Austin, Texas - July 4th, 2013 My walk takes me across a bridge over Ben White Blvd and at that time of the morning not many people are up and moving around. Stop lights are on flash and it's a peaceful walk at the coolest part of a summer day. When you see someone you notice them because it's so quite so you have a tenancy to greet them with a good morning or with a smile and glance. As i walked over the bridge I could see someone seating on the bus stop bench waiting for a bus. Normal for a weekday morning people going to work even on the 4th. I stopped at the end of the bridge waiting for a motorcycle to stop and drive through the intersection. As I stood I glanced over to the man at the bus stop and noticed he was looking down not wanting to make face contact with anyone. It was dark and he was in a shadow part of the bench but light from cars driving down Ben White would light the stop enough to see someone on the bench. As I walked into the intersection I again glanced up to the bench and noticed the man was wearing a jacket. It was 72 degrees so I though to myself this guy has to be hot. As I stepped up to the curve I turned to greet the man at the stop and wish him a happy 4th and as I looked up at him I noticed his head was moving upward to greet me as well. About that moment a car came down the road and it's headlight lit up the bus stop and I could see the light reflect from the man's jacket. Suddenly I could see the car light go through the man's jacket and I could see the bus bench clearly. The man just disappeared in front of me. As I got up to where he was seated I could smell the strong smell of human sweat but no one was there.
Bus Stop in Austin, Texas
About 3 or 4 years ago their was a man that was homeless in Austin that walked up and down Ben White that wore a grey jacket like the one I saw this man wearing. But that homeless man died one cold winter night several years ago
MARBLE FALLS, TX - The Texas Hill Country is a region of rolling hills with cedar and scrub oak trees covering limestone and granite rocks. This area was home to several native Indian tribes before the Mexican and European settlers forced the tribes to abandon their land in the 1800's. Bubbling up out of the ground where many springs and flowing streams with beautiful water falls making for reliable water sources. Wild animals florist in this environment that including white tailed deer, longhorn cattle, turkeys, hogs, horses and a variety of fowls. Early settlers could hunt for food and feed their family easily for the game was so plentiful.
Nestled in the Colorado River were several natural water falls that was created by a shelf of limestone running diagonally across the river from northeast to
southwest. The upper layer of limestone, brownish on the exterior but a
deep blue inside, was so hard and cherty
it was mistaken for marble. The falls were actually three distinct
formations at the head of a canyon 1.25 miles long, with a
drop of some 50 feet through the limestone strata. This natural formation is the namesake of the community that sprang up around it in 1887. Marble Falls, Texas quickly grew to a population of 1,800 citizens within the decade.
Picture from the article in the Washington Bee (May 11, 1901)
An article written in a Washington D.C. newspaper called the Washington Bee ( May 11, 1901, entitled, "Carried Off The Girl") tells a tale of one of the early settlers named Ramie Arland. Here is the article from the 1901 newspaper;
A young lady out in Marble Falls, Texas was carried off by a "bear man" and returned home unhurt to tell tale.
The Kickapoo Indians of this region have long believed in a great "beat man" who rules all the bear of the mountains. Miss Ramie Arland, the heroine of this thrilling adventure, believes her encounter was with the
chief bear himself.
Ramie Arland is a pretty girl and the acknowledged belle of Marble Falls. She has always been a skeptic as to the existence of the "bear man."
The remarkable story she tells has however, gone far to convince the most skeptical.
The "bear man" in this case ventured almost to the back door of the Arlands, says the San Francisco Chronicle. Ramie went out recently early one evening to gather her flock of sheep, which were grazing near by.
This was a common occurrence and her absence was not noticed by the family until her mother heard her daughter scream wildly a short distance from the house. She rushed to the door. The screams were repeated but this time accompanied by the scream of a panther.
The mother seized a gun and rushed into the woods, but could find no trace of her daughter. She returned to the house and, collecting a hunting party, searched the woods all night. No trace of the missing girl could be found.
It was not until the next day that a hunter, wandering in the woods several miles from Marble Falls, found Ramie Arland aimlessly walking about. He helped her home, where she quickly recovered from her experience.
"l was walking along a narrow trail," she says, in telling her story "when a large black bear suddenly appeared in front of me. lIe quickly turned to run away when a curious looking animal, running on four feet, sprang out of the chaparral into the trail. I saw at a glance that the monster in some way resembled a human being, and it flashed across my mind that I was confronted the "bear king" of the KiekaPoos. It threw one of its long arms about my neck, glared into my and uttered horrible sound. I expected to be torn to fragments. The creature seized me and ran toward the mountains.
