Why Did You Change Your Clothes?

As a child I had a few weird encounters in my parent's house, the house I grew up in, but nothing ongoing, or that made me believe the house was "haunted". Well, there was the basement...ooh, that basement. Always freaked me out as a child, but mostly I think it was just my imagination at work. As an adult, however, I have had one strange experience in my parent's home that I've never been able to explain.

When my sister and I were in our twenties we were both living and working in another province, and had flown home together to visit our parents. On our second evening home, we all decided to go out to a restaurant for a dinner. My parents had just headed out to the car, and I was standing at the coat closet, getting my jacket and bag before following them out. The coat closet is in the hallway; a few steps in front of me was the front door, and to my right was the door to the living room.

As I was gathering my things, I glimpsed my sister standing in the living room. She was facing away from me, standing in front of the fireplace, wearing a white summer dress. I was surprised - it was summer, but it was a cool-ish day - and I was also vaguely annoyed, because we'd agreed not to get dressed up. So I said aloud, "why did you change your clothes?" and then, as I turned to look fully at her, she was gone. I stood there a moment, bemused, when I heard the downstairs toilet flush. A few seconds later my sister came up over the stairs, wearing the same jeans and blue sweater she'd been wearing all day. Thinking it had just been a trick of the light coming through the window, I shrugged it off, and we headed for the car.

Just for a laugh, though, as I climbed into the car I said to my parents, "I just saw a GHOST in your house!" My mum just said, "Ack! No! Stop! You did not!", but my dad - who is NOT a fanciful guy - said, very calmly, "Oh? A woman right?" I hesitated - keep in mind that I still thought I'd imagined it - and replied, "Er, yeeesss...?" Dad went on - "In the living room, right? Wearing a white dress? Yeah, I see her from time to time." Well, THAT shut me up. My mum, not so much - she was not at all happy to hear the same story from both of us!