In 1996 there was a Democratic National Convention in Chicago which I attended as I would be working one of the booths there. During that time I was a wayfaring traveller without a lot of money and as such I hadn't called ahead and arranged for a place to stay. I figured worst case scenario I could sleep in the vehicle that belonged to the folks I had traveled there with, they had already given me permission in exchange for help at their booth. Personally, I'm not that into politricks. On the first day of my arrival I was helping at one of the homes that had become a makeshift headquarters of the movement. The house was in a neighborhood of Chicago that had at one time been thriving and well-to-do but now was filled with dilapidated old Victorian style mansions that rented fairly cheaply since most needed serious work on things like plumbing and such. Suffice to say, the house was old and creaky and beautiful and a little spooky. Since many of the people there were easily described as Hippies or something like it and most were familiar with the concept of the "Rainbow Family" the mansion had become known as "Rainbow Mansion." I slept on a couch in the office and the following morning I awoke early and made ready for the day. There was only one other person awake in the house when I first woke up and I had to use the restroom. Since I didn't know where it was I asked the other person, who was also a guest. They told me they weren't sure about upstairs but there was one in the basement. She said she had to go too but wanted to wait to go upstairs because the basement freaked her out. I knew that if I waited any longer my back teeth would float away, I had to go regardless of how freaky the basement felt. I started down the stairs and saw when I reached the bottom that the bathroom was on the opposite wall. As I walked across the semi-darkness I was almost there when I heard movement to the right of me. I stopped in my tracks, holding my breath and looked with my eyes, not with my head, to the direction from where the movement had come. It was dimly lit but I made out a small bed, maybe a cot, with someone sleeping on it. I figured that since I made it this far I may as well finish what I started so I continued on toward the bathroom. Once there I shut the door and caught my breath. I flipped the light switch thinking the room would be flooded with light but only one lonely bulb right next to the mirror above the sink flickered on. The way the bathroom was situated left an open area behind me where there were a couple of towel racks and a small table. In the flickering light of the dim bulb all I could make out behind me, from the reflection in the mirror, were the walls and darkness. As to the empty space behind me I couldn't see it, but I could feel it intensely. I didn't like the feeling in there and I didn't like the mirror so I did my business quickly and went to the sink to wash my hands. Of course with the sink in front of the mirror all I could do was try to avoid looking into its surface, which I did pretty well right up until the end when something in the reflection of the mirror caught the periphery of my vision. It looked like a little old woman was walking past behind me and as I did a double take she looked right at me, right through me, pale and ghostly. She looked ancient and I didn't see her for long enough to determine whether or not she was threatening. Her vibe was unsettling enough that I didn't stick around to find out, I got the hell out of there. I'd shared space with a lot of ghosts but this old woman was unsettling. I had to be quiet, there was still someone sleeping in the outer room. I made my way back to the stairs and went back up into the kitchen. When I got upstairs my nose was assaulted by breakfast smells. A lot of travelers were staying at the house and everyone had contributed to making a really kick-ass breakfast but I needed to sit down. I went and sat in an overstuffed chair in the living room on the left side of the huge fireplace. The living room was lovely. I could picture what it must have looked like close to 100 years ago when the walls weren't cracked and the paint wasn't chipping and the floors weren't slightly crooked. The mantle of the fireplace behind me was marble and there were nick-knacks and such sitting on it. There was another mirror mounted over it but since it was such a big fireplace I was too short to have a great view. Being me however, I couldn't resist risking a glance and there she was again looking very mischievous, she winked at me then was gone. Once in the chair my back was to the fireplace. More people were waking up as time was passing, breakfast was being eaten, plans were being made and everyone was sort of in rest and digest mode when finally, the guy who owned the house came into the living room and sat down on the opposite side of the room from me. There were four or five other people in the room and they were carrying on a conversation about the day and the booth and the movement and such. All I could think about was the old woman but she didn't really fit in with the conversation that was going on so I waited. Finally, when there was an appropriate lull in the conversation, I just sort of looked right at Crow, that was the nick-name of the homeowner, and said, "So, how long has your house been haunted?" I'm not sure what I expected out of Crow, if he'd be surprised or just give me that look people give you when they think you're too nutty for a nut-bar, it wouldn't be the first time I'd seen that look, I can assure you. Crow didn't skip a beat though, he just looked up at me and smiled and said, "Oh, you met Edith." Just as Crow is saying this I feel something hit me in the back of the head, hard. It's one of the little Hummel figurines from the mantel, I see it when it hits the ground. Of course I didn't think too much of it, I just thought it had fallen off the mantel, no big deal. Then I saw the looks on the faces of the people who were sitting on Crow's side of the room, mouths agape, all goes quiet. "What?" I say. As it turns out the Hummel figurine, the "Happy Traveler" I think it was, had been situated on the opposite side of the mantel from where I was sitting. What the people on the other side of the room saw was a figurine that didn't drop off of the fireplace but rather flew through the air, at an angle, to hit me in the head. The initial shock wore off quickly though as the conversation became very animated, each person sharing some story they had of their own experiences with the strange and unusual. While I thoroughly enjoyed the ensuing conversation I never found out anything else about Edith and before I got to ask again we had to get out to the convention and set up. The day was long and sort of dragged on. A guy with shoulder length stringy blonde hair, thick wire framed glasses and a really shy demeanor started dropping off things at our booth. Things like flyers and literature and various peoples business cards. I had no idea who he was but his presence was a little disconcerting. He knew my name, who I had traveled in with and where I had slept the night prior. After about the third time he came over to the booth I finally had the chance to ask him. As it turned out, he was the guy that had been asleep on the cot