Double Trouble: Tony, the children, and I also lived in an apartment that had been a hospital. Since this apartment was once a place where lives began and ended, it should have been no surprise that it was haunted. Such conditions tend to open portals between realities. I awakened briefly one night to see a filmy woman’s figure pass by me and on through the door. As she passed by, her negligee floated behind her. On her manicured hand, a very large ring adorned her finger. It seems that in spirit, she kept the energy of what was important to her in life as well.
This strange place was the setting for many odd experiences for my family, including the sighting of my son’s double, just as a neighbor had seen my double years before.
While sitting on the couch in the living room one morning, I heard the sound of my seven-year-old son getting out of bed. I watched as Dusty walked sleepily down the hall, wrapped in a full size sheet that he had been attached to from infancy, and saw him enter the kitchen in search of his usual breakfast of cold cereal. I watched and waited for him to come out of the kitchen, but did not hear him even making a sound. Just as I began to wonder what was happening, I heard the toilet flush from the far end of the hall and saw my son once again walk down the hall, wrapped securely in his sheet, and enter the kitchen. Only this time, I heard the sounds of cereal and milk being poured into his favorite bowl.
A few weeks after this event, I awakened during the night. I seemed to be floating from the waist up, and it felt completely normal and very pleasant that I was doing so. My legs felt oddly heavy or even stuck, yet I felt no need to free them. I looked to the door of my room that opened to the hallway. I saw my son, wrapped in his ever-present blue and white sheet, walking down the hall toward the front door. While this should have startled me, as Dusty was a sleepwalker and had been known to sleepwalk right out of the house, I felt completely fine and only mildly curious about what he might be up to. After that, I must have fallen back to sleep.
The next morning, I remembered what I had seen but decided it had been a dream. However, Dusty started a conversation that caused me to change my mind. He said, “Mom, I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamed that I was out of bed and walking down the hall, but I looked down and my feet weren’t touching the floor, no matter how hard I tried to make them do it!” I can only assume that we were both out of body, floating around the apartment in the wee hours of the morning.
Often, many of us are out of body at night, and we do in fact cavort with spirits and guides. They provide assistance as we have this human experience. When we awaken, we give up conscious knowledge of the interaction, but we retain the essence of what we experienced. Sometimes, we visit with those who have gone on, and we interpret that visit in the form of a dream. While dreams are usually symbolic, with each character representing an aspect of our own personality, they often provide a way of traveling in spirit or venturing into alternate realities. Sometimes in dreams, we are visiting with those still living, but who are out of body as well.
Dusty also seemed to be visiting in his sister’s dreams. During the dead of night, he awoke the house screaming: “Snakes! Get them off of her! Snakes!” Jayme awoke and explained that she had been having a nightmare, dreaming that she had fallen into a pit of snakes. Dusty did not remember dreaming anything at all, but had awakened himself with his own terrified pleas for help.
Chapter 14 Little People
A couple of years later, Dusty’s screams woke me again in the middle of the night, but for a much different reason.
The phone rang once, and then suddenly my child’s cries for help jarred me from my sleep. Although I assumed “night terrors” had caused Dusty to call out, I jumped from my bed and ran to comfort him. It was a stormy night, and flashes of lightning illuminated my steps as I hurried to his side. I heard him exclaim that something was touching him, pulling his hair and yanking the covers at his feet. In my half awakened state, I yelled to him as I ran to the living room to the couch where he was sleeping. “It is only the cats, Dusty,” I said, “Don’t be afraid!”
In fact, I was sure our two young cats were only playing as he slept. When I started through the door of the room, however, in the midst the darkness I saw the shadow of a small form sitting on the arm of the sectional couch near my son’s head, and another sitting at his feet. They both seemed to have very large pointed ears and seemed much larger than our pets. Although I was quite confused by that, I still believed our cats to be the source of the trouble. Suddenly, as I neared the couch, the figure nearest me at my son’s head bent over, dropped silently to the floor and disappeared. The one at his feet faded while I watched. I stopped momentarily, too stunned to walk. I forced myself to continue moving toward my son, sat there on the couch with him, and comforted him. He was awake and genuinely terrified.
He said that he had awakened to find what he perceived as strange little men on the couch with him. Though he was unsure why, he had felt that they had come through the window that was directly behind the couch. He explained that one was lightly pulling his hair while another was at his feet holding fast to the covers thereby preventing him from pulling the covers over his head. I attempted to convince the boy that the entire episode was likely a dream, while secretly trying to convince myself of the same thing. Meanwhile, I opened the curtain and looked through the window to assure myself that the screen was still closed. On the sill lay our cats, curled up together and both fast asleep.
The next day, thirteen-year-old Jayme invited her friend Christy over to spend the night. On the day following, she urged her friend to tell me about their nocturnal experience.
Christy then said she had had the strangest dream while at our house. She said it was so real that she could not believe it was a dream, and was certain that she was awake at the time. However, under the circumstances, she felt it had to have been a form of nightmare. She said that she and Jayme had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room after spending most of the night talking to friends on the phone. Christy said that she had awakened when a small-wizened creature that appeared to be a tiny old man came through the window and began to wrestle with her, and even attempted to strangle her as she fought with him. She said that she screamed for help, but Jayme was completely unconscious. Finally, she was able to throw the creature to the floor. Just as it fell, the phone rang once, and the being disappeared.
