Neighbors Experience the Strange

Last week we were hit by a tornado that left us with no power for four days and a lot of clean-up. My neighbor lost his signature tree from in front of his house. That tree he had babied and fixed and trimmed for years because it is believed it was planted there prior to the civil war. It did make a marked difference to the front view of his house. He and I were discussing clean up and directing a clean up crew. Having some time to just talk our conversation turned to the weirdness of our respective properties. He is the only other person in this village who will readily discuss the strange happenings in the house. Others who reside in this historic village will sometimes let a tale slip but they are so afraid of ridicule they rarely do. Anyway my neighbor has two boys, both born in the house who are 8 and 12 now. If you recall I had related a couple of things that occured in the house in an earlier post. This, then, is a continuation. He started out with, "At least the boys haven't seen the "ugly man" for a while". The Ugly man I questioned? "Oh I hadn't told you about him?" "For several years at least once or twice during the year the boys would come running into our bedroom all scared because they had seen an ugly man walking down the hall in front of their bedroom". They were always so insistant that my wife and I had to walk them down the hall and show them there was no one present." The elder son discribed the man as unkept, raggedity, beardy, wearing a very shabby uniform of some sort and he had a very dark, mean look on his face. Scared them plenty. He said if just one of them saw the ugly man, he would have thought it was a bad dream or something but both claimed to see him and both were pretty consistant on what he looked like.                      Then he told me something that really blew me away. He said that his wife and him had thought for a long time that the boys had an invisible playmate. They would frequently talk about playing in their bedroom (second floor above a rarely used parlour) when a little boy would come into the bedroom and ask, "Whatcha doin?" Then he'd ask if he could play too".  They liked the boy and he actually joined in their games. Then after a while he'd announce, "Gotta go now", and leave the bedroom. At first, my neighbor said, we thought the kid was a famous invisible playmate, until I realized it would be very unusual for two boys to have the same invisible friend, The boys discribed their friend as between the ages of the brothers, blond, blue-eyed and most pleasant. Then the topper of this whole episode occurred about two years ago. A knock on the front door was answered by the neighbors wife. Standing in the doorway was a little old lady and sitting in front of thouse was big black cadallic. The lady said she, at one time many years ago, stayed in the house and she simply wanted to see if it was still standing and if it had been changed much. The neighbors invited her in and showed her around. She was very happy to see the house was still pretty much as she remembered it. She was traveling from California and on her way to New York State.  After a short visit and as she prepared to leave she said,"Oh before I forget it. I have some old pictures of this house and I thought perhaps you would like them". I can see my neighbors eyes light up on that, he is not only a professional photographer he is also a history buff. They said their good-byes and the lady was off to her New York distination.   Later, as they looked at the old photos which were on tin, glass, and paper, they came to a photo of a woman and young boy on the front steps of the house. Both boys, almost in unison,  said "Thats the boy that comes to play with us". This is my first experience of hearing a serious report of the living actually interacting with the dead. My neighbors think the whole thing is remarkable but I don't think they realize the true ramifications of it. While its true these boys are brothers; it is also a fact that 4 years seperate them. Yet they both see and interact with the same phenomena. My neighbor also had had that confounded murmering that drives you batty, you can't quite make out whats being said and you cannot find the source of the murmering. He has also experienced the voice calling his name when he is totally alone in the house. Two things we have experienced in my house. He also told of hearing floppy slapping footfall down the upstairs hall. He, his wife and both boys were downstairs in the family eroom when that happened. They all heard it but inspection of the upstairs hall showed nothing amiss. It sound, he said, like some one walking in swim fins. Thats another one I have yet to experience here. But like us he has heard someone run up the front stairs. This, he said, happens upon occassion but no one is ever in evidence. He thinks his boys, having grown up with these mysterys, just take them as the norm. There are other pre-civil wars homes in this village, I wish the owners would be more open minded about sharing their experiences with the weird. Those who have, I have reported in earlier posts here. Ever have a chance to own a really old house; it can be quite an experience.