"It its cave at last and then left me lying on the ground. I tried to at once, but the creature struck me repeatedly on the head when I did so. I gave myself for lost. Finally, however,, he lay down to sleep. I waited an hour before attempting to steal away."
When the settlers cowboys heard this strange story they at once set out in the direction of the Moon mountains for the purpose of destroying the monster.
It ground its teeth together, and while pounding its breast, it would roar and scream like a panther. It was now so apparent to the hunters that the thing was at least human in shape that they hesitated to fire upon it. While they were deliberating it suddenly bounded rage straight toward the astounded hunters. They were compelled to kill It in self-defense.
The article mentions a San Francisco Chronicle article but this author could not find any stories about this incident online. What became of the animals remains is unknown or what happen to the Arland girl after this horrific experience. Those details remains in the past of Marble Falls, Texas.
HUFFMAN, TEXAS - By NICAP - On the evening of December the 29,
1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Colby Landrum had visited
several small towns in the Piney Woods area of east Texas looking
for a bingo game, but discovered that all games had been canceled
while the clubs made preparations for the Christmas and new year
celebrations. Instead they settled for a meal in a road side
restaurant in New Caney.
Betty Cash was then a 51 year old business woman
who owned a restaurant and a grocery store. Vickie Landrum, then
57, worked for Betty in the restaurant and also occasionally as a
school meals assistant. Colby Landrum, Vickie's grandson, was then
7.
After leaving the restaurant some time between
8.20 and 8.30 pm, Betty drove them along Highway FM 1485, a road
usually used only by people who live in the area because it is so
isolated. Although only about 50km from Houston the area is
sparsely populated and is covered by oak and pine trees, and
dotted with swamps and lakes.
It was about 30 minutes later when the three
noticed a bright UFO above the tree tops some distance away. Colby
was the first to spot it and pointed it out to the others. As they
drove on it appeared to get larger and larger. As they realized
that the object was approaching the road only a short distance
ahead they began to get worried but hoped to get by it in time and
leave it behind. But before they could do so the object had
straddled the road blocking their way.
Vickie screamed "Stop the car or we shall be burned
alive!" The object, many times larger than the car remained hovering
at tree top level and sending down an occasional large cone of fire
like a rocked blast. In between these blasts it would settle
downwards some 7.5 meters or so only to rise up again on the next
cone of fire. Vickie described it as being "like a diamond of fire".
When
Betty eventually brought the car to a stand still the UFO was only
60 meters away. It looked as if it was made from dull aluminum and
glowed so bright that it lit up the surrounding forest like
daylight. The four points of the diamond were blunt rather than
sharp and blue spots or lights ringed its centerline. Had the UFO
not come to rest over the road the cone of fire from its lowest
point would have set the forest on fire. The object also emitted an
intermittent bleeping sound.
The three of them got out of the car to take a
better look at the object. Vickie stood by the open door on the
right hand side of the car with her left hand resting on the car
roof. Vickie is a committed Christian who does not believe in UFOs
or extraterrestrial life and when she saw the bright object she
thought it was the coming of the end of the world. Because she
expected to see Jesus come out of the light she starred at it
intently.
Colby begged his grandmother to get back in the
car and hold him and after about three minutes she did so and told
him not to be afraid because "when that big man comes out of the
burning cloud it will be Jesus." As Vickie held Colby she screamed
at Betty to get back in the car with them. But Betty was so
fascinated by the UFO that she had walked round to the front of the
car and stood there gazing at it. Bathed in the bright light she
stood there even though the heat was burning her skin. Eventually as
the object began to move up and away she moved back to the car door.
When she touched the door it was so painfully hot that she had to
use her leather jacket to protect her hands as she got back in the
car.
As the three of them watched the departing UFO, a
large number of helicopters appeared overhead. As Betty said, "They
seemed to rush in from all directions...it seemed like they were
trying to encircle the thing." Within a few seconds the UFO had
disappeared behind the trees lining the road. It was then that they
realized how hot the interior of the car had become. They switched
off the heater and put on the air conditioner instead.
When the effects of the bright light had worn off,
Betty started the engine and they drove off down the darkened
highway. After a mile or so of twisting road they were able to join
a larger highway and turn in the direction of the departing UFO.