At that point, Jayme awakened to find Christy nearly hysterical. Finally, Christy decided it must have been a strange dream and went back to sleep. The funny thing, Christy said, about her so-called dream, was that the little man was wearing red shoes, and had pointed ears. Jayme didn’t to tell her of Dusty’s adventure until the next day.
Less than a week later, I received a phone call from my cousin Debra. She wanted to know how I was, as she and her friend, Dee, had experienced an odd occurrence the previous night.
Debra, a gifted intuitive and astrologer, owns a business and, being the night owl, she likes to do her books late. That night she had been working at three a.m. while her friend Dee kept her company. Suddenly, Dee, who is also quite intuitive, said, “Call Angie, call Angie now!” Debra did not want to do that, being sure I would be asleep. She became alarmed, though, since Dee appeared to have gone into a trance, her eyes fixed on some distant unseen vision.
“What’s happening?” Debra asked her friend.
“There are little people, little men, and they are on the bed with Angie,” she exclaimed.
“What is Angie doing?” Debra asked.
“She is sitting on the bed,” Dee answered. “But she is asleep. They are toying with her,” she continued.
“Why?” inquired my cousin.
“Because they can,” she said.
“Where do they come from?” asked Debra.
“They come from the basement. Call her now!” exclaimed Dee.
Debra picked up the phone, and it rang once.
Dee said, “Hang up. They’re gone.”
Debra did so, and reported the entire incident to me the next day. I have no memory of the event whatsoever. However, I “knew” before she told me that the little men came from the basement. Debra told me one more thing that Dee had said. In her vision, oddly enough, the beings were wearing little red shoes.
Perhaps these beings exist in an underground realm, where trolls, dwarves and other underground faerie creatures dwell.
It is said that when one feels uneasy in one’s basement, it is because there are dark elves hiding in the corners or behind the stairwell. These beings are not harmful, but enjoy hiding in the dark corners of our homes. Maybe many of us have portals existing right underneath our floor, leading to strange and magical places hidden away beneath the soil.
Chapter 15 James
I read somewhere that there was a substantial increase in UFO sightings over the mountains of western North Carolina in early 1966. Knowing that my husband James was born in this area that year, this makes sense to me. You see, while many feel that men come from Mars and women come from Venus, I have long held the belief that my current husband James comes from a place known as “opposite world.” This belief was confirmed to me when I witnessed James dragging an oversized inner tube one hot summer day into a cool mountain creek. Having adjusted himself comfortably into the center of the tube, he kicked away from the bank and proceeded to gently float UP-stream. Only a refugee from opposite world could command such a feat.
I think that dogs must have a strong role in opposite world, perhaps even leadership qualities. This came to my attention when James casually asked one day if I ever wondered if our dogs speculated as to whether or not we had to pay extra for the doggie bags that we brought them. He has also alleged for years that our small mixed breed dog, Baby, cavorted with aliens. He swears he saw blue sparks popping off her fur one night as she lay under the bed. For him, the most natural and obvious reason for such a thing would be that she was secretly sending messages to those from another world. After that, he still viewed her with much love, but not without suspicion.
“Opposite world” inhabitants evidently place different values on items than folks of our realm. For instance, I value food. When the world was threatened pre-millennium with potential power outages and such, I felt it wise to stock up on a few days of food and water, just in case. James learned how to build a still and make moonshine, just in case.
I imagine that people from his world tend to grow at a different pace than we do. At least that is what I surmised when I saw him measuring his elderly father’s nose. James was certain that the nose was increasing too rapidly in size. His father never batted an eye. Evidently having one’s nose measured is a very natural, even common, experience where they come from. This leads me to believe that dear old dad was an “off world” immigrant also.
Of course, time is measured differently as well. At our house, we have a thing known as a mandatory waiting period. This is the time between when something is broken and the time that the repair takes places. It is a secret time, unknown to all but James. No amount of pleading or cajoling will cause James to reveal the code. I have found it wise to wait and just pray that the spirit will move him to perform his appointed chore.
However, part two of the secret rule says that no job should ever be completely finished. That accounts for walls left with unpainted spots, cleverly hidden by various pieces of artfully arranged furniture. Brakes are replaced and left partially bled, creating a completely new vocabulary of cursing by me at stop signs and intersections. Leaks in plumbing are all carefully plugged, with that one exception of the tiniest leak in the darkest place leading from the hot water heater. Of course, he insists that all jobs will be completed…but not until “next Tuesday”. Next Tuesday has never actually arrived. It seems that current Tuesdays find him taking time for fishing.
This man looked me dead in the eye and told me he needed to explore his lesbian side. He avoids looking into cat’s eyes during thunderstorms, being certain that their eyes will draw down the lightning.
Death must come rather unexpectedly to those of his original domain. Having pulled out from gas station late one night in his little brown truck, he saw a hearse behind him. Of course, in his mind, this could only be a sign that death had found him. James sped up to escape, but the hearse accelerated as well. Looking in his rear view mirror and turning a slightly pale shade of green, he sped up even more. The hearse continued to keep pace.
Throwing caution to the wind and squelching the screams that threatened to escape from his lungs, James went faster. The hearse flashed its’ lights, not once but twice. James continued his flight down an empty main street, his foot heavy on the gas pedal, his speed ever increasing. Sweat was forming on his brow and trickling down the side of his face. Finally, the hearse caught up and passed him. The driver motioned helpfully for James to turn on his headlights.
He was spared from death’s grip - this time.
