Phantoms

The Wasatch Paranormal Investigators contacted me and asked if they could bring their equipment to my building and check out our ghost.

I’m familiar with our ghost, I mean, I’ve never met her but I’ve heard stories. People call her the purple lady because she died in a purple dress as she ran across the railroad tracks to retrieve an engagement ring.

Last year the Ghostbusters of Utah came to the Rio Grande on Halloween and took these pictures. You can see a black shadowy figure in one and a purple mist in the other . I don’t know if ghosts are supposed to be consistent or whatever or maybe the make and model of the camera dictates which paranormal features will show up. Anyway, I find it suspicious.

One night I was working late and the security guard asked me to go upstairs and check out the women’s rest room because he could see the light was on where we were standing and it shouldn’t be. He said no one had been up there for hours, and it’s a sensor light. He thought maybe the purple lady was in there. Does anyone else see the irony in this story? Maybe the paranormal is outside the jurisdiction of our guards.

I’m interested to see what kind of equipment these investigators will bring.

Like I said, if I have ever felt any kind of “presence” I didn’t make the connection to it being a ghost. But I have experienced other kinds of phantoms.

If you’ve ever had really long hair and then chopped it off, you feel hair phantoms for a few days. You’ll try to toss your hair and it’s just not the same. Or you’ll run your fingers through it and your hand keeps going even though your hair already ended. I’ve heard of amputees feeling “phantom pains” from their limbs they no longer have. I guess I think of my hair as an appendage.

It’s strange, because even though my dog Buddha has been gone for a couple years, and never even lived with me at my current house, every time I close the fridge or the freezer door something at the top shakes and it sounds exactly like his dog tags when he’d trot into the kitchen. I look around the corner for him every time. Sweet puppy.

And every time I finish a bowl of cereal, I set the bowl down on the carpet below the couch so my cat can come and finish off the milk for me – even though I don’t live with my kitty anymore. Poor Scooter.

I’ve heard rumors of what could be Scooter’s unfortunate future and I may have to start a “Save Scooter” campaign pretty soon. I’d take him in myself except his mere existence might kill one of my roommates if my other roommate doesn’t kill him first.