Echoes of a Haunting - Revisited Page 9

  The only incident that marred my day was a report that Susan had discovered a small, tear-shaped burn on her finger when she woke up this morning.

  Sunday–July 29, 1973

  It was such a beautiful day today we decided to eat outside again. We hate to waste the summer days which are always gone too soon. Mum and dad had to leave early to take Mike and Cathie home but Shirl stayed. We were fixing supper early so she wouldn’t get too late a start for home. The route between here and Buffalo is ill-lighted at best and Shirl isn’t used to the road.

  The day was hot so Laura, Mary and Susan went swimming in the pond. Shirl and Phil were busy with the fire in the outdoor grill while I made the salad in the kitchen. A most idyllic scene! It was times like these that made me glad we moved to the country in spite of everything.

  Just as I finished adding the dressing, Mary and Susan came into the kitchen with very puzzled expressions on their faces. They started telling me about a woman they had seen dancing on the other side of the pond. I don’t think it occurred to them at first that the woman wasn’t really there. This is where I depart from the popular conception of “ghosts”. They do not appear wispy....at least ours didn’t. They looked as solid as everyone else so it’s not easy to recognize one right away. Your conscious mind shies from such a conclusion anyway. It’s only later the truth begins to sink in. Perhaps it’s just as well. A little distance from the event might serve to blunt its effect. They described her as having reddish hair, big blue eyes and buck teeth. They also agreed that her dress was made of “curtains” and that she spun around as she danced and disappeared into the tall grass. I haven’t the faintest idea of how they could have seen all these details from a distance of about fifteen feet but they were both adamant.

  As they told me about the woman, they became progressively more excited and it seemed to dawn on them that they had seen an apparition. We went out to tell Phil and he lost no time in running to the other side of the pond. Of course, there was no one in sight and no place anyone could hide. The girls walked around the pond with him, brave as long as he was at their side. They showed him exactly where she had been and how she had danced.

  Watching them ape her eerie dance sent chills rippling up my spine. According to their version, it was a lazy type of, perhaps, interpretive dancing. They were both so sincere, and so obviously upset, there was no doubting that what they said was true. The only way the description varied was that to Mary the woman appeared to have “rabbit” teeth while Susan said her teeth were long and pointed and each tooth had a red line running down it. How could she see such a minute detail?

  Strangely enough, although Laura had been in the pond with the girls, she had not seen the woman since she was facing the other way. The girls felt that Shirl did not believe them but I had a feeling she really did. The only other comment came from Mary and proved to be uncannily accurate. With the prescience of the young, she said, “I’ll bet that lady hanged herself. Her eyes were bugging out of her head.” Phil suggested I call Father Al. When I did, he said he’d be out as soon as possible.

  Father arrived in the early evening with a friend, Father Dermit. I think Father Dermit was appalled at the happenings in the house and thought they should bless the house–again. Father Al assured him it had been blessed several times to no avail. Nevertheless, Father Dermit thought he should “throw some blessings around” just in case. He blessed the family and asked protection for us. At this point, Father Al had no explanation for the woman on the pond but assured us we wouldn’t see her again. Not to belabor the point, but by this time we tended to take Father’s blanket assurances with a grain of salt.

  Tonight Craig and Randy stayed overnight with Mike and Darlene stayed with Beth so we had a full house again. I had gotten so used to extra kids in the house I hardly noticed. Since we moved in we had encouraged the kids to have their friends over, we lived so far from everyone. They had taken us up on it. Darlene slept in Mike’s room and the boys on the living room floor.

  Monday–July 30, 1973

  We had a good night’s sleep last night. This morning was something else. The three boys looked at each other as they came in for breakfast. Craig said to Mike, “I think you’d better tell her.” Phrases to drive you out of your mind! They told me. It seemed that the boys spent the night listening to something being dragged around. At first they thought it was Darlene moving something in Mike’s room but when they checked they found her sound asleep. They decided it must have come from the kitchen but each time they got up to check the sound stopped. Well, Phil and I had a good night’s sleep anyway.

  Wednesday–August 1, 1973

  The heat is still unbearable, especially upstairs. Nights are beginning to be a real trial and last night was no exception. Since sleep eluded me, I was quick to hear a sound at the foot of the stairs. Afraid one of the kids was sick, I got up to check. As I reached the top of the stairs, I saw a young woman at the bottom, just passing by. Without thinking, I dismissed it as Beth. As I turned to go back to bed, I realized that it couldn’t have been. In spite of the heat, a chill traced its finger down my back. The figure I saw was wearing a long, flannel nightgown trimmed with blue flowers and had long brown hair. Beth has short hair and she was wearing pink shortie pajamas. Quickly, I retraced my steps. The figure had been heading for Beth’s room and that thought galvanized me. Racing down the steps and around the corner, my hair rose at the thought of what I might see. What did I see? Nothing. Beth was sleeping peacefully and so was Mike. No one else was in sight. More games.

