I've mentioned before that I believe in ghosts. I'm fascinated by them, in fact. As a child, I read Goosebumps and watched ghost documentaries until I was completely petrified. During the summer after I graduated college, I was a nanny for my cousin's 2-year old son and his neighbor who was the same age. They live in historic rowhomes in Philadelphia. One day, we were in the living room playing. One of the boys went into the kitchen and almost immediately, came screaming and running into the living room. "A man! A man!" he screamed. I was a young girl, in a city, alone with 2 toddlers. There was no way I could navigate the childproof doorknobs while carrying both of them. I had no idea what to do. I heard nothing, so, heart pounding, I went into the kitchen and grabbed a knife thinking it was possibly an intruder. The back door was in the kitchen. I check the door. It was deadbolted shut. There was no man. I told the little boy that there was no man, that everything was fine. For the rest of the day he refused to go anywhere near the kitchen and stayed by my side. A case of overactive imagination? Possibly. Personally, I'm pretty positive he saw a ghost.
We have been experiencing the antics of our own little poltergeist. While (thank God) there haven't been any sightings as of yet, they're enough to completely petrify me. The lamp on Kurt's desk is touch-sensitive. When you touch it, it turns on. When you touch it again, it gets brighter. Every once in awhile, I'll wake up in the morning, walk into the living room, and see that lamp shining brightly. The first time it happened, I assumed Kurt had just left it on from the night before. But it kept happening. So I asked him to stop. He told me he hadn't touched it, had never touched it. Our house is about 150 years old and multiple homes and shops in town are rumored to have spectral visitors, so it being haunted isn't that far-fetched. When I told him my theory (that a ghost had turned it on), he gave me a look and said it was probably the wind. Right. Because the wind is so strong coming through our completely closed-up apartment. So I've run "tests" on the lamp. I've touched it with the blinds on the window, paper, staplers, anything I can find. Nothing. It only responds to human touch. At this point, I'm so petrified of seeing a ghost that I won't look in the dining room (where the desk is) until all lights are turned on. Just in case.
(As an aside, I also won't walk into a room without turning the light on first, just in case there's an enormous spider or spricket on the floor ready to attack me. It's a great way to live. You should try it.)
To add further basis to my theory, Kurt told me last night that the ghost has been trying to watch tv. Apparently, Kurt will turn off the cable box in our bedroom and later, it'll be back on. Why he needed to tell me this I don't know. I could've been left ignorantly, blissfully in the dark about the ghost's new obsession. But no. Now I'm afraid of my own bedroom.
I figure, as long as the ghost doesn't startle me or show up, I'll be fine. (Ghost, if you're reading this, you're welcome to stay, just PLEASE don't scare me. Otherwise, we'll have to move and I think we can all agree that we've been really good roommates so far. Who knows what awful people might move in if we leave.)
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