to climb out the window. Again, they grabbed her and made her sit on the cot in the living room.

  I must explain–the cot was made of heavy aluminum, was fairly new and had heavy duty springs. It had easily held many heavy people. We always used it when we had company. Beth weighed 110 pounds and yet, when she sat down on it, it bent and both sides cracked and broke.

  At this point, Mike woke Phil and me. We raced downstairs and found her in a daze. She sat, quietly sobbing, on her bed. Phil told me to take her to bed with me and he’d sleep in her room. She was trying hard to laugh at the incident but, since it was a complete blank to her, wasn’t having much success. She was very embarrassed. The report that bothered me the most–during the whole episode Beth’s brown eyes were a very definite blue!

  Tuesday–December 11, 1973

  I took Beth to the doctor today. He advised her to take it easy for a while and to take antacid for her stomach. If that didn’t help, he would send her in for x-rays. I didn’t mention the strange incident of the other night. I was afraid he wouldn’t believe me and I think it would have further embarrassed Beth. If only she didn’t hear those voices outside her room every night! She refused to leave her room. She said that they made Mary give up her room but she wouldn’t allow them to force her out of hers. I thought perhaps I’d better spend the night in her bed some night and see if I could hear her “friends”.

  Mike had an interesting thought. He wondered if he hadn’t led her back to her room when she sat quietly on the kitchen f
loor if it would have prevented the incident. He reasoned that whatever had led her out of her room that first time had meant to protect her. He had led her right back into the malevolent atmosphere of her room.

  Wednesday–December 12, 1973

  Two boys from town stopped by today. I had never met them before. They had heard that Alex had wanted us to look for grave sites in the area and they were volunteering to do just that. I think the real reason they were so willing to help was that the one boy had just gotten his car and probably wanted an excuse to drive it around. I confirmed what they had heard but told them they were strictly on their own. I’m not about to start “sponsoring” searches. Hindsight: I probably should have forbidden them to go but I don’t think it would have done any good. They were anxious for an adventure.