Back in 2004, Florida was dealing with the aftermath Hurricane Charley. It knocked out power to my apartment for 2 weeks. Stupid storm. Oh well, living in Florida ... we have to deal with them.
Fortunately, my best friend Shelly's house had power restored within a few days. She was with child at the time. Well, two of them actually. Her twins. As anyone knows during Hurricane Season, when one of those wretched storms comes through and knocks out power, the days following are Hell on Earth. It's always summertime, so that means ... HEAT ... HUMIDITY ... and SUFFERING.
This was no different. However, Shelly was kind enough to let me stay with her and I was sooo grateful. She had a/c and a spare room for me. (Thanks, Pup! I love ya!) Those days after Charley were stressful for a lot of people without power. You can buy all the bottled water and batteries you can carry, but it never helps. Let's face it. The thing we all hate most is the loss of electricity. We, as a society, are completely dependent on it now.
No internet? No wi-fi? NO CELL PHONE CHARGING? THE HELL YOU SAY!
For whatever reason, which I can't remember right now because it was well over 15 years ago now, Shelly ended up going to the hospital ... because as I said ... she was with child(s) :) I actually think that was when her babies were born, now that I think about it. I'll have to check in. She'll kick my ass if I forgot LOL
I was left as the house-sitter. I was alone, except for Bailey, her beautiful, sweet Golden Retriever. Oh, I loved Bailey. He was such a good dog. He always used to carry one of his stuffed toys in his mouth ... like ... all the time. A treasure.
Well, before she left me alone in the house, Shelly commented that it was just me, Bailey, ... and the ghost.
Ghost? da hell? did I hear that right?
Apparently, Shelly was renting a house from a woman whose son died in the house. He was a sick child, from what I can remember. My recollection may be a bit sketchy, but I knew there was something off about that house. I was there that night she was gone. Her husband, at the time, was with her so it was just Bailey and I.
The dog moved away from me and sat down at the beginning of the hallway that ran the length of a part of the house where the bedrooms were. He just sat down and stared down the hallway. Then, he barked a little. Bailey NEVER barked. He was a good dog. He was quiet and loving ... but that night, something had caught his attention and I watched him. He was fixated on it completely. It wasn't outside the house ... whatever it was ... was inside.
I am a spiritual person. I believe in the paranormal. This world of ours is a world of spirits and energies, not Facebook and Current News Events. This is a world still full of mysteries and things that cannot be explained. That night, I watched that dog walk away from me and sit down to stare down the length of that hallway.
At this point, Shelly and I had talked about the ghost in the house. She mentioned it casually, because Shelly is cool like that. It was just a ghost, no big deal. However, I was determined to cleanse the house because of my self-proclaimed spiritual strength, so I moved to stand beside Bailey as we looked down the hallway together.
And that's when I saw it.
It wasn't a ghostly apparition of a little boy running from room to room or anything like that ... it was a white pin-prick of light ... like a four pointed white starlight. It flashed for a moment at the end of the hall in the darkness and then it vanished. At first, I thought it was just one of the lights that you see in your eyes when you sneeze or shout, but those lights tend to be yellow and they appear around the outer periphery of your vision.
This ghostly white light was directly in front of me and I saw it flash. Bailey saw it, too, but since I was standing with him, he didn't bark that time. I spoke to the ghost that night. I whispered a quiet prayer and then I told the ghost that it needed to go home. I didn't know that you have to open a window for the ghost to escape when you do that, so I hope it was able to find peace and leave, but after that night, Shelly said that Bailey never barked again.
A kind of peace settled on the house.
That was the Ghost in the House. I saw it. I will always believe it was a spirit and perhaps it really was the spirit of that little boy who died of illness in the house. Either way, I know what I saw ... and it was amazing.
But of course, I had Bailey with me so I was completely safe. He was such a good boy.
May he rest in peace, too.