One summer in the late '70's, and in my late teens (oops, I just dated myself- god I hate when that happens!), starting in mid-june, we heard the unmistakable sound of someone digging in the sandy creekbed with a shovel. Every night, starting at almost exactly 11:00pm, and continuing until 3:00am until early October (if I recall correctly). The creekbed runs about 15 feet (5 meters, for you metric users) behind the house. I say "unmistakable sound" because I spent a LOT of time as a kid digging in that creekbed (making dams and such) and I KNOW the sound wet sand makes on a shovel. I know the RHYTHM of sound one makes when digging wet sand with a shovel. OK - SO WHAT? you say. so some insomniac neighbor was playing in the creekbed in the middle of the night, you think. Ahh, but here's the rub -- this is (well, was) rural Colorado we're talking about. There weren't any neighbors nearby. But futhermore, THE CREEKBED WAS COMPLETLY UNDISTURBED. We went over every inch of it where the sound might have come from, several times, with the proverbial fine-toothed comb. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Every night, you could hear it through the open windows on the back side of the house. Yell, shine flashlights at it, throw things at it, it continued. BUT GO OUTSIDE, and it stopped. INSTANTLY. My father's (a research physicist) only comment -- "well, there's got to be SOME logical explanation, but I'll be damned if I can say what". It only happened that one summer. Not a thing since. This is the only unusual thing we ever observed around the house (well, there was the occasional "figures in a monk's hood" going by the windows, but since that always involved peripheral vision, I tend to put that down to imagination.
Well, I'm afraid that's the only true, personal "ghost" story I have to offer
The Glowing Red Demon Eyes
Those of you who (aren't STILL sleeping off my last story) remember my last post may remember that I grew up in an old stone house (built in 1872) with a creekbed behind it (usually dry), out in the wilds (well, almost) of Colorado. If any house ever LOOKED like it should be haunted, it was this one.
I mention this because I think this may have added to the impact of [insert spooky music score] "the glowing red demon eyes".
The event occured sometime in the mid-70's when I was in my mid teens. One balmy night my little brother, who is about 6 years younger than me, came flying in off the back porch in total terror. When we finally got him calmed down enough to talk, he reported that he had seen a pair of glowing red eyes staring in at him through the porch windows. He claimed the eyes had suddenly appeared at the window, stared at him a minute while he was to paralyzed with fear to move, and then swooped backward away from the window and out over the creekbed, where they hung for a moment and then disappeared. At which point he suddenly remembered he had lungs and legs, and ran screaming in terror for the kitchen door.
Naturally, we didn't believe him. After all, the little brat always DID have a hyper-active imagination. We didn't believe him for the next three weeks, either, when he came in screaming "I saw them again!" about every 2-3 days. And naturally, we never saw anything when he kept dragging us out on the porch to watch for the "demon" every night.
After we had pretty much gotten to the point where we refused to go out on the porch and freeze any more, he managed to drag me out one last time. The poor kid was probably begining to doubt his sanity by that point, but he insisted, almost in tears, that he was neither imagining this or making it up. So I reluctantly went out on the porch, and stared out the window. To be met seconds later with [insert spooky music score hear] a pair of big GLOWING RED DEMON EYES! As I stood paralyzed with fear, they watched me for a second, then swooped off over the creekbed where they stopped, watched for a moment, then vanished. Contrary to what my little brother will tell you, I DID NOT then go flying through the kitchen door screaming like a banshee. But I will admit that I am rather glad I already emptied my bladder before this encounter...
Some time a little later (well ok. a LOT later) after I had regained my composure, I started thinking "there HAS to be a rational explanation. besides, Colin has been seeing this thing for weeks, and it hasn't eaten HIM yet...". So I screwed up my courage, and forced myself back outside. And yes, the fact that Dad came along this time DID help!
We waited, and waited, and then suddenly THERE WERE THE EYES! Or rather, there were the brake lights reflected in the window. It seems that through a rather miraculous set of refractions and reflections, the people stopping at the collection of mailboxes out front had their brakelights reflected in the porch windows out back...
Which just goes to show, all that haunts is not a spook. Or something