One of my first experiences with the paranormal began quite innocuously. I had just moved in with my Fiancé, at the time, Debbie (later to become my ex-wife), to a four plex two-story apartment.
She had a son from a previous marriage (that I would later adopt and raise as my own) who was about 2 years old at the time.
We had been living in the apartment for about a month when the first strange event happened.
You see we always kept the salt and pepper shakers on the top of the stove and one day they went missing, we searched all over and under but could not find these shakers.
As most people would, we just chalked it up to forgetfulness and figured they would show up eventually.
Well they did. About a month (which I was later able to conclude) had gone by and my Fiancé came out of the kitchen and said, "where did you find the salt & pepper shakers?".
"I didn't", I replied, and she proceeded to show me that the aforementioned shakers were mysteriously back on top of the stove where they were normally kept, with the exception of the last 30 days.
Well, needless to say, we were both a little stunned and could not find any rational explanation for this other than one of us was lying. Later that night as I was watching TV, Debbie was doing the dishes (I know ladies, don't get your panties in a bunch). She came out of the kitchen with a look of shock and fear on her face and said "You are not going to believe what just happened"
You see the cupboard doors above the sink were spring loaded and, if opened, would slam shut. Well as she was cleaning up, the doors above the sink opened and closed slowly. Something that could not happen unless someone or thing was guiding them. I had experienced the paranormal prior to meeting her and I knew that what we had was a poltergeist.
“Demon. Gremlin. Poltergeist. Ghost. Phantom. Spirit. Shadow. Ghoul. Devil. People are afraid of them, so they relegate their existence to stories, volumes of books that can be closed and put on the shelf or left behind at a bed and breakfast; they clench their eyes shut, so they will see no evil.
But trust me when I tell you that the zebra is real. Somewhere, the zebra is dancing.”
— Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain
Another month went by with nothing out of the ordinary, then the strangest thing yet happened. You see both Debbie and I worked at the same company (can you say office romance).
We left together, drove in the same car, and came home together. No one else had access to our apartment. This day was no different, we left for work, locked the door and when we came back home we were greeted by a pretty amazing sight.
The furniture in the house was completely re-arranged. The sofa was on the other side of the room. Then end table was in the center of the room. The TV was in the dining room, etc.
Almost every piece of furniture on the lower level had been moved. "Why would anyone break in to just re-arrange the furniture", I thought. Nothing was taken, just moved. After I returned everything to it's proper location we had no further occurrences for another month.
It was at this time that I was beginning to notice a pattern. Each strange event was happening on the same exact day of every month.
The following month I stayed awake listening to the sliding door in the lower level, slide open and shut. At first, thinking it was a burglar, I grabbed my trusty nine iron that I kept under the bed for just this purpose.
Slowly and nervously I proceeded down the stairs, looked around and not only was no one in the house, but the metal bar that I kept in the track of the sliding door was still in place.
Things like this kept happening on the same day each month. Nothing seemed malevolent, just seemed to be a trickster.
Then one month as I lay awake in bed listening once again to the sound of doors opening and closing, I see a light from under my bedroom door slowly fading in and out. There were no dimmer switches in the house and yet this light was not just snapping on and off it was fading in and out.
In my youth I was not as fearless as I am today (well except for spiders), nine iron or not I was NOT going to open that door and investigate the strange light.
Now, I am sorry I didn't. If it happened today I would grab my trusty K2 and Digital recorder, and would have run out that door looking for evidence. Eventually, we moved, and whatever it was that was haunting us stayed with the house.
We had no further problems at our new house. Normally, it is theorized that poltergeist is either caused by an individual or attached to an individual. The only thing I can think of is that because it was an apartment located in a fourplex, one of the people in the other apartments might have been the cause.
If you think of it a fourplex is just one really big house to a spirit.
This was not my first experience with the paranormal, but one of the more interesting ones, and probably contributed to a large degree in my becoming a Paranormal Investigator today.
I only wish that I had the guts back then to open that door and investigate.
