The Ghost Next Door

by Mark
(Washington, USA)

I don't want to reveal the address of this house because I don't want to cause unwelcome interest to the neighborhood.

My ghost experience was in 1978. At the time I was 15 years old. We moved from the area in 1980.

Now, 34 years later, I feel I can put down on "paper" my experiences.

It was a cold December day, a Saturday, because I remember there was no school. I was shoveling some snow from outside our yard when I heard a dull low banging, like a hammering. The beating would get softer and then louder, and then softer again. It seemed to be coming from next door's house.

Our neighbors were an elderly couple, and had gone away visiting family out of state for the holidays. I was suspicious that there might be an intruder in the house, so I went to get my Mom.

When we came outside I could still hear the beating plain as anything, but my Mom heard nothing. She said it was probably the wind or something, or made some excuse - I can't remember. I do remember she looked at my ears to see if they were waxed up or something. I must confess, I did think that it might be me hearing my own heartbeat in clogged up ears!

Still hearing the beating, I went round to the opposite side of our house from the neighbors. Funnily, the beating became less loud, as if my hearing it was affected by the distance I'd gone from the neighbor's house. I was then convinced that it was a noise coming from our neighbor's.

I went back for my Mom and really made a fuss about this noise. She still couldn't hear anything. We went into our neighbor's yard. There was no sign of anyone, but the banging became louder and louder, though my Mom still couldn't hear anything.

I was getting quite frightened now and wanted to get away from the house and the noise, so my Mom sent me back to the house and she looked around. When she came back, she said she didn't see anyone. At the back was a small porch, with half a wall missing, and our neighbor was obviously in the middle of repairing it, but had halted work until their return from visiting family during the holidays.

A couple of days later, we learnt that our neighbor had died of a heart attack playing in the snow with his granddaughter - on Friday night. It seems that he had unfinished business at the house though!