A Diary: When Worlds Touch

In view of the events that have occurred over the years in our house led me to start keeping a diary, which I began in August 2007. Many strange things happened prior to keeping notes, but only after my wife and I got rid of boarders such as a son, a granddaughter who we raised from one year until she was 13. She went to live with her father, but came back here for another couple of years. Finally, we were alone.

In my diary are dates, times and descriptions of the events, which are generally out of the ordinary, as you shall see. My view is that the short nine-foot by four-foot hallway, which leads to three bedrooms and a bath, may intersect a parallel world. This idea may sound goofy, but read to the end before condemning my views. I can think of no other explanation for what follows.

The interaction with the other world is not continuous, as can be seen from the diary notes, and seems to follow no particular pattern as to the type of occurrence, time of day or night, or location.

So, let me begin:

On August 7, 2007 around 4am, We were subjected to source-less noises, not attributable to any known agent. At 6am in my bedroom came the smell of cooking similar to stir-fry potatoes. Neither one of us had got up yet, much less went into the kitchen on the other end of the house. My wife’s bedroom door was shut and latched, mine just pushed to, not latched. She did not report smelling the cooking odor.

August 18 near 6am, She reported hearing a man’s voice in the hallway. The language, inflection and words were not understandable.

August 29 about 4:40am, Something was on my bed. A small hand, child-size, was put in my hand and awoke me. It was gone in an instant. Nothing was visible. Then around 5:20am, I heard a little girl’s voice close by my bed. I could not make out the words.

October 15 near 1:47am, In my bedroom a male voice said what sounded like “Miz Hannon.”

October 16 at 5:30am, In my room an illegible voice, unknown dialect, spoke muffled words.

October 28 close to 6:01am, A smell of cigarette smoke was detected. It was gone in less than 15 seconds.

November 5 about 11:50pm, A voice that sounded like “Chewbaca” of Star Wars fame woke me up. No recognizable words.

November 7 between 7am and 8am, The wife heard man and woman arguing in the hallway in unknown language. I had already left the house on an errand.

November 17 near 4:20am, A female voice in my bedroom said “Honey.” As that’s what my wife always calls me, I got up to investigate. I found my wife fast asleep in her room.

November 19, around 2:00pm, My wife, who was watching TV in the living room, heard a voice nearby that said “Now, what are you doing?” No one was visible.

November 27 at 7:20am, At the end of the hallway where it goes into the living room was the smell of pumpkin pie cooking. I smelled it coming out of my bedroom. I was the only one up and we weren’t cooking anything, much less pies.

December 3 about 4:30am, There was a faint smell of cigarette smoke in my room.

December 5 near 1:30pm, My wife and granddaughter Ashley saw a faint shadow float across the kitchen.

December 29 approx 3:40am, Thumps on my north bedroom wall awoke me.

January 25, 2008 at 6:20pm, The wife saw a mist floating in her bedroom.

February 16 between 5:30am and 6:00am, Strong cigarette smoke smell in wife’s bedroom. She doesn’t smoke and had to leave the room.

February 26 about 10:30am, My wife saw white apparition walk across dining room, north to south. Dining room walkway runs east-west. Walls make up north and south of room.

March 13 at 4:50am, Sounds of glass breaking woke me up. A thorough search revealed nothing broken.

March 19 afternoon, My wife reports it feels like something sits on her bed when she’s lying down.

March 27 near 3:30am, a lot of indefinable noises including sound of bathroom door shutting. Neither of us was up. And at 11:30pm while in the bathroom, I was startled by banging on the bathroom shower wall.

March 28 about 10am, The wife heard two men arguing in hallway in unknown language.

April 23 at 1:30am, Hallway light came on without cause. And at 2:20pm wafted the smell of cooking in the third bedroom, used for computer and storage.

April 26 after 12 midnight, A lot of thumps and talking in hallway.

April 29 about 3:45am, Undetermined noise and woman’s voice in hallway. No words were understandable.

April 30 between 2:30am and 3am, Metallic sounds and thumping noise. And at 7:30am, wife heard really big thump.

May 10 at 4am, Our small 10 lb dog who never wants to get on my bed, did just that. Something scared him badly. He slept the rest of the night with me. It wasn’t the first time he has been scared by something. It can happen in the middle of the day. And at 5:15am, I smelled cigarette smoke in my bedroom.

