Day Looks 11 years ago From The Side
Did I ever tell you that my house growing up was haunted? It was most definitely haunted. The ghost wasn’t entirely scary. My ranch style home sat in the middle of hundred of acres of farm land. The nearest town of Gregory was about 7 miles away. Not a neighbor in sight and my idea of playing outside consisted of making mud castles.
The 3 bedrooms in the back of the house were all attached by a long, narrow hallway of death. Every night I would tuck into my twin bed which directly faced my vanity dresser. The mirror on the vanity perfectly reflected the view of my bedroom door and was angled to the point where you could also see the doorway leading into the living room.
He only came out after everyone else had been asleep for hours. I always knew, when I would wake up, that if I opened my eyes that he would be standing there. I truly did not want to open my eyes; I truly did not want to end up sleeping in my parents bed every night. After all, it was hot sleeping between them and I was pushing 5th grade {don’t judge, I love my parents & I lived with a creepy ghost!}. But 99.99% of the nights I would open my eyes and look at the vanity mirror and there he would be, standing in the living room doorway. He was a tall, broad man who always wore either all black or an all white suit. He also always wore a top hat and it wasn’t so much that he was faceless, but his face always sat perfectly in a shadow.
I couldn’t look directly at him, for he would disappear. So, I would let my eyes slightly drift to one side of the mirror and he would reappear. He scared me most nights, but others I would want to see him. So, I would test my visual boundaries to see how much of him I would map out before looking straight on. Every time I would look at him straight on, he would disappear. He loved playing this song & dance with me but I hated it. I wanted to either see him, or not. There he was trying to teach me the lesson that there is always more to life than meets the eye. Sometimes you can stare at something for hours, but if you shift your vision ever so slightly you will see something entirely different.
I played this game with the ghost for most of my childhood years. The nights he wore all white we would play more before I made my way to my parents bed. But the nights he wore all black were terrifying. I would count down from 10 to gain courage to race down the hallway of death to my parents’ room. Taking the first step out of bed was always the hardest.
As I grew older, my parents confronted me about always sleeping in bed with them. Over dinner that night I told them & my brother about the ghost and shared my fears. Later that evening, after making my way to bed, I laid there feeling a bit restless and in need of a drink of water. As my foot hit the ground to get out of bed, my older brothers hands grabbed at my ankles and I let out a scream that would have woken the town of Gregory.
I never saw the ghost again after that night. We moved a year later.
Buffalo Check Peacoat {$350, $279} // Helmut Lang Bat Wash Pull on Jeans {$195} // Vans Sneakers {$45} // Vita Fede Mini Titan Rings {℅}
0 Comments Join the Conversation