A Ghost Story

I have been wanting to tell this story since I first unofficially started my Typical Jenn’s 31 Days of Halloween – I say unofficial because I meant to do this a long time ago but this is the first year I’ve actually gone through with my Typical Jenn’s 31 Days of Halloween. Now, I’ve had my own paranormal experiences but this one belongs to my dad and happened during my senior year of high school.

Every small town has that one house that’s rumored to be haunted and my home town is no different. This house, however, doesn’t come with a “this is why it’s haunted” story. It was built in the ’40s but the house didn’t start earning its reputation up until about 20 years ago. I could go on for days about this house but I’m saving all of it for the book I’m writing. My dad’s story, however, is one I’m incredibly eager to share now.

My dad was a police officer and at the time of this encounter he was working the night shift with his partner and a rookie cop who was out patrolling with them. That night at around 2AM they responded to a breaking and entering call. They arrived to find a couple and their baby standing outside of the house; the wife holding the baby and the husband with a gun in his hand pacing back and forth. My dad and his partner go inside the house while the rookie tries to calm the man down and question them.

After doing their search my dad and his partner emerge from the house – they’ve seen no signs of forced entry, all of the windows and the back door are locked from the inside, and there’s absolutely no one in the house or, as far they can tell, near the area. My dad walks over to the man, who has calmed down a little, and begins talking to him. He tells my dad that him and his wife were asleep, when he woke up and saw a man standing over the foot of the bed staring at them. The man grabbed his gun on the nightstand and thought the intruder ran out of the room because he was gone by the time he aimed. He got his wife and kid out of the house and while she called the police he went back in to look for the intruder. He repeatedly told my dad “I know what I saw, I wasn’t dreaming, I don’t sleep walk. He was standing there.”

Because this is a small town all of the neighbors were standing outside watching the whole scene unfold. My dad and his partner began questioning the neighbors, just in case the intruder was able to escape, maybe somebody had seen something. My dad makes it over to a man he knows well, as this man used to be one of his teachers when my dad was in high school. My dad explains what happened and then asks “did you see anything? Did you see anyone run from the house or anyone out of place walking around the neighborhood?” It was the middle of the night so of course he hadn’t, but his response wasn’t one of shock or even fear that a possible burglar was in the neighborhood. He looked at my dad and with a smirk said “I didn’t see anything, but you should ask them if they’ve seen the little girl too.”

It was a strange response to a intruder question so my dad asked him what he meant, and that’s when my dad learned that this wasn’t the first time an owner of the home had witnessed something like this, however most of what others saw was usually by the well that was located in the backyard. My dad and his partner continued questioning possible witnesses and double-checked the house and its surroundings but never found any sign that there was anyone other than the family in the house.

My dad was incredibly curious and, right before they left, asked the family if they’d seen a little girl around their house. That’s when the wife said “a few weeks ago I woke up because I could hear noises in the backyard, and when I looked out the window I saw a little girl playing by the well. I got up and was going to take her back home but by the time I got outside she was gone. I figured she saw me looking at her and ran off.” She then told my dad that she did ask a few of the neighbors if they had a little girl, just so she could explain to them what happened but when they all told her they didn’t she dropped it. Her husband had never seen a little girl in or around their house and at the time of that particular incident he was working out of town.

My dad has since retired but has said that during his 25 years on the force that was one of the eeriest calls he’d ever responded to. One thing my dad makes sure to clarify about that night is that he can’t say for sure that something paranormal happened because he didn’t see anything, but he 100% believes that the owner of the house did – he’s never forgotten his demeanor or the look of frustration and fear on his face. The couple moved out of that house a few months later and since then the house has had over 10 owners (I don’t know the exact number), each lasting only a couple of years. My dad still keeps in touch with some of his officer buddies and said that to this day they still get calls to that house, with the most recent being last December when and a member of the family of the current owners was found deceased.