I’m a home alone old guy now and I’m beginning to worry that sometimes I might not actually be home alone. It always gets worse around Halloween when the nights get longer and ghosts and goblins get a lot of play in the media.
It was different way back when I had to pretend to the family, especially the little ones, that it was silly to jump at every odd sound up in the attic. I think that also helped me then, but now I don’t have to put up a brave front. I know there really are some odd sounds in the attic most nights. The rest of this old house isn’t all that quiet either. And what about my spooky sightings?
I’m a little deaf now but I still hear too much. Right now, close to midnight, I can hear two or three people moving around up there. Well, maybe not people, but something…..
And those are not random noises. It’s not just the fluttering of a loose shutter. There’s a definite tempo, almost rhythmical. I’ve avoided watching the TV episodes of the “Walking Dead”, but do they also dance?
Ever since boyhood I’ve been able to hear and sometimes see spooky things more sharply than others, maybe because I’m 100% Irish. I would really rather not have this finely-tuned reception.
“Nonsense,” I would say to my wife and the kids back then. “That’s only the creaking of the house cooling off at night.” But down deep I wondered who or what was dragging chains across the attic floor.
Sometimes they’d beg me to go up and investigate “just to be sure” and I would answer nonchalantly, “Well, if it makes you feel better” and I’d climb the attic stairs trembling . Once, I almost fainted up there when I was “attacked” by my old army overcoat as it fell off the rack. I don’t think they fully believed my blood-curdling scream was a joke.
The things I see are not as clearly defined as the things I hear. Last night I had a half-second glimpse of something long and purple that raced along the living room wall and ducked under the couch. It was just a blur, something my ophthalmologist might explain away, but I’ll avoid the living room for a day or two.
I once had a dog to keep me company and to look under the furniture from time to time, but Twitchy heard twice as much as I did and was always growling at dark corners. He ran off one night during an electrical storm and I really miss him. Sometimes I think I hear him gnawing a bone in the back bedroom, but that can’t be him under the couch. He’s short and mostly white with black spots and not a trace of purple.
If you spot a stray dog answering to “Twitchy”, I’d appreciate if you’d get him back here somehow. When it comes to hysteria, two’s company.
Imagine That 