Playtime

I was in the middle of a meeting at work this morning when my phone went off.  Normally, I would have ignored it.  But since The Teenager had called me from school just before my meeting started saying he didn't feel well, I checked it immediately.  It wasn't a call from the school, rather a text from my husband.

"I know you're at your meeting, but I gotta ask you.  Did you hear the two little boy voices playing in our room at 4 this morning?"  (Important fact: None of our children were home last night or this morning, it was just the two of us.)

Say whaaaaat?!  While it was certainly disturbing, it wasn't an emergency, so I waited until after my meeting to respond.  The answer, however, is no.  No, I did not hear two little boy voices in my bedroom this morning.  I actually slept okay last night, for a change.  It was thunderstorming.  Yes, in Michigan in January.  I looooove thunderstorms.  They relax me and help me sleep.  So I heard nothing. 

A stickler for details, I had to know what, exactly, he heard.  According to my husband, shortly after it began storming, he heard two little boys laughing, and then one said, "It's my turn."  "My turn" to what?!  Scare the crap out of these nice people who are just trying to sleep?  Good job, little ghost boys, good job.....

She's Like The Wind. Who Is? You Know, Karen....

I’ve been under the weather all week.  My hope is that it’s just the remnants of the nasty flu bug that tore through our house with a vengeance over Christmas break, and that I’m not getting sick again.  What does this have to do with our haunted house?  Well, nothing really, aside from the fact that I tend to feel worse when I’m at home, but that might just be because it’s the end of the day and I’m exhausted.  It simply serves as an explanation as to why I was having a terrible night last night, which is where the story I’m about to tell you begins.

When I laid down to go to sleep last night, my head was pounding.  Not hurting, but literally pounding.  Pulsating.  Throbbing.  It kind of freaked me out.  I thought I was going to have a stroke or a brain aneurysm or something.  Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep.  I would drift off for a few minutes, but then the pulsating would rip me right out of dreamland and drop me back into my cold, uncomfortable bed in my cold, dark room.  Probably around 12:30 or so, I turned off the TV and committed myself to falling asleep.  I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself with my breathing, attempting to ignore the super bass dance party going on inside my brain.  It was working!  I could feel the weight of sleep bearing down on me. 

And then, right before I fell asleep, I heard it.  “Karen.”  A woman’s voice, in my ear, clear as day.  A voice, I might add, that sounded very much like the female voice caught on many of the EVPs during our paranormal investigation.  She said, “Karen.”  I bolted upright in bed, the pounding in my heart now matching the pounding in my head.  I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and turned on my flashlight app, quickly scanning the room.  Nothing.  Not that I really expected to see anything, as I’ve never seen anything (or anyone) before.  Then again, I’ve never actually heard a voice like that before, either. 

Knowing that I most definitely wouldn’t be falling asleep anytime soon after that, I got up.  I decided to research my symptoms on WebMD and self-diagnose my illness, which is never a good idea. Especially not at 1 in the morning.  For once, WebMD didn’t scare the bejesus out of me.  It informed me that I was most likely suffering from a migraine.  I’ve had migraines before.  Usually they’re really, really painful.  This one was just bothersome.  I wasn’t completely convinced it was just a migraine, but I decided to take a couple Ibuprofen anyway.  Couldn’t hurt.  (I also considered taking a Xanax, since one of our ghosts seemed to be in the mood for girl talk, but I refrained.)

In all the commotion, what with me jumping out of bed, turning the TV back on, surfing the internet and getting up to get medicine and water, my husband decided the couch would be the best place for him to try to sleep since he had to get up for work in four hours.  So he left me alone.  With….Karen?  Super.  (In his defense, I didn’t mention to him the whole ghost voice thing, so he had no clue that aside from being sick, wide awake and crazy, I was also scared.)

I propped my head up on a stack of pillows, turned the TV to a home shopping network (boring enough that I wouldn’t want to watch it , but having a little company was nice), and tried to fall asleep again.  SUCCESS!  I didn’t move until my alarm went off, a whole five hours later.  I took a shower, then went upstairs to wake the boys up for school.  They are still enjoying the newness of our homemade trundle bed, so they were sleeping in the same room together.  At some point (probably during my shower), the puppy had joined them under the covers.  Our other dog, Sammy, was passed out on the couch downstairs.