in the basement of the house when I had gone down that morning to use the bathroom. I figured that since we would be working together and I was staying at his house I could get to know him a bit. The next time he came by I struck up a little conversation with him. He said his name was Rob and that he had been staying at the mansion for about 3 months. He was a pretty quiet guy and seemed shy and to be honest, surprised I was talking to him. He went about his business and stopped back by later. I greeted him and he handed me a letter he had written to me, it was three pages long. I didn't read it right then, just thanked him awkwardly and put it in my bag. At the end of the day those of us staying at the house went back to put things away and make ready for the next day. We all stayed up for a little while drinking beers and getting to know one another. There were people there from all over the place. At one point I went out back to have a smoke and Crow followed me out. He started talking to me about Rob, told me to be "careful" with him, that he was mentally fragile. I didn't understand why he was telling me this about a guy I had barely spoken to but I nodded and decided to ask him about Edith the Ghost instead. He said that he didn't know anything about her but that she was harmless, just a little mischievous and sometimes had a bit of a temper. He said that she had been at the house since he had moved in and that the prior tenants were also aware of her presence. It seemed as though Edith the ghost had been haunting that house for as long as anyone could remember. I could tell he wasn't telling me everything but didn't feel comfortable enough as a guest in his house to probe further. Crow and I were just finishing our conversation when someone else came out of the house to have a smoke. I recognized him from the office, he was the guy whose desk it was. It isn't as though we had titles, suffice to say he was the dude we all took our cues from. I still had Edith on the brain and asked if he knew anything about her. He basically repeated what Crow had said, harmless, mischievous, been around a long while. Then he added that she liked the basement and drove people who lived down there too long crazy. Either that or she drives them off. He said this all in a very matter of fact tone and went on to tell me of how the last guy that had stayed in the basement was now living in an institution. I couldn't help but wonder if this was what Crow had been keeping from me or if desk guy was just messing with me. Eventually things were quiet enough in the office so I could get some sleep and I curled up on the couch to get some shut eye. Then I remembered the letter. I retrieved it from my bag and set to trying to read it. The writing was really small so it was hard to read. I got more and more unsettled as I read it. He said he had been waiting for me, that he knew I would arrive, that he knew me. The whole thing was really creepy and I had no idea what to do about it. I reminded myself that we were only in Chicago for one more day then we'd be leaving to go far, far away from Chicago. That thought comforted me enough that I was able to get a little sleep. I dreamed of the day but some details were different. In my dream Edith was there. I would see her in the crowd walking around. She was also with Rob every time he came to drop off flyers and brochures. At one point in my dream they were standing a little ways away from the booth I was working in and they were talking, in hushed tones, in whispers. It seemed like an argument or the intensity was rising for some other reason. At any rate, I awoke from my dream to the sound of their agitated whispers. I sat up on the couch and rubbed my eyes and then looked over at the desk. Rob was sitting there in the darkness as though he had been there awhile, watching me sleep. Edith was there to, standing next to the chair leaning over and talking at Rob who sat there totally stone-faced. Edith just looked at me and then wandered over, she walked around the room including around the couch I was on. Rob just stayed where he was. No matter what I said he didn't reply, he just sat there staring forward towards the couch. I asked him if he needed a glass of water, told him it had been a long day, informed him I was pretty tired and finally, that I was going to get some sleep. For a moment I wished I had somewhere else to sleep but I was raised to be thankful for a bed and I really had nowhere else to sleep anyway. I didn't want to face the desk so I put my back to it which was unsettling to say the least. You know that feeling you get when you think there's someone watching you? It's worse when you know someone is watching you. There's this whole thing where you try and breathe evenly and quietly so it thinks you're asleep. Then there's the not wanting to move thing. It all gets very uncomfortable. A couple of times as I lay there moving very little and definitely not getting any sleep at all, I would see Edith drift past. She came to stand behind the desk chair Rob was sitting in a few times as well and they would both just stare in my direction. I would glance them as I would adjust on the couch pretending to be asleep or at least indifferent to their presence. The thing that struck me most odd was that after some time had passed in that room it wasn't the ghost I was afraid of, it was the man. I had no idea what his intentions were. Of course the ghost had already launched a projectile at my head so I didn't really know her intentions either. As I was laying there I began to wonder, was the ghost protecting me from Rob? Had he lost his mind in the basement for some reason and become dangerous? On the other hand, what if Rob was protecting me from the ghost? Could have been a Hummel figurine one moment and a sharp knife to the temple the next. All I know is that once my mind had gone through all the possible scenarios, including the bloody ones and the ones with horrible possession and such I must have fallen asleep. I had the sensation that I had just closed my eyes for a second but when I opened them the sun was coming in the windows. There was no one sitting at the desk and Edith was nowhere around. The final day I worked hard and then slept in the vehicle I had hitched a ride in on, there was no way I was sleeping in the house again. Despite separating myself from the house however, the vehicle I slept in was parked right outside it. There were a few times that night I thought I saw Rob looking in the window of the van. It could have been a trick of shadow and light, could have been a dream but one way or another, that whole experience was one I'll not forget. It was also one I don't understand. What was the connection between Rob and Edith? Had Edith driven the last guy who lived in that basement insane? Whatever happened to Rob? All questions I'd never find out the answers to.
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Highway Hanna
“I travel in gardens and bedrooms, basements and attics, around corners, through doorways and windows, along sidewalks, over carpets, down drainpipes, in the sky, with friends, lovers, children and heros; perceived, remembered, imagined, distorted and clarified.” Archives
July 2021
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