Thursday, May 31, 2018

I'm Brig's wife and want to share one of my experiences in the small store we own and operate.  Earlier Brig gave background on the store, noting it's an older commercial building.  Inside in the main showroom there's a deep ledge about 7 feet from the floor and running from front to back on the sides. I use that to display over-sized or large and fragile items.
     I have a friend who helps out at the store and sometimes brings in an unusual thing to sell.  She had worked for me the previous day and had positioned two vintage stuffed fabric dolls of hers on the ledge.  Both were 3 feet tall, but with floppy arms and leg,s they couldn't stand.  One was a girl wearing a calico print dress, yellow hair and gigantic googly eyes while the other was a boy dressed in blue pants and with a blue cap perched on his Dutch boy styled hair.  Both were facing forward with arms hanging loosely and feet dangling over the ledge.  Cute and a bit unusual, so I knew they'd attract attention.
     As I went through the opening duties, I felt like someone was watching me and checked the door to see if someone was waiting for me to unlock and let them in.  No one was there. With all the lights on and everything ready, I opened for business.  When I went behind the counter, I glanced over at those dolls and was surprised to see the girl doll turned to the side with one leg stretched out ON the ledge. I certainly hadn't touched her, and I was the only person in the building. I walked over, reached up with a yardstick and knocked her leg off the ledge which more or less straightened her up.  I was not going to be spooked by any doll!
     That day, two women customers at different times commented on feeling uneasy and as if someone was looking at them.  Then I got really busy which lasted past closing time, so I forgot about the dolls.  The next morning when I arrived, there were 6 black taper candles lying perfectly aligned on the floor under those dolls.  There were no black candles of any kind in the store.  I called my helper friend and asked if she'd brought in any black candles.  No she hadn't,  I put them in a bag and set them aside as the day became quite busy.  Late in the afternoon I noticed the girl doll was once again sitting with one leg stretched out on the ledge,  But a customer very well could have moved her.
     All was quiet with the dolls the following day, and I put them out of my mind,  However, when I opened the store on the third day, I found broken glass on the floor under the dolls.  The pieces were so fine I couldn't determine what had been broken,  Nothing was missing.  As I swept up the glass, the girl doll toppled from the ledge and somehow landed face up on my foot.  By then I didn't want to touch her, but had to get her back on the ledge.  I made sure she was sitting well back from the edge with her arms folded in her lap.  Then I went to the backroom to get a box to sweep the broken glass into before putting it in the trash.  When I returned, the girl doll's arms were well off to each side and not in her lap.  Did they flop there on their own?  I was doubting it.  They were soft, floppy and had no resistance to being posed.
     Day 4 was quiet with the dolls, and nothing was wrong, broken or out of place.  My imagination was running a little wild   was my thought.  An order of towels arrived and I had to set aside two for a customer who would be in just before closing.  I displayed the other towels on a folding rack under the dolls.  When the customer arrived, she wanted a total of 4 towels, so we walked together to get them.  The rack was completely bare!  Now how do you even begin to explain that to someone?  We both searched that area for towels.  We moved everything.  I checked the counter area and the box the towels had shipped in.  No towels.  I assured the customer they'd turn up and when they did, I'd hold two and call her.
     I was again moving everything in the space under the dolls when Brig came in.  He looked askance at me, but did help search.  In fact, we went thoroughly through the entire store.  I had the box and the invoice that proved there had been towels, but where were they?  Not having any answer for the situation, Brig went to his work area in the backroom,  I walked past the dolls, stopped, backed up and shook my finger at them.  The girl doll suddenly fell completely over onto her side on the ledge.  Exasperated, I left her there, but did say their tenure in my store was coming to an end.
      I called my helper and told her it sounded crazy, but I wanted her to please remove those dolls from the store.  She agreed to pick them up the next afternoon.  I hung up the phone, turned around and the girl doll was sitting upright. Poor Brig!  I yelled, blaming him for moving that doll.  He said he hadn't touched either of them.
     Okay, time to go home.  I started turning off lights, making a loop from back to front.  When I turned the corner and could clearly see the wall area where the dolls were, the missing towels were hanging neatly on the rack. Unbelievable!  I yelled for Brig to come look.  "Impossible" was his retort, but there they were.  I grabbed two for my customer just in case the towels went missing again.
     Right after opening the store on the 5th day, I noted that the dolls were no longer sitting side-by-side with arms touching.  There was about a foot between them.  I muttered that they were going home to live in a dark trunk in an attic.  When the first customer of the day came through the door, her eyes went instantly to those dolls.  She said they'd been prizes at some carnival-style game at Euclid Beach Park in Cleveland, and she had to have them.  Needless to say, she got them although I did wonder if she'd end up experiencing odd little events when they were around.
     So in the end, things returned to what passes for normal in the store.  We never discovered where the black candles came from or what glass item was broken,  While some of the doll's movements might be explained as shaking of an old building or precarious placement, there's still no answer for her sitting up straight from a prone position or for her leg moving upward to rest on the ledge.