Sunday, October 30, 2005

Shuffles the Ghost

It's the day before Halloween so I thought this would be a good time to share a family ghost story...

Once upon a time, my parents and grandmother lived on the second floor of an old apartment building in Vancouver. It was a nice little place, despite eccentric plumbling and rumbling radiators, and being the sixties, it probably had its share of shag carpeting.

But what made the place a little dodgy was that it was haunted.

At first only my Gran knew it, and she kept that little nugget of information to herself. She resided down the hall in the second bedroom and later she'd swear that every night at about two in the morning, the closet door would swing open all by itself and she would hear shuffling foot-steps head out into the hall-way. It gave her the willies.

Well, Gran moved out,and although my mother claims there were other factors besides the supernatural at work here, I have to say that the creepy-closet-door reason would have been enough for me.

After Gran left, my parents began to realize things were amiss too. The second bedroom was just no fun to be in. And the shuffling foot-steps now made their way all the way down the hall to the kitchen at night. It sounded like an old person in bedroom slippers.

My parents did a little sleuth work on the apartment's history and found out that an old man had died in Gran's old bedroom. Hmmm, now what?

Their upstairs neighbour, Tom, was a friend of Dad's and had some ideas on the subject of spirits. Tom figured that Shuffles was simply confused and didn't realize he was dead. He recommended that they simply tell the old fellow the truth.

So one night soon after, my parents waited in the kitchen for Shuffles, and when the noises started my dad spoke aloud to the thin air: he told whoever was there that he was now dead and had to move on, and that he was frightening the people who now lived here and to please leave.

They never heard Shuffles again after that night.

11 comments:

bitsandgiggles said...

That's a fabulous story! It makes me with I had a good ghost one of my own!

Wendy C. said...

Your story totally gave me chills! How sad...but very kind of your parents to help Shuffles to move on.

Grant said...

I would have wanted to keep him as a pet.

dixiedarling said...

Great story!!!

sands of time said...

Wow thats amazing.Its good Shuffles listened as well.I love spooky stories.

Skye said...

Got any more? Really good. Happy Halloween!!!

Tai said...

Ah, Shuffles...you give me shivers.

JM said...

I do believe in spooks too!! And I also believe it's because they have a message to tell the folks or like your father's friend believed--they didn't realize they were dead. I was told when a person dies a sudden death, their spirits have yet to realize it and they will wander the earth until they do.

Sarah Elaine said...

Wonderful story! Happy Halloween to you!

fb said...

I wonder where 'shuffles' went?

Maybe he just took his slippers off...

Josh said...

Great story! I like the Shuffles takes off the slippers theory.