This was about 8km and five minutes later. The object was clearly
visible some distance ahead and looked like a bright cylinder of
light. It was still lighting up the surrounding area and
illuminating the helicopters.
By this time the helicopters were spread out over
an 8km distance. One main group was near the UFO but moving in an
erratic flight path. As they watched from their new vantage point
they counted 23 helicopters. Many of them were identified as the
large double rotor CH-47 Chinooks, the others were very fast single
rotor types and appeared to be of the Bell-Huey type but were not
properly identified. A lot of air crew members must have seen the
UFO that night.
As soon as the UFO and helicopters were a safe
distance ahead Betty drove on. When she reached an intersection she
turned away from the flight path of the UFO and towards Dayton where
the three of them lived. She dropped Vickie and Colby off at their
home at about 9.50 and went home by herself. A friend and her
children were there waiting for Betty but by this time she was
feeling to ill to tell them about what had happened. Over the next
few hours Betty's skin turned red as if badly sun burned. Her neck
swelled and blisters erupted and broke on her face, scalp and
eyelids. She started to vomit and continued to do so through out the
night. My morning she was almost in a coma.
Some time between midnight and 2am Vickie and
Colby began to suffer similar symptoms, although less severe. At
first they suffered the sunburn like condition and then diarrhea and
vomiting. It was a miserable night for all three victims.
The following morning Betty was moved to Vickie's
house and all three were cared for there. Betty's condition
continued to deteriorate and three days later she was taken to
hospital. The burns and swelling altered Betty's appearance so
radically that friend who came to visit her in hospital did not
recognize her. Her hair began to fall out and her eyes became so
swollen that she was unable to see for a week.
The appearance of helicopters at UFO sightings is
becoming a common event, and the large number of helicopters at this
incident is just another link in the chain. One thing is for
certain, it is virtually impossible to be mistaken about the
presence of CH-47 helicopters when you are directly beneath these
large and noisy machines. The evidence of all the witnesses was
consistent. They were interrogated separately about both the UFO and
the helicopters and all gave consistent descriptions and sketches
that indicated they had seen a large number of CH-47s.
Finding out where the helicopters had come from
was a more difficult task than identifying them. according to a
official at Houston Airport abound 350 to 400 helicopters operate
commercially in the Houston area but they are all of the single
rotor type, there are no CH-47s. The official also said that because
helicopters fly on visual flight rules they do not have to contact
the tower. Other information provided by Houston was that outside a
24km radius from the airport helicopters must stay below an altitude
of 550 metres, and that due to a technical limitation the Houston
control radar is restricted to a minimum altitude of 600 metres
around the Huffman area.
The US army's Fort Hood press officer, Major Tony
Geishauser, told the Corpus Christi Caller that no Fort Hood
aircraft were in the Houston area that night. "I don't know any
other place around here that would have that number of helicopters,"
he said. "I don't know what it could be..... unless there's a super
secret thing going on and I wouldn't necessarily know about it."
All other bases in Texas and Louisiana denied they
were responsible for the helicopters seen at the incident.
MAP SHOWING THE AREA OF THE ENCOUNTER
Betty, Vickie and Colby were not the only
witnesses to the strange happenings at Huffman. An off duty Dayton
policeman and his wife were driving home from Cleveland through the
Huffman area the same night and also observed a large number of
CH-47s. A man living in Crosby, directly under the flight path,
reported seeing a large number of heavy military helicopters flying
overhead. Oilfield laborer Jerry McDonald was in his back garden in
Dayton when he saw a huge UFO flying directly over head. At first he
thought it was the Goodyear airship, but quickly realized it was
something else. "It was kind of diamond shaped and had two twin
torches that were shooting brilliant blue flames out the back", he
said. As it passed about 45 meters above him he saw that it had two
bright lights on it and a red light in the center.
Since their encounter Vickie and Colby have been
plagued with periodic outbreaks of skin troubles, as if they were
more susceptible to infection than before. But the most far reaching
injury has been the damage to their eyes. Their eyelids became
infected very rapidly and have never fully recovered. Since the
incident Vickie has had to have three new pairs of spectacles with
successively stronger prescriptions to match the deterioration of
her eyesight. Her eyesight continues to deteriorate and she still
suffers from periodic infections. She fears she may eventually go
blind. Colby has suffered similar problems but has needed only one
new pair of glasses. Within a few weeks of the encounter, Vickie had
lost about 30 per cent of her hair, and had large bald patches on
her head. When it grew back it was of a different texture. Colby
lost only a small patch of hair on the crown of his head, this too
grew back in time.
