The First In a Series of Hauntings

We had been in the house for maybe a week; no occurrences at this point...The school year was starting in St. Joe. It was the night before the first day of school, Crystal starting a new junior high and me at a new high school. We were excited to a certain degree, but mostly concerned about establishing new friends. This would be difficult because we had lived in the same neighborhood all our lives. We couldn't sleep. Mom, the baby (Brian), and Tommy were fast asleep. Pops was running the bar that night and would not be home until after closing.

Crystal and I, in our beds discussing the first day of school, were not able to sleep. Oh, did I mention our dog, Smokey? We had a black Labrador, a wonderful dog and my companion. Smokey would always sleep right next to my bed. Crystal had a small bedside lamp on. In an attempt to get to sleep, I asked Crystal to turn off the lamp; maybe this would help us. Crystal did not want to turn it off. Me, being the typical supportive older sister I was, called her a sissy. Crystal had already seen whatever it was. She was the first to witness the apparition. She knew better than tell me, I would have never believed her. She turned off the lamp. Crystal finally fell asleep. It was just me and Smokey.

I tossed and turned and tossed and turned. I was thinking, "If I could just get a cigarette from Pops, (who knew I smoked), it may help me sleep." Suddenly, I hear the car. Through my window, I saw the car lights, the car pull in, and Pops exiting it, heading to the back kitchen door. "Oh, thank God, a cigarette." Right about then, I started feeling a strange freaky feeling of apprehension. So I grabbed Smokey and made her go downstairs with me. This was unusual because I had to make her. She was never afraid on anything. She was making that little whistle through her nose, you know, a quiet whine. We forged ahead anyway. "Hmmm, where's Pops? I saw him entering the house?" I opened the back door, looked out, and there was no one there. WTF? NO Pops, NO car...I was shaken, confused, and a bit freaked out. I went back up to my bed.

At this point, I was scared. I laid down, closing my eyes. "Ahh, I can't sleep," I thought to myself, and opened my eyes. There, standing over me, a man or something!! He was there leaning over my bed, only about two feet away from my face. He almost looked like a Roman statue. He was wearing toga like apparel that draped his thin structure. His skin tone, very gray, he was bald, had a hook nose, and the saddest, big brown eyes I've ever seen. I could sense heartbreak or pain, ya know? He was gazing at me with a look as if I was his long lost daughter. (Now that I look back, he was probably thinking, mmm, a young girl to f**k with. Booo hahaha.) I closed my eyes, shook my head, opened them again, he was there. Closed my eyes, shook my head, opened them, he was STILL there. Again, STILL there. Closed my eyes, one more time. I was confused, scared to death, and questioning my sanity. I opened my eyes, and he was gone.

Immediately, I turned on the bedside lamp, shook the sh*t out of Crystal, and and started stammering and babbling what I had witnessed. She then admitted she had seen the same man by the balcony near the stairs. Simultaneously, we sprang from our beds, ran down to my Mom's room, and jumped in bed with her. Abruptly, Mom awoke wondering WTF her 12 and 15 year old girls were doing in her bed like small children. We spat out our stories with her looking at us as if we were crazy, while trying to sooth us at the same time. Shivering and shaken, we both snuggled up to her and finally was able to sleep.

I'm sure Mom was thinking it may have been a nightmare. But was it? How could we both have had a nightmare about the same man, thing, or whatever? There would be several more, except the following incidents would include the other family members as well.