Our first house in the high desert was--in 1973--way out in the middle of nowhere (pictured above as it looked in 2002). It was a ranch-style place with no electricity, no phone, and water had to be trucked in. This house had a real ghost inhabiting it that many people encountered, but that's not the story I'm going to tell today.Instead, I've been thinking about a seance that we had there one Halloween night. My brother and I, along with our best friend Calvin--all teenagers--gathered around a candle-lit table with the woman we lived with at the time who definitely had some kind of psychic powers. Maybe my mom was there as well.
We held hands and instead of conjuring up the ghost who lived in the house, the woman asked us to concentrate on the two graves that were in the front yard. These graves, marked by a sign that said "Hard Times," were there when we moved in, along with a lot of other "ranch" paraphernalia. We had pretty much come to the conclusion that these graves were props to make the place look more like an Old West ranch. But there was always a small bit of doubt. Maybe the graves were real?
After a while, the woman said she was getting an image in her mind. She said the people buried in the graves were trying to communicate. Keep concentrating she said. I thought I felt the table move. I thought I heard voices in the dark upper corners of the room. I thought I heard a bell.
She said she saw a man...he was wearing a uniform who looked a like a military man. She couldn't tell what branch of the service he was in, but he had many stripes on his sleeve. He was a high-ranking military man. He was there and he wanted us to know something. I thought I saw him in my mind too. He had a confession to make. He had committed suicide and killed his wife. They were the ones buried in the graves out front. He wanted us never to forget what had happened.
The woman then abruptly stopped the seance. She said she didn't think it was a good idea to go on. Then she got up and left the table, leaving us teenagers there stunned.
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"maybe I was there?" Well, of course I was there. You don't remember? I guess it was the 70s and all. Those were some scary times and by the way, the ghost story, the one you don't tell here is in a chapter of "The Waterhauler" coming to your favorite bookstore in about 10 years!
ReplyDeleteI know you were there, but I forget if you did the seance with us. I was probably too scared to remember who was there! We can't wait 10 years for your book!
ReplyDeleteI was in the neighborhood thursday and drove by that spook house. Half of the living room is now torn down exposing the pillar and the bedrooms now have a camper parked where we once slept. There is a mobile home on the land now and I wondered to myself if the tenants ever got a unexplainable chill up the back of they're necks ? Boooo.
ReplyDeletehey, I feel really dumb for not remembering, but where was that house again? I dont remember hearing about the seance, but it was a very long time ago...how terribly creepy!
ReplyDeleteIt was the house on Goss Road where Calvin and his dad lived when I knew you. We were there many times! (Hey nice picture!)
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