Betty's injuries seemed even worse. She
experienced a severe sun burn like condition and developed large
water blisters, some as large as golf balls, over her face head and
neck. One of these covered her right eyelid and extended across her
right temple. She also developed a long term aversion to warm water,
sunshine or other heat sources. In the year following the encounter
she has spent five periods in hospital, two of those in intensive
care. She lost over half of the hair on her head and has also had
skin eruptions, many as big as a large coin, which leave permanent
scars.
Doctors are baffled by these symptoms but
speculate that they could be caused by some kind of radiation.
One day in April 1981 a CH-47 flew into Dayton. As
Colby watched he became very upset. Vickie decided to take him to
the spot where the helicopter had landed in the hope that it would
seem less frightening on the ground. When they reached the landing
zone they found a lot of people there already and had to wait some
time before they were allowed to go inside the helicopter and talk
to the pilot. Vickie and another visitor both claim that the pilot
said he had been in the area before for the purpose of checking on a
UFO in trouble near Huffman. When Vickie told the pilot how glad she
was to see him, because she had been one of the people burned by the
UFO, he refused to talk to them any more and hustled them out of the
aircraft.
The UFO organization VISIT later located the pilot
and questioned him. He admitted to knowing about Vickie and Betty's
encounter with the UFO but maintained that he had not been in the
area in December and had nothing to do with any UFO. Unless another
pilot decides to come forward it seems that the source of the
helicopters will remain a mystery.
AUSTIN, TEXAS - Roy had moved from a smaller market
radio station to a
larger metropolitan market and had to start on the graveyard shift. For a young married man this was a good opportunity. The shift came to him suddenly, one night
several days after giving the program manager his air check tape and resume he
received a phone call. The program
director asked if he could come as soon as possible. He apologized for calling so late, but something had happened and could Roy come in that very night to work? Roy knew an opportunity when he heard
one. As soon as he arrived he saw that
police were parked outside of the Station. A
young female Disc Jockey was standing inside looking distraught. She was speaking with one of the police
officers and when she saw Roy coming in she said, “Thank God you’re here. I
don’t want to be alone in here.” After the police left she told Roy someone had tried to break into the
Station while she was on the air. She
had heard a loud noise, she went to investigate, and saw people running away
from the side door that they had broken into leaving their burglar tools
behind.
Radio towers in Austin, TX
Roy asked her why would the burglars
leave in such a hurry. He did not want to insult the girl but he
hardly believed that her slight form would have intimidated the robbers. She
stated she did not know but that the police had told her that something had
apparently frighten them away before anything could be stolen. Roy stayed the
rest of the night, and then the next day the program director called him asking
him to work again the next night. That night was peaceful but the college aged
announcer had lost her peace of mind. She had to have every light on in the station, and had wanted Roy to
walk her to her car after the shift ended.
The next day, the program director told the woman that he
could not continue to pay for both Roy and her to work the night-shift, she
would have to do this alone. She
refused. The program director offered the shift to Roy who accepted it
eagerly. Roy was young and slim but
over 6 feet tall and felt he could handle himself. Arrangements were made for Roy to have a key to the building as
his shift started at midnight, this way the evening disc jockey was not forced
to leave the control room to let Roy in, as she was also nervous after the
break in. The first week that Roy was alone he would
hear sounds that he tried hard to dismiss as imagination. He heard what sounded like a key in the
door, and the door opening, closing and then footsteps coming down the hall
toward the control room. He would
investigate and find no one. He would
check the front door and side door and find both locked up tight. Roy kept this to himself, this job was what
he wanted and no spookiness would distract him. He told himself that the noises
came from cleaning people in the business downstairs, or perhaps sounds from the street
that he heard.
After some months of working various shifts he was told that
the night shift was his permanently.
About the same time a Soft Drink vending machine was placed in the
hallway outside the control room. The
constant light from the machine would shine in the doorway. He began to notice that between two and three
o’clock every night he would begin to hear the noises that were becoming
familiar to him. He also noticed that
as he heard the sound of someone walking down the hallway a shadow was cast as
through someone was walking in front of the machine. He would investigate frequently, but finding no one he continued
to keep these events to himself.
