He Lost His Head

The year was 1999 and my ex husband and I were living in Missouri then. My boys were just babies then, 3 and 1. We had found a charming old farm house in the country and the rent was very affordable. It was a two bedroom home that was situated at the top of a hill and you had to drive up a long gravel drive way to get to it. On the property were several old farm buildings. One could tell that in it's day it was top of the line. I assumed by the metal awnings over the windows that it was a thriving farm in the 1940s or 50s. But we fell in love with it and settled right in. We didn't live there long, if I had to guess probably no more than 5-6 months.

In the beginning nothing seemed out of place and we were quite happy there. Although at night I would go and sit in the screened in sun porch that overlooked the old buildings and always felt like I was being watched. You could always hear noises coming from the property at night, but that's to be expected. Needless to say I would make my smoking trips limited. We had moved in around May or June and Halloween was just around the corner.

My ex husband and I were out in the yard with the kids and looking at the old original well that had been sealed shut and wondered why they quit using it. The owners had dug a new well and put a well house around it. I don't remember why we ended up standing in the well house, but there we were looking down into the well. I made a comment on how creepy it was and wondered how deep it went. As we're looking down into this black hole my ex husband says, "wait a minute I think I see something." With that he climbs in just a little and then after a few minutes, comes back out with something wooden. He hands it to me and I look it over. Because it was near Halloween I assumed that one of the previous occupants had made a halloween decoration. I decided it would be perfect out in the front yard and leaned it up against the fence. Not giving another thought. That is when it began.

I had noticed our oldest boy, who was 3 at the time start to detach from his brother. I would find him in different parts of the house playing by himself and talking to someone. I kindof wondered why he had quit playing with his brother, but didn't think too much about it. This went on for a little over a week's time.

One afternoon it was lunch time and I had called him into the kitchen to eat, he came in engaged in full conversation with no one. I asked him who he was talking to, now mind you he was 3 and his vocabulary was limited. He answers, my friend. I say oh that's nice buddy, is your friend nice and he replies with a nod. More curious I ask what does he look like, he then shrugs his shoulders and says he has no head. I will admit that I was caught off guard by this. Following this conversation I wouldn't allow him to play alone anymore and he had quit talking to this imaginary friend during the day and once again would play with his brother.

It went on like that for the next 2 or 3 days and I thought that perhaps whatever was going on had passed, that is until I woke up in the middle of the night to him (the 3 year old) crying and shaking me. I assumed he had a bad dream and carried him back to bed. When I would put him back into his bed he would just sit up and tell me he didn't want me to leave. I would sing him some songs and reassure him that it was only a dream. He would eventually lay back down and go to sleep. This had become a nightly ritual for about a week.

During this week in the day I decided to play a game of hide and seek with my boys as we did all the time. I stood in the hallway and counted to ten. In this hallway there was an odd cupboard that was the length of the hallway but only about 3 feet in height. As I was counting to ten I hear this cupboards doors open and naturally I think that the boys had chosen to hide there. So after reaching 10 I call out ready or not here I come and start heading towards this cupboard, which I noticed one of the doors was cracked open. Completely convinced that my kids were hiding in there I tip toe to it and swing open the doors with a BOO. To my surprise, they were not there! I found it a bit odd, but that is all. When I found the boys they had been hiding in the back of the house in the laundry room.

That night I awoke to my oldest boy screaming in his room. I rushed down the hall and into his room to find him sitting up in his bed shaking and crying, he seemed very upset. I asked him if he'd had a bad dream and he tells me no. I then ask him, why is he crying. He then points to a set of cupboards in his room. These cupboards went all the way up the wall but near the bottom there was one oddly sized cupboard, it was pretty small. Maybe big enough to fit a couple shoe boxes. The door was open and he was pointing at it. So I walk over and shut it. He still just sits there staring at it and crying. I ask him what's wrong with the cupboard, he tells me that's where his friend stays. I tell him that would be impossible since the cupboard was so small. He tells me his friend won't leave him alone. I ask him what does his friend want. What he said next sent chills down my spine. He tells me that his " friend " was searching for something. I ask him what his friend was searching for. He tells me, his head. This was pretty unsettling for me to think that my son was being troubled by such a thing at such a young age. I decided to become kindof aggressive with this friend and asked my son what his friends name was. He says George. So out loud in a very confrontational voice I say,'ok George I know you want to find your head but my son is only 3 and needs sleep, he cannot help you find it and you need to leave him alone or you will have to deal with me.' My son kindof laughed, I guess he thought it was funny watching his Mom yelling like that. I tucked him and told him that if George tried to bother him again to tell him to leave him alone. Which proved to be ineffective.

The nights to follow I would wake up to my son screaming in his room, only this time when I would enter his room he had hid his under his bed. He would not open his eyes until I picked him up and turned on the light. He claimed that George would not let him sleep and was mad. In order for all of us to get some sleep, I decided that moving the boys into my room was best. That seemed to work for the rest of the time that we lived there.

On one of the last days that we were there, we were out in the yard and the boys were playing as we had done so many times. I had forgotten about that wooden " gravestone " my ex husband had pulled out from the well previously, but here I was sitting on the porch and something urged me to really look at this piece of wood. I could see that there was writing on it that was faded and had noticed it when we found it, but I hadn't truly read the writing before just kind of glanced at it and put it in the yard for Halloween decor. Like I said I was just sitting there staring at it with the most overwhelming urge to go and read the writing, so that's what I did. As I began reading I felt my heart sink. The name carved into the wood was George, along with a last name and birth and death date. At the very bottom there was a passage that was mostly worn away making it impossible to read, however the last few words remained intact and it read;he cannot rest until he finds his head! I had my ex husband put that thing back where we found it.

We packed up our things, loaded it into the trailer and left that place as quickly as possible. Eventually my oldest boy quit having night terrors and things returned to normal. I had hoped that if it was never brought up he would forget it seeing as he was only 3 when it happened, but years later when he was about 13 or so he brought it up and had some questions. I was stunned that he could remember that.

About a year ago I wanted to see if anyone was living there so I looked it up on google earth and it is no longer there. I wonder if George ever found his head.