THE LANDSCAPE GHOST
( As told to Selinda
by Nikki, Adrian's sister )
It was around June of last summer when my brother started working for a landscaping company. Adrian had been on the job for only a month when he got the call. The home office sent him to the house of a regular customer who lived in the southside of town in the outskirts of San Antonio. Driving in the company van, Adrian wasn't familiar with this part of town and he was alone. The area was remote. "Man I'm out in the boonies," he whispered to himself. All he could see were trees and a few scattered houses.
Adrian was sure he had missed the turn when he finally found the country road. It came to a dead end. He was relieved to see a man waving at him standing in the front yard. The old man motioned for him to follow him inside. Adrian thought it was odd that he had led him inside his home instead of to the backyard. Instead he pointed to a heavy looking credenza in the living room. The man wanted him to move it to the back wall. Looking at his slight frame, Adrian knew that the owner would not have been able to budge it. Adrian was glad to help and the old man was grateful. Adrian followed him toward the kitchen and he was led to the back door. He worked that afternoon removing weeds and pruning various parts of the backyard. Adrian could tell that for the most part, the yard had been well taken care of in the past.
The next day the manager received an irrate call from a woman. "Why did you landscape our yard? I already had cancelled services." The manager was somewhat confusd. "Mam' we received a call from your address to come out and do some work. Besides, you already paid us." The woman argued that no one had called the landscaping company. She demanded to see proof of payment. Adrian returned that afternoon and handed her the check. The lady stared at the personal check. She remained silent for several moments and then looked at Adrian in disbelief. There were tears in her eyes. "That's my father's check.......that's his signature. I don't understand. How can this be? My father died three years ago."
My brother Adrian, once a hardnose skepic left that afternoon a believer in the paranormal. There was no doubt in his mind, he had spent an afternoon with a ghost. And he still had the check to prove it!
Ghost in the Bedroom
by Selinda
The neighborhood was shaded by the many trees that lined the old brick homes on the street. Except for the occasional laughter of kids playing outside, my house was quiet. It was in the fall of 1996. My two small children and I had moved in and had settled in an old part of Dallas. The school where I taught was only a few blocks away. One of my students lived down the block. He was an only child. Once he knew where I lived, he came by often to play with my kids.
One Saturday, my children were out with their father when Eddie came over. I let him in and although he knew my kids were out, he chose to hang around.He followed me down the hallway as I picked up after my children. Eddie trotted at my heels as I collected laundry. I walked into my bedroom dropped the clothes in a hamper and reached for my hair brush sitting on the antique dresser. I offered to take Eddie to the lake to feed the ducks. His eyes lit up at the suggestion. I chatted with him as I brushed my hair. I couldn't help notice he kept looking behind me. His eyes would look away at something and then back at me. I didn't think much about it at the time. I thought he was acting like a normal 10 year old.
We drove to Bachman lake. I had bought some fried chicken on the way to the lake and we ate on a nearby picnic table. Eddie seemed to be distracted. He was unusually quiet. Finally he spoke up. "Ms. T can I tell you something?" "Sure. What is it Eddie?"
"Well, when we were inside your house...... I ..ah...I .saw something." I looked at him. I never told him about the strange sounds, and the paranormal activity that had been going on since I moved in that house.
" Remember when you were in your bedroom brushing your hair?.......he continued. " Well, there was someone behind you." My skin went cold. " What do you mean?" I asked. " I saw a little boy kneeling on the floor playing." He....he...was see through.....I...I could see right through him." Eddie looked serious and a little shook up. "What was he playing?' I asked.
" He was stacking toy blocks on top of each other." I asked Eddie to describe the little boy. He went into detail about his suspenders and haircut with bangs. He even mentioned that the blocks were made of wood. "Did he look at you?...Did he look at me? I asked. "No....he just kept playing with his blocks. I saw him for only a few seconds and then he disappeared." I had not told anyone that my daughter Karen had seem a little boy ghost sleeping in Jimmy's bunk bed just a few months earlier. His description seemed to fit the little boy karen had seen in September, the night of Jimmy's birthday. The House off Greenville was my home for a few years and while I lived there, many people who visited experienced unexplainable events.
