It’s Halloween time. It is the season for other-worldly stories. Some stories are pure fiction, other very real, such as an incident that happened at our home when I was a teen.
SUNDAY NIGHT
It was the early 1980’s. The family was looking at the television music show Solid Gold when there was a loud crash of metal outside. We immediately knew it was the yet to be installed heavy metal gate resting at the entrance of the gallery. The unanimous thought was that it was a bungling thief as we had had already experienced a thief or thieves coming in the yard to steal chickens, leaving a trap on the step in case anyone was alerted of his/ their presence and ran outside to apprehend. We all immediately looked out after hearing the crash and saw no one. We checked around, still no one. The jovial comment was that that thief was quick and we returned to host Dionne Warwick, lead Solid Gold dancer Darcel and the hit songs of that week. We put the incident behind us and put Sunday to bed.
THE WEE HOURS OF MONDAY MORNING.
One of my brothers got up to grab something in the fridge. In the kitchen, he saw the cat clawing at the door as though wanting to go outside. He opened the door but the cat just stayed in place, looking out, but not moving. He closed the door, annoyed by the indecisive feline. He went back to bed.
Later on, my mother’s sleep was interrupted when she heard something sounding like furniture dragging in front. She got out of bed and went to see who was doing this at that hour. There was no one there.
A bit later, in my room, in half sleep, I turned in my bed. I felt an object touching me at the side of my torso. Instantly I thought that it was the box for the Commodore Computer that was resting on my bed, however, I recalled that the box was much lower down on the bed so it should have been my leg touching it. I rolled back to my former position and resumed my sleep as I did not want to know if that object I felt was the computer or not.
MONDAY
During the day, I heard the story about the cat and the dragging furniture sound. Adding these to the fallen gate, we deduced that we had a visitor. I thought that I made the right choice in not looking to see what had touched me on the side of my rib.
Later that day, my mother, a nurse, was off duty. She and a fellow nurse, Ms. Potter, went out, without incident.
TUESDAY
At work, one of my mother’s colleagues told her, “Ms. Barry. I saw you on the highway yesterday, the three of you in the car. I was blowing but nobody noticed.” My mother replied, “Three of us? It was only Ms. Potter and me in the car” to which the nurse said, “No. You and Ms. Potter were in the front and there was a man reclining in the back seat.”
