I was still very young, barely out of my teens, but already on my second marriage. My husband was TDY in Calif., so I had returned to the east coast
to stay with my older sister, Laura. She had just rented a rather elaborate old house that was very charming. It was filled with priceless antique
furniture. It lacked for nothing. All we had to do was grab a few personal belongings and move right in! There was however a rule that went with the
cheap rent; there was a locked room inside the house that we were not to have access to. Who cared!?? With the sprawling lawns and mansion-like porch
columns, we were in seventh heaven.
A few days later, I ran into an old school acquaintance and invited her over. You guessed it! She wanted to move in, AND bring her 2-yr old daughter.
Why not? We had plenty of room, and lo and behold, the place already supplied a baby bed. Next it was time to party! Our favorite place was just over
the state line. An 18 mile drive. So, at night's end we had gathered a small group of friends to bring back and continue the party. I never was one
for drinking, but I did love to dance.
One of the guys said that the house gave him the creeps. My sis and I were offended. But then someone started telling spooky stories. Just to back up
for a moment. Some of the neighbors there had been trying to tell us that the place was haunted, but we didn't believe it for a minute! We loved our
place! We thought it to be a conspiracy to get rid of us, so they could get it! We were ten foot tall and bullet-proof. And we just didn't believe in
such.
Anyway, my friend Kay had a Ouija board. I had never seen one. So we all began to play with it. Suddenly, every light in the house went out. Everyone
was accounted for. No storms. But we just shook it off as one of those things, and went back to playing. We never got the palette to move on it's
own. But, then a large shadow fell across the board as if something was standing between the street light in the backyard and the window. But it
wasn't. Well we blew that off too. Then we decided to break into the locked room in the house. We figured we could be careful and no one would be
wiser. Man, at the locks on that door! We finally got them all off and the lights went out again. Before I go any further, I've left something out
again. My sis had been having very realistic dreams since we had moved there. They entailed a soldier in a world war II uniform coming to her every
night and making love to her. This will make sense in a moment. When we got in the room and the lights came back on, we saw that there was really
nothing in there that would cause anyone to lock it up so tightly.
There was a single iron cot, with dozens of funeral wreaths. There was an old family bible on the mantle with a pair of granny glasses. The kind that
John Lennon made famous. And a window fan. My sis grabbed the fan for her room, and my friend Jerry grabbed the glasses and the bible to carry in the
other room.




