From: "Jennifer Bough" (quietforu2@yahoo.com)
To: obiwan@ghosts.org
Subject: 2 ghosts and a cat
Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 1:29 PM
Location: Spokane, Washington, USA
Hi, I love the site, and have been lurking for a while, so thought I would give back, but this is a long story, it wouldn't fit in the form. Thanks!
Hi all! Part of this story was submitted to the Rev. Hauk haunted places report, but it was never published (as far as I know). Any way, this is going to be a long one, so settle in y'all. The story I would like to tell is about an apartment building in Spokane, WA. This building is only about seven years old, if y'all are anything like me you expect a haunted house to be all scary and falling down, not clean with nice landscaping. It really started the day after we moved in, my hubby came in from the deck (I am a cigarette nazi - no smoking in ze house!) scared as heck. I have never seen my ex-marine hubby look so scared. He absolutely would not talk about it! hmmmm.
Not two days later my little year and some odd daughter was supposed to be asleep for the night but instead was talking to someone. Of corse, no one was there when I checked, but I swore I could hear an old lady talking to her. I figured it was my dead grandma, she comes to visit now and then (don't ask) but it was a raspy smoker kinda voice, not my grandmas. I went in for a final "go to sleep, little one! PLEASE!" and I figured that it couldn't hurt to ask the lady to leave her alone, so I said that it was past time for her to go to sleep, so please quit talking. All of a sudden the room filled with a cigarette smoke smell, but no smoke. No windows open or anything as it was Feb., didn't know what to make of that. So, little girl went to sleep and soon after so did I- lucky me, hubby worked graves.
A couple of days later, I was in the shower in master bathroom, and I swear, the water knob kept turning to hot, I actually watched it turn, it kept burning me. Also I swear someone kept tapping me on the shoulder, I thought I was crazy. I asked the hubby, but at first he wouldn't say, but eventually he said that he got tapped now and then, but never burned.
Now as you may have already guessed, I am no stranger to paranormal happenings, but man this was up close and personal. I would be in our room making the bed or something and again with the smoke smell. It was making me think I was crazy. About a week later I was in our closet, trying to hang up our clothes, that would not stay on hangers, hmmmm, I distinctly heard a mans voice in the bedroom say “ Jenny!” emergency like, I said “What!”, nothing… walked out and no one is there, went in search of hubby, he was in the living room quietly watching t.v. I again asked “what?” He had no clue what I was talking about. I didn’t much feel like being in the closet anymore.
Little things like this kept happening (we lived there for almost 2 years…I’m no quitter ;-)) One night, my hubby and I were sitting outside smoking, mid sentence he totally clamed up, eyes as big as plates. I asked him what was wrong, he says don’t you see her? See who? The old lady standing inside the sliding glass door staring at us, smoking a cig. Uh, no! She stood there for about 10 min. then walked (if you can call it that) back out of site. Woah! We gathered our courage and went back inside, eventually sleep overcame fear and we went to bed.
After a while, I started noticing cold spots and misty spots in my periferal vision. I thought it was the same spirit, I was wrong. At 6 am, and 6pm the door knob would rattle, and footsteps could be heard going down the steps, I investigated, and never saw anyone. I was so freaked out about the other things I hadn’t noticed any of this stuff. My cat would absolutely freak for no reason, if I wanted to go down the hall he sometimes would litterally jum onto my head (declwed, thank god!). He would stare at a wall and his hackles would rise (what is a hackle anyway, hee – hee.). The cat always slightly over reacted to them, but he got more comfortable over time. At least he stopped jumping on my head.
Then I guess, “he” the male spirit became comfortable with us, he would come and I will swear on a stack of bibles that he would come and sit on me. There was no weight, and no feeling of being held down, just a bone chilling cold that would make my tummy knot up, then it would be gone. It wasn’t just on one spot on the couch either. Sometimes it wasn’t right on you, more like beside, one leg and arm would be all goose pimply. Weird!
All kinds of things happened while we were there. I don’t think the “smokey “lady liked me, maybe because of the no smoking in the house thing? She left me alone, unless I used the master bath, I took to using the other one. The male spirit would follow me around sometimes while I did my chores, I would walk into the laundry nook to do something and turn around just to walk into a cold spot. It will sound crazy, I am sure, but he became kind of a comforting presence. He didn’t “scare” me anymore, sometimes surprised me, but not scary. The smokey lady was always kinda scary, but I could live with it, I asked her to leave once but she rattled my dresser drawers all night, sio I got the hint that she didn’t want to go. There are many other stories that happened in that building, but this is more than long enough, so maybe some other time.
Thanks for listening all, feel free to reply to me.
Jennifer
From: "Jennifer Bough" (quietforu2@yahoo.com)
To: "obi wan" (obiwan@ghosts.org)
Subject: 2 ghosts and a cat part 2
Date: Saturday, April 20, 2002 9:55 PM
2 ghosts and a cat part two
I submitted the first part of the story a couple of weeks ago and just wanted to finish it out. I did some recon work and found out that first of all, the camera shop that I took my pics of the apartment to threw them out because they had fog and water drops on each frame and couldn’t improve them enough to charge me for them!!!! Well, duh – that’s why I requested they send them to me regardless. Does no one follow directions any more?
Second, I grilled my hubby until he finally told me that the first night when he was so scared and wouldn’t talk about it, he saw a “man” walk through the wall and into the janitors area which was locked. He swears he saw it and he isn’t really inclined to lie.
Next, I asked the manager if there had ever been a natural gas problem at the complex. She of course said no, but her assistant pulled me aside when she left and told me that yes there had been. The first year the complex was open there had been a leak on the deck (where the gas hot water heaters are) and the man who lived in the apartments below ours had lit his gas grill. Big boom and many injured people later, only the barbecue guy and a guy throwing his trash out were killed.
The really odd thing is that the reason I even thought to ask her was that shortly before we moved, I was napping on the couch and I “dreamed” that a nice man wearing a mechanics uniform came and sat beside me. He talked to me for a long time; he was very kind and answered a lot of questions for me. He told me that there had been some kind of problem with the natural gas and it killed a guy outside taking out his trash. He said that his family used to live in my apartment. He also told me that the lady that lived in my closet had visited her grown daughter at my apartment and soon after had died. She died of lung cancer (supposedly – heck I was dreaming after all). Now, don’t get me wrong, this all seems to cut and dry to me too. It does explain a lot, but maybe it was my subconscious trying to solve the puzzles. I do know for sure that there was definitely something going on, but who can say for sure what. By the by, my kids no longer talk to people I can’t see. Make of that what you will.
Again, anyone who would like to reply should feel free; I’d love to hear from ya!