Haunted (19 page)

“It's not fur, it's long blonde hair. And there was a fire. Look at all the ashes. Maybe it killed her. Maybe it killed her whole family,” she whispered to me, as though the idea was too to say aloud.

I thought of the children's spirits we had seen over the years: the little boy who ran down the stairs; the angels who waved to Rosa; the young girl who stared at Ted as he slept and who also poked the feather in the ink-well; the sad boy Matt saw by his bed. All of those spirits had blonde hair, as did the woman Beverly had seen by our tree.

I looked again at the antique bottle and remembered how Ted's beer had erupted whenever he tried to drink it, but no other adult's had been affected. Had the father of that family drank too much beer and in a drunken state caused a fire?

Ronald had said he had a very strong sense of intense heat from the property, and Rhonda had also asked if there had ever been a fire in the house. As the memory of the persistent smoke alarms flooded back to me, the pieces felt like they were starting to fit together.

We found no other items in the ground that day, although we sifted extensively through the soil to see what more could be learned. We even had the construction of the pool halted until we could be certain there was nothing else of importance buried beneath the lawn.

Exhaustive research failed to show any record of a family living on the property prior to the first registered sale and certainly no official indication that anyone ever perished in a fire or any other way. There was no written trace of them at all. According to available documents, the land was owned by the government until 1865, and, if squatters resided there, no permanent record of their existence was ever made.

Those souls, however, obviously had been there and wanted to make their presence known. It was apparently important to them that we knew they had existed, and perhaps also how they had died. They may have wanted to be sure that the tragedy of a fire, conceivably caused by a father's drinking, never happened to another family on that property again.

The conclusion drawn by both Kammie and I when we unearthed those items that afternoon seemed to put all the events we had experienced to rest. The mystery remained as to what the important message was located on page five of the newspapers that had materialized. The appearance of the large nail in our bedroom may have been meant as a warning that our wedding portrait would need better support or it would fall off the wall. Perhaps the appearance of the newspapers and the significance of the message on page five were also intended as a warning, and the true significance would only be revealed in time.

Although the spirits had appeared to leave when I followed Dennise's advice and directed them to the Light, the process had seemed incomplete. We may have helped them to get where they needed to go, but, until that afternoon, we had not understood what they had been trying to tell us or why they were there in the first place.

When we had decided that there was nothing more of import to be found in the pile of earth regarding the property's former occupants, Kammie and I dug a hole beside the “angel bush,” as we had

come to call the special rose bush in our garden. We gently placed the bottle, lace, hair tuft, picture frame, and school books back into the earth. We said a prayer for them to all rest in peace now and assured them they would never be forgotten. Finally a very real and lasting calm settled upon our home.

We may not have learned their names, but we knew that they had lived there, and possibly even how they had died there, a very long time ago. Perhaps that was all they had needed and wanted us to know. Perhaps that was all they had ever wanted anyone to know who had moved into, and then very quickly out of, that house, decade after decade throughout the century.

Inkwell, button, and cream jar: found buried in the backyard while the additional room was being constructed. As directed by psychic, we replaced these objects back into the ground in an attempt to halt the increased paranormal activity.

Large piece of quartz containing Fool's Gold found buried in the backyard, which was also eventually replaced.

Large rusty nail that seemed to drop out of thin air.

Mail and Empire Toronto newspaper from August 17, 1933 which suddenly appeared spread open to page five on our front lawn. It was in perfect condition when originally found, but by the time the photograph was taken three months later it was starting to show signs of yellowing due to its actual age.

The Toronto Daily Star
from November 28, 1934 which appeared behind the lattice on the front porch. The newspaper was in pristine condition when it was first discovered. When the photograph was taken three months later rampant deterioration had already taken place.

Copyright © Dorah L. Williams, 2002

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency..

Publisher: Anthony Hawke

Copy-editor: Elizabeth Phinney

Designer: Jennifer Scott

Printer: Transcontinental

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Williams, Dorah L.

Haunted: the incredible true story of a Canadian family's experience living in a haunted house

ISBN 978-1-45970-943-0

1. Haunted houses — Canada. I. Title.

BF1472.C3W54 2002 133.1'2971 C2002-901063-2

1 2 3 4 5 06 05 04 03 02

We acknowledge the support of the 
Canada Council for the Arts
 and the 
Ontario Arts Council
 for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the 
Government of
 
Canada
 through the 
Book Publishing Industry Development Program
 and 
The Association for
 
the Export of Canadian Books
, and the 
Government of Ontario
 through the 
Ontario Book
 
Publishers Tax Credit
 program.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credit in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

Printed on recycled paper.

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The events in this story are true.

The names of characters and some dates have been changed to protect the everyone's privacy.