Paralled Worlds or Haunted
By Danieloptera
Well, is there a such a phenomenon as a ghost and can therefore there be a place haunted by one? Let me tell you this story and then you can perhaps decide for yourself if such a thing does exist.
I have known Helen and Michael for years, in fact I have known Helen before she got married and we were in out twenties. A long time ago, but that is really irrelevant. She married late in life to Michael who was divorced with three children. They both lived in London, later they moved in together . When the time came her husband retired and so she retired as well. She was nowhere near sixty. To keep themselves busy they decided to run an Art School, somewhere in Cambridgeshire. This school was in the country so they lived near by. The cottage was picture perfect. It was the usual, two up and two down, with an extended kitchen and an extended bathroom. There was a beautiful porch and a collection of old roses that they kept flowering over the years. There were also some fruit trees and a lot of lawn and parking spaces. I loved staying with them. Michael collects old clocks and the cottage had this eternal tick-tock of all clocks ticking away at different rhythms as if competing and undoing each other wishing to be the best one; if it was a choir, it would have sounded as a complete cacophony and a loud one.
My friends liked their holidays so one year they had a security system put in, which was monitored by a local security company.
All was well for years, but one day Helen started noticing little odd things. She called me and said that she has noticed a long list of small unexpected things like a puddle of water in the cupboard, things cut, things worn more that she expected, things moved and all this she just could not explain. Unfortunately her husband did not take her seriously. I listened and listened, but could not come up with any suggestions. To be honest I just thought she was seeing things. The summer came and off they went for their three month holiday.
Soon after they came back I was invited to stay with them and when Michael was out she took me round the house. For example, the grouting in places in the bathroom and kitchen was scratched out, things that she had stuck down were partly peeled off, the paintwork was compromised and of course her toys and clothes were cut or made look much older. I was starting to believe her. Could it be some evil spirit interfering with things, or even a poltergeist? A poltergeist is a noisy ghost, it makes noises and manipulates the physical environment. The problem was that they never heard or seen anything, things just happened when they were away. On the other hand could it not be a person, one of the members of the security company? It almost felt as if somebody was doing this on purpose, trying to push Helen over the edge, but why? At the same time, could it not be Michael loosing the plot or even Helen just seeing things? It went on for years without a resolution and Helen was becoming more and more stressed. I feared she might have a nervous breakdown. Unfortunately Michael still did not believe any of it so she was not allowed to set up cameras and that way record any events that might have been happening. Finally they both decided to retire, sell the school and sell the cottage and move to a new modern flat in Cambridge.
After the sale of the cottage Helen breathed freely once again. With the move we all hoped that the unsolved mystery would vanish and be forgotten.
In my nearly seventy years of life, I have only once experienced a ghost like occurrence. I was staying In a bed and breakfast. Late one night, I needed to go to the loo. The looes were down the corridor. It was quiet so I crept very carefully to one of the rooms, locked the door and just as I was going to sit down, the door and the doorknob rattled as if somebody was trying desperately to get in. My hair stood on end, I froze and for a minute I was unable to pass water. It stopped as suddenly as it had started. Once again all was quiet. I took a deep breath and calmed my nerves then I carefully opened the door, but there was nobody, no light under any door and no wind that could have caused this. That morning I asked the owner if there was a resident ghost in the house, but he did not convince me that he had a resident ghost. When I told my friends about this they just laughed. I am not sure to this day, but maybe there was one. When I watch the program Haunted, somehow I think they are having us on!?
My friends settled in their new flat and I hoped they would now live happily ever after. Another summer came and as usual they left for their three month holiday. This being a flat, they decided they did not need any special security, but just in case there was an emergency they left their keys with a neighbour. One year went, then another and things were in order. The third year after they returned from their holidays they definitely noticed that somebody lived in the flat while they were away. This was easy to explain as the visitors left enough evidence of their stay and they guessed they were family members of the neighbours who had the key. Helen and Michael were very angry, but as Michael does not like confrontation they just changed the locks. They kept asking their friends if these people could just pick the lock? In my opinion no, but all things are possible.
I think Christmas and New Year came, so of course, my friends went away. They came back and after a while Helen started to notice odd things again suddenly happening. Could she have brought the ghost with them or does she attract a particular type of ghost? I believe in a spiritual word that runs in parallel with our physical world, but I do not believe a spirit can effect something material. I also think that our minds are very powerful, we can believe something that has only happened in our dreams or we start believing something that is not there. Michael is in his eighties and Helen will be seventy soon. What if Alzheimer is starting to knock at their mind’s door. One could be doing things, without knowing and the other could be seeing things that are not there. Or is it a spirit with special power that is toying with my friend’s mind?
I have fallen out with them so I do not know if things are still happening. Perhaps these two worlds have now merged and the problems are no longer apparent and Helen and Michael have now slipped into this fairy tale world of Alzheimer's.
Author Notes: Based on real experiences.
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