A few years ago, on our way into town we drove past a small, somewhat rundown white house. We'd driven this route a hundred times, passed this house a hundred times, but I had never noticed it before. But this day, it jumped out at me. And all I could think was "that is such an adorable little house! I hope someone buys it and renovates it!" I started ogling that house everytime we drove by. It just sort of spoke to me, with it's cute little porch and holly tree and Crepe Myrtle out front, pure country charm. I was irrevocably in love.
One day, we drove by. There were people working on it! I was so excited! This beautiful little house was getting the TLC it deserved. I happily told my husband that the house was being renovated. He was completely unaware of my infatuation, or of the house. He'd never even seen it. I pointed it out when we drove by again on the way home. He still missed it. He overlooked the beautiful little house completely until last year.
Our debts were paid. We had a little money saved up. We were house hunting. And just guess what house had a Realtor's sign out front.
My husband was of the opinion the house was haunted. According to him, I don't like anything that isn't haunted and he found my infatuation with the house a little odd, but he had fallen under the house's spell by then as well. We moved in last summer, and I've been forced to admit he was right about the house.
We share the house with two former residents, a man and a small dog. The man is the most noticeable, he interacts with us fairly regularly. He is tall, around 6'2" and wears dark pants and a long sleeved shirt. The first time I saw him he was walking through the hallway toward the kitchen. I assumed it was my hubby as the guy is about the same height and build as Brad, so I was a little confused when Brad walked into the living room a minute later with a t-shirt on. I asked him why he'd changed. He looked at me like I had grown another arm. I explained what I had seen and he mumbled something about me seeing stuff and walked off. Very sensitive.
The second time I saw the man Brad was at work. The man walked through the hallway again, and this time I followed him. Except I couldn't find him. I've seen him several times since, sometimes he just walks through a room, other times he's been looking at our things. One afternoon I spotted him in the bedroom staring at the bed. Maybe he was trying to figure out what kind of crazy person buys camouflage sheets.
Now the small dog, he rarely interacts. I was reading one day, wearing flip flops, and felt a light, tickly sensation moving across the top of my foot. It was a strangely familiar sensation, but I couldn't quite place it. A few days later one of my dogs laid down beside me and started running her nose up and down my arm sniffing me, then it hit me what I had felt on my foot - a dog sniffing. Why I couldn't place it when it was happening I don't know, maybe because it was just the feeling without the usual snuffling noises a dog makes, maybe because I'm used to much larger doggie noses. Or maybe because when I felt it my arachnophobia took over and all I could think was "Invisible spider! Help!"
Every so often I'll see a small shadow scamper through the room and one of my dogs or cats will stop what they're doing and watch the shadow. The most notable incident with the little dog happened one evening while I was cooking. Both our dogs were in the kitchen with me. My husband was in the computer room. Nobody in the living room. Suddenly this godawful loud yapping started up in the living room. Imagine a cheesed off Chihuahua on crack and you've got the sound. My dogs jumped up and ran into the living room growling and barking, me running right behind them wondering how the holy hell a dog got in the house. The three of us skidded into the living room, and found it deserted. Riley and Sassy paced around sniffing and growling, I stood there awkwardly clutching a spatula, wondering how the holy hell a dog got in and out of the house. At this point Brad comes in and says "I don't know what they're freaking out about. What happened?"
"You didn't hear it?" I ask him.
"Hear what?"
"The dog!" By now I'm waving my spatula around in the hope it could clarify things.
"Yeah I heard Riley and Sassy. What were they upset over?"
"The dog!" I replied, waving my spatula harder.
"What dog?"
"The little one! In here! It sounded like a Chihuahua!" By now I've realized my spatula will not be giving any answers.
Riley and Sassy had given up the sniffing but were still growling halfheartedly. I finally managed to explain that we had heard a third, small dog in the house and that was why our dogs were freaking out. Brad accepted this pretty calmly and went back to his game, muttering something along the way that sounded annoyingly like, "I told you the house was haunted."
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