THEY'RE HERE

When I was living in a 19th century villa on a farm in Papatoetoe years ago, rumour had it that the property was haunted. I am sceptical about such things but even so try to keep an open mind. My folks from both sides were 'fey' in that there was a history of 'feyness' in the family going way back. My mother for example would say things like "Bernadette is going to call" and a minute later Aunty Bernadette would telephone. On these occasions the aunt or other person may not have made contact for a year or more so it wasn't a regular call that was expected. We got used to such things. On my father's side the ancestors on the West coast of Scotland were reputed to be 'seers'. They weren't burnt at the stake but did relocate to Nova Scotia as part of the Highland clearances and expatriation programmes so you could say they were deported. In this Papatoeteoe house one Sunday afternoon as I was walking up the long hallway I saw a shape at the end. There were no strange tricks of light, it was just late afternoon winter light inside. The form I saw was almost transparent but there. When I walked up the hallway towards it it disappeared. Strange and creepy.

What I want to tell you in this post is a similarly strange occurrence. Some friends have just bought a house in Auckland. It is not an old house, it was built in the 1970's. A couple of days after they moved in J. was talking to her 4 y.o. son about something and he said "the old lady was here again". J's scalp prickled and she asked him what old lady. He said "the old lady came in the front door and went into the kitchen. She stood at the sink and pointed down". J. went to the sink and looked into one of the dual sinks, the one with the garbage guzzler. She got some long tongs and fished around to find the missing plug from the other sink. This had been missing from the time they moved in and no, the boy had not been the one to 'disappear' it. J. asked him if he had seen the old lady before and he said yes that she had come in through the back door to visit him in his bedroom. J. is a very sensible woman who is not afraid of the occult and related things. She told her son that if the old lady visits again and does anything to frighten him then he should call for her. She didn't want to raise any fears in him. Discussing it later with her partner they pondered as to what triggered the story. The house they purchased was owned by an elderly woman who, the family who sold the house to them said, had recently moved into a rest home because she couldn't cope with living on her own. They don't know if she has recently died or not and were going to make enquiries. Strange? Yes, but not necessarily scary.