READERS TALES
War Ghosts and Ouija
Boards
From the time I was about three months old to when I was nearly six (1989-1995)
I lived in an old farmhouse in New Jersey. The house is on our county's historic
register, and was built, if I remember correctly, in 1810. My parents can't
remember anyone ever informing them that the house was haunted, nor can they
recall a ghost. However, the front bedroom, where I slept, was entirely haunted.
I can remember it clearly, even though I was pretty young. Every night, I would
watch as two shadows, their shapes easily recognizable as human, walked the
walls of my room. They would stop and converse with each other often, though
they were speaking too low for me to make out what they were saying. I was never
afraid of them, and in fact, I felt their presence a comforting one. I
eventually trained myself to stay awake until all hours of the night, just
watching them and wondering what they would do next.
Even though they only appeared on my walls as shadows, I had a distinct
impression of what they looked like, and even to this day can clearly see them
if I close my eyes. They were relatively young men, wearing tri-cornered hats
and carrying muskets, and I can remember an overall tone of red and blue in
their outfits. Again, despite the fact that they were armed, I felt that they
were protecting me.
My mom brought up the subject of imaginary friends when I was about 12,
referring to the fact that I used to tell her that I was 'talking to the guys in
my room'. I can't remember doing this, and I know for sure that, up until that
point, I had never told her about the ghosts. She informed me that I had told
her that they were 'old-fashioned people', and she simply thought that she had
me watching too much PBS. I quickly related to her the story of the ghosts that
I saw, and her jaw dropped. I think her exact words were, "I always knew you
were strange."
We moved out of the house when I was six, taking very few items with us. One of
those items was a mirror that we later had appraised and dated as a
Victorian-era piece. The mirror spent years in the basement of the house, until
my mother decided to hang it in our dining room in the spring of 2003. When she
put it up, I immediately refused to go into the dining room, since walking past
the mirror would give me a strange feeling of oppressive anxiety. To this day, I
still hurry past the mirror with my eyes averted whenever I have to walk through
that room.
There have been other various incidents throughout the years, but none large
enough to receive special mention. One that was disturbing enough came in
February 2004. My friend was over, staying late because her parents weren't
home, and we had gotten bored and decided to 'play' with my Ouija board.
Something I should say now is that my friends have long since learned not to
allow me near Ouija boards or anything of the sort if ghosts are to be avoided,
because it seems like I attract them. However, caution was out the window that
night, and we unearthed the board and began asking silly questions, like, "Does
anyone have a crush on me?" and that sort of thing.
Out of the blue, my friend goes, "Hey, is anyone else here?" The answer was a
predictable 'yes'. Over the course of the next hour, we conversed with a spirit
who called himself 'Will' and claimed that his cause of death was a hanging. I
had suggested that we stop and dismiss the spirit, but my friend jokingly asked
for a sign that he was really there. Suddenly, the rocking chair in the corner
of my room began to move back and forth.
I wanted to yell at her, but she had already jumped up and sprinted out of my
room. I started to follow her, but felt something around my neck, squeezing
gently, but firmly, almost a strangling sensation. I couldn't move until my
friend grabbed my by the hand and pulled me out of the room.
I was oddly rather calm about the whole affair, but my friend broke down into
such hysterics that my mother, when she found out what the cause was, snatched
my Ouija board from the floor and locked it in the attic. Later, after my friend
had gone home, she gave me a cold look and said, "You, of all people, should
have known better than that."
Although I have asked him several times to leave, 'Will' seems to like our home,
and is rather intent on sticking around. Although he's more mischievous than
malicious, I do sometimes get the feeling that I have to get OUT of a room, or
something bad will happen, and it disappears the moment I step foot into another
room. 'Will' also seems fond of my jewelry, stealing it for a week or two at a
time, or moving it around so I can't find it. Still, I find him more amusing
than anything, and I must admit that it's pretty cool to say that you have your
very own ghost.
-Unsigned.
