Tuesday, April 13, 2010

In Which We Have A Ghost...?


So typically myself, Twin and I (and our Mom if we're around her) like to partake in April Fool's Day festivities. Many a shirt has been soaked by the sink's spray nozzle being rubber banded and no one will forget the "short sheeting incident of 2009" in which a new prank combined with Brother's exhaustion resulted in hilarity.

But this year we all forgot about pranks. Brother had just gotten back from visiting Youngest Sister in Oprahland and Twin was in San Diego for work. I was busy with work tasks and just didn't have the energy to come up with any pranks.

On my lunch break I was feeling stressed and wanted to read something, but not Manuscript Makeover. I decided I would take a break on that and read one of my YA or MG book sitting on my TBR pile.

In fact, I wanted to read Incarceron, which has been sitting on the top of my pile since it arrived in the mail.

So I walked to my room to get the book. Except it wasn't there.
I checked every single book in that pile (even though I had seen it on the top of that pile the night before) and none of them were Incarceron.

So first I was confused. Perhaps I had already had the plan to read Incarceron and had carried it somewhere? (this was highly unlikely as my memory skills are pretty great. My memory for events is almost a lame super power) So I checked the kitchen, the dining room (where things accrue) the living room, even the bathroom, in case I had had it in my head to take a bath and read it.

Nothing.

So then I started to wonder if perhaps Brother had not forgotten about April Fool's Day like the rest of us.
I texted our mom and asked her if Brother had mentioned playing any pranks on us to her. She texted back that she hadn't heard anything and that she, too, had forgotten all about it.

I texted Twin in San Diego, wondering if perhaps she had borrowed it, even though I knew she was reading Under the Dome because it took up so much space in her carryon.

Nope.

So then I went downstairs and poked around Brother's room, looking for anywhere he might have stashed it.

Nothing.

I finally broke down and sent him a text. I thought about asking him if he had it, but I knew that if he had, indeed, hidden it, he could deny actually "having" it if it wasn't in his possession.

Instead, I asked if he had hidden it.

I didn't expect a response since he was at work, but I had done everything I could. I went back to work, a bit miffed and frustrated.

That night, Twin came home and Brother denied that he had hidden the book.

I argued with him, there was no other explanation. I certainly didn't hide my own book and Twin was hours away.

He pointed out that he revelled in his pranks and certainly would have taken credit for any prank he pulled. Instead, he began to think that I was pulling a prank on him, by hiding my own book and blaming him.

I don't like to play mind games like that.

So I was left with a mystery - I didn't want to believe brother, but he seemed sincere and he would certainly want to claim his prank victory if he had hidden the book.

That night when I was fixing the sheets on my bed, I found the book stuffed underneath Yvie's dog bed. Underneath my own pillow I found my pedegg - it had apparently been missing as well, though I had seen it the night before right next to Incarceron on my nightstand.

I was completely flummoxed.

I mean maybe, MAYBE, I had grabbed Incarceron that morning, planning to read it, and suddenly decided to fluff Yvie's dog bed and set the book on the bed and accidentally put Yvie's dog bed on top of the book, and then forgot all about it. But all those events seem a bit ludicrous.
Also, I certainly wouldn't have stashed a pedegg under my pillow.

So what happened? I have no idea.

If I truly believed we had a ghost in the house, I'd be a bit freaked to sleep at night. And really nothing else has happened in the almost 3 years we've lived here (not counting a time I saw a ghost Yvie...). But I have no explanation as to how the book and the pedegg were "stashed away" amongst my pillows and bed.


hello brown lady of raynham hall


So - anyone have any unexplainable things happen to them? Even though I'm terrified of ghosts, I'm also extremely fascinated by them. So spill!

29 comments:

JE said...

When we were younger, my brother swore there was family of ghost living in our house. He said when he woke up at night, he could see them all "hovering" in the living room. Thank god we moved not too long after that!!

~JD

Kittie Howard said...

I think a ghost would want to be seen to have fun being a ghost. Think Twin, Brother, and Mom are ghostwriters.

Hannah said...

Nothing too crazy. Weird sounds. Things falling in the other room that were not placed in a spot easily escaped from. The light in my kitchen fell and scared the crap out of me and could have cracked my head open had I beeen under it. Oh and my missing raincoat belt...

