Little Book of Spirit Stories Book Excerpt

THE GHOST AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS

Northern California 1978

Roommate Wanted

"The night I met Dena and Alex I was looking for a place to move into after the year-long house sitting job I had been doing for a friend’s parents ended. Post college, I was finally living on my own and had just turned twenty- four. I had answered an ad in the local paper looking for a roommate to share a room in a sprawling house in the Eastern hills.  Alex was a professor at Cal Berkeley, Dena an artist, and the other housemates were a couple who were very active in the political scene in the Bay Area which I had little to no interest in. Still, the set-up seemed good and the rent reasonable at ninety dollars per month.

Sometime during our conversation that first night, Alex casually mentioned the ghost.

“You might like to know about the ghost,” he said quietly.

“Um, wait…a ghost? A real ghost? You’re kidding aren’t you?’’ I said.

“Nope,” he said more emphatically. “There really is a ghost. We’ve all seen him.”

“Him? It’s a him?” I questioned. I was becoming slightly nervous and somewhat agitated at this point in the conversation. I shuddered at the thought that there could be a spirit living in the house.

“Yes. Most of us have seen him, usually when we’re in the kitchen and we sense someone is there with us. He likes to stand at the top of the stairs that lead to the basement. He is usually wearing a uniform….kind of a soldier type.”

I think at that point I was speechless.

“Still interested?” He looked at me directly.

I can’t remember what I said then because at this point it was, after all, nearly thirty-five years ago. But since I did move in, I assume I nodded.  I am confident, however, that the whole idea made me really skittish, and that if I had any other housing options at that point, I probably would have taken them."

From The Ghost at the Top of the Stairs, A Little Book of Spirit Stories c.2012  Now Available!