After about two months of his permanent position he began to
ignore even the shadow and concentrated on how much he enjoyed his job. One night at about 3:25 in the morning, he
was going into a commercial break after which he would read a weather
forecast. As he was reaching for a copy
of the weather forecast placed on top of the control board he noticed a
reflection in the Plexiglas stand. Reflected in
the glass was man standing behind him. Roy immediately thought back to the events
of the first night that he had been called into the station. The night someone had tried to break in.
Thinking someone had been successfully this time, Roy thought he was a dead
man. He whirled around to confront the
intruder and found that he was so frightened he could not speak. All the startled DJ could do was stare. The man in front of him had
dark hair with average features and no weapons. In fact the intruder was smiling, his bearded face drawn up in a
pleasant grin. Roy also saw that his
arms were crossed and he looked as through he was wearing a “hippy” looking
tunic. This was shocking to the young
DJ, but even more shocking was that as he looked the newcomer over he noticed
he had no feet. Looking back up into
the face of the other man Roy’s own face must have registered his alarm. The bearded man looked shocked, as through
surprised that Roy could see him and then … he disappeared.
Roy’s mind was in shock and he noticed that his commercials
were over with and he needed to put something on quick before he had dead
air.He put the first track he could
find without really paying attention to it.Roy asked himself, did that just happen? What did I see?He was sure he had seen something and the
only logical thing it could be was an intruder.Once again Roy checked ever door and looked into every room
finding no one.Roy vowed to himself,
that he would never mention the event to anyone.
Months later, he did take the opportunity to ask what he
hoped sounded like an innocent question of the general manager.He asked him if he knew of any DJ’s who had
died while working at the radio station.The GM could think of no one.Then Roy asked if the GM knew any of the history of the building.All he knew was that the building had
belonged to another station, back in the 1960’s.The station at that time had been playing an acid rock format.The GM rolled his eyes at the mention of
that particular brand of music and departed, but Roy wondered if perhaps at
least one ex-employee of the ‘60’s funk and electric guitar station was still
around grooving to new sounds.
ADAMS, TN - One of
the strangest paranormal stories you may ever come across is the
odd, long account of the Bell Witch. Starting in 1817 a series of
events occurred that defied explanation then and still remains
unsolved today. Unsolved despite being one of the most
investigated and documented cases on record. Most of the town of
Adams had at one time or another heard or saw something that
scared them. And, even more bizarrely, it is one of the few
documented cases that seems to point a finger at a ghost as the
cause of a man’s death.
John Bell
Accounts differ on whether the first paranormal activity on the Bell
farm occurred in a field where Bell and his sons were hunting, or in
a nearby cave, but it is not disputed that when they returned home
they were confused and frightened by what they had seen. From that
day onward John Bell’s health would deteriorate even as the
manifestation became stronger and stronger.
Next the family heard and saw strange animals near the house. Then
they heard scratching noises that seemed to come from outside the
home. The nuisance continued into the house in the form of
scratching, and growling distinctly heard by all family members.
Neighbors were finally invited over to hear the strange phenomena as
the family reluctantly realized they needed help. Even the most
hardened skeptic left puzzled and disturbed by the noises. As the
events escalated, John Bell began to have pain and numbness in his
tongue and jaw. Just as it became more difficult to for John Bell to
talk, whatever was making the noises found a voice. She called
herself Kate, and the disembodied voice was heard by one and all to
heckle and harass the family as they tried to go about their daily
activities.
Kate did not end her feats with just speaking. Witnesses heard her
whistle, sing, and tell bawdy jokes to the embarrassment of the
conservative farming family. Eventually the spirit seem to bring
“guests” in the form of other entities each having a distinctive
personality and voice.
The spirit who identified herself as Kate kept up her torment of
physically and mentally torturing John at any opportunity. Finally
as the man lay dying she was heard to sing and laugh. After the poor
man past away she even took credit for having poisoned him!
No one is sure what caused the poltergeist/ spirit activity but
theories have been cast around. A skeptic theorized that no ghost
was present and that one of the Bell family was secretly an
accomplished ventriloquist. Another theory is that John Bell’s
trouble started when he brought the land for his farm from an older
woman who thereafter accused him of cheating her. Others have
brought forth that the cave behind the house was believed to be a
sacred place by local Native Americans.
CROSBY, TEXAS - Overlooking the White River is a strip of hilltop that hosts
scrub trees, and long grass. Peaceful and idyllic it’s hard to reconcile it
to the name it holds: Stampede Mesa. The hilltops violent name comes from a
more lawless time.
