Another Ghostly Encounter...

I made it back from the Adirondack Mountains. I am happy to say, my friendly little ghost did not disappoint me this year. As a matter of fact, he/it, made it perfectly clear, he/it is still around. All statements I am about to write are 100 percent true, I will take a lie detector test, swear on my grandmothers grave, and provide witnesses to all accounts. Read on...

We left for the mountains on a sunny Saturday morning. My car was packed to the gills with suitcases, lawn chairs, blankets, pillows, frisbees, and my trusty fan I bring every year so the gentle humming noise can drown out my moms snoring.

In my car, was me, of course, my daughter Leah, her friend Katie and my black lab, Coal. My sister Cheryl chauffeured my parents, and my son Adam. We met at my parents house at 9:00am. I walk in the door, first thing my dad says to me. "Lori, do not drive over 62 miles an hour." "We are in no hurry, we have all day." I said, "And at that speed, it will take ALLLLLL day." I give Cheryl the "look". One glance and we both knew we would be going 75 mph, or at least whatever speed traffic was moving at. So off we went, happy as could be, Leah, Katie and I, in my Ford Escape, singing to my cds of Neil Diamond, Kelly Clarkson and Maroon Five. Six hours is a long long time without music. I was happy my son brought his I-Pod in my parents car. I was positive no singing was going on in that car.

Along the way, we played the Alphabet car game, and Leah and I filled Katie in about things we do every year in the mountains. Leah said "Mom tell Katie about the ghost." Katie instantly perked up in the back seat she was sharing with Coal, "Yeah, I want to hear all about it." So I, believing she liked ghost stories, tell her everything (see blog from Wednesday, July 21st). We were laughing and joking, I made light of it, I didn't want to freak the poor girl out. She seemed fine and even shared one of her ghost stories with me and Leah. All our chatting made the 6 hours go by fast.

Seeing the "Welcome to Saranac Lake" sign, revives all of us. Leah and I start pointing out familiar landmarks to Katie..."Look there's Mountain Mist Ice Cream, we go there by boat...look, there's the place we rented kayaks last year...look, there's the lake". Finally, we pull up to our beautiful, little, red, haunted cabin number 3. I back my truck in and both carloads pile out to start unloading my car. Once I am unloaded, we start unpacking my parents car, it's like clockwork, we know where everything goes, dads fishing stuff goes out on the screened in porch, moms big sauce kettle goes under the little table by the chair. After so many years it is kind of like home away from home, except for one thing, my home doesn't have a ghost.

Soon my other sisters and their families arrive. Everyone is busy filling empty drawers with their clothes and making up their beds. Except for me, once again, I am stuck out on the couch. The same couch that is directly across from the front door where the ghost's face appeared. I think to myself, "Whatever, I have my dog to protect me". I began to unpack Coal's stuff. His frisbee and balls went to the porch where I could grab them on our way to the beach later. I put his food and water dish right next to the front door. I hung his retractable leash by the handle on a solid, black rod-iron hook next to the front door, above his food.

As everyone finished getting settled we all congragated over my sister Gina's cabin. The men had grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. We ate, cleaned up and played a game called Loaded Questions. My nephew, Colin asked me, "So, any ghost sightings yet?" He was half-mocking me. I said, "Nope, but now that it's dark out, I think we should take a walk over to cabin 3 to see if the face is still in the screen door." Everyone was like, "Yeah lets go see!!!" So we all headed over to cabin three. My nephews were making boooo noises, as we walked along the path. "Oh shaddup, my mom said, yous are all crazy, what a bunch of shit!" Which of course made us all laugh. I waited until everyone was safely in the living room and we turned off the first lamp. First lamp - click, "Wait!" I shouted, "we need to turn the outside light on." So I went over and turned the outside light on. Second lamp - click. All of us were facing the door, third and final lamp - click. Gasps could be heard from all over the room. "Yup, still there!!!" My mom, trying to make herself feel better says, "Thats nothing, its just the indents in the screen". My niece Brittany spoke up, "But indents that form a perfect skeletal face, that's freaky. Aunt Lori, I don't know how you are going to sleep in here tonight, but if anything happens you better call me." "Ok Britt, I will, but I doubt anything will happen." I was really torn, I kind of wanted something to happen so I would have proof, but at the same time I was a little scared.

