I'd better say this from the off - members of our family quickly get used to the weird and wonderful. We have a tendency to collect ghosts and ghost stories like they were going out of fashion. The ghost I'm about to tell you of is only the most recent, and it's one of a few that have at some point taken up residence in our house.
My mother was the first to notice that things weren't quite right in the kitchen. Most of the time it was things that could easily be attributed to forgetfulness or a coincidence. For example, a tea towel that was on the counter would be on the floor when she thought that she'd put it where it wouldn't slip; cutlery, too, would fall to the floor loudly and then vanish, only to be found a few days later somewhere that we could have sworn we'd looked before. This carried on for a while, and Mom didn't think too much of it.
Then things shifted to the living room, which is attached to the kitchen. One memorable occasion was when a whistle leapt out of a tissue box (one of those ornate and decorative wood pieces) to the floor whilst I was drying my hair there. Another, more recent one was when a small pile of coins was flicked off the TV to one side, when they had been perfectly stacked before.
A few times Mom has seen me walking in and out of the living room, as quiet as I know how to be - except that at those times I'm normally in bed, or in another room, or sometimes sitting right beside her. Even I've seen a shadow out of the corner of my eye sweeping in front of me more than once.
The ghost isn't malevolent, we think. As my uncle says: "It's the living that hurt you, not the dead" and so far that has proved absolutely true here. The only times I'm scared of it is when I've scared myself with wild thoughts of what it could do, but most of the time I - all of us, really - think it's just lonely or bored, and wants a little contact with others. Sometimes we talk to it, little politeness like "good morning" "good night" "awful weather, isn't it?" and so on to make it feel included; Dad in particular, as he's often home. It might be that this is utter nonsense and we're all mad, but I think it's nice that the ghost is there. It makes me feel safe, somehow.
Anyway, that's all I can tell you about our ghost.
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I'm not sure if it's a residual haunting. There were three owners before us, and only two died whilst in possession of the house - one was the first owner, an old lady, and one was an older man who spent three or four years building the fireplace in the living room. I don't think, though, that either of them is this ghost. For some reason, I think of the ghost as youngish, or at least free from experience, if that makes sense.
As for voices, well I've heard my name being called more than once (quite often when there's no-one in the house) but nothing more. Once or twice I've heard a snatch of music as though someone had stuck headphones on me and set the volume up high, but that's very rare.
I can't say I've ever had a feeling of static electricity, but that might be because I tend to attract a lot myself. Mostly, it's as though someone put a stone on my chest, not a heavy one but a solid weight nonetheless.
It's nice to hear that other people have a similar experience, so thanks for commenting!