I sat at the end of the bed, talking to them both and gently trying to wake them.  Turns out, I had some help.  There was a loud crash in the hall outside the bedroom we were in, as if someone had thrown something.  They both sat up straight.  “What was that?”  The teenager asked sleepily.  I assured them that “something just fell.”  (Upon investigation, I discovered that nothing had fallen.)  Then, while they were still trying to wake up, it happened again.

It’s hard for me, sometimes, to maintain a calm façade in front of the kids when creepy things happen at home.  In theory, I know our house is haunted and I’m cool with it.  But when things happen, I get freaked out sometimes.  This was one of those times.  “Mama, what was that?”  E-Man asked.  “Ummmm….the wind,” I answered.  Yeeaahhhh, we’ll go with that.  The wind.  Whose name, apparently, is Karen.

Do We Stay Or Do We Go?

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since we moved into our “spirited” new home.  My, how time flies when you’re being haunted!  The end of our first year in our haunted farmhouse means the end of our lease…..which means we have a big decision to make.

When we first got confirmation from bonafide professionals that our house is haunted, most of our friends and family expected us to pack up and move out in the middle of the night, even though we were only about halfway through our one year lease.  Needless to say, that didn’t happen.

I’ll be honest, I’m definitely glad that we’re renters instead of homeowners at this point in time.  It gives us some freedom.  If sh** ever gets all Amityville Horror on us, we can abscond swiftly without having to worry about things like deeds and realtors and mortgages.  I’ll simply call my landlord out on knowingly renting out a haunted house, forfeit my security deposit, and that will be that.  But….for now….

We’re happy.  Things are peaceful.  And I love our house.  It’s spacious.  It’s got more character than just about any house I’ve seen.  It’s home, even with its quirks.  But with our lease ending in a couple of months, we have a decision to make.  Do we stay or do we go?  Our decision might surprise you.

The only way our house being haunted factored into whether or not we wanted to renew our lease was if A.) scarier, more serious incidents started occurring, or 2.) the kids were too freaked out and uncomfortable to stay.  I’m happy to say, neither has been the case.  So we’re staying.

YOU’RE STAYING?!?!  Yes.  We are.  We have a reasonable landlord who’s flexible when it comes to paying rent a little bit late (and unfortunately, that happens occasionally.)  If something breaks down, we don’t have to cover the cost out of our own pockets to fix it.  Our kids are just now starting to feel at home.  And…we HATE moving!

Reading this, you probably think we’re insane.  But here’s something to consider: this is real life, not a scary movie.  Most people who are afraid to come to our house (and there are a lot of them) are pleasantly surprised by how homey, laid back, and un-haunted it feels when they finally work up the courage to come visit.  There aren’t apparitions hiding in the shadows, waiting to jump out and possess people.  There’s not ominous music playing in the background.  (Although….that’s a good idea. I should try that sometime.)  Ghosty things don’t happen ALL the time.  In fact, they either very rarely happen at all anymore, or I just don’t notice them as much.

Besides, if we do move, who’s to say our next house won’t be haunted?  Who’s to say YOUR house isn’t haunted?  Have you ever had it investigated?  No?  Then you can’t be certain, can you?  Chew on that while you’re lying in bed tonight.  You’re welcome.

               

Unsolved Mystery

Now that we've established that our house is haunted, the question is...WHY?  Unfortunately, the paranormal investigators did not have time to research the history of the house before the investigation, so very little is known about what happened here.  But...

One of the investigation teams that was present has expressed an interest in turning the house into an investigation site, which would mean attempting to determine why the property is a hotbed of so much paranormal activity.  I'm tempted...but also afraid.  I feel like, the more time goes by, the more I'm leaning towards letting it happen.  My curiosity is bound to get the best of me sooner or later.

Also, I've been paying attention to the names on the random mail we receive at the house, as I'm assuming they are prior tenants.  I've been able to locate two of them on Facebook.  I'm toying with the idea of reaching out to them to see what they know, to see if they have any stories.  But I feel like a total stalker/weirdo...so I haven't done it yet.

I feel like the answers are RIGHT THERE.  They're so close, and I know what I need to do to get them.  They say knowledge is power.  I just don't know if I'm ready for that kind of power just yet....