Play Me A Song, Piano Man

I've always been interested in the paranormal, as a child I sought out the monster beneath my bed rather than hiding under the covers. My strong beliefs in the supernatural often lead me to seek out that which cannot be seen; by my own eyes anyway. Of course, I always end up experiencing the paranormal in the most unexpected of places, usually when I'm alone, or with a friend or two who are very skeptical. But I know that for this experience, there was at least one other witness; a three year old girl whom we will call Lauren.

Lauren was the only child of her mother, Jocelyn, a single mother who worked long hours that lasted into the night. I was the live-in nanny, and spent my days watching Lauren and looking after the house. The apartment in which they lived was an older building, with creaky stairs and paper thin walls; and it was within this apartment where I "witnessed" the invisible piano player.

I was sitting on a chair in the living room, listening to the TV and reading. Lauren was seated on the floor, playing with one of those small, plastic children's keyboards. She was enjoying her time, playing with the small electronic microphone which was plugged into the back of the little red piano.

I hadn't noticed anything peculiar, until Lauren jumped up from her spot and came skipping over to where I was seated. She was clearly upset, and had tears in her eyes, as she looked up at me and said, "She scared me, Sammi, she scared me". I scooped her up into my lap and asked her who "she" was, who exactly had scared her, but Lauren would not answer and repeated the same sentence to me again. I was about to tell her that there was nothing to be afraid of, when a musical note interrupted me. Two or three more notes played, as I turned to look at the little piano. Then it stopped. I asked Lauren if she could see "her" now, but Lauren had lost interest and had gone on to watching Tree house on the TV. I, however, was fixated on the little red piano, and proceeded to turn it off and place it in the closet.

Who exactly had been with us that afternoon, I guess I'll never know. But it's fair to say that Lauren will have to get used to sharing her piano.