31 October 2024
1127
R. Linda:
By pumpkins fat
And witches lean
By coal black cat
with eyes of green
By all the magic
ever seen
The ghosts will rise
on Halloween
And they did! I visited my friend, Jesse, who just bought a gigantic house. He has always lived in small homes or one-room flats. Having worked his way up, he decided to live in a large house for the first time in his life. He could afford it; it was a lifelong dream, and why not? After many months of looking, he found what he thought would be the perfect fit. A five-bedroom, three-bath home on ten acres of woodland. He wanted to show it to me, and as a homeowner, I might give him some tips.
I accompanied him to his new abode, an impressive palace for one person. I asked what he would do, knocking about the vast expanse on his lonesome. He said he didn't know yet. I could see he was in heaven, owning a manse.
He had partially moved in, and I offered to help him move some furniture. At first, he declined, but then said yes, please. We worked most of the day setting things up. I thought having a woman's touch would help because we had difficulty deciding what went where. I finally suggested we call Tonya, and he said he was there for that.
When she arrived, an alarm went off that "beep beeped" in the upper hallway.
"What is that?" I asked.
"I don't know," Jesse said, looking up toward the upper hallway.
He went up as I let Tonya in. She asked what was the matter as I looked concerned. I told her what happened, but we didn't know the sound. Well, there is an alarm system that, when someone drives down Jesse's very long driveway, a sensor picks up the motion, and the alarm sounds in the house. He seemed amused but thought it a good thing, "You know, deliveries and all."
A half-hour later, Tonya had everything in place. Wow, things went fast. She knew what went where and directed us like a general. We had one room left. It was 6:30, and Tonya offered to pick up takeout. When she drove off, the alarm went off.
"Well, it works," Jesse said, getting plates out.
At 6:49, the alarm went off. Not once, but four times in a row. Jesse looked at me, and I looked at him. It was too soon for Tonya to be back, and this sounded like more than one car. He looked out and saw no one. It was twilight and getting dark, so it was hard to see. He shrugged.
At 7:30, the beeper went off again several times. We looked out. But it was dark now. Jesse got a flashlight, and we both searched for the beeper. We found it halfway down the driveway. A tiny red light gave it away. One wouldn't notice it because it was so small. He flashed his torch at the woods, but nothing was on either side of the driveway. We walked quietly, and you could hear snaps of branches and falling acorns, but nothing could we see. It was eerie. We went back to the house.
 |
| The sensor |
A few minutes later, the beeper went off, but only once, and we could see headlamps coming down the driveway; it was Tonya.
We told her what happened while she was gone, and she suggested the battery might be going in the sensor. Yet, as Jesse pointed out, it worked when Tonya drove in and out, so why would it malfunction?
We left an hour later, and I told Jesse to call if anything went crosswise. And he did. At about 10:00, I received a text that the beeper had gone off at 9:30 on the dot. He walked outside with his torch but saw nothing. It unnerved him, but he was ok.
Well, I rang him the next day, and he was fine. He said the beeper went off again several times, and he did not sleep well, though doors and windows were locked. This went on for a straight week. He had ideas that it was the wind, that it was falling leaves, and that it was an animal, maybe.
He asked me to come over for an evening and see for myself because he was out of ideas as to what was going on. He had put in a new battery and set up a trail camera. It had been set for two days, and we went and retrieved it. When we looked at the card, there was nothing on it. Notta. All we saw in the photos was the sensor light.
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| Notice the light at the lower part of the sapling; that's the alert, and nothing caught by the trail camera. |
At 6:49, the beeper went off several times. Nothing out there. At 7:30 sharp, the beeper sounded again. At 9:30, it went off again. We stood outside with torches, his and mine. We walked the driveway length, and neither of us saw anything.
It seemed odd the beeper alerted at the exact same time every day. There was nothing around that we knew of that could set it off.
A week later, the strangeness stopped dead. The only time the system alerted was when someone real drove down the driveway.
Then, suddenly, it started again. This sent Jesse to the Town Hall, where he found out a man had died on the property from suicide at this precise time of year. He had hung himself in the woods, not far from the sensor.
Jesse hasn't been able to get much info on the man. The man had his "viewing" in the house. The only information Jesse had was the man had a fight with his wife and committed suicide in the woods.
Once again, the sensor going off at nothing has stopped. Jesse shared his weird experience with a co-worker who suggested that Jesse purchase a cheap infrared camera and put it out. The trail camera picks up movement but won't show ghostly images like infrared ones. Jesse is tempted, but thinking he might see a ghost freaks him out.
This is a classic example: Be careful what you wish for. In this case, big home, lots of ghosts?
Stay tuned.
Postscript: 6:49 the estimated time of suicide, 7:30 discovery of the body, 9:30 body taken away. Spooky, huh?
Gabe
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