A Ghost in Residence

This is a true story, as far as I know...
Only the names of those involved have been changed since I am retelling their story, as it was told me:

Photo: Teresa Boardman, www.stpaulphotos.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - Mary and her husband Jim were the parents of three young children, 9 year old Becky, 6 year old Sara, and the youngest, James Jr., who was 2 at the time. They lived very modestly in small 2-bedroom apartment in a building situated on a bad block in a rough part of town.

Through the years, Mary and Jim had not been able to establish good enough credit to buy a house, but they had been saving money here and there in hopes of one day moving to a home in a safer neighborhood.

When a rash of shootings and burglaries broke out in the area Mary and Jim decided it was time to make a drastic change for their children’s safety no matter what the price.

They began looking at homes available for rent in the city’s upper middle class north end, the rent was high but the schools were much better and the streets were quiet and lined with Victorian styled homes with neatly manicured lawns and white picket fences, very different from the noisy, garbage littered streets from which they came.

After some time they found a home within their price range. Though the moving costs wiped out most of their savings, at least they would be able to sleep in peace knowing that their family was safe...

The house in the suburbs was quite large and beautiful, hardwood flooring and decorative wallpaper complimented the intricate trim detail and crown moldings. Yet there seemed to be something else going on beneath the surface.

It wasn’t long before Mary started to notice that something was strange about their new home, whenever she was alone in the house she often felt as if she was being watched... sometimes she even thought she caught glimpses of “shadows” darting across the room out of the corner of her eye.

She dismissed the experiences and chalked it up to being in such a large quiet space. All her life she had lived in apartment buildings with neighbors living above, beneath, and sometimes to either sides of her, she had never really experienced quiet like this before... that had to have been it ...her mind was simply playing tricks on her.

One Autumn day Mary was home doing housework and she started to experience the sensation of being watched again, she paused and glanced around the room not to merely catch a fleeting glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye, but a man! He was a short and dark skinned, apparently of Latino descent.

He was standing in the doorway that lead into the dining room leaning against the frame with his hands in his pockets. He wore a pale yellow polo-styled shirt with blue jeans and a baseball cap, and he was smiling a tight-lipped smile, shaking his head from side to side.

He looked as if he had been standing there waiting for her to see him! As soon as she looked at him, he turned and walked out of sight, into the dining room.

Mary dropped the vacuum cleaner and instinctively chased after him. As she entered the dining room she caught only a glimpse of him rounding the corner into the kitchen, entering the kitchen she caught a split second’s glimpse of him rounding the corner into the laundry room, then the basement. Frightened, she ran back into the living room, grabbed her shoes, jacket and car keys, and left the house until Jim came home. He checked the entire house and assured her that no one else was there.

A couple of months went by without any major incidents and Mary began to doubt what she thought she had seen that day, maybe Jim was right after all, maybe she was just exhausted and fatigued from worrying about their finances and working as much overtime as she could to help make ends meet.

Then, as Christmas was approaching, Mary began to see the shadows again.

Jim was outside one night helping an elderly neighbor set up Christmas lights on a tree in his front yard when the man casually said, “I’m surprised you guys have stayed there for so long, I don’t usually have time to get acquainted with people who move into that house because they don’t stay very long.”

Jim asked him what he meant and he said, “A worker died in that house about 8 years ago, they say he never left! Everyone who has moved in there since have been spooked by something, and then they move.”

Jim dared not tell Mary about this, it would only fuel her fears, and he asked their neighbor not to mention it to her either, nor would he tell her that HE had started having strange experiences and feelings in the home recently, especially at night, in the kitchen.

Christmas was beautiful in their new home, though they did not have much, they had each other. Family, friends and co-workers contributed towards buying gifts for their children that year, though despite the festivities they both could sense a lingering presence that seemed to constantly be nearby... watching.

By this time, friends and relatives began to complain about feeling an uneasiness and sense of being unwelcomed in their home. It seemed as if things were getting progressively worse. Taking the advice of a friend Mary decided that she should have the home cleansed, so she contacted an interfaith Minister that her friend recommended to her.

After a preliminary walk around, the Minister agreed something was going on in their home and he performed an impromptu house blessing but informed her that it could take several attempts before the spirit actually left the home and “crossed over.”

That night, the activity levels in the house reached an all time high for Mary and her family. As soon as every one was home strange noises began to come from the basement. Mary had not gone down there after her first experience with the dark skinned man.

It seemed as if things were falling or being thrown around down there. Then, they heard a loud crash upstairs, as if something almost came through the ceiling! Jim bolted to the top of the landing to find that the tall chest-of-drawers in their bedroom had been knocked down! It lay face down on the floor and the clock radio and items that were on top were scattered about the room.

Jim said that he then felt a hand on his shoulder, but he knew that he was upstairs alone. He dashed out of the room and down the stairs without looking back. By this time the baby was crying and the older children were clearly upset and afraid, everything had spiraled out of control and into total chaos!

Mary and Jim decided to leave the house, at least for the night. In a panic and rushed fervor they clumsily fumbled with the children, trying to get their shoes and coats together to get them out to the car, but there was one problem... it was freezing outside and they couldn’t find little Jim’s coat and all he was wearing was a t-shirt and underwear.

Mary ran upstairs into little Jim’s bedroom and standing there in the middle of the room was the same man she had seen before!

She let out a startled scream and Jim came running up to see what had happened. Mary could tell from his reaction that he saw the man too, standing there smiling, this time with his teeth showing, unusually long and discolored. Not fangs mind you; he just had abnormally long brownish yellow colored teeth.

He was wearing the same baseball cap and pale yellow polo shirt Mary had seen him in before but there was something different this time... He was WEARING little Jim’s coat!

The cuffs of the sleeves were just barely past the middle of his upper arms and the bottom of the dark blue coat hung just a few inches below his armpits. Mary and Jim nearly tripped over each other trying to get back downstairs. They grabbed the children as they were and rushed them out the door and into the car, they screeched out of the drive way and sought refuge at a relatives home.

The next morning Jim and his brother-in-law went back to the house to gather some of their belongings, Mary had already told him that she was never going back there under any circumstances. When they walked in the front door the first thing to catch Jim’s eye was his son’s dark blue coat sitting as if neatly laid out, in the middle of the living room floor.

Mary never did go back to the house. They left most of their belongings there and had to start all over, in a neighborhood similar to where they had started off...

I guess living in the suburbs isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be.

Happy Halloween!