Since the 'hauntings' that my family and I have experienced over the years are minor in nature, I've decided to compile just a few to avoid multiple, very short stories.
First, I want to share what my mother described to me while she was living in the family home in northern New Jersey. She was alone at the time except for a few of the family cats wandering around the house. My Nana, her mother, kept a small bronze dinner bell that she would often ring so that the kids knew dinner was ready. The bell was kept on a shelf in the kitchen and my mother was in her bedroom down the hall. I asked her if what happened next could have been a result of one of the cats jumping onto the counter, but my mother said this wasn't the case. The bell rang and, according to her, not the kind of ring it might make if it was knocked over. It was as if someone had picked it up and rang it. My mother jumped up and shut her bedroom door and didn't open it until my Nana got home. She also told me that, at one point, an old wooden clock that her father hung in the basement stopped working one day and, a while later suddenly began working again. It was an old clockwork piece, not the kind that you could replace with a battery, so I don't know if that mystery simply lay in the mechanics.
Fast forward years into the future at my parent's current house where I grew up. I'd often see peripheral shadows in the hallways under dim lighting, but always attributed that to eye tricks. While reading in bed one night, using a crane-neck lamp above my headboard, my shell lamp sitting on the night stand at the end of my bed turned on by itself. There was no timer attached to it, but I thought nothing of it and turned it off again. On a different night I was in bed trying to sleep and had one of my legs pressed against the wall from under the sheets. Something stirred that woke me up and I lay there, waiting to see if it would happen again. It felt like something was running across the top of my leg; a sensation similar to that of someone taking their fingers and twiddling them rapidly against your skin. I jumped out of bed and turned on the light. My first impression was that it was a mouse, but I found no markings, no droppings, and was puzzled as to how a mouse could turn up in my bedroom on the second floor. Unless it squeezed under my door.
One night, my sister explained to me that as she was sitting on the couch in the family room the wooden blinds on the window directly opposite from her were brushed forward suddenly, as if someone had put their hand behind it and pushed.
She and I became immediately interested in the possibility that our house could be haunted after that and we took out (I know it's bad now) an Ouija board. The two of us used it and asked basic questions, during the middle of the day. We got yes and no answers and, from what I remember, it was a woman who 'spoke' to us. When we asked her to spell her name, the influence seemed to wear off and we were left with an immovable marker. I'm still sceptical to this day about the answers we got, but perhaps the spirit didn't feel like talking any more. Nothing, I might add, bad or paranormal happened after our Ouija board session.
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