Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

I was all of four years old when I saw him the first time. I was staying over at my grandparents. It was the middle of the night and I had gotten up to go to the bathroom. As I came down the wooden staircase I held on to the railing with the front door before me. As I descended, I thought I had seen someone outside through the small window on the front door.

I had to know if he was really there. I hit the landing, ran, ducked and impaled myself to the door. Slowly I stretched upward tiptoe until I could see outside through the little diamond shaped window. There he was, blacker than night standing on the sidewalk in front of the house. I could tell he was a man, wearing a raincoat and hat but void of features and standing very still facing the doorway. He watched me watching him.

My heart pounded in my chest as I slinked down from the windows view. I thought about running up the staircase fast as I could and waking grandpa. Before I did I had better make sure I was seeing what I thought I had. Again, slowly I stretched up to peek through the window. There in the misty rain under the streetlight he stood there. I made the decision to be brave and not wake grandpa from his slumber. I moved down from the window and went back to my pillow and blanket on the couch. I did not however sleep the rest of the night. Trembling in fear I pulled my covers over my head and tried to disappear.

At breakfast the next morning I told the tale of my fear filled night and of the man in the raincoat. “That’s the boogeyman,” my uncle Earl only seven years my senior, said quite plainly through his mouthful of Cheerios. “That’s why we have to come home when the street lights come on, he will get you if you go out after dark.” I looked at him and blinked. Thinking it might be a good idea not to go outside for awhile even if it were daylight, I spent the day indoors watching cartoons and coloring pictures.

The shadow man would return several times over the course of my life. Each time would be more frightening than the last, until I learned just what it was he wanted.

Written by Kathy Houck, Copyright 2010