Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Taking Sister-in-Law Ghost Hunting

  Hi, y'all, from wet, windy, chilly central Ohio. Brrrrr. Good thing Penny's had some sweaters on sale. This Texas gal was staying chilly...and not from paranormal cold spots. Not until sister-in-law and I encountered a few, anyway.
  First off, I will be on an internet radio show on Thursday night, talking mystery/thriller books with some other authors. Here are the promo bites the host sent out:
  Hear me - on The Author's Corner, Thursday nite from 8-11 PM EDT at trianglevarietyradio.com - it's Mystery/thriller/suspense nite and my books will kill you in the nicest way!
  Feel in the mood for a bit of murder/mystery/mayhem? Head for The Author's Corner, Thursday nite from 8-11 PM EDT on trianglevarietyradio.com and meet some of the best killer's around – well, for your reading pleasure!
   Hope to "see" some of y'all there. Now for the story of my latest ghost hunt, where I took my sister-in-law Ellen on her first "hunt:"
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There’s a tiny little haunted town on a canal in Ohio called Roscoe Village. It was quite an industrious place when canals crisscrossed Ohio and boats hauled supplies in and out for the settlers. Then a flood destroyed it in 1913. These days, it has been restored as a tourist draw, and many of the former residents from bygone days are still hanging around.
     On April 23, 2012, I took my sister-in-law Ellen ghost hunting in Roscoe Village. I had known previously that Ellen had a measure of sensitivity, but she hasn’t developed it or begun to understand it. We found ourselves with some time on our hands when I was visiting her, and off we headed to see if we could find a few ghosts.
     The first place we entered was called Medbery Marketplace. In the canal boat days, it was a three-story hotel for travelers. Today, the lower floor is a wonderful market that sells all sorts of cheeses and other delicious products. At the rear of the ground floor is a little shop called Captain Nye’s Custard, Coneys and Candy. The two floors above were hotel rooms previously, and now house a plethora of small shops with various and sundry items for sale. A man ghost followed us around in the market, but Ellen didn’t sense him. There were some delicious samples spread about, though, and I’ll admit I was a little more intrigued with my tummy than the ghosts. Still, I’d promised Ellen to try to find a ghost she could experience, so we headed up to the second floor, reached by an outside stairwell.
     As soon as we stepped out the door, I sensed someone. However, Ellen just walked on behind me with no hint that she noticed. The ghost wasn’t pleased about that. She (it was female) shoved over a tin flamingo lawn ornament, barely missing Ellen. She jumped and looked at me as if to say, “What did that?” I told her the ghost wanted her to notice it and was a bit peeved when she didn’t. But we went on upstairs.
     The first ghost I noticed on that floor was male. He followed us around up there, but kept his distance. Periodically, I stopped to see if Ellen could sense anything, but she never did. We finally climbed on to the top floor.
     Here, we encountered quite the determined ghost. She was a young woman, late teens or early twenties. She was about Ellen’s size and height, and she wore a long dress, a somewhat drab gray-green color. She kept insisting that I make Ellen acknowledge her. I kept telling her that I couldn’t do that. During this time, I told Ellen what was going on, but she never sensed the ghost. Finally, I told the ghost that she needed to get close to Ellen and really make her energy as strong as possible. Still no luck…as far as the ghost was concerned. We finally went back downstairs and talked to the shop folks for a while, then walked across the street to a building called The Warehouse Steak and Stein.
     Turned out, at one time years ago, Ellen had worked in this restaurant, in the kitchen. But she told me after we entered that it had changed a lot. A lady manager came up to us, and I told her we were looking for ghosts. She said, “Well, we’ve got some here, so go ahead and look around.”
     “Can we go anywhere we want?” I asked, and she assured us we could.
     We walked around on the first floor a bit, but felt nothing. We climbed more stairs to the second floor, opened a door and entered the Banquet Room. We weren’t there more than fifteen seconds before I knew something very nasty haunted there. I sensed he used to be a canal boat captain, and he had not been a very nice man. Perhaps he had even killed someone. Having Ellen with me made me a little more cautious than usual, so I said to her, “There’s something bad here. He’s male and he’s nasty. I don’t even want to hang around him, so let’s go.”
     Ellen didn’t tell me until later that she had become sick to her stomach and felt ill in that room. She said after we left, she started feeling better. Soon and farther away from the room, she realized the sick feeling was gone.
     “There’s a basement here,” she said to me.
     “A basement?” I said excitedly. “Let’s go.”
     There was a closed sign, but since we’d been given permission to explore, down we went. And glad we were. It was fairly dark, but a few lights shined here and there, as well as some neon beer signs lighting up on the walls. At first, though, I could only catch glimpses of entities flying around. When I would try to focus on something, it would flit off again. I took a couple pictures with Ellen’s digital, but nothing showed up. Finally, I grew tired of their games and decided to leave.
     Before we got to the doorway,  something grabbed my arm. I also heard Don’t go. Ellen was walking a step or so behind me, and I turned. “Did you grab my arm?” I asked.
     She shook her head and extended her arm to show me how far away from me she was. “I never touched you. I’m too far away to do that.”
     Don’t go.
     I propped my hand on my hip. “Well, if you want us to stay,” I said, “then you better quit playing around and show yourselves. Ellen wants to see some ghosts.”
     Within seconds, a mist formed in the far back corner of the basement. I grinned and pointed it out to Ellen. She stared at it for a while and at first shook her head. Then an astonished look came over her face. “You mean that white stuff back there?”
     “Yep, that’s them.”
     The mist grew sharper as we watched. I took a picture, and we got some of the mist in it. We also got a very clear, nice orb on the wall.
     We finally left, with Ellen very satisfied with her fist ghost hunt with me. Later, though, we had another nice confirmation of our ghosts. Aunt Belle is visiting friends in this area, also, and turns out she went into Medbery Marketplace within an hour after we left. We touched base in a phone call that evening and Belle informed me of her experience.
     Belle arrived and told a lady there she was looking for ghosts, and the woman said yes, they had some. But she would not tell Belle where they were.
     “That’s o.k.,” Belle said. “I’ll tell you where they are.” Turns out she confirmed the lady in the long dress I saw on the third floor. We both described her the same way: about Ellen’s size, young, late teens or early twenties. Belle said the dress was blue-green, but agreed it was drab, not colorful. Belle was telling the lady downstairs about the ghost, and the lady replied, “You’re the second person today who saw that ghost.”
     Yep, she was. I was the first one! Same ghost, same place, same description, just different hours of the day. Imagine that!

Boo!

T. M.


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