Haunted School Part II
by Selinda
It was October, and as a third grade teacher
I was determined to have a successful year in my
new assignment. It wasn't uncommon for me to stay
in my classroom to check papers and prepare for the next day. Maybe it was all the time I spent after hours, but it didn't take long for me to figure out there was something very strange going on in the old school.
The building was built in 1932 and the pipes often made clanking sounds. The floors and the stairs creaked. But, there was comfort in my solace and eventually I grew use to the late hours and the strange sounds of the school. Sometimes Angela the custodian would come by to check on me. She'd finish cleaning all the classrooms in her wing, and peek her head to say hello. She was a welcome sight and her visit gave me a nice break.
One Friday evening, Angela came in a little earlier in her shift. She said hello as she entered my classroom. But I noticed something was wrong. She looked a little pale and was unusually quiet. "Are you O.K.?" I asked. She smiled and asked,"Miss, are you going to stay a little longer? I'm thinking of closing up a little earlier tonight." I glanced out the window. It was dark outside and I knew it was pretty late. "Well, I'm almost finished, is there something wrong?"
She looked at me for a few moments, not sure whether to divulge her secret. She whispered,
"I.....think...I......saw a ghost."
I stared at her and realized she was not joking. "Wha...Where did you see this ghost?" I followed her to the second floor. My mind raced wildly. What if an intruder had broken into the school? Angela explained she was in one of the classrooms on the first floor when she heard footsteps going up the stairs. She followed the sound all the way to the old wing. Then she noticed the footsteps stopped outside room 205. As she entered the classroom, she heard the rufffling of papers. She didn't see anything out of place. She was about to leave, when all of a sudden she noticed a woman sitting in the corner at the teacher's desk. Angela stopped what she was doing and stared. "The woman looked transparent and seemed to be sorting papers. She didn't look at me at all," Angela blurted. " It was the strangest thing. Then she just stood up and walked across the room. She disappeared in the wall!"
I looked around the empty classroom. This was the oldest part of the school. The room had several windows. "Are you sure it wasn't a reflection?" I asked trying to convince myself of a logical explanation. I knew that the classroom faced the playground. If the room had faced the teacher's parking lot, I could dismiss it to the head lights of a passing car. But there weren't vehicles or anything with lights coming from the playground.
"Oh no, Miss it was a woman.....a teacher, I think....She never looked at me. She just got up from that desk over there and walked through the wall. I could see right through her." I remained quiet and tried not to let it scare me. As we walked down the stairs, we passed the first floor hallway. "Look Miss, that's the woman!" I froze, expecting to see an apparition. But Angela was pointing to a portrait hanging on the wall. The photograph had a small brass plate underneath.
"It read Elizabeth Graham, Principal 1936" I stared at her picture for several seconds. "Angela, this woman was the Principal of the school. But it couldn't be her. Elizabeth Graham died a long time ago." Angela didn't waver, "that's the same woman I saw in the classroom."
PLAYFUL GHOST
by Selinda
We had settled in our yellow brick house on the corner
of Homer street. My children were very young at the time and
as a single mom, I did everything I could to make the big move
as comfortable as possible. I don't remember exactly when I first noticed strange things about the house. There were creaks and unusual sounds. But I quickly dismissed them as part of the house settling. After all it was built in the 1930's.
It was the last week of September and we were about to celebrate my son Jimmy's 4th birthday. I had everything set at a nearby Pizza place and there were plenty of games to take part in. He had received many gifts but the one he took the most interest in was a simple red balloon given to him at the party. Late in the evening at home, my children were still in a playful mood. They chattered endlessly in my bedroom. Still excited from the party, my children were laughing and running around the house. I could hear them calling to the balloon beckoning them to follow. It floated in the air as they called to it, "Over here, over here," they laughed delighted as the balloon followed their every move. I didn't think much about it, until they returned to my room.
