New Appliances, Recent Upgrades, and Oh, Yeah, a Ghost

 

I think there are some jobs that would make a person more likely to run into ghosts. If you're following my Facebook page, then you'll know I recently posted about a doctor who collected stories of the strange and paranormal from other doctors.** Since they frequently deal with life-and-death situations, I guess it wouldn't be much of a surprise that doctors would run into ghosts from time to time. The stories featured in the aforementioned collection are amazing.

I know that the police run into that, too. I read a whole book about that and will post it on Facebook in the near future.

But what about less obvious jobs that might bring one into contact with the unknown? Hotel workers, for instance? There are any number of haunted hotels in any given city. Or how about home re-modelers? Paranormal aficionados all know that renovating a home can bring things back to life. It's almost a given in a house with a history. And then there's the real estate agents themselves.

Jim and I were talking to a real estate agent we know just the other week, and when he asked me what I write about -and I told him I write ghost stories- he said, "Did I ever tell you about that one house?" 

That brought my full attention around pretty fast. "No," I said. "What house?"

He then told us about a house on a busy street that he knew. Apparently, the son of the owners was killed on the street right in front of the place, and now haunts it. "He shows up in various places," our friend said. "The new owners talk about him being there all the time. They don't know what to do about it."

"He probably doesn't know he's dead," I suggested. If the young man died suddenly in front of his home, he might have no idea that he "crossed over" and is currently continuing to live his life as he knew it. Except that he's not alive anymore, at least, not physically.

Our friend, who probably doesn't think about this kind of thing very often, shrugged and nodded at the same time. "And there's another place, too," he said.

I couldn't believe it. "You know of another haunted house?"

 "In this case, it wasn't the son, but the mother who died. She was an older lady. And now the people living there say they see her shadow around the house, all the time."

We all thought about that for a while. 

"I guess they don't know how to get rid of her, either," he said.

I had used the idea of a real estate agent running into a haunted house in my last book. Touching Shadow, Stealing Light, so it was very cool to run into a similar situation in person.

This was just a chance conversational topic that came up when we were all together, but I wonder if there's a way I can bribe him to tell me more stories. Maybe a nice dinner? Maybe a fancy lunch? He's been in the business for well over forty years, he must have more stories than the two little ones he shared. Maybe, if he ever has to list a house he thinks may be haunted, I can get him to give me a showing, just for the heck of it. 

And then maybe he's got some stories on the aftermath of selling a haunted house. I've seen stories in the papers about people who wanted to get out of a house sale after finding out their new digs were haunted. I've seen stories about whether or not an owner has to divulge that their listed house is disturbed. I'd sure love to get his take on all of that. In forty-plus years, I bet he's got a back log of bizarre stories. I'll have to see if I can get him to share some of that...

** Physicians' Untold Stories, Scott Kolbaba, MD