May 15 at 4:15am, I smelled cigarette smoke again. I smoke, but not in the house. I have a glassed-in room on the back patio for that purpose.

May 21 close to 3:25am, My wife heard music, bells and voices. Again nothing was understandable in the voices.

May 23 after 2:30am, My wife heard music in hallway again.

May 28 near 10:15pm, I heard my wife’s voice in living room after she had already went to bed and had door closed.

June 2 about 7:30am, A female voice in wife’s bedroom while she was dressing, said “Let me help.” Wife always keeps her door shut until coming out in the morning. She saw no one.

June 6 at 2:45pm, Two men’s voices talking in front den. Dog barked his head off. Nothing said could be understood.

June 24 after 2am, Unidentified noises scared the dog again.

July 5 around 10am, Something closed all three bedroom doors and laundry room door. Wife thought it was me. I was outside working in yard.

July 11 at 2am, Female voice yelled, our dog barked wildly. Wife couldn’t determine location or source of voice.

July 12 about 6:40pm, I saw white apparition in living room. It was gone in an instant.

July 15 at 1:20am, Cough and sneeze in my bedroom woke me. Wife and dog both sleeping.

July 16 about 2:33am, Two men’s voices at each end of hallway, fussing at each other. Nothing they said could be understood.

July 17 near 7:05am, Wife heard man and woman talking low. Nothing said was understandable.

July 28 near 3:10am, Our little dog burst into my bedroom in a panic, trembling all over. He stayed in the corner of the bath until after 7am. He didn’t want to come out.

August 22 approx 4pm, Sound of music in front den. No TV on. Wife was at Bingo.

September 5 at 3:30pm, Sound of cell phone ringing by my recliner. A thorough search found no phone. My cell phone was on my belt. Wife helped with search.

September 6 from 10pm to 2am, Wife heard intermittent growling in her bedroom. Finally came and spent the rest of the night with me.

September 24 around 3:30am, Portable phone on wife’s dresser jumped out of its charging cradle, hit the floor and scooted over to near closet door.

October 2 in the wee hours, Wife heard woman laughing. Man’s voice said something that could have meant keep quiet. Not understandable, though.

November 5,6,7 wee hours, Wife said many people talking in hallway past three nights.

November 9 about 9am, New bag of pink mints on wife’s dresser had been opened. About one-third gone. No one here but us two.

November 24 from 12:30am to 1am, Moaning in wife’s bedroom.

November 25 all night, Our little dog spent the night on my bed.

November 27 around 8am, Strong cigarette smoke in wife’s bedroom drove her out.

December 2 at 1am and at 3am, Wife’s power wheel chair moved by itself to over near the door. At about 3am it moved near her bed. (power chair relays click when it starts to move.

December 5 approx 11:30am, Wife saw image of man in black shirt in front den. I had went outside at about 11:20am.

December 29 at 3:20am, unrecognizable noise in my bedroom startled me awake.

January 8, 2009 about 2:20am, Man and woman talking in wife’s bedroom. Man’s voice in my bedroom. Words spoken were not understandable.

January 10 approx 2:30am, Wife’s bedroom door knob being tried (she always keeps it locked.) And door to third bedroom opened, closed several times. Girl and woman arguing in my bedroom. No recognizable words.

January 11 at 2:30am, Soft, diffused light brightened my entire bedroom for several seconds. Light had no apparent source. It seemed to come from everywhere.

January 26 at 12:20am and 2am, Sound like a basketball bouncing twice woke me. Singing around 2am and other commotion not identifiable.

January 30 about 2:30pm, While napping in my recliner intense vibes encompassed my entire body. Woke me with hairs standing up all over. Unknown source.

January 31 all night, Wife heard sounds of doors opening, closing and noises like furniture being moved around.

February 1 wee hours, Same noises as previous night, except a dog barking.

February 6 about 2:30am, Something bumped wife’s bed, like a large dog.

February 8 near 3:55a, Something hit my bed, shook it, woke me.

February 9 after 10:55pm, Three words spoken on the south side of the bedroom after I lay down and turned light out. Words not understandable.

February 15 at 11:15pm, Our little dog came in my bedroom, I thought to take him back out and put him in his bed. He lay down on the floor, obviously not wanting to go back into the living room. So, I put him on my bed where he spent the rest of the night. My wife said that prior to 11pm, she had heard a lot of noise, such as clicking sounds, thumps, and the dog barking. These noises apparently scared him.