The first night in the mountains usually ends pretty early, everyone is wiped out from the long drive and soon everyone heads off to their own cabins for bed. I got Leah and Katie settled in their room with the bunk beds. Adam went to bed in the room he was sharing with Cheryl. My dad was already asleep in the front bedroom, so it was just me, Cheryl and my mom still up. I made my sad little bed on the couch, I put Coal's dog bed right beneath me, so I could easily reach over and pet him if I needed comfort. I was hoping my mom and Cheryl would stay up long enough for me to fall asleep. But it wasn't long before my mom looked up from her "fill-ins crossword puzzle" and said "Time for bed." Cheryl chipped in, "Yeah, me too I'm exhausted." Trying to sound brave, I said, "Ok, night" inside I was thinking, "NOOOO don't gooooooo!" But they went. There I was, alone in the dark with Coal and the face. I kept telling myself to relax, don't think about it, close your eyes and sleep. Every once in a while I couldn't help myself I had to take a peek at the face just to see if it was still there. Of course it was. I looked down and Coal, he was sleeping peacefully. This gave me courage, if there was a ghost in the cabin Coal would know. I always see that show on Animal Planet about the animals that react to ghosts. However, the vet did instruct me to give Coal four Bendryl every 6 hours for his allergies. Coal was so drugged up, I don't think he would have reacted even if the ghost went up and pulled his tail. That realization took my confidence boost away. Enough is enough, I thought to myself. I am going to sleep, this is silly. I turned my back to the front door and started saying the rosary in my head. The calm, repetitiveness of saying the Hail Mary was comforting and soon I was drifting off to sleep. But before I fully got there, I got this dizzy feeling, I thought a sporatic bout with vertigo was kicking in. Then suddenly this loud crash rang through the cabin. Coal and I jumped a mile, I screamed, "JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!" and ran as fast as I could to Cheryls room. My mother came running out of her room. All the kids were jumping up out of bed. "What the hell was that??" mom said. "I don't know, I am too scared to find out!!" We all went to the living room and my mom turned on the light. There was Coal's retractable leash laying on the floor. I looked at Cheryl with total fear in my eyes, "Oh my God, there is no way for that leash to come off the hook, unless you lifted it up over the hooky part." Cheryl tried to make me feel better, "No, maybe it wasn't on there all the way." I said, "Then why didn't it fall off when everyone was walking in an out of the cabin door all night, what made it just fall off for no reason!!!" Talk about being freaked out. I found myself shaking, then I looked into the faces of Leah and Katie. They were scared. There was no taking it back, they heard the crash and saw our reactions. I tried to smooth it over, and reassure them the leash wasn't on the hook correctly, even though I didn't believe that for a second. We all took turns trying to calm them and between my mom, Cheryl and I, we finally got the girls back into their bunk beds. Needless to say, I was not happy about having to sleep on that couch. I left one of the lamps on in the living room. Ten minutes later the girls were back in the living room with me. They wanted me to sleep in their room. I was only too happy to obligue them. They both wanted the lower bunk so I had to climb up to the top bunk. Once I got up there, I felt relieved I didn't have a face staring at me. However, I was still afraid, but this time it was only from the height of the bunk bed. That was until I noticed my dog, he was standing in the hall in front of our bedroom, all I could see was his back half. He was looking down the hall and his tail was wagging. No one was up, everyone was in their beds and Coal was looking at "something" down the hall that was making him wag his tail. WHAT THE FREAK?????? I was hoping the girls wouldn't notice. A thought occurred to me, which made me fall asleep instantly. If there is a ghost in this cabin. It has not hurt any of us, and now it is making my dog wag his tail, how bad could it be.

The rest of the week went pretty smoothly. We had to call the owner of the cabin because one of the burners on our stove quit working (or maybe our ghost got tired of smelling my moms cooking). When he came in Cheryl and I took the opportunity to batter him with questions about the ghost. John admitted to hearing a couple other renters with ghost stories about cabin three a while ago. He was going to consult with his mother to get the details. So there you have it. I am not crazy. I am going back to the cabin again next year and I hope the friendly ghost shows up.