Green Room

In the early 80's, we lived across the road from some lovely people with whom my parents were great friends. My parents lived in this house from the 70's to 80's.

I loved hanging around the adjacent neighbours and being in their home but there was one room I could not stand to be in, their lounge room. Aesthetically it was picturesque, floor boards, deep cream walls, a proud mantle piece, tapestry style upholstered furniture, ornate vases and ornaments. But vibe wise it was morose and heavy.

When I entered their lounge room I felt scared and a great need to escape. Intriguingly this paired with a green filter which grew in the room. It was like someone adjusting the green on a TV, only it was in the entire room. It was bright green, nearing iridescent, and seemed to intensify with my fear. At least once, that I can remember, it happened immediately upon entering. Like walking through a threshold of pre-adjusted green. In any case while standing outside the room, looking in, the green was never present.

Thankfully we always tended to hang out in the kitchen, backyard and porch. So the lounge room was never an issue, more a result of wanderings from curious me.

One afternoon we were at their place and The Munsters were on, it was one of my favourite shows. A few people were in the lounge watching it. I figured, as the room was occupied and the TV was on, the green would not happen. So I entered the lounge and headed to an arm chair. I didn't make it very far into the room when the green hit. I looked around, to see if anyone reacted but they did not. What stood out about this time was sound started to disappear. I quickly backed out of the room and instead watched The Munsters from the doorway. The green left and sound returned to normal. I don't recall if sound did this every time or if I noticed it this time because of the TV.

Memories of this green phenomenon I've brushed off as an over precociousness, nervous disposition and vivid imagination. Until recently (Christmas 2015) when this house came up in conversation.

All these years I've been aware of a murder committed in this street. However, I thought in a house further down the road from us. Turns out it was in this house opposite. With this clarification, the green fear phenomenon makes some sense and raises more questions. Like, why green?

Here's what we've known and what I long thought to have happened in some home further down the road. In the early 1970's a realtor, this street's namesake no less, entrusted or invested a large sum of money with a local accountant. The accountant embezzled the money or somehow lost it, either way it's dodgy. The realtor, out of revenge, disguised as a woman to kidnap the accountant's wife from her workplace car park.

I know, it's like something out of Monty Python. Well, hold onto your hats folks, 'cause it only gets more farfetched from here. If you're reading before bed I advise you to stop now.

Some of her co-workers saw her leaving with the 'woman' and assumed she was waving to them from the car window as it drove off. Unfortunately she was calling for help, not waving goodbye. This was the last sighting of her.

The realtor/killer, willingly confessed to police what he had done, but would not tell them where the body was. He hanged himself in either prison or custody. The woman's whereabouts remained a mystery.

I assume his willingness to confess was part of his twisted revenge and refusal to locate the body a final cruel blow. His suicide another cruel blow; her location dies with him.

In the mid/late 1970's one of Dad's friends lived in the house opposite, before the other neighbours lived there. My parents and their friends are the kinds of people to stay up late and have people stay the night. Late one night this chap, Dad's mate, said goodnight to his guests and got up to go to bed. He tripped over the rug, or the rug was caught on something, in any case it shifted. He noticed some floorboards were uneven and didn't match the rest of the floor.

This chap knew about the missing body and that his house once belonged to the killer. So he and his mates started ripping up the mismatched floor boards. Underneath they found a hand protruding from soil. They called police.

My parents weren't there that night but woke to the sound of loud banging in the night. Which were the cops ripping the floor apart across the street.

The body was identified as the accountant's wife and I guess the case was closed. The police wouldn't grant the media any access to this case. The stories published were complete fabrications, misinformation and slander against the home's appearance. How can you slander a home's appearance? That's just silly. Mum recalls those articles being laughable.

To sum up, throughout the years I thought all that floor drama happened further down the road in some other house. But very recently found out Dad's mate lived in the same house I used to experience green weirdness in. The 'green room' being the room she was hidden/found underneath.

Bloody hell, this has given me the creeps since forever. Now it's creeping me out all over again in new ways. But getting back on point...

Why the heck green? Remember this happened to me years after she was found. I can understand feeling fear and wanting to escape while in that room. But why green weirdness? I suppose this colour was significant in some way but I'll never know.

Unfortunately I can't give any details of this, and Dad's since lost touch with this guy. The chap who found her, some time before he found her, had one heck of an encounter with what he believes to be the same woman. His encounter was 'innocent' and didn't include any green, however.

We don't know where the murder took place or how she was killed. My parents sort of knew the killer only in passing and remember him as 'a real arrogant pr--- who no one missed'.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's ever experienced a weird colour like this before. What creates it? Was I seeing through the filter of a ghost's aura or mood? Was someone trying to communicate? Was it residual emotion?

As far as my albeit basic knowledge of the meanings of colours goes, green is usually associated with healing and calm. However, I'm sure that's deep or dark greens. This was intense, loud green.

As a side note, while on Troll Patrol I think my patrol name has changed a few times. This is because I use another street name, forget which one I used, use another and so on. It's not the name of the street we lived on which bothers me so much, it's the disgusting person it was named after!

Thanks for reading.