Things That Go Bump in the Night

Hey everyone, well it's been a week since I've been back from a wonderful vacation on Cape Cod and wanted to share with you something that happened while the family and I were there. We stayed in a cottage my friend's mom owns right on the ocean on the Atlantic. The ocean is right over the sand dune off the deck. It's the closest you can get to paradise in my opinion.

We arrived late on Thursday night and went straight to bed. Friday evening we (meaning hubby, daughter Amanda and her fiance James) were sitting in the living room watching tv when I happened to glance up at the bedroom door (the room hubby and I shared). There was an old man standing in the doorway. He had whitish color hair, very grizzled looking and had a scowl on his face. He wore what I thought was a dark blue or black suit and I could see a white shirt collar at the top.

I stared at him for about 15 seconds then he was gone. He disappeared as fast as he came. I didn't say anything for a few minutes, just digested what I had seen. Now this sort of thing is not uncommon for me. It doesn't freak me out or send me screaming for cover. I've had this happen to me too many times over the past years to count. What it did do was make me wonder who he was and why pop in now.

I waited about 10 minutes and calmly said to my daughter - "Don't freak out but..." well she leaped out of her chair thinking I was talking about a spider. The cottage had a few of those and Amanda is deathly afraid of them. But no, I finished with "There was a man in the bedroom door just a few minutes ago." My hubby and James looked at me oddly, as Amanda stared at the bedroom door. She kept asking me why I was so calm, why wasn't I having a fit. Because it didn't scare me. A couple hours later, I went to bed and all was quiet.

Two days later, we are at the breakfast table and hubby announces, "Weirdest thing happened last night." Amanda is on full freak out alert again. "I was getting into bed, and a few seconds later, I swear I felt something tug at the bottom of the bedsheets at the foot of the bed by my feet. Twice," hubby says.

Now Amanda wants me to call Mrs. G and ask about the cottage. Did anyone die there? Any ghost stories? Who lived there before. I refused. That's the last thing someone wants to hear. Plus people who don't believe are sometimes very sceptical of those who do.

We spent the day at the Sandwich Glass museum and as I was wandering through the exhibits I cam across a portrait of a soldier. His uniform caught my eye immediately. It was almost exactly what the apparition in the cottage was wearing. Dark blue, almost black with the hint of a white shirt collar at the top. Could it be my ghost was in the military?

A few days later we learned that the cottage was over 50 years old, but had burned down in 1998 due to an electrical fire. No one was hurt and it was rebuilt as it is today. Originally the cottages were built as housing for the military back in World War 2. Then sold off after the war ended.

I wish I could say I had something really exciting to relate that a whole family of ghosts inhabit the place, but that's not the case. But was the man I saw a soldier in the war back then? I don't know and I doubt I will ever know.

If nothing else, it gives me an idea for a new book and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. I do love my paranormals and you might just see this one on the shelves sometime.

Until next week, enjoy the fall weather. Here in Michigan it's been raining for a week. Take care, Patti