Matthew MacNish said...

Sounds like you may have a spirit. I've never experienced anything like that myself, but if you're worried about it or just bothered try doing a sage rub.

Sarah Ahiers said...

Justine - that would creep me the heck out

Kittie - it is indeed a mystery

Palindrome - if you find the belt in an obvs spot (like the middle of your bed) then you know you have a ghost

Mathew - i don't think we've reached the sage point yet, because i'm still not convinced i'm not just crazy

Summer Frey said...

Sounds to me like Yvie just wanted something to read while she gave herself a pedicure. :-)

I'd like to believe in ghosts/spirits, but so far nothing's convinced me.

Talli Roland said...

Creepy!

I live in an old Victorian house in London. One morning, when my husband was away, I got up and... the kettle was boiling! The whole kitchen was filled with steam. There was only me in the flat at the time. I was so scared that night I could barely sleep!

Anne Gallagher said...

When we were kids, my parents bought a house that an old man had died in. The sisters who lived with him thought he had fallen asleep on the floor between the living and dining rooms. The priest found him 3 days later on his rounds.

After we moved in, things would be moved. My blue hairbrush, that I couldn't find for weeks, in a vase that my mother had on TOP of the china cabinet. The tea kettle was put in the cabinet under the sink. We used to find "things" in the refridgerator all the time.

He also used to pace the floor at night. He wasn't scary, just lonely I think. Looking for his sisters. My mother swears he moved with them to NC. I'd like to think so.

Leah (aka Mary_not_Martha) said...

Any sleepwalkers in your house? One of my boys takes things in his sleep. He got in a tugging match with his uncle over his pillow. My son won and I found it in his bed in the morning!

Patrick Ahiers said...

I am glad you finally accepted that is was not me who hid those things. We need to come up with like a code word when we're being totally serial about something.

Maybe all those noises and scratchings I hear in the ceiling above my bedroom aren't rodents, but actually ghosts. Maybe there's like bodies hidden in our panel ceiling downstairs. Other than that, yeah, I can't really think of any "ghost activities" we may have witnessed all this time in the house.

Austin Gorton said...

@Patrick: Maybe there's like bodies hidden in our panel ceiling downstairs.

Nice! That should freak her right out. :)

Nothing strange in any of the various houses I've lived in, but I did see a ghost (well, the presence of a ghost) at the theater in college.

Helen Ginger said...

I think you got punked by someone in your family. Either that or your dog likes to read in bed.

Helen
Straight From Hel

Joan Crawford said...

At least it is a friendly/mischievous ghost! A friend of mine once was at a house where the piano burst into flames. They freaked out and called the fire department and dumped buckets of water on it while they waited. When the FD got there, all they found was a wet piano - no sign of any fire at all.

I am closed door for the other side - I am sure some nice things are trying to say 'hi' but I believe the bad ones are far more interested in contact and so I avoid that stuff because I really believe in it.

Emily White said...

My guess is that you might be a sleepwalker. I am on occasion and have stashed things in crazy places all over the house. When I was a teenager, I found my tube of chapstick hiding under a beenie baby on a side table in the living room (I'm addicted to chapstick--it's always right next to me when I'm in bed) and I vaguely remembered having a dream about going on a quest to hide something.

Hahaha! It still makes me laugh!

Sarah Ahiers said...

Summer - she hates getting her nails done, so i suppose she could have been hiding it in her own way...

Talli - and that is the thing, i do not want to be scared to go to sleep

Piedmont - that sounds like classic haunting activity - things disappearing and then suddenly showing up in the middle of the floor

Mary not martha - no sleepwalkers, and no one was home but me and i'm a super light sleeper

Patrick - god i hope it's rodents. the last thing we need is some rodent like sounds being ghost activity, because that's not good.
Also a codeword would be good, except that codewords in that past have been ruined

Teebore - seriously, i'd rather have bodies and ghosts.
And i remember that ghost story at the theater - it was hella creepy

Helen - normally i'd think that too, but no one was here but me. could i have punked myself?

Joan - i hear that - the occasional weird thing i think i can handle. But yeah, i straight up believe too and any of my family would know i would be freaked out if they tried to "contact" me so i'd hope they'd know if all their ghostly wisdom that that would be a bad idea

Sarah Ahiers said...

