Looky looky, not even a week and I remember my challenge post. This is the fourth in a series of posts suggested by readers in the second Kapgar Lyrical Challenge. Today's title suggested by SJ, who was really hoping to learn more about my haunted townhouse. Well SJ, despite our earlier e-mail convo, the story has advanced a bit. So enjoy!
Katie and I have a new housemate.
Uninvited... but not necessarily unwelcome.
Oh, and we have never actually seen him. Not yet, anyway.
I've always kidded around that our townhouse was haunted and I know SJ is firmly convinced of it. Yet I never really bought into it until Katie and I came home one night a week or so ago...
Katie: Hi. We're home.
Me: Of course we are. Who are you saying that to?
Katie: Our ghost.
Me: Our what?
Katie: Our ghost.
Me: You actually believe we're haunted?
Katie: Kinda. I hear a lot more things that you don't get to hear after you leave for work.
Me: Really? So who do you think it is? Only one other family lived here before us and they all moved out intact.
Katie: I think it's the guy who lived in the end unit. He died, remember?
Me: So why doesn't he haunt his unit? He didn't even know us.
Katie: That's just it... he didn't know us, but he knew everyone else. So now he's introducing himself. He just walks in and says hi and checks up to see how things are going.
Me: A bit late for that, don't you think?
Katie: Nah.
After we established that Katie believed it, my own belief began to increase. So it then became time to get a bit more cordial with our guest.
Me: I think we should name him Bernard.
Katie: Our house ghost?
Me: Yeah.
Katie: Why Bernard?
Me: It sounds cool and somewhat distinguished. And we can call him Bernie for short.
Katie: That sounds too much like Weekend at Bernie's.
Me: Well, they're both dead, so it works out.
Katie: Sure, why not.
I think our house ghost likes having a name, even if it wasn't necessarily the name he had when he was, well, not dead.
He also digs on being acknowledged. If we wish him good night and good morning, he stays quiet. But, if we don't, he can make an awful ruckus. Besides just the footsteps I've reported before, you can occasionally hear doors and drawers opening and closing when none of our fellow townhouse denizens are home. They typically sound like they're coming from our attic.
We're doing our level best to work these salutations into our daily routine.
We sleep better for it.
So what do you think the odds are of us getting Bernie to chip in on the mortgage?
Totally Unrelated Aside (TUA): Okay, this isn't really unrelated. I was just not in the mood to come up with a naming convention for yet another way to list a semi-divergent topic in a post. So...
You wanna talk about something really creepy? Check out this video podcast from National Geographic (yes, you can watch this right on your computer screen if you have QuickTime). Now that's just a bit disturbing.
