Hello Friends!
It’s the last Monday of 2020. It’s also the week known in Germany (my long-ago home) as ‘the quiet days.’ Businesses remained closed, peace and quiet was the order of the day as people enjoyed a time of reflective stillness until the joyous celebrations of New Year.
That’s not possible here in the good old US of A.
I think that’s a shame.
And I miss the peace and silence of those still, cold and dark winter days between Christmas and New Year.
I miss them a lot.
As I type, for instance, I’m serenaded by a leaf blower, an electric hedge trimmer, and some other noisy apparatus as a landscaping crew attend their Monday duties. From somewhere else, the high-pitched whine of a drill delights the senses. (being sarcastic)
Such disturbances weren’t just non-existent during this week of stillness in Bavaria, they weren’t allowed.
The Old World (still) has a lot going for it.
But I digress. So I’ll move on to this post’s title…
Despite the usual landscaper noise and what-not, it usually is pretty quiet here. Especially at night. The TV isn’t turned up. No loud music. Traffic is non-existent. My dishwasher, almost soundless. The wooden stairs do creak in some spots, but that’s a comfy kind of sound.
There are cat noises.
Reporting-a-hungry meows. Soft feline snores when my darling sleeps. The sound of him at his scratching post, raking his litter box, and occasional 3 a.m. zoomies. Cat lovers will get that. If you’re not a cat person, think a herd of elephants racing ’round your house. It’s amazing how one small cat can make such racket, but they do.
What cats do not do in the deep silence of the night is walk about making sounds like human footsteps. They also don’t rap on walls, the noise exactly like when someone knocks on a door.
Yet those are the sounds that have accompanied my nights this holiday season…
Late at night, when curled on the sofa downstairs, a single set of human footsteps crosses the floor above me. I have heard this several or more times now. And I cannot find an explanation…
No one is upstairs when the footsteps are heard.
I can distinguish between the sound a cat moving around and human footsteps. When my cat crosses the floor above me, I do not hear him. He’s too light. I do hear his zoomies. I am not talking about them. Besides, each time I’ve heard the footsteps, he’s been curled beside me on the downstairs sofa.
That means ‘someone’ is walking around in my bedroom/bathroom when I am downstairs in the living room/lounge late at night.
As I know the upstairs to be empty when this happens, I have to wonder if the footsteps are made by a visiting ghost?
Footsteps in the dead of night (no pun intended) are a frequent sign of a ghostly visitor. So are raps or knocking noises, and that happened last night…
It was nearing midnight, I was reading and had the TV on very low, when I heard three distinct and sharp raps. Knock, knock, knock. The sound seeming to come from an inner wall or somewhere upstairs. No one was at the front door, that’s for sure.
And the three raps were deliberate. Not the occasional creak of the wooden stairs. Besides, no one was on the stairs.
Leastways no one I could see.
Holidays are known for increased supernatural activity. If a ghost walks, Christmas is a likely time. Poor Scrooge had three spirits swing by, didn’t he?
Now, I’m not saying the late night footsteps and last night’s three wall-raps were made by a ghost. I’m just saying the sounds were real.
I heard them.
And I can’t find an explanation. As a caveat, I do believe in ghosts, so my mind jumping to the possibility isn’t a stretch.
Whatever the reason, as the sounds are new, I’m betting they’ll end after New Year. Perhaps someone is looking in on me? A holiday nod from someone I once knew and loved? Or an ancestor I never met, but who is aware of me and wants to pay me a Christmas hello? A bit of protection and reassurance in this horror year? Letting me know everything will be OK?
Or maybe the ‘someone’ is returning here? Recalling finer days when he/she might have lived here?
Either way, I’m not afraid.
Just curious.
And I wish him/her well if indeed the footsteps and raps are ghostly. Actually, I rather like the visits.
I’ll let you know if anything else happens. For now…
How about you? Believe in ghosts? Ever live in a haunted house? (I have, several times.. but those tales can wait for other days)
Happy Quiet Days-Between-the-Years, dear friends. (earthly and otherwise)
Sue-Ellen Welfonder 