This is a peculiar series of events that involve a man who simply walks home. I'm not sure this person is a ghost and don't really know what to think, actually.
When I was 10 we moved to a house where I first encountered 'The Dancer'. We moved there in late 1991 and Mum moved out in 2007. During that entire time this guy walked past our house. Nothing unusual in that. We saw him maybe once a week, a few times a week, once a month. Depended on if you were looking out the window at the right time. From this we can deduce he kept a routine. We always saw him in the afternoon/early evening. I never took notes of the times, but between roughly 5pm and 7pm.
He always wore a black or maybe it was charcoal suit, white shirt, carried a briefcase and I think he wore glasses. He was kind of short, maybe 5'4 or something, his hair was sandy blonde and thick. Also, he had a very brisk walk, he was quick and his pace never seemed to alter. His consistent walking pace was the most distinguishing thing about him.
The first 'off' thing I noticed about the guy was on a hot summer day, in about 1996, I was around 15. It was early evening, I was mucking around with the budgie, saw him walk past, thought nothing of it. Moments passed, I realised how hot it was and how he was wearing a full suit. Thought he was pretty dumb not to have taken his jacket off at least and wondered how someone could keep a quick pace in the heat.
We'd seen him walk in different locations around town, around his usual time. Always on the same route. His route came from the station. The reason we noticed this is because our house was nowhere near the station and there were bus routes to take you to our neighbourhood. No need to walk all that way. We figured he'd chosen to walk for the exercise. So when he walked past wearing a full suit on a million degree day I was somewhat shocked.
I can't remember what was going on, but late one night, in about 1999, Mum and I were standing on the street a few doors up from our house looking up at the stars. Mum's big on astronomy and often called me outside to check something out. However, we usually star gazed from the back yard or the drive way. Standing on the street was rare. So there we were at about 11pm, and there he was walking home late. From where we were standing we saw him turn down a street off ours. Mum commented that after all these years she never knew where he walked beyond the point of our place. She also voiced concern about him walking from the station so late because yahoos hung around that station after dark. I thought about how we'd never seen him in any other context all these years.
Apart from it being late nothing seemed that strange.
We continued to see him walk past our house at his usual time after this.
About a year later I was at the letterbox when he rounded our corner. This was the first and only time I saw him up close. Our letterbox was about five steps from the corner. I looked up and said 'hi', or something, as he passed. He replied 'hi' or something and glanced at me briefly. There was something bizarre about this moment, I couldn't put my finger on it, and still can't. However, I was distracted by a fashion catalogue, or some such nonsense, and didn't give heed to any undercurrent. As he passed I turned to go up the driveway, so I was directly behind him on the footpath. I looked up from the catalogue to where I was going and he was gone. He should have been directly in front of me, because only a second had passed. I thought 'where did he go?' these thoughts turned to 'where does he go?'
Our embankment was dense and steep, he couldn't have gone in there. Our neighbours embankment was equally steep. The houses across the road had visible front yards. I don't know where someone could have hidden within seconds.
Today I still don't know what to make of that. Of all the brushes with odd I've had, this 'ghost' has always been hard to accept as a ghost. I don't know why that is, but I still feel the same today. Also of note, when he suddenly wasn't there, I didn't freak out or anything. Just looked around and thought 'cool, wonder if anyone else just saw that' (meaning other neighbours).
Since that day we continued to see him pass our house, as well as in various points around the route from the station to our neck of the woods. He always walked briskly, always wore the same attire. As the years went on I became aware his fashion never changed and he never aged. But that doesn't prove he's a ghost either.
Oddly enough I remember the first time I saw him quite vividly. It wasn't long after we'd moved in, way back in 1991. Stopped whatever I was doing when I noticed some guy walk past our place, then continued to watch this person walk up the road. It was all pretty dull. Nevertheless I remember that mundane moment quite well.
Ever since that first time I had these questions like 'what is he doing?' I guess this feeling is directly linked to the weirdness in the letterbox moment.
Since the letter box day prompted me to question if he was a ghost, more questions beckoned. What motive and why bother? Was he residual and I imagined he acknowledged me because I was distracted? If he was residual, surely he would have stopped traffic. There were main intersections on his route.
Come to think of it I never saw him cross any road. In fact he always 'crossed' the road at a certain point in front of our house which was obscured by trees. We had a thick mini forest of Lilly Pillys up an embankment from the footpath. He must have crossed around this section of path. Because every time he passed our place he would be on the other side of the road by the time he'd passed our embankment and become visible, further up the road, from our windows once more.
A few years before the letterbox moment I saw him walk through the station car park, away from the station. But that's the closest I ever saw him to the station. On that day a group of us, all teenagers, were hanging around outside the Masonic Lodge opposite the station. We were peering through the gates, making up conspiracy theories about what went on inside, any excuse to talk about paranormal stuff, the typical crap. Amusingly peering through the gates meant facing away from the station. In hindsight this moment has pantomime qualities: 'HE'S BEHIND YOU!'
His attire and early evening commute simply lead us to assume he was walking home from the station. So noticing him walk through the car park in the direction of the rest of his route seemed normal. Also I never saw him at any location before the station on his route. That doesn't really mean anything either does it.
Oh well.
Thanks for reading.
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