The Hoe Man & Other Bits Of The Happenings In Our Home

Almost every night, my sister could hear the "chunk... Chunk" noise of someone hitting the ground using a hoe. The question is who would go gardening in the middle of the night, around 12 midnight or so? The noise went on almost every night, skipping a night or two once in a while, until one night, she saw a shadow. It was of a tall man, carrying a hoe walking (or floating) by the wall dividing our lawn and the next door neighbour's lawn. It was in the neighbour's lawn, at the other side of the fence. At that time, she was in the family living room, in front of the TV, sitting on a couch. She happened to look on through the kitchen window on her right-hand side which opened up to our neighbour's backyard brick wall. The wall was taller than an average woman, and even if a man walks along the wall from the other side, we are only supposed to see the top of his head. The shadow that my sister saw was very tall; she could see it from its waist.

But it was the only time she saw that hoe man. On the other nights, she would hear it, from time to time. It didn't just stay in our neighbour's lawn or backyard, but she could hear it in OUR BACKYARD TOO. One night, I was home, we were in our room (we share a room, the second biggest in the house) getting ready to sleep, but we didn't turn off the light. I was reading True Singapore Ghosts Stories by Russell Lee (you can say I'm a big fan of the paranormal) while singing out aloud to my favourite song. It was around 1 a.m. Or so, both of us were having difficulties sleeping (both of us are slightly insomniacs). Suddenly, she nudged me, instructing me to stop singing. I was quite confused why she told me to keep quiet. I shot her a look, as if I was saying, "Hey, what?" She put a finger across her lips, and shook her head, giving a sign that she couldn't or wouldn't dare to speak. So I gave her my cellphone to her so she could type the words instead of saying it. She typed, "Hoe man". At that instance, the hair on the nape stood on their ends. I didn't freak out though because I knew about the hoe man from her previous encounter (I wasn't at home when she saw that guy). Not daring to speak, I took my cellphone and typed, "When? Where?". She replied (through the typed message on my cellphone), "Just now, just outside our window, twice," Again, it made me shiver. To the readers, our room is located at the very far back from our neighbour's backyard brick wall. Our room is just next to the other neighbour's house, sharing the same wall (imagine a semi-detached house; our room is just sharing the wall with the other house that is joined to ours, while the haunted yard is at the other side of the house, in a separate building).

My sister wasn't the only person who heard the hoe man. My mom heard it too. It was around 3 in the morning when she woke up to do the laundry (she's not an easy sleeper, that's where me and my sister get our insomnia from). She was doing something in the kitchen, when suddenly out of nowhere; she heard the "chunk... Chunk" noise. She was like "Okay, maybe our neighbour is gardening," before the reality struck her. She realized that the time was around 3 a.m. And who would go gardening at this late hour. However, she didn't bother to look, and told herself to mind her own business, let anyone who might be hoeing at that time to hoe in peace. I would say that my mom and my sister are sensitive to these beings. There are lots of happenings that show that they can actually see, hear and sense these paranormal beings. There are other events involving them in my previous stories.

One night, my sister was home alone with my grandpa and our family cat, Fluff (me and my parents along with our maid went out that night). My sister was relaxing in the family living room (where the TV is). The TV was off, and my sister was just talking to the cat when all of sudden, she heard heavy breathing, almost like something was gasping for air. It sounded like it was in the same room with my sister. She stopped to listen, and tried to listen if it was actually my cat that was breathing heavily. Fluff the cat seemed to be breathing normally, but her attention was on a corner of the living room. My sister was quite terrified, but she tried to knock the feeling off. To her relief, our grandpa came to the living room and started talking to her. However, the heavy breathing didn't seem to go away even though my sister tried to pay attention to the conversation, and she heard it even throughout the conversation. Finally, she took Fluff the cat into our room and played songs on her PC as loud as she could stand to drown out the heavy breathing just in case it followed her into our room. Finally, when me and my parents and our maid got home, she seemed to be relieved, and I asked her why, and she told me the whole story. That event didn't occur only at that one time. Up until now, it has repeated for a few times, only to my sister. I am not at home for the time being, since I stay in the university campus during the semester. I only go back on semester breaks. I call home occasionally to check on what's going on at home (since our maid can't be trusted, she was caught stealing for a few times already, but my parents let her off the hook so this matter keeps me anxious) and a few nights ago through the phone, she told me that the breathing was heard just next to her while she was in our room a few nights ago (it wasn't the first time it was heard in our room too).

On top of all the events that take place in our house, I'm starting to feel that our guest living room is haunted. I have never really liked that room in the first place. To be honest, when you enter the room, you get an uneasy feeling like somebody is watching you settling in your tummy. That's why I really hate to be alone in that room, especially at night. The feeling of being watched, so far, has never felt sinister, not yet (I hope it will never get sinister). Once, I was studying (this happened a few years ago when I was in high school) alone in the living room, something creepy happened. I was at the long dining table (we don't really use that table for dining, only except when we have a big number of guests over for lunch or dinner), at the oval end of the table. I was resting my feet on another chair at the table. Please keep it in mind that this was a few years ago, my cat only came into the family last November 2009 to keep my cat from being blamed in this situation. Back to the story. I was so engrossed in my study when out of a sudden, one of the chairs moved. It wasn't any of the chairs that were near to me, and I have my feet on a chair, rested. I noticed it was the chair on the other oval end of the long dining table. And to make evidence clearer, the chair that moved was the one that was next to the wall. Nobody was there, and it's useless to say that it was moved by the wind, since it was that kind of heavy wooden chair. And it made a loud noise when it moved too. Well, as for me, I didn't waste much time. I picked my book, and tried to walk as calmly as I could out of that living room.

Recently, my sister had the very same experience too. That living room is rarely used except when there are guests in our home. It's always one of the coldest rooms in the house, except from the master bedroom. My sister and I prefer to keep the door to the guests living room closed (we have a soundproof door separating the family living room and the guests living room). Often I feel that there are eyes watching us, peeking from the cracks of that wooden door. My sister told me she has seen something moving in the darkness of that living room too. Well, I hope anything in there wouldn't be anything evil or harmful. I prefer if it keeps to itself and do nothing harmful to me and my family.