Appropriate post for Halloween Month!

Do you believe in ghosts? I don’t. That’s why I’m a little freaked out.

For a while now, before I even married Scott and he lived at our house by himself, there has been a strange creaking in the corner of the ceiling on our bedroom. He would joke that it was the guy who lived in the attic. Well, I gave credit to wind and settling of the house, as any rational adult would, until my son started TALKING to the corner. Well, talking to the man in the corner! I’d catch him (though not often, admittedly) blabbering to nobody (it seemed) and I would ask who he was talking to. He’d point to the corner where the ceiling meets the walls and say “that man right there!”

*Shudder*

Then, once while Scott was out of town hunting, James and I were left to fend for ourselves, since Clara was spending the night elsewhere. I got up from my bed where I was watching TV to get a drink pretty late into the night (James was asleep in my bed already). I went into the kitchen…and no lie, my dishwasher was going. I did not start it. I wouldn’t have started it and forgotten because it wasn’t even half full and I am a water lover, not a water waster. Ask my husband. He’s been b*tched at about wasting water plenty of times.

Anyway, I stood there for a second trying to rationalize this. The alarm was on. Clara was not home. My parents have the type of dishwasher that, if you lean on it you might accidentally turn it on with your hip. Not mine…you have to manually lock it, and then manually turn the knob. So the theory that perhaps the dog had bumped into it went out the window. I honestly could not figure out how that thing was turned on.

So I did what any rational adult would do – I FREAKED OUT and called my mother. Told her what happened. She groggily asked what I wanted her to do…of course I didn’t know. I didn’t think a ghost did it – I thought a ROBBER CAME IN and STARTED MY DISHWASHER and he was still in my house waiting to pounce. So, Mom came over and checked everything out for me. Under beds…in closets…behind curtains. Nothing. She left and called me when she got home and I made her stay on the phone with me while I armed myself with wine and/or beer (can’t remember) to help me sleep – I was NOT going back in that kitchen by myself. I locked the door and barricaded myself in my room with my son and my dog.

When I woke the next morning, all was well.

Since then, we’ve had a few instances of James talking to the Man in the Corner and hearing the creaking, but nothing huge like the dishwasher. We’ve joked around about the ghost in our house, not really believing that there’s an ACTUAL GHOST in our house, but maybe sorta kinda thinking maybe there just might be. Mom said that if we DO have a ghost that started the dishwasher, I should probably just leave my vacuum out and plugged in, just in case Ghostie feels like cleaning some more.

This past weekend, I was watching TV on our bed, Scott was on the computer, James was in the living room, and Clara was (of course) not home. I heard a noise coming from The Corner but it wasn’t the usual creaking, it was an actual KNOCK. A light knock, but a knock. Two raps. I told Scott about it and we nervously giggled about our ghost, and he of course assumed I was REALLY hearing something else (and me too, truthfully).

Till that night. That night James slept on a pallet and we had the dog in our room with us. The cat still gets a little rambunctious at night so we didn’t keep him in the room when we shut the door. Somewhere deep in the middle of the night, I heard BANG BANG coming from our bedroom door. Two raps. But not just little light knocks. Hard enough to shake the door in the frame. DEAR GOD, I must have dreamed that. So I lay still, holding my breath, waiting to see if there was more in store. Silence, except for Scott bolting upright, ears perked. We stayed like that for 60 seconds or so, when I finally whispered “what WAS that?”

“You heard it too???” he asked. “I thought it was just me! I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“No,” I said, “I heard it too. Someone knocking on the door.”

We were both kind of scared out of our minds, I felt down beside the bed to make sure James hadn’t gotten up - no, he and the dog were sound asleep right beside me on the floor. We were terrified to voice outloud what we were both thinking…REMEMBER THE KNOCKS I HEARD EARLIER???

I went to the restroom (if I died at the hands of an evil spirit I was not going to go out with wet undies!), came back and asked Scott if he was going to check it out. He hesitated ever-so-slightly and said “yeah.” He got out of bed and opened the bedroom door and our kitty ran inside. “Ohhhh!” I said. “It was the cat! My parents’ cat used to knock on the door when she wanted in.”

Yes. Our undersized cat who weighs maybe 6 pounds made the door shake in the frame. C.K. would lightly rap on the door with both paws, over and over. Not two big bangy bangs. But whatever. It was the cat right?? Had to be the cat. What else could it be?I told Mom this yesterday, and she assumes it IS a ghost, a benevolent ghost who starts the dishwasher and who knows the cat wants inside with the rest of the family. After all, as she pointed out, a ghost could just go right through the door if he wanted in. But he couldn’t bring the cat in so he banged on the door to wake us up and cause us to open the door…allowing the cat to join us in the bedroom!

Hooooooooooo Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee Oooooooooooooooo!