 |
| Art by STEVE DITKO, copyright MARVEL COMICS |
Seeing as how Hallowe'en has only just passed, I thought it'd be okay to share this true tale with all you Mellows to maintain the mood. Are you alone? Are you sure you're alone? Perhaps you'd better check first before we proceed. Ready? Good, then I'll begin.
******
Not long after my family had moved into our new house back in 1972, a curious thing happened. My brother came downstairs into the living-room one night and claimed he'd just seen an elderly lady in white on the stairway outside his room. My parents pooh-poohed the notion, but, shortly after, my bed was moved from my front room on the grounds it was damp (the room, not the bed) into my brother's room, which we then shared for a few months (again, the room, not the bed). I suspect it was more to do with my brother being scared to be alone than it was with the risk of me catching pneumonia, but I grant it could've been a combination of both.
Some indeterminate time afterwards (a year or two perhaps), my brother again came into the living-room with a concerned look on his face and called us upstairs, saying that someone was walking around in the attic. We all trooped up to my brother's room and, sure enough, there was a sound of creaking boards - as though someone was walking from one end of the attic and back again. My father got out the stepladder and tentatively poked the top of his head a few inches into the hatch opening, but he was in no mad rush (nor were we) to more thoroughly explore the vast confines of its black interiors, so we put the noise down to some not entirely convincing 'rational' explanation and retired downstairs again.
Some years later, we moved house, and four years after that, we moved back again - with the exception of my brother, who'd acquired his own flat in the meantime. Now, I don't believe in ghosts, but the couple with whom we exchanged houses in order to return to our former abode, told me that one night while lying in bed, a ghostly apparition had drifted through the wall from my brother's old room into theirs, then floated right over their bed and melted through the window on the other side. They were a young couple and a bit flaky, so I put their 'experience' down to having partaken of a combination of too much alcohol and weed.
But here's where it gets strange (as you doubtless anticipated). A few years after having moved back, I was lying in my bed one night in the small hours when I suddenly became aware of a wizened old woman in white shuffling towards my bedside. She stopped and stooped, lowering her crinkled face towards mine as if scrutinizing it intently. For a moment I was paralysed, but then, with a growl, I sat bolt upright in bed to confront the ancient figure, who immediately retreated (still facing me) into the far corner of the room before fading into nothingness.
I sat stunned for a moment, not quite sure what had happened. Had I seen a ghost, the very one my brother had claimed to have seen so many years before? Or had I only been dreaming and suddenly awoken - with the figure in my dream somehow still visible before me, like some swiftly-diminishing after-image?
Who can say for sure? I still don't believe in ghosts, but that was certainly a moment which gave me pause for thought. Any of you fellow Mellows got any similar experiences? Feel free to share.
Interesting and fun tale Kid. Like yourself I don't belief in ghosts but I have had a couple of strange experiences. The most recent one occurred around 3 days after my mum passed away in 2013. As you can imagine I was upset and exceptionally tired as for 5 weeks I had stayed most nights in my mum's room getting very little sleep until my mum passed away . Anyway on this day I was in my house sleeping on my sofa when all of a sudden the lights in the living room and kitchen started rapidly switching on and off , this lasted for about 10 mins stopped and started again for a few minutes before stoping. This lasted for 2 nights so I thought I better called the electricity board in case I had a wiring issue. Sure enough the workmen arrived and I showed them a video of the lights flashing as it happened around 7 pm when they weren't working. Worried the workman said we will need to check your wiring as this could cause a fire. After checking they found it was ok so for a next step they decided to check the main electrical connection to my house and took up the road , the entire road and I live on the main street so traffic lights the lot. They were working for 2 days and the foreman came in and said we can't find any fault. He then asked me if I had rewired or done any work in the last few weeks inside or in my front garden. I replied I had done nothing as I was staying at the local hospital with my mum for the last few weeks before she passed away a few days ago. He looked at me and said I wish you had told me that before we tore the road up. We get a lot of these problems after someone parent passes. On his report he noted "no fault found, customers mother passed away ".and added ."You'll find things calm down now" and they did . Was it an electrical fault or something else?
ReplyDeleteThat's a very interesting comment, McS, made all the more fascinating by the fact that such activity seems to be recognised as being connected to someone dying in the house. You'd think, though, that if the Electricity Board had a lot of these incidents, one of the first questions they should've asked is "Has there been a death in the family recently?" rather than expect you (or anyone) to volunteer the information. If your mum was anything like mine, she'd likely be always telling you to turn the lights off when you exit a room, so maybe that was her getting her own back on you for leaving lights on all over the house. A story like that makes you think, eh?
DeleteI tend to think it was just a glitch in my power supply. I had an old style electric box at the time ( which was replaced a few years later) but you never know Kid. My mum had a similar experience to you when she moved into a new smaller house. She was in bed and woke up and saw an old lady with long hair, clear as day who walked into her room and looked at her and.then disappeared. She mentioned this to a neighbour a few days later and was told the house used to be home to a small old lady with long hair who passed away the year before my mum moved in. My mum never felt uncomfortable in that house and never saw the old lady again .
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a scary story, McS. I'm not sure I'd want to stay in a house where I actually saw someone walk into my room while I was wide awake. When you're having a doze when something like that happens, you can have a go at explaining it away, but your mum's experience sounds too specific to write it off as imagination.
DeleteNot an experience I would want.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's an experience anyone would want, TD. It's interesting, though, that some people accept such things at face value, while others are more sceptical and look for a more rational explanation.
Delete