This is the story short but true of a restless spirit that used to give me grief when I was a young single mom. It was late July. I lived alone but for my two babies at the time recently divorced from my first husband. The kids were only a year apart and quite a handful.
We lived in a small two bedroom apartment above a garage. It was tiny! The place was small but it suited our needs just fine and the rent was very low which was great for me at the time, it even had some trees in the yard. It was happy that it was in a neighborhood I was familiar with, not far from where I grew up myself.
The owners of the property were a nice young couple, he a Sheriff, and she, at home with their young baby. They hadn't owned the place long themselves and had no information for me about previous owners or odd occurrences.
At first it was mild, unalarming things that could be shrugged off. When I could smell cars starting up in an empty garage, I just told myself it was a leftover smell. The first time I walked into the open cabinet door, face first in the pitch dark, due to no hallway light, I dismissed it as my own absent mindedness, forgetting to close it. Not something a person would do more than once, it hurt after all. The cabinet was right on the way to the bathroom in a tight space with no light and I would wake nightly to go. When you live in that way, you tend to pay attention to those things. This event happened enough that I started walking hands out front, for my midnight bathroom breaks. The cabinet would be open most nights, all day it would sit and never pop open. It had a latch, a little spring-loaded one that never gave me any trouble.
Then, there were the cats, Mojo and Sox. Now this next event, you, good reader, will have to decide who to attribute to. I, to this day, sit unsure. The two cats were, as cats are, nosy and into everything. So, whenever they would jump onto the counter or table I would squirt them with a water pistol. I kept two fully loaded and waiting on top of the refrigerator. One day as I prepared a bottle for my youngest, Mojo decided to sneak onto the table to check out the cookies that were cooling there. I reached for my trusty plastic disciplinary tool and found nothing. Both guns were gone! I scolded Mojo, he jumped down and all was well, but where were my guns? The answer came the next day as I changed out the litter box. I am telling the truth, those guns were buried in the old cat litter, and they had definitely done their business. I know cats can be smart and spiteful, this I am certain of, but how smart and spiteful, I'm not sure. Needless to say I got the message and no longer use this form of discipline.
What came next was alarming, and could only be explained by the presence of a spirit. I had gone to bed around 9:00 figuring on waking again at 1:00 or so to feed the baby. She had a good night of sleep that night however and she didn't wake. I laid back down and woke again at 3:00. I turned over and looked at the clock, it was 3:00 exactly. The next night I had the same schedule and did wind up feeding the baby at 1:00. She fell asleep again around 2:00 and I followed right behind her. I was awaken again at 3:00. No reason, the kids were asleep and I didn't need to use the bathroom. I looked at the clock again, 3:00 on the nose. The third night was the same, fed the baby, laid back down, 3:00 am awake again. 3:00 am... I decided that though it wasn't urgent, I would take the trip to the bathroom before returning to bed. I was really in no rush as I knew I would be up for a little while thinking about this three o'clock silent alarm and trying to make some sense of it.
Now I apologize in advance but I have to take you into the bathroom with me to give you the full story. See, I walked down the hall, hands out of course, and found the cabinet closed where it should be. This should have alarmed me being that it had been opened every night for quite some time now. But it wasn't, and I walked on into the bathroom and sat to relieve myself. Before I could even start the waterworks I heard the sound of extremely heavy footsteps, like a man in steel toed work boots, running up to the bathroom door! When the steps reached the door there was an explosion of noise and the bathroom door flew open so hard it bounced off of the sink and slammed itself shut. I was frozen! Let me tell you, I had experienced spirits and ghosts before, I am one of those people who is just susceptible, a ghost magnet of sorts I guess. But this was different! I sat there unmoving, fairly sure I wasn't breathing either, for what seemed like a long time. But eventually I shook it off, like a young mother learns to do with a lot of things in order to keep her sanity and care for her children. I even giggled a little at the spirit who went out of his way to frighten me, and wound up slamming the door in his own face.
We moved pretty shortly thereafter though, not out of fear of course. But because I needed my sleep, and nobody but my babies would be permitted take that away!