February 23, around 9am, Something tapped wife on shoulder three times while she was in bathroom.

February 24, 6:20am, A voice said “Darlin’” in my bedroom. Sounded like wife’s voice, who was sleeping in her room.

March 2, 6:30am, Smelled faint cigarette smoke in my bedroom.

March 3, 3:33am, A scream in wife’s bedroom startled her awake.

March 9, 4:30am, Voice by my bed said “Get the cell phone.”

March 13, about 1am, Granddaughter Ashley, who was spending the night, heard a woman’s voice speaking in an unknown language.

March 14, wee hours, Something pushed or touched me two separate times, waking me.

March 17, 6:26am, Smell of hot cakes in my bedroom. No one up.

The events listed are by no means all of the things that have happened. They are just the ones that left a lasting impression. There are odd sounds during the day, occasional words spoken from no detectable location, the dog coming out of the house into my Florida room, staring back inside, acting scared. He won’t go back in without one of us goes with him. We get our share of thumps and bumps, too. Construction on this house was begun in Jan. 1964. Other than the builder, we are the third owners. The husband of the first owner pair died in my bedroom, but we’ve never had any problems for the first 25 years or so. Of course, we had four kids growing up here, three boys and a girl. They made enough racket on their own to drown out any strange happenings.

If anyone thinks we haven’t been getting a good night’s sleep, they are right. We’ve only had a few nights where we slept all the way through. I am sure the incidents listed above are not the end of the strange happenings. We surely will be subjected to more of the same in the future. I can’t say we are used to the goings on, but we’ve learned to adapt as best we can. However, we would be relieved, I think, to find out exactly what’s causing the events, even though I doubt if there is a solution.

The tentative conclusion I have arrived at is if most of these events could be the result of intermittent contact with a parallel world. If so, there’s not much we can do about it. I don’t think the happenings are the result of an intersecting dimension, although I suppose anything is possible. I do believe that the floor plan of their house, if that’s what they call it, from the other world, is opposite that of mine. It would seem their kitchen is on the opposite end compared to ours.

Our kitchen is on the north end of the house, while our hallway is on the south end. The reasoning is because of the cooking smells in or near the hallway. The other family may consist of a man, or male, his wife, or mate, and a small child, plus a dog, or an animal that passes for one in their world. They do not speak in any language I’ve ever heard. Their words comprise sentences just as ours do, I suppose, but we have no inkling of what the words mean. While not recorded above, I’ve also caught an occasional whiff of perfume that doesn’t resemble the kind my wife wears. These others must either be night owls, or their sun comes up 12 hours later than ours.

They also have visitors from time to time, who may be friends or relatives just dropping by. I wonder if our doings during the day disturbs their version of sleep time. Since we seldom make much racket, or argue loudly, I don’t think so. Although when our grand daughter, who I mentioned at the beginning, lived here a couple of years ago, her and I got into shouting matches on many occasions. Maybe they are just getting even. In any case, the entities have learned to mimic our voices, which they do when one or the other of us is somewhere else in the house. This can be disconcerting, when we know each of us is in a different part of the house, than where the voices came from. Like I’m in the kitchen, and my wife hears my voice in my bedroom. I don’t think this is a family of ghosts, though. At least, I’ve never heard of such a thing. But I sure wish they would learn to speak English.

Several years ago, when the voices first started, I attempted to record them with a portable self-starting recorder. The recorder had two levels of sensitivity. Unfortunately, one was very sensitive, and picked up the air conditioner until it ran out of tape. The other level was less sensitive, and rarely picked up anything worthwhile, as it took a second or two to begin recording when activated. What I managed to hear on the recording was too brief to carry much information, or to identify what it was, but no speech.

To date there has been no physical touching by the others, except for the little hand in mine and the pushes mentioned previously. The effects so far have generally been noises of people going about their daily, or nightly activities. These things have been annoying, but not too scary, although one of my sons and one of the grand daughters won’t sleep in any of the three bedrooms. We have no intention of moving after 40 years, even if we could afford to move and to make new house payments in some other locality. I will say that the people I bought this house from in early 1969 seemed awfully anxious to move. They said they wanted to go back to Huntsville, AL where they were from and where we moved from. So, we just swapped houses. It’s possible they had suffered some of the same experiences we have, but couldn’t handle the stress.

If readers have beneficial suggestions or alternate theories as to what might be the cause of those things listed above I would be interested in reading them. RR

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