It had been an unusually hot Texas night and I had the window air conditioner running full blast. The air blew directly towards the entrance. The kids bustled back into the room and called to the ballooon as it hovered in the hallway by the door for a few seconds. "Follow me, follow me" they begged. Then suddenly defying physics, the balloon lowered itself from the ceiling and entered the bedroom.
I didn't say a word to them, but I was dumbfounded. I couldn't logically explain to myself what I had just seen. This was a strange happening. I watched my kids as they played tag with the red balloon taunting it to chase them. To my disbelief, the balloon followed them throughout the house. It was as if someone or something held the end of the balloon string and played with my kids. Later my daughter got ready for bed. As she started up the small ladder that led to the top bunk, I heard her scamper almost tripping over herself. She ran to my room upset, "mommy, mommy!" She held me tight around my waist. "Mommy someone is in the bed!"
I peered from the hallway and turned on the light to her room. I tried to get her to see that there was no one. She wouldn't budge. She told me later in my room that as she climbed up to her top bunk bed, she could see through the rungs. "A little boy was asleep in Jimmy's bed." My son Jimmy had fallen asleep earlier in my bed, so I knew it wasn't him. She stared for several seconds thinking it was her brother. Then she realized a stranger was in his bed. She described a boy with blond hair around Jimmy's age. He lay in his bed in a fetal position with his hand under his head asleep. She said she could see right through him. Needeless to say, we all slept in my bed that night. This would not be the last of the little boy ghost. There would be more paranormal events in this strange house. But it was evident to me that night, my children had been playing with a ghost!
HAUNTED SCHOOL
by Selinda
I had been assigned to a school that was over 75
years old located less than a mile from a cemetery.
As a brand new teacher, I often stayed late
organizing and preparing my lessons for the following
day. Usually I was left alone in the building, long after
other teachers had gone home. But I liked the quiet
hallways and working late into the evening. Except
for the custodian, I was completely by myself at school.
One night, the custodian came to my door. He asked, "Ms. T did you need something? I saw that you pressed the emergency button in the gym." Surprised, I told him I hadn't gone to the gym and although I appreciated his concern, I reassured him that I hadn't called for help. He looked a little pale and stared at me for a few seconds. "Maybe some kids got inside and are playing," I told him. "There is no one in the building" he said abruptly and quickly walked down the hall into one of the classrooms to finish cleaning. I thought it was odd that he hadn't gone to the gym to check.
Curious, I walked towards the gym and opened the heavy doors. It was pitch dark but I could hear whispers. As soon as the door opened unexpectedly, it sounded like students had scampered to hide. There was a basketball rolling on the floor. I tried to flip on the light switch but the lights didn't work. I left the door open, and walked inside. I spotted the emergency intercom button, on the adjacent wall by the entrance. The air felt a little thick and musty. I could feel someone watching me at the back of the gym.
"Hello, who is there?" My voice echoed in the stillnss of the vast room. For some reason I was compelled to walk inside and investigate. I went to the restrooms to make sure there wasn't anyone hiding or playing inside. The light switch didn't turn on in either of the restrooms. They were empty. The only light emitted in the gymnasium was from outside. As I made my way back to the entrance, I thought I heard footsteps a few feet behind me. Everytime, I walked, the steps followed me. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and by one of the gym walls I could make out the shadows of two boys. "What are you doing here?" I asked. I started to approach them but as I got closer, the shadows disappeared. I was stunned. I stood there in the middle of the gymnasium staring at the empty room. I told myself, my eyes couldn't have been playing tricks on me. I know I had heard whispers, steps, and had definitely seen the shadows of two children.
The next day, I told another teacher what had happened. She was quiet for a moment and then explained that several years ago, there had been an accident in the gym. There were a couple of students who had sneaked into the gym after hours to shoot baskets. No body knew how the fire started. People thought it was an electrical accident due to faulty wiring. The smoke filled the gym quickly, but the doors had gotten stuck and they couldn't get out. The boys perished trapped inside the gym. She signed, "They are buried at the nearby cemetery just down the road. I guess their ghosts still come to play."
HAUNTED SCHOOL . . . . . .
