Ghost Story #3

All Halloween All Week

When Todd and I were first married we decided it would be best if I moved into his dingy little apartment that was 5 minutes from his work and 45 from mine. It was the upper unit of an old house that he had gotten word of thanks to a good friend whose great aunt lived downstairs. Sure I knew about the walls that would drip with moisture in the winter, the shower (that was really a former closet) that you had to stand in crunched over like a humpback so you didn't hit your head on the slanted roof, the one small closet for both of us to share, and the less than normal landlord, but I moved in anyway. Why? Because the great-aunt-less-than-normal landlord only charged $150 a month for rent. That's why! A short time there and we could save up for our first house. It was worth the sacrifice.

So even when the landlord started asking us to come downstairs and check out her house because there was a little man hiding behind her TV, or a father and daughter sitting on her bed, or a spaceship flying in the porch area, we still stayed put. We did start to get concerned when she called me at work and asked my co-worker if I could please come home and collect all of my snakes, dragons, and alligators and put them back in their cages because they were scaring her. Sure she freaked us out every once in a while but we knew she was a sweet lady who was most likely just hallucinating from not taking care of her diabetes as she should.

We put up with it all to save a few bucks and it was worth it. Until it wasn't.

Our first Christmas in the apartment I tried to decorate and make the place look as homey and cozy as possible. I put up all my snowmen and reindeer, and even put little white lights and red bows on our fern tree. One of my favorite decorations was a set of snowman candlesticks. There was a momma, a daddy, and a little kid snowman, and they all had long white candles in them. I displayed them prominently on top of the television.

Soon I discovered that just about every time I would come home from being gone for a few hours the momma snowman would be turned around facing the wall. At first I just chalked it up to big trucks driving by and vibrating the floor. Or maybe Todd had bumped it. Or maybe I just nudged it when I was watering the plants. But then after a while I would specifically put the momma in a spot where I knew she couldn't turn around and yet, sure enough, I would come home and there she was facing the wall.

Seeing as how I had told Todd all about this strange occurrence I started to wonder if he was messing around with me. Was he turning the momma around? Nope. He promised. Then there were times when Todd was with me every minute of the day and we would come home and she would be turned around so I knew he was telling the truth.

This went on for as long as I had the decorations up and I was happy to take them down a little earlier than usual that year. There were a few other strange things here and there, noises and such, but nothing that really made me want to give up that $150 in rent.

Until one night.

It started out the same as any night. We went to bed, Todd on the right hand side closest to our bedroom door and me on the left hand side closest to the windows. We gave each other a good night kiss and then rolled over both facing away from each other. We are SO not cuddly sleepers.
A few hours later I awoke to footsteps walking across the living room floor. I listened as they approached our bedroom. Being too tired to turn around and look I just assumed it was Todd coming back from the bathroom. The footsteps continued into the bedroom, to the bed, around to my side of the bed by the windows, and then stopped at the foot of the bed. That's when I felt someone sit down at the end of the bed right by my feet. My legs even fell slightly to the side toward the dip in the bed.

I was so confused. Why on earth was Todd sitting at the end of the bed? On my side? What was he doing?

"Uh, honey? What are you doing?" I asked him, annoyed that he woke me.

And from directly behind me in bed Todd said, "Huh?"

I jumped about a foot in the air nearly giving Todd a heart attack. Hearing his voice come from his side of the bed, instead of at my feet where I expected him to be, gave me the fright of my life. I grabbed onto Todd and looked at the foot of the bed and there was no one there. The sensation of someone sitting on the bed was gone just like that.

I retold Todd the story through my tears and when I was done he got up to explore our tiny apartment. Of course, no one was there. And that was it.

The next week we started looking for a new house.

(Todd was just reading this to make sure I hadn't missed anything and he said, "Oh yeah. I never really told you this but someone who had lived in that house had committed suicide in the garage in the backyard before we moved in. I guess I didn't want to freak you out." Yeah. Thanks, hon.)