Where, Oh Where Have You Gone Dear John?

That is`nt John.

John, that probably is`nt even his name, but it is the name i gave him about 23 years ago. John is our ghost, and he`s gone missing.

We moved into this big old house 23 years ago with our 4, then young kids. It was`nt long after that we discovered we were a family of 7, rather than 6.

It all started innocently enough. Occationally the strong smell of cherry pipe tobacco in the front porch, Shades snapping up, then being pulled back down. Noise in the middle upstairs bedroom, when i was home alone. Lights turning off. You know, your every day usual hauntings.

My Girls were scardy cats, so i had to eventually take the shades down from their bedroom windows. They were the old fashioned kind on rollers, you`d tug on them and they`d snap up. Well, they worked great, but, the girls did`nt think it was funny when it was`nt them doing the snapping, so down they came.

The upstairs middle bedroom seemed to be the room with the most activity. Some days when the kids were in school and i was alone in the house, it sounded as if kids were jumping on the bed then onto the floor. I`d go up there and check to see what was going on, and i`d find nothing. Eventually, i`d just roll my eyes and yell up the stairs to quiet down. He never did though.

Sarah was the one most freaked out by John. She spent the night once when Danika was about 2 years old. Our bedroom was downstairs at the time, right next to the stairway. Skip was working midnights, and i was in my bed reading when i heard her flying down the stairs, she burst into my bedroom holding a sleepy Danika, and asked, "can`t you hear that?" "Hear what?" i asked. She was all nutso when she said, "someone is walking up and down the stairs!!" She then tossed Danika in my bed and she slept on the couch. It did`nt bother me, John was harmless.

But then one night.

Danika and I were having one of our sleep overs, or girls night like we used to call it, she was about 3 at the time. We`d buy goodies, our favorite being those gummy strawberries, and we`d lay in bed munching away, gabbing about, anything that came to mind. Her and i were alone that night, Grandpa was working the night shift again.

She got up out of bed and went to the doorway, i did`nt pay much attention to it, untill i noticed her staring out into the dining room, staring at a mirrored coat rack. I asked her what she was staring at, and she replied, i`m looking at that man in the mirror grandma. Well.

I jumped out of bed, glanced at the mirror and saw nothing, grabbed her, slammed the door shut, like that is going to stop a ghost, and we jumped into bed with the covers tight around us. The hair on the back of my neck standing up and my heart racing while i tried to act normal. I did`nt want to scare her, one of us had to keep our minds straight.

That is the one and only time i have been scared in my house. It was a very long night.

Well, the kids have moved out, and it has been a couple years since i have heard or smelled john, and i have to say, i miss him. I keep listening for signs of him, but none come. I think he got depressed when the kids moved out, like , what`s the point in staying now? No one to scare. Unless...............

Unless he left and moved in with one of the kids...........