“The Bathroom Ghost” – from “Southern Reflections” by Dewayne Gore
Yeah, I still laugh about it today. Ok, not “still”, but rather “now”. I never laughed about it when it happened, and didn’t until years later. But, I can laugh now. And, thanks to the picture I drew of it a few years ago, you can laugh, too. For the full story, read on after the picture. It’s a very true story, and it happened to me:
The house was seriously haunted. There were three locks inside my bedroom door; a sliding-chain lock, a thumb latch, and a hook lock. All three locks would come open by themselves and the door would open fully, leaving us terrified with fright. Many nights passed with me laying in my bed, waiting, and then watching, that door open by itself (shortly before pulling the covers over my head and holding my breath until I fell asleep or otherwise lost consciousness).
My older brother, on at least one occasion, and my sisters on a different occasion, saw the full body apparition of a woman appear in the house, look at them, and disappear as quickly as she had appeared.
My younger brother and I were so terrified of the house that we wouldn’t go inside if nobody else was home. We’ would have rather sat outside in the cold until our mother or older siblings arrived than to have gone inside that house alone.
On this particular occasion, my brother and I came home from school to find that our mother had gone shopping and the house was otherwise empty. We refused to go inside, but I, feeling the indisputable call of nature, needed to go to the bathroom in the worst way.
Thankfully, it was an old house and the bathroom was an afterthought, added on years after the house was built. The entrance to the bathroom was located on the back porch, thus we had to go “outside” in order to access it, so I, being outside already, was ready and willing to take the chance.
I advised my brother of my predicament, and urged him to stand on the back porch just outside the door and “guard it” against access by anyone, living or otherwise.
The bathroom itself was small with only enough room for a toilet, small sink, and a bathtub squeezed in alongside. The ceiling was very high, and there being no electrical switch for the light, my mom (or dad) put a long chain on it to reach the off/on switch in the light fixture on the ceiling.
Because my brother and I were 6 and 8 years old, respectively, and still little fellows, they added a wire coat hanger onto the chain so that we, too, could reach it.
Needless to say, I felt creeped out from the time I entered the bathroom, but mother nature has a way of encouraging us to roll the dice and face our fears. I sat there for probably a couple of minutes; minding my own business and hoping any ghost might do the same, all the while experiencing a growing awareness that someone else was in the room watching me.
With that foresight, I was painfully aware that I needed to finish and get my pants up so that I could leave on my own terms, not those of any ghost.
Something clanked above me and, as I looked up, the coat hanger was swinging back and forth as if it had been pulled hard and let it go. My heart began pounding wildly! My eyes were fixed on the coat hanger, but my hands were busy grabbing large swaths of tissue paper from the roll.
I had almost finished the paper work, still staring at the swinging coat hanger, when it stopped dead still as if someone grabbed it. Just as abruptly as it had stopped, it suddenly yanked downwards, turning the light off and leaving me in total darkness.
Refer to the picture above for the true and very embarrassing conclusion to the story.
By the time I fell down the steps and into the yard, my pants still around my ankles, my younger brother who heard me screaming even before the door opened had already taken off and ran across the yard and was looking back at me. I suppose sometimes you have to view things from a distance in order to get a better understanding of what is happening. He apparently had a pretty good grasp of what was going on, given the distance at which he watched it unfold. ;D
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