Spooky Story
What’s this?’ I thought, spying a tiny box.
At 18, I’d just moved into my rst house share. I was putting my clothes into the wardrobe when I noticed the box in a corner on the top shelf. It was a little sewing kit, complete with a needle threaded with yellow cotton and a silver thimble.
That’s cute, I thought, leaving it where it was. I loved sewing, too.
That night, I was in bed when someone walked past my open door. I assumed one of the other girls had needed a late-night snack.
When it happened again the next night, I queried them about it.
‘Is either of you not sleeping?’ I asked them. ‘Someone walked past my room last night.’
‘I never even got up,’ said Rebecca.
‘Me neither,’ added Jackie. ‘That’s odd,’ I said.
A few nights later, I again saw a gure standing outside my room.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked, but there was no reply and then it vanished.
The next night, the person was back.
This time, she stood in my doorway, close enough for me to see her face.
She was a woman in her mid-20s with short, straight
Jasmine has had her share of spirits in rental properties
‘We have a ghost and he likes your room,’ my flatmate said
brown hair, wearing a modern, owing, knee-length dress. She stared into the room but didn’t enter.
That’s not one of my atmates, I thought, jumping out of bed, but she’d gone.
I didn’t know what to make of it.
The following week, I went to the real estate of ce to pay the rent.
An agent was talking about a woman who’d passed at her home, shortly after she’d bought it.
When she mentioned the address, my hair stood on end. It was my house!
‘Was she in her mid-20s, with short brown straight hair?’ I interjected.
‘Yes, how do you know?’ she asked.
‘That’s my house, and I’ve met her,’ I said. ‘Which room did she pass away in?’
‘The main bedroom,’ she replied.
That was my room! Was the poor girl staring into the bedroom, puzzled as to why another woman was in there? Was the tiny sewing kit hers and somehow keeping her earthbound? I didn’t know, but I never saw her again and soon after, I moved into another house.
The rst night, I was in bed when something grabbed my hand.
I snapped on the light but nobody was there.
‘We have a ghost and he likes your room,’ said my atmate Natasha the next day. ‘Just tell him to leave you alone.’
‘Now you tell me,’ I laughed.
As a hobby, I sewed pageant costumes and one day, a woman came to buy one, bringing her two children with her.
As we were talking about her order, her little boy began chatting away.
‘Who are you talking to?’ asked his mum.
‘The man,’ he said.
‘What man?’ she replied. ‘That man standing there,’ said the little girl pointing straight ahead.
Neither the woman nor I could see anyone but clearly both her kids could.
Was it the ghostly man who grabbed my hand?
I’ve now moved on from that house, but somehow, I doubt my contact with the other side is over!
Jasmine Farlow, 31, Newcastle, NSW