Gideon’s Ghost

It was a dark and stormy night…

Okay. I’m just kidding. It’s hard to resist an opening like that classic line. 🙂

Have you ever had anything really spooky happen to you? Something that you just can’t explain?

I have. Lots of times. Everything from dreams that predict events that actually end up happening, to lucid dreams of close family and friends who have passed.

One spooky thing that happened to me was when I was 15. We had new neighbors move in to the house next door, and I was their new babysitter. But before I tell you what happened, I have to give you some background on that house.

I grew up next to this house. I’d never been inside the house before, not even in the yard. You see, before the new neighbors moved in, an elderly couple lived there… and they hated children. So much so, that they put up a chain-link fence – upside down! The sharp, twisted fencing wires that typically go into the ground were pointing straight up! Unsafe and very dangerous – just ask my brother who dared to climb over that fence to retrieve a ball that landed in their yard – he ended up slipping and ripping his chin open. My family was very active outdoors, and my brothers and I were always playing in our yard along with our neighborhood friends – our yard was the “hub” where everyone hung out. We tried very hard to not let balls go over that fence, because when they did (and because of what happened to my brother), no one wanted to climb the fence and face the meanness of Gideon (the man who lived there). Instead, Gideon just kept our balls and yelled at us. We rarely saw his wife – she seemed to stay indoors all the time. Hopefully you get the picture – he was not a nice man.

One day when I was a little older, police officers came to our door to ask if we knew where Gideon was, or if we had seen him lately. His wife had been in the hospital for surgery, and she hadn’t been able to reach him in over a week. She called the police to check on him. Since Gideon kept to himself, none of the neighbors knew anything about his whereabouts. The police couldn’t get an answer when they knocked at his door, so they ended up breaking in. Ends up, Gideon had passed away in his bed shortly after his wife went to the hospital, and hadn’t been found until the police arrived (more than a week later).

After the house was cleaned, his wife sold the house and our new neighbors moved in. They were a young couple with two young daughters. We became friends instantly and I was thrilled to be their new babysitter. It was also refreshing to see “nice” people living in that house.

But let’s go back to the spooky night… I was babysitting in that house. The two girls were sleeping and I was sitting in the living room watching television. Next door at my house, my aunt and uncle and cousin stopped in for a very unexpected visit. They happened to be in town and stopped by to say “hi”. We hadn’t seen them since I was much younger. My parents told my cousin to surprise me and go visit me while I was babysitting. She came over and we sat in the living room, catching up while the girls slept. My cousin was sitting on the couch facing me, and my back was to the hallway that led to the bedrooms where the girls were sleeping (a rambler). While my cousin and I were excitedly talking, my cousin suddenly stopped, and whispered to me “Who is that guy”? I asked her “What guy?!”. There was no guy in the house – only me, my cousin, and the two little girls I was babysitting. My cousin said “The guy with the grey hair. He just walked out of that room and went into a room across the hall”. My face must have gone ghost white, as my cousin looked at me and said “What’s wrong?”. I told her there was no guy in the house – only us. She was adamant about the “guy” she saw and described him. I told her about Gideon and how he died in the house. I told her the room she mentioned had been his bedroom (his wife slept in the room at the end of the hall). The room across the hall from his bedroom was the bathroom. My cousin didn’t believe me and waited for the “guy” to come out of the bathroom. When nothing happened, she became spooked and decided to leave, and go back to my house. I begged her to stay with me, but she was too afraid.

There I sat. For hours. Alone. Waiting for the parents of the two girls to come home. I never saw what my cousin saw, but there was NO way she could have known about Gideon. We hadn’t seen each other in many years, and she had only been to my house once before when she was around 9 years old. When the parents came home, I would typically sit and visit with them for a while, but I was very anxious to get home that night!

Days later, the mom of the two girls and I were talking. I ended up telling her what had happened, and I told her the background about the evil Gideon and how he hated kids. Neither her or her husband knew that someone had died in that house (their bedroom) when they bought it. She asked me not to tell her husband, because she was sure he would want to move right away if he knew someone had died in their house.  I never spoke about Gideon again after that.

It was a spooky night, and certainly one I can’t explain.

So… how about you?

Have you ever had a spooky experience? Share in a comment below – I’d like to hear about it!