Emily - that might make sense, but i sleep with my arm under my pillow, so wouldn't i have found the pedegg in the morning?
Also, i'm a super super light sleeper so i don't see how i could sleep walk

Sarah Ahiers said...

ooh, also i would have had to pick up Yvie and her dog bed to stick that book under there and she would have been grumbly about that

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Ha ha ha! Awesome story - I love it! Sadly, I have no ghostly encounters I can share. :-)

Lola Sharp said...

Ohh, reading all the comments really has me creeped out.

I have no ghostly encounters to share...BUT, I did see a UFO once. For realz.

Unknown said...

Well, look at it this way: if you do have a ghost, at least it has a sense of humor!

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Dude, totally a ghost.

When we were kids, we found a block of bologna--one of those giant, mega bulk size blocks--buried in the couch, all dried out and gross. But a huge bite was taken out of it. My brother to this day insists it wasn't him. ~`~```woooooooo``~~`` Ghost? Yep.

Angie Paxton said...

If I leave my cell phone in the kitchen it will without fail call my husband's cell phone sometime during the night. Also my keys when they aren't with me live in the kitchen. One day I got ready to go, locked the door behind me, realized I forgot something and turned around to unlock the door only to find my house key was missing from my key ring. I called my husband and made arrangements to stop by and pick up my husband's key so I could get back in the house when I returned home. I went about my errands and after the final stop just before I was ready to go get my husband's key I opened my car door to find my house key placed perfectly in the middle of the driver's seat. I'm convinced we have a bit of a trickster ghost that lives mainly in our kitchen. I don't mind it as long as it sticks to mainly harmless tricks and NEVER EVER tries to appear to me. It does that and I'm out of here. Fun post! I'm fascinated by all things ghostly and loved reading all the responses.

Barbara Ann Wright said...

I'm firmly convinced that sometimes things just shift around in the universe. When I was teenager, I was carrying a lipstick from my dresser to my purse on the bed, but when I reached the bed, the lipstick wasn't in my hand. I scoured my room for days as it was my favorite. When I moved out, I checked and rechecked as I packed. It was nowhere to be found. I've been a solipsist ever since, convinced that nothing in reality is fixed.

Sarah Ahiers said...

Shannon - well that might be a blessing in disguise. Unless you're a braver person than i...

Lola - i would love to hear that story. for reals. feel free to shoot me an email if you feel like sharing. We thought we saw a UFO once, but it was a quad of biplanes flying in formation super low in the middle of the night. Still weird.

Janel - yeah, but also is apparently a bit of a jerk too

Carolina - that ghost story is one of the best i've ever heard! The sad part it, what a waste of bologna

Elana - sometimes boring is nice. And the book is awesome!

Angie - crazy! that's the kind of stuff that would freak me out!

Barabara - ...that... is one of the coolest things i've ever heard. I too have lost things that i had a moment before, never to be seen again.

DEZMOND said...

Falen, I see you are reading INCARCERON right now, you have a post about its movie adaptation over in HOLLYWOOD SPY :))

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Yeah, except that I usually never find my stuff!

Maybe Yvie pulled the prank this year.

Unknown said...

Ooh! I wish it had been a ghost!

I received two packages of winnings from you this week!! So exciting! The DeNiro novel looks fab -- can't wait to read it. And the kids and I have been reading prompts out of the Match book all day. Fun. LOVE the pens, too.

Thanks so much!!!!!!!!

Creepy Query Girl said...

Ooooooh. I live in france and my mother in law likes to do a séance once in a while, once we've all had a nice glass of wine or two. You need a wood table, piece of paper, pen, scissors, and a crystal glass (or in our case, i wine glass turned over). You write and cut out the letters of the alphabet and place them in a circle with the glass in the middle- like a makeshift ouiji board, except this actually works. Trust me:)

Sarah Ahiers said...

Dezmond - oooh! I'll have to check that out - i think it would make an excellent movie

Alex - i would have been very angry if the book had been gone forever. And i wouldn't put it past Yvie

Nicole - Yay! Glad you like the prizes! And yeah, if it had for sure been a ghost, the blog post at least would have been more dynamic

Creepy Query Girl - when i was younger i would have been all over that. Now that i'm older, i find i'm more of a coward regarding the paranormal

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