  Sunday–August 5, 1973

  With growing optimism, I realized this morning that it’s been several days since anything worth mentioning happened. Still, I’m afraid, this time, to hope it’s over. Two of our birthday cake companions, Dan and Danae, dropped by today. Danae will be leaving for the Air Force pretty soon and we’ll all miss her. Being her brother, Dan will miss her the most. While we stood talking in the yard Phil came out and asked me to talk him out of going to work. Thinking he was kidding, I just laughed. But, he wasn’t kidding. He said he had a strong premonition that something was going to happen.

  The second time he came out, he told me that Dolly was “stomping” all over upstairs and he thought there might be something wrong with her. I told him I thought Dolly was downstairs but he insisted. Humoring him, I checked under the couch and Dolly lay there, fast asleep. Phil said, “Then who’s stomping around upstairs?” When he checked he found no one, not even one of the pets up there.

  That settled it in his mind. Sure something was going to happen, he stayed home. As the evening progressed the atmosphere became more and more menacing and, perhaps, if Phil hadn’t stayed home something dreadful would have happened. As it was, he spent the night sitting downstairs watching and waiting. Not a calming activity in our house, I assure you. I think he almost hoped something would happen to justify his vigil. However, I am grateful it didn’t. Apparently, his presence paid off by keeping the house quiet and the atmosphere finally receded.

  Earlier in the day we had received quite a blow. Some of our friends told us that Laura was accusing every male around of having molested her. The news really stunned us. Laura has a learning disability and had just been transferred back to her own school from special classes. Since she is dyslexic, she finds reading very difficult. This disability had led to many emotional problems. We were afraid she had endured some sort of setback. Could the house be affecting her?

  The disconcerting thing about the whole thing was that when we questioned her we had the distinct feeling that it wasn’t Laura who answered us. Her phrasing was different, strangely formal and old fashioned and there was an odd look in her eyes. In fact, she seemed impersonally amused by the whole thing. I couldn’t understand it. Once more, I asked mum and dad to stop down so I could ask their advice.

  Monday–August 6, 1973

  Mary can no longer sleep in her room. It’s lucky Phil works at night so Mary can sleep with me. The atmosphe
re in her room is unbelievable. There seems to be a vacuum in there. There is a strong, very discernible physical pressure on your ears and temples. It causes your ears to pop as though the atmosphere were rarified. The only comparison I can make is the feeling when your ears pop in an airplane. In addition, if anyone is outside the window, just a few feet away, it’s as though they are worlds away and you can hardly hear them.

  Even dad noticed that phenomenon the last time he was here and he doesn’t claim to be sensitive to such things. Tonight Mary and I lay in bed listening to what sounded like furniture being moved around downstairs. When I went down to check, Beth said she was lying in bed listening to furniture being moved around upstairs in Mary’s room. In addition, Mary’s bed was creaking under someone’s weight although the room was closed and empty. As least I think it was.

  Tuesday–August 7, 1973

  Mum and dad arrived this morning and we discussed Laura and what should be done. We all agreed that she should go home with them and spend a week or so. Perhaps the house is doing this. The idea seems incredible but I don’t know what else would cause such an abrupt change in personality.

  Wally came today too. Charmaine called this morning and told me that she and Maureen were bringing him down in Maureen’s car. Wally has a bad leg and doesn’t drive.

  As usual, when they arrived the house really took a toll on Maureen’s car. Wally’s first words as he got out of the car were: “Something doesn’t want me here.” They told me that just before they left Buffalo, Maureen had several strange things happen to delay her departure. Then, as they turned onto our road, the exhaust system had fallen off her car. They wired it up and continued. When Maureen tried to pull the car up into the parking spot in our yard, the car refused to go into gear and they had to push it. Then they discovered it had developed a sudden gas leak. On hearing this, Maureen dissolved into tears. I don’t know what it was with cars but the house sure has been hard on them.

  I had told our friend, Betty S she could come up and meet Wally so I called her and let her know he had arrived. She said that Bob S, a reporter on the Olean newspaper, was visiting and she asked if he could come up with her if he promised not to print anything about the house.. Under those conditions we agreed. At the time I wasn’t aware that the reporter was Betty’s ex-husband. As usual, we had a house full of people so I’m afraid conditions must have been very trying for Wally.

  After much concentration and meditation, he said he felt we were being bothered by a family who had lived here previously and didn’t want us to have their house. He said he saw a mother, father, son and grandmother. He seemed to think that if we had been a quiet, elderly couple they wouldn’t have bothered us. They did not approve of our noisy, “free-wheeling” family. I have since come to realize that each psychic would have his own impression of our “visitors” and I believe whatever energy operates there determined from the psychic’s own mind what to generate. There was only one psychic who didn’t seem to fall under the spell of the house although even in his case I’m not positive.

  We hadn’t told Wally where the different incidents had taken place and yet he knew that Mary’s room was the worst in the house. Identifying cold spots throughout the house, he had broken out in a cold sweat in Mary’s room. He also felt that there were more spirits in the kitchen than anywhere else. This caused some furtive looking around by the people in the kitchen. He said he thought they would leave whenever we REALLY wanted them to go.

  Knowing that we have a subconscious, I thought that maybe we didn’t really want them to go but were unaware of the fact. Hindsight: Arrant nonsense! I determined that we would all cultivate the desire to be rid of them. Actually, if our haunting were caused by a family who had loved the house and meant us no harm, I wouldn’t have minded their staying. But this frightening atmosphere must stop!

