It’s August and never too early for the spooky season. Since I’ve written many tales about my hometown Stevats and all that lurks in the shadows there, I’m going to touch base on one of my youthful inspirations. Fall is my favorite season, and since we’re approximately forty or less days away from the official autumnal equinox, this article will ease me, and you, into the ghosts that move around in my head and linger in my past.
I was asked if I’d ever buy a haunted house. I said, I absolutely would if I was searching for a house and it was in the budget. The young lady asking the question looked at me with a nervous grin, I could see the worried look in her eyes as she was vicariously living through me buying and being stalked by ghosts and demons. She stated she’d never do it, and I could almost see the goose flesh crawling up her arms as she said it. The question threw me back in time, and I’m going to share my first experience with the “paranormal”.
Enter my youth, circa, 1984, Ghostbusters was playing in theaters. The scene with the ghost librarian, a.k.a Eleanor Twitty, at the New York Public Library, both terrified me, and reeled me into the paranormal. In that time period there were stories of the possessed Amityville House (which later was found out to be a hoax), and Ed and Lorraine (coincidentally my parents first names) Warren and their demon hunting, fascinated the masses. My grandma’s house, a one story, four bedroom home, next door, was always larger than life and the closest thing that I could get to anything in the spectral sense. A huge pine tree crawled up into the sky in the front yard, shrouding the porch making things appear gloomy even on a sunny day. In hindsight, the house was smaller than it appeared to my young eyes, and had since been razed in the early 2000’s. So on top of the creepy inspiration and the ghost librarian in the movie, I was armed with an arsenal of imaginative activity.
More fuel was brought into my life by my two aunts who tormented and taught me. They loved to talk about the ghosts in that house. They spun tales of their bedroom door closing them in and locking. They raved about the scent of perfume coming in through the house on a summer’s day, and they lamented about the rebellious and terrifying picture of Satan holding a pitchfork in my uncle’s bedroom. This was all candy for my lucid imagination forcing me to team up with my sister and cousin to ghost hunt. The three of us carrying flashlights entered the creepy confines and realm of the cobweb infested basement. The scent of old books lining a wall, and the heavy aroma of mildew clung to the nostrils. We shuffled, scared, and not admitting it and shone our lights around the dark spaces. Out of nowhere there was a ghostly noise. My grandpa or grandma, I can't remember which, made that sound down into dark spaces. I screamed as loud as I could and fought my way through my smaller sister and cousin back to the safety of daylight upstairs . The following Christmas I was given a pair of binoculars from my grandparents that read, To Tim, the ghostbuster, I assumed to help further my short stint as a ghost hunter. I still own the binoculars and they’ve really never helped me find ghosts. It was a running joke that entire year.
In hindsight, the allure of ghosts, demons, and the like are still fascinating, and encouragement for me to, yes, buy a haunted house. My head often explores the possibility, and that alone sparks my imagination more than anything else in the world. Everyone has their ghost story to tell and whenever someone does, I’m at full attention, because ghosts, spirits, and hauntings will live with me forever, and will be as close to my heart as my grandparents scaring the shit out of me. If you would like to leave your ghost story below in the comments, feel free. I’d love to hear it!
Thanks for reading.
Tim Eagle
Tim Eagle is an author of the novellas Stolen Seed, Life Ship, and the Vasectomus Collection. He lives full time, on the road, with his wife, Maria and their dog, Cocoa. He grew up in Michigan and is inspired by the dysfunction of America. His books are available on Amazon, godless and this site timeaglefiction.com Thanks for reading!
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