Happy Halloween! The time I experienced the paranormal

I've seen some weird shit in my day. Most of it, I can write off a rational explanation for, but about 9 years ago, I experienced something I have zero explanation for.

Before I begin, I know this sounds crazy. Normally I only talk about it within a limited circle, because it's gonna sound like I'm schizophrenic or something. But I saw something weird. I can't give a why or how, just what I saw.

It was mid-Spring of 2008, though I forget the specific dates. I was on my paper route, and delivering to a block of houses behind Happy Valley Elementary School in Bellingham. It was around 4:30 in the morning. By this point, it was about halfway through my morning, so I'd been awake and driving for over an hour. I was awake and coherent and sober, and the only drug in my system was caffeine from my coffee. And then I saw her, or it, or whatever.

Here, I can even draw you a map. The "1" and "2" are where I saw the apparition each time, respectively.

1

So every morning I pulled up to the house on the right and would drop their newspaper off on their porch. I'd back up into their neighbor's driveway and then head back down their shared drive to the main road.

On this particular morning, I pull up and deliver the paper as normal. As I'm backing out, I'm using my side mirror to make sure I don't kill their landscaping with my tires, and then I switch to my main rearview as I straighten out...

...except this morning in my rearview mirror I saw a little girl. Immediately I slammed on my brakes and looked back.... and there was no one there.

Even though I only saw her for a second, I can clearly remember what she looked like. She was wearing a blue and white dress, and had wavy red hair that fell just past her shoulders. Around here was sort of a blue aura or glow. But the most disturbing part was her face, or rather, her lack of a face. It was like someone had blurred it out.

The creepiness didn't set in until after the fact. It happened so quickly, my brain didn't have time to process it at the time. I had shivers down my spine the rest of the drive.

2

Approximately one week later, I saw her again. I'd since tried to write-off my experience as, as crazy as it sounds, an infrasound-induced hallucination from a low-level earthquake or something. That was the best explanation I had.

So I was on the main road, and caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and this time stopped my car, and I saw the same girl off in the distance between the houses, skipping in the field behind the school. I watched her for about three solid seconds this time before she passed behind a tree and vanished. Same girl, same weird glow about her, same lack of a face.

Other weird shit that maybe or maybe isn't related

I delivered on that same block every day for eight more years, but never saw the apparition again, but stuff happened around that house that always made me wonder. Little things that I would have never even noticed suddenly became apparent.

For example, later that year I got my dog Ozzy and he started coming on the route with me. Whenever I backed out of that one driveway, he would sometimes perk up and stare at the spot where I first saw the girl. As I backed around the corner, he would move around the backseat so he kept facing that same spot.

I also delivered to apartments that were on the hill north of the elementary school, and I could see across the entire field. The house around where I saw her, I would sometimes notice, would have the back porch light go on and off on its own. It looked like maybe it was a motion sensor, but from my vantage I could see there was nothing in the entire area that should have been setting it off. It was turning on and off by itself.

Was it a ghost? A demon? Fuck if I know. I can't explain it, and offer no explanation. But I saw some shit. Since then until I quit my route, I always kept an eye on those houses and on the area behind that school, but I never saw that girl again.

Remembering my Grandpa

On Friday, September 26th, just as I was clocking out, I got an email that my father's father passed away. He had just turned 90 earlier that week, and had passed peacefully in his sleep. His mind was sharp until the end.

My Grandpa, Ben Kantack

I live far away from my extended family so I hadn't seen him in many years, but I have many fond childhood memories. I had an obsession with bugs as a kid, which I probably inherited from him; my grandfather was an entomologist. Once, we had some beetles that started showing up on the maple tree behind our house, and the photos I'd taken with my little 35mm camera (remember those?) weren't enough for him to ID them, so we smuggled one of the beetles in our luggage when we flew to visit that year (the TSA was much laxer then). He identified it as an Asian Longhorn Beetle.

My grandpa had an ornery sense of humor, loved insects and nature, and loved wine, all traits I inherited from him. He also loved hunting. When I was seven(ish?), he took me pheasant hunting. He shot the bird, and I cried. Hunting was a trait I definitely did not inherit. Grandpa made up for it by always sending us home with meat from hunting trips. As a small kid, we had an entire freezer seemingly perpetually full of food he had sent home with us.

He was a very generous man and he lived a rich life. He made it into the South Dakota Hall of Fame due to his professional accomplishments. He had a huge family (seven kids and please-don't-make-me-count-them-all grandchildren) and countless friends. He lived a life to be celebrated. We should all be so lucky in our own lives to leave that legacy.