  Wally asked if we were getting any reaction from the animals. All I could say was that Jinx liked sleeping in whatever room seemed the most disturbed while Fluffy and Julie did their best to stay outside at night and the parakeets were making the strangest noises. I was wishing I had possessed the patience to teach the birds to talk as they might have been able to pick up something we couldn’t hear and pass it on.

  I told Wally that gradually and without realizing it, we began to use Fluffy as a barometer. If she slept in a room we knew it was “clear”. I also related a rather strange incident involving Julie. One night she absolutely refused to come in and, since I don’t want them wandering around especially since Tyger’s death, I closed her in on the front porch. Again, the porch was fully enclosed and had a door that consistently jammed shut. We often had to kick it or pull it hard, it opened inward, to get it open. It also made a terrible noise of protest when it was opened. In the morning I got up to find Julie outside on the lawn and the door still closed. She was very frightened and wouldn’t come in the house all day. I even had to feed her in the yard.

  Betty and Bob were interested observers and Betty asked Wally questions about starting a psychic study group similar to his in our area. Wally, Maureen and Charmaine had a picnic at Charmaine’s campsite while the men did their best to fix Maureen’s car. They managed to repair it enough so that it would make it back to Buffalo and the trio left before it got dark.

  Mum was sleeping in Beth’s room again with Mary at her side on a cot. She had just gone to bed when I discovered another dollar was missing. We have been missing money at odd times for about a year and the total was mounting. It usually disappeared when no one was around to take it. I went in and told mum about it. With a smile, she informed me that she had just privately told the “grandmother” Wally had spoken about that if she were a grandmother she should be ashamed of herself. Now if she’d only listen.

  I was not to find out until tomorrow that mum was visited by the “grandmother” shortly after I left the room. Mum was not yet asleep as she could hear us talking in the kitchen. She looked up toward the door and saw a woman standing at the side of Mary’s cot. Since the figure was too tall for Mary and too short for me, she finally realized who it must be. As she watched, the “woman” disappeared. She was quite upset that she hadn’t had the presence of mind to ask who she was and what she wanted. Since she saw only a silhouette, she could not give a good description. She thought the woman had something on her head–perhaps a veil-like covering. Since mum is acting so matter of face about the incident, Mary isn’t too startled about having been so close to a ghost, or perhaps it hasn’t hit her yet.

  Wednesday–August 8, 1973

  Since Wally agreed with us, most vehemently, that Laura should leave the house for a while, we decided she should go back to Buffalo with mum and dad. Wally had realized that Laura was affected by the house without my telling him. He asked me privately if she had undergone a drastic personality change just recently. When I confirmed his suspicions, he told me to get her out of the “damn house”. He thought she may have picked up someone else’s thoughts since he said he had sensed that a violent attack had taken place on a woman in the house many years ago.

  In addition to this unnerving piece of news, Charmaine gave me more reason to worry. She told me that Laura had been swimming with her in her pond and Charmaine had told her not to swim out too far. Laura said, “It’s okay; I know I’m going to die young and it doesn’t matter because I’ve seen everything anyway.” Charmaine said her eyes looked like a cat’s eyes. She, too, felt she hadn’t been talking to Laura–the same feeling we had. The description of her eyes as being like cats’ eyes may be because Charmaine isn’t too fond of cats. Nevertheless, since Charmaine hadn’t known about the change in Laura, her report frightened me.

  Mum and dad will be taking Laura to Buffalo tomorrow so, rather than have a big hassle, I told Mary she could go too. I’d just as soon both of them were out of the house until something is settled. Besides that, they’re both helpful to mum. With her leg still in a cast, she needs all the help she can get. Secretly, I know that to get away from th
e house until something is settled would probably entail moving to Buffalo.

  I explained to Laura what Wally had said and she promised to tell me if she gets any more weird ideas. I get the distinct impression she’s humoring me. Is it her? It’s going to be hard on her, suspecting every thought. At least she won’t have to worry when she gets to Buffalo, Wally warned me that she is very psychic and, since she doesn’t know how to control it, she is picking up vibrations from the house and misinterpreting them. This gets more complicated all the time! If I could only understand.

  Mike has been out all day at his friends’ houses, just visiting. He doesn’t seem to like to stay home anymore and I don’t blame him. This is his last summer at home and he feels he had to be in the house at dark in case anything happens. I’m not at all sure what he can do in any case. I went into his room tonight to pull the shade and felt eyes on me. I couldn’t be sure of the feeling so I decided to test it. I brought Fluffy in and sat on the bed with her.

  This normally complacent cat went crazy and scrambled out of my arms and out of the room as though she thought her life depended on it. I felt cold air moving and held my hands out over the bed. Cold air was rising from it! Cold air doesn’t rise! I had this insane vision of my physics teacher saying “Warm air rises; cold air sinks.” No sense, no sense at all.

  I went into the living room and said to mum, “Why did you have to break your leg?” She knew what I meant right away and made everyone go into Mike’s room to pray.