Bish Denham made me do this. Thanks Bish and thanks for your super RANDOM THOUGHTS GIVEAWAY.
I don’t believe in ghosts. I don’t. Really. But . . .
Our house was built in the 1930’s as a mountain cabin for people from San Francisco who wanted to escape the city and live among the redwoods. We remodeled it when we moved in, adding a couple of rooms and reconfiguring the entrances and exits. I’m telling you this because it’s important to my story.
A few years ago things started appearing on stairs, on counters, and always in the original parts of the house. A red scarf came first and I asked every one of my friends who’d visited in the previous month if it was theirs.
“No.”
I finally gave it away and forgot about it. I wouldn’t have remembered it at all, except a few months later, I tripped over a pile of combs and ribbons on the stairs up to my bedroom. These hair ornaments weren’t mine, and I’m the only female who lives here. Still I discounted it. There had to be a logical explanation.
Then one day I went to put on my favorite pearl earrings and there was only one in my jewelry box. I searched. I cleaned drawers. I accused my family of playing tricks on me and trying to make me think I was losing it. First things appeared, and then they disappeared!
After three years passed, I decided that earring was gone forever, so I had a jeweler make a matching one for me. I brought the two earrings home, opened my jewelry box to put them safely away, and there in the drawer was my long lost pearl earring.
I don’t know how to explain why I have three pearl earrings, but I do. Nothing else has happened for years, but a friend who spent the night in the old bedroom swears a ghost visited him. He’d never heard my stories. He’s also never spent the night with us again.
Stop by. Say hi. |
Deb A. Marshall says
Great ghost story! I don't have any of my own but am working on a paranormal middle grade for NANO…so am coming across a lot of them in my research.
We just moved to an old church, renovating a bit at a time and we are next to what appears to be an abandoned old house…white, surrounded by old trees. Very spooky at night I must say. Happy Halloween!
Talli Roland says
Eeeeeeeee! Now I have goosebumps!
khashway says
Ooh, creepy! I think I try to stay away from supposedly haunted places because there is a part of me that does believe in ghosts and I'm afraid to tap into it!
Lisa Gail Green says
Oooh that's so cool! Well, probably not for you. LOL! Guess it's a female, eh? I've had a few things happen that I can't explain in my life, and I figure – why not?
Chipper Muse says
Creepy indeed! Great story to share at this time of year though. And it was well written too. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by my blog – I had no idea I was in the second round of voting!
Peni R. Griffin says
"Ghost" is the label our culture sticks onto weird phenomena, which in another culture would have another label. I always think of apports (items from nowhere) as more of a fairy thing than a ghost thing. In this case there's no sign of a dead person and no reason to think one's sticking around; but the fairy phenomenon can happen anywhere. But what's a fairy? No idea.
Moving things is one of the commonest fairy tricks. This story is far from the weirdest I've heard. They're always doing it to me, to the point that when I can't find something I stand in the middle of the room and say firmly: "All right, you've had your fun, now bring it back!"
When I had a soul-sucking day job, I was alone in the office with the research assistant when she came to me to see if I'd done anything with a CD she'd been using and had left in her disk drive. It wasn't one that impacted my job at all, so I hadn't, and everybody else was out sick or in the field. We retraced her steps all over the office, and couldn't find it, whereupon I recommended asking the fairies to give it back. She thought it was a dumb idea, but laughed and did it. Shortly afterward, she went into an office where she hadn't been all morning to get something else – and there was her CD, on the desk of someone who hadn't been in all day!
It isn't any more magic than electricity; only we don't understand it.
Marcia says
True stories are always the creepiest. There really IS stuff that there's no rational explanation for. But then, I want there to be.
MG Higgins says
Oooh. Truly creepy and well told, Lee. I love hearing mysterious true stories; I just don't want them happening to me.
Kari Marie says
That is frightening! I'm going to be thinking twice when I find random stuff around the house now.
Stopping by as part of Bish's blogfest.
Susan Fields says
Wow – that's creepy! I shouldn't have read this right before bed.
Yat-Yee says
Sounds like a girly ghost: pearl earrings, ribbons, combs. Leave out some lace and see what happens.
inluvwithwords says
I don't believe in ghosts either. . .but sometimes there's just no other explanation. Very creepy, Lee!
Carrie Butler says
Freaky!
…But it would make for excellent writing material. 🙂
Melissa Sugar says
Spooky. I do believe in ghost. We live in a really old house and we have ghost, or maybe just creeking sounds from the house settling. The idea of having ghost just appeals to me more.
nutschell says
Hello! dropping by from Bish Denham's blog hop.
Maybe the ghost is a bit of a pack rat and keeps dropping stuff!
nutschell
http://www.thewritingnut.com
mshatch says
thankfully no ghosts in my house. I do love a good ghost story tho 🙂
BUDDY says
I think you're trying to scare me.
Mission accomplished.
Kelly Polark says
Yikes! That is spooky!!!
I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but I hope one never visits me! I'd freak out!
(And like Stina, someone keeps stealing socks at our house!)
Bish Denham says
Wow! What a great story Lee. The true ones are always the best. At my sister's house there's a visitor who opens kitchen cabinets. We find them ajar in the morning, knowing full well we closed them all the night before!
Stina Lindenblatt says
Creepy!!!
We don't have ghosts in our house. Just sock gnomes. 😉
Ashling says
I do believe in ghosts; lived in a house with one. Wasn't thrilled, though he was benign. Was glad when he moved on. If one is going to have a ghost, a generous, scarf-offering spirit is a good one to have!
Jennifer Groepl says
I don't believe in ghosts. Really, but…
Love that. Sometimes we just can't explain stuff. I'm always amazed at the popularity of those ghost hunting shows, though. They never find anything substantial, but still we watch thinking this might just be the episode where it all comes to light! 🙂