Saturday, February 23, 2013

Ghosts of Aunt Belle's February Visit


I promised a more light-hearted blog this week, and Aunt Belle's visit gave me the opportunity to keep that pledge, since my paranormal residents also enjoy her visits. They seem to know whenever she's scheduled to show up. It's too important to forget, so I don't always write it on my calendar. I assume they listen in on our phone conversations to get their information. There are often strange noises during our long-distance chats, sounds we never hear when talking to anyone else. At least two or three times in each conversation, one of us will say, "Did you hear that?" Yep, we both did.
Therefore, no matter how quiet it has been, a few days before she arrives, things start to liven up paranormal-wise here at the house. The first thing this week was when I walked into the Molly-Belle Suite bathroom to check things out and make sure it had towels and everything else Aunt Belle needed for her stay. We named the guest bedroom and bath the Molly-Belle Suite, and no other room in my home has a name. We christened this one in honor of Aunt Belle and Miss Molly, my cat who appears in the Dead Man Mysteries. We both adore the cat and the mysteries.
Just inside the bathroom door, I halted. I'd been hearing a noise but couldn't track it down. I'd found it. The commode had just finished filling up and as I stood there, it shut off! No one had flushed it … no one living. I put my hands on my hips and had a talk with Teddy, the bathroom ghost.
"They just raised our water rates, Teddy. So keep your darn hands off the commode."
He didn't. The next day, I went in and the commode was running as though trying to fill up again. I called hub in. He lifted the lid and found that little chain thingie caught beneath that little rubber thingie. Well, someone had to flush it to make that happen. I had another talk with Teddy, this time with threats, and it hasn't happened again … so far.
Aunt Belle arrived, and we went to a birthday party for one of her grandkids. Then we came home to homemade soup and put in a dvd. Hub joined us, and we also "invited" our new toy, a Raggedy Ann trigger object I'd ordered from the Ghost Hunter Store. The doll has an embedded KII meter, and if paranormal energy gets close enough, the hands and/or face will light up.
Raggedy Ann sat quietly, never blipping all during the movie. After it was over, hub headed off to bed. I was sitting on the couch, our Dobie, Bonnie, curled up beside me. The darn couch started vibrating, just like Bonnie was itching a flea.
"Quit it, Bonnie," I said. "Lie still."
Aunt Belle glanced over at the dog. "She's not moving."
"Huh? Well, the darn couch is!" I got up, sat back down. It kept vibrating. Aunt Belle started laughing at me.
"You think it's so funny, you come over here and sit," I demanded.
She did, and after a few seconds, shook her head. "You're imagining things. It's not—" Her eyes got wide. "Yes, it's moving! It feels like something's trapped under it, trying to get out."
I turned to check behind the couch, and a dark gray shadow raced off toward my office door. It was about a foot or so tall and looked like a big fat house cat, but you could see through it. I gasped and told Aunt Belle about it. But the couch was still vibrating!
We checked and couldn’t find anything under that couch. Bonnie stayed curled up, not moving. I went to get hub, and he sat down.
"Nothing," he said. "I don't feel a thing." He wandered off back to bed.
I sat. The couch vibrated!
"Put Raggedy Ann over there," Aunt Belle said.
I propped the doll against the couch arm, and we watched her closely while I sat there on the vibrating couch. Every once in a while, the light in her chest would brighten, but just for a split second. Finally, she grew quiet, and so did the couch.
Aunt Belle and I gazed at each other with a laugh and that look we share: Another one of those things that happen to us when we're together.
We had a trip planned the next night to try out Raggedy Ann some more. That night turned out to be cold! Still, we were determined to go. We dressed warm to take "Annie" out to Dry Creek Cemetery, only Aunt Belle, me, and hub to drive us. We got a late start, and it was well after dark when we arrived. We had to use our flashlights in order not to stumble over low-lying stones, since the moon was just beginning to wane and there were clouds. We took a blanket to set the doll on, and laid the flashlight I use to communicate with ghosts and spirits beside her. Hub set up the video camera on the tripod. It was turned to night vision, so we could film Annie and the flashlight without any problem.
