Hello?

After a divorce in 2003, I and my 2 children moved into a older mobile home, and had been told by a neighbor there were strange things that went on in it... And due to a couple of prior experiences (told in prior entries) I already knew.

My best friend Amy always seemed to have the "creeps" at my home so I spent a lot of time at her place. One night, while at her house, around 8:30 or so I called my number to check my phone messages. Now, usually I would have been prompted to press a certain number when the machine picked up in order to retrieve the messages. This time I was startled when someone picked up and said, "Hello?" I stumbled on my words from being caught completely off guard and said, "I have the wrong number." I tried again, fully expecting the machine to pick up. Again, (in a old raspy female voice), "Hello?" I hung up. Thinking I had dialed the number wrong, I laughed and said, "Amy, what's my darn phone number?" She laughed and recited it to me. I, in fact, had dialed the correct number.

I sat there in shock as I told her what had happened. She shook her head and dialed it herself. After a few seconds she said, "Who is this?" After second or two more she hung up, her eyes now as big as quarters. I knew she had gotten the same thing. She said, "Someone is in your house, and from the sound of it they need to lay off the smokes!"

We immediately got in the car and headed to my house. We were both shaking and were clueless on what to do when we got there. My heart was beating out of my chest. She pulled in the drive just about on two wheels... Turned off the car... And we just sat there. Everything looked normal but we were nervous about going in, but we knew we had to. My hands were shaking so bad I could hardly unlock the door, but managed to do so.

She went in first being she was the bravest. All lights were off except for the small lamp in the kitchen, just as I left it. A quick glance around and everything looked in order. Everything except the phone (cordless)...it wasn't on the base where I kept it. Instead, it was on the side table beside the recliner. Not so strange, right? I picked it up from the side table to return it to the base, and noticed it had been sitting on top of a Readers Digest from 1961. A READERS DIGEST! What 33 year old reads Readers Digest... Certainly not I, and from 1961? The creepy factor set in and we were gone in a heartbeat, leaving the Readers Digest where we found it. I spent the night at Amy's that night.

A couple of days later, I got the phone call I had been waiting for. Problem was, the person calling asked if I got the message to call him back. I said "No" that I had been checking my messages and didn't have one from him. His reply, "Oh, I didn't leave a machine message, I left it with your grandmother." You can imagine the feeling that gave me.