Voice

     Again a voice out of nowhere. I was at the computer in the library and my dog was lying on a rug between the library doorway into the diningroom and the library doorway into the den. My wife had taken some items into her shop in town several miles away. Other than my neighbor mowing his lawn, the area was very quiet. Had I wanted total quiet, I'd only needed to close the den window. Both the dog and I heard my name called, once, in a normal tone, coming from the diningroom. Thinking my wife had arrived home and was telling me as much, I answered. The dog immediately reacted to the "voice", his head coming up and looking into the diningroom. I got no answer, so I got up and followed my dog into the diningroom. There was no one there. My wife's car was not in the driveway. We both heard the "voice" and we both reacted to it. But what was it?

Oppression and chill

   As related to me by my wife, this morning. She told me that she could not sleep last night so she got up and went downstairs to the library to read, and perhaps get sleepy. I knew she had gotten up but supposed it was a bathroom trip. I was quickly back asleep. She said she entered the library and picked up on a book she had started earlier. As she sat there the room got stuffier and more humid. The night temperature was about 70 here last night which is a bit warm for sleeping. We had the window fan going but that is most effective in the upstairs. Then rather rapidly the room grew cool, then cold.  At first she thought perhaps a storm was brewing and caused the sudden influx of cold air but rather than feeling relieved by the coldness she began to feel horribly depressed. The depression grew until she got up and left the room. Going to the kitchen, she said she sat at the table for a time reading, the depression had not followed her, nor the cold clammy feeling. Feeling drouzy, she came back up to bed. She has experienced this coldness once before, many years ago, as noted in an earlier entry in this journal; but the depression was new and she said it was so tangible you could almost see it. But as soon as she left the library, it was gone.

Again Phantom dog and coughing fit.

     This time it was my wifes turn to experience the strange effects in this house. My wife and I had spent most of the day at an auction, we had taken our dog with us. We returned to the house in the late afternoon, had supper, discussed our purchases for a bit when our dog informed he had to go out. The fact he was out most of the day was beside the point in his mental schedule; after supper you take the dog out for his walk and to do his necessary things. So I was out of the house, as was the dog. My wife said she was quietly doing some book work at the kitchen table when she distinctly heard a dog come running down the back stairs. For a moment she thought nothing about it and then suddenly realized the dog was out for his walk. Then before she could really react to that someone or something had a coughing fit that sounded like it was at the foot of the rear stairs. Now really unnerved she called my name thinking perhaps the dog and I had, for whatever reason, come in the front door, up the winding front staircase, through the upstairs and had come down the rear staircase. That wasn't the case and she could find nothing that could have made these sounds. A few minutes later my dog and I came back through the rear door into the kitchen (the same way we had left). My wife was quick to recite the episode. I mentioned to my wife that had a dog really ran down the rear staircase it would have run into the gate at the bottom of the stairs which was closed at the time. She said the coughing really didn't sound like me either. Old houses can be very entertaining.