The flashlight lit up periodically as we chatted with some of the regulars at this cemetery: Billy the Cowboy, Mr. Jim, Walter, Isabella, and someone new, Esther. But that doll just sat there, the only light showing the one in her chest, which indicated she was turned on. We begged and pleaded with those gathered around to light her up, but they would not. Even when Rebecca, the little girl out there, came by from the spirit world, she wouldn't move close enough to Annie to light even one hand. After about half an hour in that cold, we finally gave up, took the camera down and picked up the doll and flashlight. Just as we started back across the cemetery, a car pulled in behind ours.
Outside the gate, we met five very nice young teenage guys who were extremely polite and interested in our ghost hunting. When they found out our names, one said, "Don't you have a video on YouTube about this cemetery?"
"Yes, we do," I replied.
"We've watched it," he said. "It's cool."
And suddenly, Raggedy Ann decided to flirt! Her lights lit up and lit up and lit up. The guys were fascinated with her.
"Well," Aunt Belle said. "Annie didn't want to cooperate with us old fogeys, but she sure likes you kids!"
We set the camera back up and filmed a bit of this, and it's some of the most fun stuff we've gotten. Hopefully, I can get a couple of my SRT members to edit it so we can post it different places.
We chatted for a while with these nice kids. All except one had been to this cemetery a few times previously, and their attitudes indicated a respect for the paranormal. We told them a few things they didn't know, and Aunt Belle took them out to show them where the portal is. I wandered off with Raggedy Ann by myself, over beneath Billy's tree, but the doll wouldn't light up at all. So I walked toward the group around Aunt Belle.
When I got there, I frowned and looked down at Raggedy Ann. "Someone turned her off!" I said. "She was on when I walked out from under that tree."
"I know," one of the guys said. "I was watching you walk over here. She was on, then her light went off."
"Huh," I said. "I sure didn't turn her off."
I flipped her switch back on, and around the guys again, she glowed and glowed and glowed. Flirty doll. J
The teenagers shared our White Light ceremony and left just ahead of us. Then we had to deal with another one of "those incidents." We'd forgotten to take Billy a cigarette, and though we apologized and promised him two the next trip, maybe he was a bit disgruntled. Even though we'd done the White Light, we had a problem.
"The kids forgot to shut the gate," hub said. "Can you get out and close it?"
"Sure," I said. I tried the car door, but it was locked. It was dark inside the car, so I couldn't find the button on my side to disengage the lock. "Unlock the door for me," I told hub.
He hit the control panel button on his side. It didn't even click. He tried again. Nada. We were locked in the car! Hub pressed the key chain unlock button, the one you have to hit twice to open the door. Nada. The doors remained locked.
We were sort of giggling and enjoying it. We kept promising Billy his two cigarettes, but Aunt Belle said, "He wants matches, too."
"He knows I won't give him matches," I said with a laugh.
After several tries on that key ring button, we finally heard the double click of the locks disengaging. Shaking my head, I got out and closed the gate. "Everyone stay here, and we'll come back and see you again," I repeated, although I'd said that during the White Light. "And quit the tricks, Billy, or you won't even get one cigarette next time."
Nobody answered me. But the cemetery was pretty with that nearly full moon shining down, so I enjoyed a few moments of the scene before I returned to the car.
It's wonderful to see some considerate young teens showing a respectful interest in the paranormal. I hope there are lots more of these type kids coming after us.
~~~
On the writing end, I have three stories just about ready for the new Volume V of  my diaries. Still at least three more stories need written up, and then a couple other tidbits for the end.
I also dropped the price of Dead Man Talking on Amazon to $.99. I'd like to do that on the other sites, but it will have to wait 90 days. Amazon demands an exclusive in order to take advantage of some of their promotion tools and get the book noticed a bit more out there. Soon, though. Time passes quickly.

Some trees are leafing out and flowers blooming here in our end of Texas. I can't wait for the azaleas and bluebonnets. In the meantime, the rest of y'all living in those cold place stay warm.
Boo!
T. M

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