Stampede
In the fall of 1889 the area was a frequent stop for men on the trail. A
trail boss could order his men to see that the cows they were driving were
watered and then bedded down on the Mesa for the night. The area was good for
the tall grass, the water and a high place to spot trouble for some distance
away. For one trail boss trouble came in an unexpected fashion. The men
had accidentally driven their herd through the property of a farmer and had
driven his cows up the Mesa with their own. The Farmer arrived on a scrawny
white mare and demanded his cows back.
There
was no argument with that, they had no use for his cows, which were just
as skinny and malcontent as both the farmer and his horse, but they did
have a problem when he also cut out some of their cattle and began to
drive them away. An argument ensued that the trail men were too tired
and hungry to endure. The old farmer was instructed to come back at
daybreak when the sun was up and he had a “better chance of seeing
things” the cowboy’s way. Cursing bitterly the farmer, embarrassed not
only by being caught stealing but also in having to leave his own stock,
rode his old scrawny horse back down the Mesa.
The men
gratefully ate and prepared to sleep. Their rest was to be short lived
for in the night the cattle stampeded. Incredibly, since they seem to be
driven away from the North and heading south, they headed straight for
the steepest part of the canyon. Every man knew his job and did his best
but when the sun came up that morning two men and hundreds of steers lay
dead at the bottom of the canyon. Men who had witness the beginning of
the stampede claimed to have seen the old Farmer and his white mare
driving the cattle recklessly toward the cliffs edge.
There
was no justice to appeal to, only the law of the Trail Boss and he decided to
let the punishment fit the crime. He had the Farmer dragged up the hill, his
hands tied, his eyes blindfolded and then ordered he be tied to his likewise
blindfold horse and driven off the edge of the Mesa.
Of
course this is not the end of the story. The Farmer still blindfolded and tied
to his horse was seen countless times. And word began to spread from cowboy to
trail driver not to camp on Stampede Mesa lest your herd, or your men
share his fate as he would try to drive men, horse, and steer over the cliff
where his body had been left to rot.
AUSTIN, TEXAS -
Two nights before my wedding I returned to my Mom’s
house and spread the long white dress and veil down on the bed in
the guest bedroom and we both retired to sleep; completely
exhausted from planning the wedding. Mom went to her bed and I
chose to sleep on the couch in the living room. My wedding dress
had just come from the shop where it had been hanging with dozens
of other May-June gowns and I wanted to let the dress and veil
stretch out in hopes that in the morning they would look less
“scrunched”.
Classic phone
I’m not sure if
what happened next was dream or not. I guess I never will know
for sure, but late in the night the phone rang, or at least I
heard it ring. Rushing to answer it I had a string of comments to
make if it was one of my friends calling at this hour, my Mom’s
pet peeve were late night phone calls. But the voice on the other
end of the line was older. A woman’s voice that seemed eerily
familiar asked to speak to my Mom. “She’s asleep!” I whispered
frantically to the caller. “It’s very late, please call back in the
morning.”
“Oh,
she’ll want to talk to me,” the voice was still very clear, and
still I couldn’t place it.
“It’s too late she’s
asleep and I don’t know who you are.”
“Yes, you know me, you do know
me!” The woman on the other end was insistent now.
“This is
Audrey, you know me, and this is Audrey.”
Very frightened for some
reason at her persistence I hung up and lay back down on the
couch.
The next morning I asked my Mom
if she’d been disturbed by the phone. She hadn’t but wanted to know
who had called. I told her then that I was unsure if it was a dream
or a real event, but that someone named Audrey had called. I went
over the strange conversation I had with the caller then realized
that my Mom had stopped answering me. Her face had gone white.
“You do know an Audrey.” She told me this with a strange small smile
on her face. “No,” I said to her, I would remember such a name, as
it was unusual to me.
“Your Aunt Betty’s real name
was Audrey. She never liked it, and when she was very young she
started going by the name Betty.” My blood ran cold as I realized
that the voice had sounded familiar because of its resemblance to my
Mom’s and my other Aunt’s voices. But three years before the night I
got that call my Aunt Audrey/Betty had collapsed and died suddenly
at her place of business. I had never heard her addressed any other
way other than as Betty.
As I said I’m not sure if that
call was a dream but these same mysterious phone calls have happened
to others as well. In that I can take comfort-that I’m not alone.
In a way it does make sense that if a spirit can communicate through
other means why not just by placing a phone call. Ironically, that
was what Aunt Betty did; she owed and operated a Message Service.
Maybe she still had one last message of her own to be sent.
