So last night I had some friends over for dinner - and no, in case Cece was wondering, no cooking. Take-out all the way.

Anyway, two of my friends are very into psychics and astrology and tarot card readings, so we were discussing all of that. One woman does something called smudging, where you burn sage and smudge ashes around the house, the doorframes, etc, to wash away the old, bad spirits. She also said something about this being a nineteenth year, which means it’s a time of new beginnings for all of us. Which is a pretty cool thing.

So they’re here until midnight, and right before they’re leaving, one of them remembers a ghost story that involves another woman I know (these are all teachers from the school I used to teach at) - and this woman said she’d always felt a prescence in her house, but things got worse after she got married. Turns out that there was a woman murdered in her house by her ex-husband and the woman’s spirit was not happy that there was a new man in the house. (which, of course, is so Nora Roberta in her garden trilogy books) The spirit would pull hair, write stuff on the mirrors, and even the neighbor refused to feed the cat while the owners were away because she said - the woman’s always in the window, staring out at me. Turns out the woman didn’t actually die in the house, but she ran out after she’d been wounded to the neighbor’s house. (my April search phrases are going to be killer, aren’t they? heh) So the neighbor coming to feed the cat wasn’t that same person but lived in that, ran to the house, house. (I’m not even making sense anymore, am I?)

And trust me, the owner of the house is SO not a touchy, feely spirit-feeling person. She’s more like a, biker-chick, tough girl, I’m not taking this spirit’s crap, type. I think the last straw for her (and what got me freaked out at midnight, when my friend so kindly pointed out that I had to stay in the house ALL ALONE, since the husband’s away) is that one morning they woke up to find blood all over their bathroom. The first thing she checked were the two cats - no problems there. So she got so mad that she pulled out cooking sage and burned it and walked around yelling, I have no problem with you living here with us, but if you’re going to act like this, you need to get out now.

That was a month ago - no signs of the spirit since. So, that sage stuff is no joke.

So my friends leave, I of course jump at every noise. And then, at 3 am (yes - I was awake - not so much because of the ghost story, but because I don’t sleep much and I had quiet - so I got to write) and I smell coffee. Now, I always set my coffee pot at night so coffee’s all ready for me in the morning. But not at 3 in the morning. So I’m thinking - holy crap - the ghosts are making coffee.

And then I thought - not a bad ghost to have around. I mean, better than a ghost mouse, right?

Of course, total false alarm. Someone had unplugged the coffee maker and re-plugged it in and I didn’t know it, so the time was all screwed up.

Steph T.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Home Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.