It’s October and you know what that means.  We are in the full swing of Friday night football games, homecomings, Halloween decorations, pumpkin carvings, bonfires and, yes, ghost stories.  When I was growing up I hated ghost stories and scary movies.  Sure, I would watch them if that was my only option, but it was not my first choice.  I can still remember playing Light As a Feather on my cousin’s 13th birthday after we had seen the movie Christine and all of us screaming down the hall after we picked one of our friends up with our fingertips!  It still makes my heart beat a little faster just thinking about it.

As my teenage years progressed, I realized I had a sixth sense about things and a strong intuition.  It was always kind of eerie when I would have a thought about something or someone in passing and then inevitably it would come true in the next couple of days.  It was never anything good, bad or of any importance and I never realized it was anything until I started making the connection that I had “seen” that scenario in my head the day before.  I also couldn’t distinguish between something that might happen or just a passing thought.  They were all the same. I remember saying something about it and being told I just had a strong intuition.

By the time I reached my late teens and early 20s things started to happen that didn’t happen to anyone else in my family. They always occurred in my parents’ house, which of course led me to believe that our house must be haunted. My first “haunted” experience was while I was in college and I was at home alone.  I was studying and the house was totally quiet.  All of a sudden I heard a car horn honking.  I immediately ran to my parents’ room to look out the window as you could see the entire driveway from there.  Nothing.  No cars. No people.  The car began honking again.  My car was in the garage so I ran downstairs.  When I reached the garage door I knew it was my car that was honking.  It was definitely coming from the garage.  It stopped. I didn’t open the door as they would in the movies.  Instead I ran back upstairs and looked out the window.  This time I saw my dog lying on her back wanting her belly rubbed.  She only did this if someone was standing beside her and she knew she was about to get love but there was nobody there!  Was someone standing in the garage? Who was honking the horn?

I immediately called my mom who had a bakery in town.  I knew she could be home within minutes.  She, of course, thought I was crazy, but had no explanation.  She said she’d be right home.  As I waited, I ran to every door in the house to be sure it was locked.  Then I sat in the living room where I could see anyone coming from any direction as well as the front window where I would be able to see my mom’s car pulling into the driveway.  And then the hair dryer started running upstairs!  What was happening?  I slowly walked upstairs to my sister’s room and there was the hair dryer just laying on the floor by her mirror running on high-speed.  I picked it up and turned it off.  By this time I was crying because I had no idea what was happening and, obviously, Jason was about to appear in his hockey mask!

Thankfully, I heard my mom’s car pull into the driveway.  She put the garage door up and I ran downstairs and flung open the door because now that my mommy was home I had super human strength!  Nothing.  Nobody was siting in my car randomly honking the horn.  We both walked through the house together and found nothing.

To say I was freaked out is putting it mildly.  I packed up my books and went to the bakery to finish my studying.  There was no way I was staying in that house alone ever again…obviously.

Sunshine & Sarcasm,

Lowi & G