Here's a tale that's always puzzled me. I was a witness to it of sorts, but I was an infant... So obviously I don't remember. However, my mother and my grandmother have told me the story many times over the years. Here goes:
I grew up in a small town west of Phoenix. It was a farming community with no more than 1,500 in total. My father volunteered as an officer with the local police force. He would go out on patrol once or twice each week. Often my mother would take me and spend the night at my grandmother's house so she would not be alone.
My grandmother's house was very small, perhaps 600 square feet, with a large yard (these details will come into play shortly). The yard was completely fenced off from the street by a waist-high picket fence. To reach the front door, you entered the gate next to the driveway and walked up a few steps (perhaps 30 feet) to the porch. This walkway was in plain view of the front door.
One night, my father was on patrol. My mother and I were staying at my grandparent's house, sleeping in the front room. Around 2 or 3 am there was a knock at the front door. My grandmother had been up with me and my mother was asleep on the couch. The knock woke my mother. Both my grandmother and my mother thought the person knocking was my father... Even though it would be a few hours earlier than he was expected to arrive.
Please understand, this was a small town. Crime was not really an issue. So, when they heard the knock, my grandmother went straight to the door and my mother went to gather me and our things to head home.
However, when my grandmother opened the door, it was not my father. Rather it was a woman with light hair, green eyes (my grandmother said she would never forget her eyes) and a fur coat the same color as the woman's hair. My mother, standing behind my grandmother in the small room, saw all of this and confirmed these details.
My grandmother asked "Can I help you?" The woman said "Can I come sit by your fire?" Something in her demeanor spooked my grandmother (who was never much scared of anything) and she said "Hell no." Slamming the door in the woman's face. My grandmother said she never understood why she reacted like that. She immediately opened the door to apologize and my mother rushed to the window next to the door to get another look.
The woman was gone. It couldn't have been more than a second or two from the door slamming to my grandmother opening it and my mother going to the window. Yet she was nowhere. They went out into the yard and looked up and down the street. The lady was not there. The stayed awake the next couple of hours waiting for my father to arrive. They had no explanation. The next day, they asked neighbors on both sides if anyone had knocked on their doors. They hadn't.
Another thing, my grandmother lived in a quiet neighborhood off the main road in town. She had lived in the neighborhood for 30 years and knew everyone on the street plus their extended family, and she knew nearly everyone in town. She didn't know this lady and neither did my mother. The highway (Buckeye Road) was a bit over a mile to the south of my grandmother's house and there were several neighborhoods, gas stations and the like between her house and the highway. If this woman had simply been a lost traveler, it's unlikely she would've happened upon my grandmother's house. Plus, how would she get out of the yard, past the gate and off the street so quickly?
I don't know who/what she was. I don't know what she wanted... Past sitting by a non-existant fire (my grandmother did not have a fireplace). But, I know this actually happened. Love to hear your thoughts.
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