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From: mdean@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael W. Dean)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Two stories
Date: 2 Sep 1994 00:29:33 GMT
Hello all!
There have been some great stories in this group, I must say! I've been
lurking here for quite a bit, now, and I figure I'll go ahead and throw
my two bits in.
I have two stories, both accounts told to me by old roommates of mine. I'll
give each story its own post, for convenience. This first tale comes from
my former roommate Sean, and relates an experience he and his brother Ryan
had as youngsters staying at the home of an older relative (a grandparent
or a great-uncle, I cannot remember which).
The two boys were staying in an upstairs bedroom. It was their first night
in the old house, and they were naturally a bit uncomfortable, spending a
night in such an unfamiliar place. Still, they were making the best of it;
sitting up awake late into the night and giggling about this and that, the
way kids will do.
At one point, Ryan left the room; perhaps to go to the bathroom. As he was
returning to the bedroom, he happened to glance out of the bedroom window,
which overlooked the backyard. Outside, a fierce wind was up, and the tree
branches were swinging madly about as little clouds raced through a quarter-
moon sky. However, there was something else in that yard that captured
Ryan's attention, that froze him to his spot.
According to Sean, Ryan stopped dead in his tracks as he looked out of that
window. The boy's eyes were glassy and his jaw was hanging agape. Sean
asked his brother what was the matter, but Ryan's replies were too
incoherent for Sean to understand. Finally, Sean got to his feet and
peered out into the yard.
He saw the thing that so captivated Ryan immediately. Down in the yard]
below the boys, either within or behind an old wheelbarrow, a vague figure
could be discerned. Only its torso and head were visible; the lower body
was hidden by the wheelbarrow, and it was either armless or its arms were
clasped tightly to its body. It was featureless and luminescent white, but
it definitely seemed to be facing the boys' window, even looking up at it.
The figure was not still, but slowly bobbed back and forth at the waist,
with the inhuman regularity of a metronome.
Sean and Ryan stared down into the yard for a long time, frozen by the sight
of it. Neither one could ever tell in later years just how long they stood
there, staring. Finally, by some unspoken agreement, they both fled from the
window and into their beds, where they fitfully tried to sleep. Neither
one got up for any reason for the rest of the night.
That's my first story, told as closely as I can manage to the way Sean
related it to me. This is a true story...or at least, it's as true as
any other ghost story!
Mike
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