Haunted

 I know it's too early for Halloween, but I've got a ghost story for you.

As you may, or may not, know, we live in a nearly 100 year old house.  It's a great house.  Two-story.  The upstairs is a complete 2-3 bedroom apartment with it's own kitchen and bath.  Downstairs, where we live is two bedroom/two bath with really large rooms.  Daniel bought this house with his ex-wife, Vicki, and has owned it for about 18 years.  I moved in in 2002 and ever since I moved in, there has been a ghost.

No one else hears it, feels it or is bothered by it except me.  It's not malicious and seems to be caring and reassuring.  I think I know who it is/was.  It only "appears" in our master bedroom.  The word "appears" is in quotes because I have never actually seen it.  I sense it, I feel motion if it sits on the bed next to me and once I even heard him talking to me.  Yes, the ghost is a man.

Anyway, one morning Daniel got up around 7am and I was still sleepy and not ready to get out of bed.  It was hot in the bedroom and he asked if I wanted him to turn the ceiling fan on.  I mumbled "no" and groggily rolled over.  About 3 to 5 minutes later, the ceiling fan came on.  It was running on high speed which we never use.  I looked up and around and didn't see or hear Daniel, so I got up and found him in the dining room.  I asked him how come he turned the fan on and he said he didn't.  I just looked at him and told him that it was on and running on high too.  He came in the bedroom and checked for himself, and sure enough - fan on and running.  

Daniel knew about all the ghostly encounters I'd had so we discussed what we should do.  We came to the conclusion that I should have a talk with the ghost.  So I turned off the fan, sat on my side of the bed and told the ghost I understood he was just trying to be helpful and that he cared for me.  I recognized his concern and appreciated it, but truthfully, I weirded me out some.

After that "talk" the ghost went away for quite a while.  No more sitting on the bed next to me while I was sleeping.  No more talking to me in the wee hours of the morning.  No more ceiling fan turning on.

Just recently, a ghost is back.  I don't think it's the same one.  I can tell by the movements and sounds it's a different ghost.  It's not scary - well not a lot.  Last night Daniel and I went to bed.  I read for about an hour then turned the bedside light off.  I was reading a paperback, but my Nook is on the nightstand, plugged in and these is a little green light that glows from the plug.  Even if I'm so tired the book falls on my face, once I put it down I still have a hard time getting comfortable enough to fall asleep.  I turned toward Daniel, then I turned back the other way, facing my night stand and as I did, I saw a shadow come between me and the light from the Nook charger.  I was spooked some, but I thought, well the doors were open the other day, maybe a moth got in and was attracted to the light.  Yeah, right, really big moth.  I watched for a while, huddled under the covers, but didn't see anything else.  Daniel was snoring and sleeping soundly and I didn't want to wake him up.  Eventually, I drifted off to sleep.

At 4:15 this morning something caused me to wake up.  I could hear a strange sound, almost like running water.  I lifted up on one elbow to hear more clearly and as I did, I felt Daniel get up from the bed.  I said, "I hear a weird noise".  He walked through the bedroom door into the next room and I could hear him walk down the hall.  Of course it was dark and what I saw was a shadow of him walking out of the bedroom.  I was tense, waiting for him to come back and report.  Sheba and Shortie sleep between us every night and I could feel them next to my back under their blankets.  Sheba was making little snuffly sounds and I turned around to pat her and there was Daniel.  Fast asleep, in bed.  He was making the snuffly sounds.  I almost woke him up then, but he works so hard and he does have a hard time sleeping sometimes I just didn't want to wake him.  I just laid back down with the covers up to my chin looking, watching, straining my ears for anymore noises.  Nothing happened.  Eventually, I went back to sleep.

When we both got up later this morning, I told him about what had happened.  He got up earlier than I did this morning and he told me that when he walked past the kitchen he heard two distinct thumps like someone setting something heavy on the counter-top.  He looked in the kitchen and didn't see anything, so just put it out of his thoughts until I told him my ghost story.

So there you have it.  Our house, or maybe just me, is hainted!  Am I scared?  Not really, sometimes freaked out a bit, but it seems like a friendly ghost, at least a protective one, so I won't call an exorcist yet!